"New Wine" - May 21, 2015 (Pentecost)

Acts 2:1-21

               Family stories often get better in the telling.  This one happened to my own family, long before I was born, so I cannot fault you for every last detail, but knowing the people involved I am pretty sure it's accurate.

               First you need to know that my grandmother was vehemently opposed to alcohol in any way shape or form. She grew up in the coal regions where alcoholism was a serious problem for almost every family. She was a strong supporter of Prohibition, and its repeal was one of the two reasons that you wouldn’t want to use the name Franklin Delano Roosevelt in her hearing.

               Next, you need to know that my mother, her daughter, for many years worked for an auction company in Philadelphia. It was small but prosperous and the owner was always very generous to his employees. One of the things that he did to express his appreciation for their work was to give each and everyone at the firm a bottle of Passover wine each year.

               This presented a problem for my grandmother who despite her strong convictions about alcohol use, was the same person who was fond of telling her family, “Willful waste makes woeful want.”  You can see the dilemma that a free bottle of Manischewitz could present.  So, being resourceful, my grandmother did the only logical thing. She decided to use the Passover wine to make mincemeat for Christmas.  When it got to be toward the end of summer, she chopped up all the fruit: the raisins, the currants, the prunes, and whatever else was going into this project, put it in big jars, poured the wine over it, and set it aside.

               What she didn't realize was that the way to make mincemeat pie is to wait until you are almost ready to bake the pie before you add the wine. If you do it the way that she did, the wine added to the fruit makes the fruit ferment even more. If it's in a sealed container, it won’t be long before the carbon dioxide from the fermentation makes the jars explode and spews mincemeat

all over the place, and the smell of fermented fruit and Passover wine goes wafting on the breezes throughout the neighborhood.

               I’m sort of surprised that a woman who knew her Bible as well as she did didn’t think of that, because Jesus had told a parable about it. 

“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” [Luke 5:37-38]

The saying occurs in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Luke wrote not only the gospel that bears his name, but also the book of Acts, where he tells the story that we heard earlier, about how the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they began to speak in ways that visitors from across the known world would understand.  He tells how the people who heard the commotion had one or the other of two reactions:

“All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’” [Acts 2:12-13]

Yes and no.  Or no and yes.  Peter would assure them,

“Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.” [Acts 2:14-15]

In a figurative sense, though, they were filled with something new and vibrant and potentially explosive, and the rest of the book of Acts tells about how the Spirit that allowed people from all over the place to hear them speaking in their own native languages would break open all kinds of preconceptions and prejudice.

            Gentiles like an Ethiopian eunuch and a Roman centurion, outsiders to the family of faith through and through, would find an apostle sent to them to speak the good news that Jesus had brought the kingdom of God, and would respond with faith and joy.  But then the community would have to figure out what to do with them, and others like them, who just didn’t fit the accepted religious mold.  Paul, himself somebody whose life had been turned around from one of hate to one of love, would share the good news with Gentiles (which, as I’ve said, was startling enough) but also with Gentile women, and someone like Lydia (who was already a bit of a maverick by being a successful businesswoman trading in purple dyes) would not only hear and believe the good news but would become a leader in the local church which she gathered together in her house.

            Old wineskins were popping apart like mincemeat jars in the heat of August.  It was, as Peter told those that scoffed at the apostles,

what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
   and your old men shall dream dreams. 
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
   in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
     and they shall prophesy. 
And I will show portents in the heaven above
   and signs on the earth below,
     blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 
The sun shall be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood,
     before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” [Acts 2:16-21]

The good news is never able to be contained, never able to be locked into one group or language or style.  It is never tied to one form of politics.  It is never limited to rich people or poor people.  It is for children and seniors.  It is for married people or single people.  It is for people who have everything together and people whose lives are a total mess. 

            It is for you and it is for me.

            Merci a Dieu.

            Gracias a Dios.

            Gott sei Dank.

            Ευχαριστίες είναι στο Θεό.

            Tack vare Gud.

            Hvala Bodi Bogu.

Thanks be to God.