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Wineskins and weddingsFriday, March 11, 2011
Matthew 9:14-17 Jesus told them, "When you're celebrating a wedding, you don't skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!"
He went on, "No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes ... and you don't put your wine in cracked bottles." (from The Message translation)
Jesus' called himself a bridegroom. As he meets and merges with his bride (humanity), God marked a new Now, which Jesus called "Kingdom Come." In the Lord's Prayer he tells his disciples to ask God, "Thy Kingdom come." Here he tells them it is already here. Somehow the present and the future are coming together. I couldn't act the same way after I got married; Margaret couldn't either. We were both living with a new roommate - our marriage. That made a big difference in our motivations and our decisions. Jesus uses that familiar transition to illustrate how radically things have changed now because of his presence on earth. He welcomes me into this new Now: the fire is warm, come and sit and eat and laugh and sing. Don't worry, be happy. The king has come, and he is good. All that he has, he offers to me. We are in this together now. He only requires that I recognize our new roommate - the "kingdom". Jesus is my partner and together, in our "marriage," I can learn to let go of my self-protection, because I am part of a bigger whole. Our relationship rules my life. There is something new under the sun. Jesus tells me, asks me to believe what I don't see until I take the risk. Jesus says, "Will you marry me?" And I need to say ... YES! The time to hesitate is through, no time to wallow in the mire. Try now we can only lose, and our love become a funeral pyre ... come on Jesus, light my fire. Light my fire. Light my fire.* * sideways thanks to Jim Morrison |
Margaret and I were married on August 19, 1979. Our wedding marked a brand new Now for us. This particular NOW is nearly 32 years long. So far.