Luke 5:33-39

The Pharisees and the scribes said to Jesus, ‘John’s disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees too, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come, the time for the bridegroom to be taken away from them; that will be the time when they will fast.’

He also told them this parable, ‘No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not only will he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old.

‘And nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. “The old is good” he says.’

As Christians, we are a people of joy and hope formed by love.

The pharisees were dedicated to the Law, and would fast and pray, so they were sympathetic to John’s disciples.

But Jesus is not John, and he has brought to us a new way of relating to God. One that cannot be patched onto the old but means we must be made new.

As we live our lives as followers of Jesus we need to respond to what is in front of us, and to love the people we encounter. We can’t do that by just fasting and praying.

We must drink the new wine of love, even if the old wine seems better, so we can bring that love to the people we meet.

The tradition of our church is beautiful, glorious and holds wisdom and truth, but we need to resist just clinging to it. Ours is a living faith and our God is a living God. Through all of time the church has drawn on its traditions, but is also called to adapt and meet new challenges so that we can share our love of God.

None of this is to say we should ignore the teachings of the Church, and our rich and beatiful deposit of faith. But, it is a living thing and we and our church are always in need of renewal.

May we all find new ways to share the joy of being Christians so that others too can come to know the love that God has for all of us.