The Holy Pause

New Wine, New Wineskins

Scripture: Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and pray frequently. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples are always eating and drinking.” Jesus replied, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? The days will come when the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.” Then he told them a parable. “No one tears a patch from a new garment to patch an old garment. Otherwise, the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t match the old garment. Nobody pours new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the new wine would burst the wineskins, the wine would spill, and the wineskins would be ruined. Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins. No one who drinks a well-aged wine wants new wine, but says, ‘The well-aged wine is better.’” Consider: Imagine in your head a giant sequoia tree. These massive trees are so big, roads have been cut through the middle of them, wide enough those cars can pass through with room to spare. This giant redwood tree lives hundreds of years, becoming so strong it can withstand almost anything which comes its way. But it’s size and sturdiness is not the most important or miraculous part of the tree. No. What is the most miraculous about this tree is that at its absolute center—the heartwood—is the original sapling. That sapling is still there, physically present in the middle of the trunk, not transformed or changed, but in it’s original form. The sapling from which the tree grew is preserved forever, right at its heart. However, as amazing and wonderous as that sapling may be, it existed in a world where a single heavy snowstorm or a hungry deer could have ended its life. It lived in a state of constant survival and shaded future, unable to reach towards the sun nor withstand the winds which shook its roots. It needed to surrounded itself with the protaction and growth of the giant tree in order to survive. The New Self of the tree is the towering bark and the massive branches that now touch the clouds. The sapling still provides the core and sits at the heart of this wonderous trunk, but it couldn’t possibly support the weight of the massive limbs or the complexity of the ecosystem the tree now sustains. The sapling was designed to survive; the tree is designed to endure. And so it is with us over time. We are made like this tree with a core which is valued, essential, and true. The core parts of what make us who we are, the person God made us to be, always remains at the center of our identity. But over time, God helps us grow wider, stronger, tougher. God makes it so we are more able, more capable of kindness, caring, and love. The heart of us stays the same, while the rest of us grows more into who God created us to be. The old version of you cannot contain the new work God is doing. We can’t go back to who we were then because we’ve been structurally changed; the old containers of our lives would literally burst under the weight of current grace. Growth and change are important because they make us more able to rely on and stand strong with God. Respond: When was the last time you checked in with your inner sapling? Instead of seeing “failures” or limitations as the end of the story, how could you use God’s creativity to help you find possibilities in this new surrounding? Pray: Father God, This way of faith is full of obstacles, and we are often discouraged when we can’t see the Promised Land beyond the next turn. Fill our hearts with your goodness, open our eyes to see, feel and taste your goodness that we may persevere in answering your call. In the name of Jesus we pray. These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Exiled into Purpose

Scripture: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Consider: There is a specific, hollow ache that comes when we realize the “home” we long for no longer exists. We aren’t just talking about a physical address or a childhood bedroom; we are talking about a season of life, a relationship that has fractured beyond repair, or a version of ourselves that has been permanently altered by grief. We look back, hoping to find a door, but the house we look towards is no longer there. The Israelites understood this displacement with a visceral intensity. When they were dragged into exile in Babylon, their identity was shattered. Everything that represented God’s presence—the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, the very soil of the Promised Land—was gone. Their initial impulse was to hold their breath, to refuse to unpack their bags, and to wait for a quick reversal of fortune. They wanted to go back. But God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, offered a message that felt like a betrayal: You aren’t going back yet. In Jeremiah 29, God famously tells them to “build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.” The “impossibility of return” is not a punishment; it is often God’s way of clearing the ground for a new type of growth. When we are forced into a “Babylon”—a situation we didn’t choose and cannot escape—our natural instinct is to survive on the fumes of nostalgia. We waste our energy trying to reconstruct a past that God has already closed the door on. God uses the finality of our loss to force our eyes forward. When you cannot go back, you are finally free to look at the soil beneath your current feet, to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you” (Jeremiah 29:7). This is a radical call to emotional and spiritual investment in a place you never wanted to be. To “plant a garden” in your Babylon means: * Accepting Reality: Acknowledging that the old home is gone. * Investing Anyway: Pouring your love, your work, and your prayers into your current, imperfect circumstances. * Trusting the Planter: Believing that God is a “master gardener” who can make life spring from the most hostile environments. The Israelites thought “home” was a building in Jerusalem. God used the exile to show them that “home” was God’s presence within them. When the external structures of our lives collapse, we are forced to find the unshakable Kingdom of God that resides within. Respond: Consider today if you find yourself in a place where you cannot go back. What would it look like to look forward, not in despair but as an invitation to a new kind of fruitfulness. So today, stop staring at the locked gates of the past and pick up your shovel to plant your garden. Pray: Father God, This way of faith is full of obstacles, and we are often discouraged when we can’t see the Promised Land beyond the next turn. Fill our hearts with your goodness, open our eyes to see, feel and taste your goodness that we may persevere in answering your call. In the name of Jesus we pray. These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Burn the Plows

