$h!t Jesus Says, Part Six: New Wine

AI-Generated Image of Kenza Layli.

Just as AI is changing and transforming industries, Jesus challenges us to transform our hearts and communities with the new wine of God’s love and grace...and to pour it out generously, so no one is without.

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This week the world witnessed something that had never been done before.

​Last Thursday, Moroccan lifestyle influencer, Kenza Layli, won the inaugural Miss AI 2024 beauty pageant.

​What’s so ground-breaking is that Miss Layli, as well as the other 10 contestants, are not real. At least not in the way we are.

Each one was created solely by a computer using artificial intelligence. That is, no human hands designed them or wrote their content.

During her AI generated acceptance speech, Miss Layli reminded the world that, “AI is a transformative force that can disrupt industries, challenge norms and create opportunities where none existed before…”

​Whether we like it or not…AI is the new way forward. For some, that’s a good thing. For others, it’s terrifying. Of course, people had the same reaction when the telegraph came out. They feared it would destroy privacy, and its wires would attract lightning. People were also afraid of the printing press, electricity, vaccines, and the computer.
 
As we’ve been learning, people also were afraid at some of the shit Jesus says. Not only did his new way threatened conventional wisdom, but it also terrified the status quo.

​Like AI, Jesus came to advanced humanity forward. Much of what he said was met with resistance to the change. As we will see, Jesus has a thing to say about that.

Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.’         - Luke 5:37-38 

I have this vivid childhood memory of stomping on grapes in the bathtub with my mom. I can’t remember which house we did this in, but I recall the laughter we shred squishing grapes between our toes.
 
I don’t know if it was the way the wine was crafted, or the fact that it was stored in recycled 7-UP bottles, but mom’s little experiment didn’t go as planned. The buildup of fermented gas caused some of the bottles to explode. While others brewed a beautiful bouquet of biohazard waste. Still, kudos to my mom for stepping out of her comfort zone to try something new.
 
Jesus wasn’t shy about doing things in a new way. Even if it meant breaking a few rules. Had we read the entire story, we’d see that Jesus and his crew disregard social taboos to dine with some notorious scallywags. When the religious elites see this, they go after him; using the law to defend their judgement. But Jesus isn’t having any of that. He knows the law, and he also knows their hearts.
 
When they question why his disciples don’t pray and fast like they do, Jesus gives them a very simple, easy to understand answer. He says, “no one puts new wine into old wineskins.”

​On the surface it seems like Jesus is dismissing his critics and even disregarding the law that God had given to be obeyed.
 
As we’ve been learning, Jesus isn’t throwing the law out. He’s merely placing love and grace above it.

That was his yoke, his teaching, like we talked about last week. Jesus is less concerned with external compliance and more about internal transformation - the kind that leads a person to a new understanding of oneself in relationship to God and others.
 
For those of us who are used to drinking wine from a bottle that has been aged in oak barrels, we have to remember that in the 1st century wine was produced in vessels made from animal hides. They used this method because the skins could stretch and expand as gas was produced during the fermentation process.
 
Old wineskins were already stretched to their limit. They couldn’t handle the new wine without exploding…damaging both the wine and the vessels. In this metaphor, Jesus is saying the Pharisee’s way is like old wine skin. Their demand for strict obedience to the law can’t hold the new wine of Christ which is love and grace.
 
When asked what the greatest law is, remember what Jesus says? Love God and love others, because love is what “all the laws and prophets hang on” (Matthew 22:35-40). Jesus knows the scriptures. He knows the laws and what the prophets say. He also knows that some people like the Pharisees look at outward appearance, but that God looks at the heart.
 
Jesus says, “It’s not what goes into a person’s mouth that defiles them, but what comes out” (Matthew 15:11). Our hate, anger, judgment, and violence all stem from the heart. The new way of Jesus is a radical departure from the old. One that transforms us from the inside out.
 
You might recall Jesus begins his ministry calling us to repent, to change the way we think and do things. This requires a new framework and mindset. A new way of living, doing and being. The old way will not be able to contain or hold it without destroying both.

