Friday, April 17, 2020
“No one sews a piece of un-shrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins;. . .”
Matthew 9:16, 17
Dear Ones,
I was reminded of these words of Jesus about not mixing new fabric with old and the need for new wineskins for new wine after reading a quote this morning by author Sonya Renee Taylor:
“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona experience was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.”
As the weeks of “Shelter in Place” drag on and we still don’t know when or how it will end, some of us are weary of this time of uncertainty and disruption. We may long for a return to “normal,” but Sonya Renee Taylor’s words remind us that what was before the Covid-19 pandemic was not a healthy normal. When I shared these words with my husband Rob this morning he agreed with all the negative things Taylor says we have made normal, but he said, “These words don’t tell us what to do to make it better in the future.” They don’t give us directions to the “new garment.”
I have heard many people express the desire for a new way of living, not a return to “normal” as it was before the novel coronavirus appeared, but I, like my husband, wonder just what or how I am to be or do differently. I invite you in this time to consider the “normalized” evils Taylor names and pick one that you can relate to, and then prayerfully consider how you will transform that evil and leave it behind. The truth is that if we want to live in a world that works for all and that will continue to sustain us and our children and grandchildren, “new wine skins” are needed.
Please contact me with your questions, concerns, prayer requests and thoughts, and join us for worship on Sunday either online or with the worship guide that will be sent to you.
In Love,
Pastor Kathryn