Old and New Wineskins

This morning I am reading from Matthew:

(NIV)Matthew 9:14-17
Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” [15] Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. [16] “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. [17] Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

As I was reading this I was reminded of the word I received several years ago about the new wine and wineskins. At the time, I was looking at it with a particular perspective, which I think is still accurate. This morning I was focusing on the last verse, specifically the last statement - and both are preserved! This is a clear statement about the value of both, the old and the new, but the recognition about the fact that sometimes new ideas don't fit in old ways, but that doesn't mean the old is worthless, nor the new. Both are valuable, but the new needs new wineskins to mature, and be preserved.

When I look at the present outflow of the young adults from the church in this light, I see a waste of good people, that are not fitting in the old wine skins, the old ways of doing things. We must develop new wine skins to help preserve them, help them mature and grow into all they are meant to be. Lord, we pray for this new wine-skin, so that we would be able to preserve this new wine.

Just thinking about the reality of the wineskin, literally being the skin of an animal, that was eaten by the makers of the old wine. It might just be the skin of one of the "sacred cows". In other words, related to something from the previous generation, but now just empty and waiting to be filled. By the way, the wineskins of Jesus time were not these nice little wineskins we buy today, but literally the skin of a sheep, the whole sheep! That is much wine!

Lord send us understanding of these "new wineskins" so that this new wine can be preserved