WESTWOOD FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
WESTWOOD FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
As his children, God gives us both the power, and the authority to choose life, and was the one who made new life possible in the first place. A new heart is our new wineskin. A renewed mind, and changed actions are our new wine—and like the wine at the Wedding at Cana, it’s the best tasting wine! The three together—new hearts, renewed minds, and changed actions—signify a changed life. We are God’s beloved children, most importantly, we can now live as God’s beloved children. God knows our true hearts, and who we are better than anyone. He loves us more than we could ever imagine, but he won’t force this new life on us. The choice is ours to make: Old or New. Life or Death. It’s as theologian and former Catholic priest John Dominic Crossan wrote: “We are waiting for God’s intervention. God is waiting for our collaboration.”
11 “Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 14 “No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. 15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 “But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 33 Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.” 34 Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding attendants fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise, not only will one tear the new garment, but the piece from the new will not match the old garment. 37 Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine but says, ‘The old is good.’”