Scripture: So Elijah departed from there and found Elisha, Shaphat’s son. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elisha was with the twelfth yoke. Elijah met up with him and threw his coat on him. Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” Elisha said, “then I will follow you.” Elijah replied, “Go! I’m not holding you back!” Elisha turned back from following Elijah, took the pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Then with equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they ate it. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him. Consider: My children are obsessed with the American Gladiators. I’ll admit to starting this obsession because obviously everything from my childhood was perfect and amazing and all the kids stuff now is terrible and awful. You know, typical old people reasoning. In the original series there was not a lot of safety equipment. They had foam helmets, elbow/knee pads, and mouth guards with not a lot else. They’d launch themselves off bridges and crash into the gladiators waiting on the other side wearing only a lycra tank top and shorts. It took a special kind of person to wrestle someone twice your size in skin-tight biker shorts. The modern version doesn’t allow for any of that kind of risk. The gladiators and contest are heavily padded. The games have a giant safety net underneath them, making it impossible to fall very far or very fast (though the editing makes it look like a tremendous and very rapid descent). The harnesses and wires are doubled so if one fails another is still there. The only thing they haven’t seemed to lock down is their shoes. Their sneakers always seem to be falling off. This safety-conscious behavior makes sense from a liability stand point, but it does fundamentally change the game. The contestants are physically stronger, but more cautious. The gladiators are bigger and more athletic, but limited by the equipment and rules which hold them back. The perceived risk is higher, but the actual risk is lower. It changes the fundamentals so everyone is more cautious, more hesitant, just a little bit slower and unwilling to try risky things. It mirrors our safety obsessed culture. Despite crime rates - and teenage pregnancy rates - going down over time, we are more scared than we’ve ever been. It’s still incredibly unlikely you will personally be the victim of random acts of violence, but the world would tell you there is a tragedy waiting to happen to you around every corner. And it’s bled over into our relationships and personal decision making. It is wiser - and safer - we think to stay on the well worn paths which we’ve always known. If I eat boiled chicken and broccoli every night for dinner, then I won’t gain weight. It’s certainly safer than risky than fresh cooked authentic Guatemalan food from the truck outside Home Depot. But we miss out on so much when we are afraid to risk. Elijah asked Elisha to risk everything he knew, the safety of his family home, and the certainty of the life he’d led to this point in order to follow God’s calling on his life. Our reasonable and safety conscious response would be to stay behind the oxen, digging the same old ruts we dug last year, planting the same seed we’d grown for generations. Elisha does the exact opposite. He not only drops his plow, he burns it for fuel. He not only stops his oxen from working, but cooks them and eats them. There is no safety net for him now, no place for him to return, no home for him to lay down his head if everything goes south. (I’m guessing on that last bit, but if you were his parents and he’d burned your cars before hitting the road, would you welcome him back?) God’s calling doesn’t come with any guarantees or safety nets, aside from the one God promises to provide. God often asks us to move away from our stockpiles and well-worn paths onto a scarier, but more fulfilling, path following God’s directions. It’s oftentimes scary, the place where God is leading you.. But scary isn’t bad or wrong or a misdirection. Sometimes being scared is the point, because it asks us not to lean on our own abilities or storage solutions. Our safety oriented nature always asks for a safety net, but God never promises us safety as the world sees it. Which doesn’t mean God doesn’t help you be safe. God just provides a different kind of safety gear. Respond: What safety net are you holding onto which God might ask you to let Go? Are you more safety conscious when it comes to God, or more willing to risk? How might you move from one side to the other? Pray: God of the journey - we want to be the captain of our own ships, setting our course and dictating each step of our lives. Help us to find joy in the adventure and peace in the unexpected. When we look back on the path of our lives, remind us of the many places the road turned in a different direction than we’d planned and show us the growth we experienced along the way. Amen. These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Danger of "Looking Back"

