New for Old

How new is your mobile phone? The latest iPhone 5 was launched earlier this week, with new and improved features. The battle between for market share the android manufacturers - Apple, Blackberry, Nokia and Samsung - keeps offering more and better functions, for more and more money!

Much of industry is driven by our desire for better products, and the history of industrial development tells the stories of astonishing improvements in manufacturing processes. All of our lives have been transformed beyond the wildest imaginings of our grandparents. They saw what happened, as machines replaced hand made products, and people left their villages to work in towns and cities. 

There are obvious costs associated with these changes, not least when accidents happen, such as the fire in the Karachi clothing factory this week, killing nearly 300 people.

But we cannot go backwards, even if we might dream of a quieter lifestyle in some rural idyll. We may holiday in the country, but globally, more than half the world's population now lives in town and cities.

The Jewish people of Jesus' day were confronted by someone who was offereing a new way to approach issues of faith in God. The religious authorities quickly saw in Jesus a threat, and started to plot for his death. But Jesus boldly stated that he had come to bring the new, and even if his opponents killed him, he was aware that new and old cannot co-exist. 'Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?” 

Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 

“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” (Mark 2.18-22)

In our own lives, we  are constantly faced with tension between old and new. Can we find renewal while holding onto safety and security? Do we long for stability, when Jesus calls us to risk-taking and vulnerability? Do we look for public approval while Jesus calls us to costly sacrifice? Today, I pray that I will know how to live the new life of Jesus, in a world that is dying to be saved.

Best wishes,

Richard