Hosea 4:11-19; Acts 21:15-26; Luke 5:27-39 No one want new wine once theyve had the good stuff. But the good stuff--well, it takes some time to appreciate. It makes demands on you. Jesus says old wine is better. Which always makes us wonder why so many people who love Jesus find it downright weird and creepy if His followers want to observe rites and ceremonies and disciplines that have more than six or eight months back story on them. Look friends, I like driving through McDonalds as much as any man alive (witness my middle aged belt and its ever-expanding horizons). I love cold diet Cok, and hum along to 80s pop music merrily, and avidly followed Dexter. But theyre not the equivalent of a perfectly stored Brie or decanted Bordeaux (2000? pour away!), a flawless rendition of a Bach cantata or any play written by Schiller or Shakespeare. There is a qualitative difference between things that have stood the test of time and the easy-drinking, easy-listening, easy-watching stuff that most of us go for. We like McDonalds because its high in fat, high in sugar, and low in complexity. it doesnt demand much from us--except, of course, that ever-expanding waistline. The easy-listening, easy-watching, easy-drinking stuff we love because its easy always has a long-term effect. Its called couch potato-hood. And there is a theological equivalent to that. The Book of Common Prayer demands you read at higher than college freshman level--but its filled with riches. The liturgy thats been honed for 2000 years to an austere beauty isnt immediately likeable--but it is dense with spiritual nutrition. The odd hymns with their stunning poetry, the complex answers to complex questions that dont go down as quickly as theyre going to hell or get right with Jesus and that temptation will go away? The weighty tomes by Augustine on the relationship of church and state that dont sing as easily as Lee Greenwood? Well, theyre like Bach or Schiller or Brie. They take some time and they make demands. But if youre willing to work with them, they might just surprise you. McDonalds isnt evil. But our bodies arent meant for a 364-day-a-year diet of such stuff. And the charming televangelists and winning guitar riffs and easy answers of American pop Christianity arent bad either. Theyre just not long-term nutrition for serious spiritual athletes. Theres a reason why the boring, stuck-in-a-rut liturgical churches have produced jaw-dropping saints like Florence Nightingale and William Wilberforce, Mother Theresa and Maximilian Kolbe, Bonhoeffer and Schweitzer. Because the good stuff, the old wine, is simply better for you once youve stopped complaining that its not simple. Nobodys gonna drink a heady Bordeaux after mowing the yard. But the deepest thoughts and the best conversations and the really big ideas and the life-changing insights tend to happen over a reflective glass or two of the good stuff, the old stuff. Not in a drive thru window.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 13:36:55 +0000
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