Scripture: Luke 5:36-39
He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. If they do, nurse they will have torn the new garment, shop and the patch from the new will not match the old. And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, and the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And none of you, after drinking old wine, wants the new, for you say, ‘The old is better.’ ”

Thought for the Day: New ideas, and perhaps especially new religious ideas, are usually met with resistance by the keepers of traditions. Jesus’ parable about new garments and old wineskins hints at what he thinks of the establishment of his time. They don’t understand his teaching or his disciples, and when he tries to explain things to them, their minds explode the way new wine bursts old wineskins.

Sometimes it’s just easier to hang on to old stuff. It doesn’t matter if your favorite pair of jeans is more hole than cloth; it’s your favorite pair of jeans! New jeans take forever to break in. Who wants to go through the trouble? But the fact is, sonner or later, you simply can’t patch those old jeans any longer.

Prayer: Slap some sense into me, Lord, so I will finally admit it’s way beyond time for a new pair of jeans. Amen.