Scripture: All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Consider: The book of Exodus begins with God hearing the cries of the Israelites. The Israelites arrived in Egypt 400 years before under different circumstances. At that time, they were under the protection and favor of Egypt’s second-in-command leader, Joseph, the son of Jacob. However, things changed over time, and the nation who was once a friendly guest had become a threat, and the gracious hosts became slave masters with increasing demands and cruelty. It was under duress that the Israelites called out to God to be rescued. God answers the cries of the Israelites but has a much greater plan for them. God’s plan is not just to rescue them, but to bless them with a Promised Land, a land of abundant milk and honey. The way to the Promised Land is difficult and uncertain, not at all like the life they had in Egypt. Sure, it was difficult, but it was predictable. Often, we find ourselves in the rut of the mundane, but we would rather complain and comply than take the risk of answering God’s call to something unknown. We seem to forget the immensity of God’s goodness, our faith falters when obstacles get in the way, and we fail to obey God’s call to abundant living. The late Presbyterian Pastor, Tim Keller, tells the story of his son’s struggle with disobedience. In this memory, his son claimed if his dad would just explain thoroughly why his dad was asking him to do something, then he would gladly obey. Tim explains that this really isn’t obedience but agreement. In the scripture, the Israelites are hesitant to continue obeying God’s call to the Promised Land when the going gets tough. But the thing about obedience is God may not give us full visibility of our promised future. That’s why obedience requires faith. When things got difficult, the Israelites looked back to Egypt with a faulty lens, instead of looking forward in faith to God’s promise of something good beyond their imagination. How often do we find ourselves in similar circumstances? God will call us to take that next step of faith, and we need to trust in his goodness. Problems and struggles in our walk of faith call us to look forward and not backwards – to look up and not down. Respond: Is God calling you to something beyond your line of sight? Are you feeling discouraged by the bumps along that road? Look up! Lift up your eyes, as the psalmist says in Psalm 121:1-2, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Pray: Father God, This way of faith is full of obstacles, and we are often discouraged when we can’t see the Promised Land beyond the next turn. Fill our hearts with your goodness, open our eyes to see, feel and taste your goodness that we may persevere in answering your call. In the name of Jesus we pray. These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Point of No Return

Scripture: The people marched out from their tents to cross over the Jordan. The priests carrying the covenant chest were in front of the people. When the priests who were carrying the chest came to the Jordan, their feet touched the edge of the water. The Jordan had overflowed its banks completely, the way it does during the entire harvest season. But at that moment the water of the Jordan coming downstream stood still. It rose up as a single heap very far off, just below Adam, which is the city next to Zarethan. The water going down to the desert sea (that is, the Dead Sea) was cut off completely. The people crossed opposite Jericho. So the priests carrying the Lord’s covenant chest stood firmly on dry land in the middle of the Jordan. Meanwhile, all Israel crossed over on dry land, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. Consider: I love watching history documentaries. I don’t focus on any one time period or area - I more pick the documentaries based on the hosts and if I find them interesting to listen to (or fall asleep to which is what usually happens!) On listening to a wide variety of historians and experts, there is one thing I’ve learned about historians; they hate a counterfactual argument. Counterfactuals are those arguments that begin with something like “What if someone had killed baby Hitler. Would we still have WW2?” The reason they hate these arguments is you can’t ever know for sure, so it’s mostly just conjecture and guessing, which is the other thing I’ve learned historians don’t like. History is - I’ve been told - about facts. I’m not sure that’s entirely true, but that is a different discussion for another day! The other thing I’ve learned along the way is there is always an inevitable point of no return. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard historians argue about the turning point of the American Civil War, though they all seem to agree it wasn’t the battle of Gettysburg. No matter where they place this historical turning point, historians agree in all conflicts and major moments in history, there is a point at which the shift in momentum makes it almost inevitable that only one outcome is possible. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the only possibility remaining is he would become Emperor of Rome. There is no turning back. I’m also amazed at the number of historical turning points that are water based. How often do we avoid moments of decisions because it feels like a point of no return? We try to push them or ignore those hard choices for as long as possible because, we think, if we don’t make the choice we still have options. In reality, those hard choices are likely already made for us by the momentum of events and the passage of time. Hard words build up until the only choice left is to end the relationship. The medicine stops working after years of treatment. You age and eventually the doctor starts saying things like “Well… there’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just getting older.” These Rubicon moments happen long before we are willing to acknowledge they have happened. There is good news in the midst of the river, however. When the Israelites took the courageous first step into the river they must cross in order to get to the Promised Land, God stilled the waters. With each step they took, the water parted and gave way, eventually leading to dry land for them to cross. And, when they got to the other side of the crossing, the river closed behind them, leaving their past on the other side. Their only choice was to move forward towards their final destination. When we reach our own rubicons, and the events of life push us into the river, God does not let the waters come over our heads to drown us. Instead, as we move with courage into God’s future, it will be through still waters and dry land. The journey is still hard, the path not straight, the choice to keep stepping forward is a brave and faithful one, but the water will not consume you. And when you get to the other side of the river, there will be people waiting for you to help you on the inevitable and unavoidable next steps of your journey. Respond: What is building up in your life right now that feels difficult or overwhelming? Where do you find yourself on the river banks, being forced to make the decision to step into the water? Have you entered the river already? When you find yourself in these moments of decision - remember the path has already been laid for you and the only choice is how you will move forward into it. Pray: God of the journey - we want to be the captain of our own ships, setting our course and dictating each step of our lives. Help us to find joy in the adventure and peace in the unexpected. When we look back on the path of our lives, remind us of the many places the road turned in a different direction than we’d planned and show us the growth we experienced along the way. Amen. These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]