I have to admit that I see leaders of Christ's church today as sitting on a vat of new ideas (wine) and looking for the new place (wine skins) to pour them into. But they remain reluctant to do so because they fear of breaking their "old wineskin" church open. In their hesitation, the church as we know it (and most others don't) chugs on week after week and year after year with its old, tasteless, and undesirable "wine." The only folks drinking the old wine are those who have always drunk that wine, and who simply don't have a curiosity or taste for God's new wine. It's familiar wine, but not the great wine of the Kingdom of God. All this goes on while the "old tasters" pray and pray that their children and grandchildren will somehow come and find the Jesus who, at Canaan, turned water into the very best wine imaginable. But forward, Kingdom-thinking church leaders today know that the Jesus wine can't be served because it is too dangerous -- too explosive!
What is it that God expects of us? Serve the new or stay with the old? I suggest that God expects us to put the new wine of Jesus into new communities of people and invite those who love the old tasteless wine to join the party! The new ideas that Jesus brought to us and taught us are still are new to most of his followers. You and I know that to be a man or woman who actually follows Jesus is to be a cultural renegade -- a revolutionary wine taster!
So what is that which God asks? God asks us to love God totally and to totally love other people that God has created -- our "neighbors" in the broadest of sense.
First, let's talk about that which God asks of us is NOT. It is not using the majority of our "tithes/our giving" to maintain a building that is only used about 20% of the week.
It IS, however, about living in an authentic community/relationship with other Jesus followers and DOING Jesus to those outside this community. It is serving and healing others while we, ourselves, grow more Christ-like; imitating Christ. Inch by inch; day by day through the discipline of Christian living. It is loving God through Jesus and letting our lives overflow and shine into the lives of others (mostly by not saying a word or getting in any one's face!).
This means we live a life of compassion, confession, forgiveness, and prayer -- and strive to see the face of Jesus in every other human being -- rich or poor, whatever race, ethnicity -- everyone! We especially are called to not only see that Face but to especially serve those who are poor, ill, suffering, or in prison.
So, if this became the "church," the agenda, the practice (not the architecture) of a group of Jesus-followers how would that play out? What would it look like? But most importantly what would it BE and DO?
Brothers and sisters, this has been my spiritual/faith struggle. I think I know what God wants of me, but I am too timid, too old, too insecure to act on it. But if I were to actually PRACTICE my faith I would need a lot of prayer and support from others to do it. I would need a lot of help from like-minded Jesus people who also find strength in community.
How would we begin? Then how would we continue in this practice? About four centuries before Jesus, Aristotle (who also greatly informed Thomas Aquinas and other spiritual thinkers) said that it is not about what we do, but about the kind of person we become.
What do you think about all this? What are your thoughts and about where the new wine should go?
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