​Richard Rohr says, “God keeps creating things from the inside out, so they are forever yearning, developing, growing, and changing for the good. To fight transformative and evolutionary thinking is to fight the very core concept of faith.”
 
To say it another way, you can’t follow Jesus faithfully and remain the same person. It’s impossible. I know this because back in 2017, when I reluctantly agreed to start a new church in our backyard, I was more like the Pharisees than Jesus. I was holding on to the old traditions that I knew to be church.
 
For two long, depressing years, I struggle to set roots muchless good ones. I felt like a failure. I questioned my faith and doubted my calling. I constantly fretted over church growth and got angry when no one showed up.

The more people questioned the authenticity of what I was doing, telling me this wasn’t a real church, the more I dug deeper into the old traditions to prove them wrong. I can’t tell you how many times I quit. The burden was too much to bear.
 
Then, in 2019, I voiced my frustrations to a wonderful Kenyan missionary named Geoffrey Lipale who gently said, “Jesus was very clear. New wine belongs in new wine skin.” That’s when everything just clicked on.
 
As it turned out, the thing I thought was a curse from God was actually a great gift I had been given. A blank slate to come up with a new paradigm to live out the gospel in real time. Instead of trying to replicate traditional church models, Jesus freed me to create a new way to meet the needs and challenges of this unique community.
 
Rohr is right. Faith isn’t supposed to be stagnant. It should always be growing and evolving because God is alive and moving within us.

We must always be searching for new ways to reveal God in the space between meeting today’s needs with love. And embracing tomorrow’s opportunities with grace and joy.
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Just as new wine continues to ferment and change, our faith must be dynamic, ever-deepening, and expanding. The same is true for the church as a whole. We have to be flexible and open to change as the Holy Spirit moves us to be living, thriving, creative laboratories of God’s inclusive and life-giving love.
 
I used to worry about our small size, but now I think it’s one of our greatest strengths. Our size allows us to cultivate deep, authentic relationships, both in person and online. We not only know everyone’s name, but we also know who needs prayer, or a meal, or some extra encouragement to get through a difficult season.
 
Thanks to having a congregation that’s spread all over the country, we can share the gospel to more communities and people in all the unique ways we love God, love others, and serve both.
 
Just as AI is changing and transforming industries, Jesus challenges us to transform our hearts and communities with the new wine of God’s love and grace.

Jesus knows the Pharisees are good religion scholars. “They know the law,” He says but they “don’t take it in their hearts and live it out in their behavior” (Matthew.23:3, MSG).
 
One great way we can do that is doing what he says, “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). And "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love" (John 15:10).

It’s in the way we love that we reveal the true spirit of the law. And reveal his truth to a world in dire need of it.
 
Despite the fact Jesus constantly faces criticism and pushback he always stands on the side of love. Love is the new wine, and our hearts are the new wine skins. No matter how big or small we are, we are still his church. Which makes us vessels of his love.
 
Here’s the thing, it’s his wine, not ours. He doesn’t store it in us for safe keeping but gives it to us to share. I know a lot of people who collect wine. And on special occasions they will uncork a bottle or two for us to enjoy.

Jesus sees every day as a special occasion. And he wants us to share his wine not just with friends but with those who despise us. The world is thirsty for what he has to offer.

Jesus sends us out into the world to uncork God’s love and to pour it out generously, so no one is without.
 
We are sent into Anamesa, knowing that every interaction and relationship we have is an opportunity to offer his new wine. This is what church is all about loving people out there, whether or not they come in here.

​Jesus says, “if you love me, you will tend to my sheep” (John 21:15-17). We are given today to do just that.
 
Let us go and build upon our rich history by living out the gospel in new and life-giving ways so everyone we meet can become intoxicated with Christ, who took a cup of wine and said, “This is the blood of the new covenant poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins. Every time you drink of this cup, you do so in remembrance of me” (Matthew 26:28).