Mind Meld of A Different Kind

MARK 2:18-22
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.”

Freeze Spirituality
How long do you think the two actors in the above picture can hold their pose? Freeze Statues originated in European street theatre. This art form first captured my fascination at Epcot in Florida’s Walt Disney World. These actors look so statuesque that when they finally change position the onlooker get’s caught completely by surprise. I was.

How can they hold their poses for so long without giving in to muscles gone crazy!?

Religious people of Jesus’ day, and any day, understand spirituality like these Freeze Statues. Spirituality looks one way, and the pious must find that perfect spiritual form, and freeze. To change form equals becoming less spiritual.

Jesus didn’t conform to the form of fasting every spiritual person in 1st Century Judaism knew to be spiritual. The “Why” question wasn’t really a question at all, but an accusation. “You’re not spiritual!”

Jesus wouldn’t accept it. Spiritual doesn’t mean rigid, unchanging forms. Not only did he and his disciples not have to fast for the time the groom was on earth (Jesus) and still be authentically spiritual, but when they did fast again, it didn’t have to be the same way everyone thought it should be! To lock oneself, and others, into one particular form of spiritual practice equals tattered old clothes and rigid used up wineskins.

It is very difficult not to identify true Christian spirituality with one, unchanging form. For example. Truly reverent worshipers in corporate worship will dress a certain way. Valuing time with God means waking early, reading the Bible, and praying. Experiencing God’s family means going to a church building every weekend. Authentic care for the poor will express itself by never buying a new car and giving the difference to charity.

We all have our rigid wineskins. This is why we struggle to experience an authentic relationship with God – and an authentic spiritual relationship with one another. Our fallen nature predisposes us to look at our conformity to spiritual forms, rather than our hearts, to give evidence of an authentic spiritual relationship.

Father, reveal the forms I rigidly impose on myself and others, in order to judge whether or not I am, or they are, truly spiritual. Forgive me for this kind of “formalism”. Change my perspective. Grant that I learn to value the condition of the heart as the real indicator of spiritual vitality.