Cast your worries...

I haven't been fishing in a long time.  It is tragic.  But this morning during a high school bible class we talked about what the bible says about worry and the Lord reminded me of why I go fishing.  The teacher, Mr Beane, asked the kids to form a mental picture of what it means to "cast your worries on Jesus" and being slightly obsessed with fishing I instantly got a picture of standing in the Forks Pool in the mighty Margaree River.  If you've never been fly fishing; a) you should go. b) it works pretty much opposite to the way you think it should.

First lets talk about effectiveness.  Fly fishing is certainly not the most productive way to catch a fish.  If you're trout fishing the idea is that you match closely your fake fly with the thousands of other bugs that are on or in the water in an effort to trick the trout into thinking your fake fly made of treat and feathers and glue taste better that the juicy bug that just land on the water.  If you're salmon fishing, the object of your game is more to annoy the fish to the point of attacking your feather thread glue offering.  Unfortunately, salmon are pretty even tempered and lazy a lot of the time and will ignore your annoying pestering for days.  If I were to fish effectively, I would use a net.  That's much more productive (and illegal).  But it's so much work using a net, it's heavy and bulky and you have to do a lot of pulling and carrying and struggling and worrying that you might be arrested.  When I go to the river to fish, it's not necessarily about the fish (although I do want to catch a fish).  But there is something about standing in the river, being patient, being quiet, enjoying creation that helps bring relief from worry.  So often, rather than bringing the things I'm worried about to Jesus I want to work through them myself.   I want to solve the problem.  I want to wrap it up in a net even it if means struggle.  But that is not the attitude Jesus wants me to have about the things that worry me.
There's often a clarity that comes to things I'm thinking about when I'm there.  It is so indicative of the idea of casting my worries on Jesus, it's almost like the physical act of each cast is like throwing worries into the river where they are swept away.  One of the girls had the picture of put things in a big heavy sack (by things I think she meant her brother) and giving them to Jesus.  A clear idea of how much worry some teens carry around about relationships, school, family, self-images, etc.  So many of carry around sacks that just keep getting heavier and it becomes more and more difficult to hand them over.  That not Jesus plan for us.  If you've gotten to the point where you're carrying around a big sack of worry, hand that over, you can't fish while you're carry a big sack.

Something else that is opposite when fly fishing is the perception newbies have of how you getting that tiny little fly all the way out in the river.  It is nearly weightless so you must have to cast it with a lot of force right? No.  Opposite.  Without fail, every new fly fisherman (this may actually be different for women, because they would probably read the instructions that come with their fly fishing package first or ask someone to show them how to do it) will try their best to fling, with all their strength, that tiny little fly to the other side of the river, sometimes for hours.  I did it, my friends did it, you'll do it.  You will fail.  Your fly will hit you in the back of the head, wrap around your boots, get caught in the trees behind you, hook another fishermen in the ear, but it will not go out in the river where you want it.  Ok, here's where you stop for 5 minutes, get out of the river and watch the 80 year old guy who can barely walk to the river bank step in the pool, make two motions with his rod and cast his fly 100 feet, make two more cast and pull out a 10 pounder.  Pause.  Now that you're anger has subsided, watch again.  It's completely effortless.  He moves his rod slowly between 10 and 2 and out goes the line.  No flinging or whipping.  10 and 2.  Have you ever met Christians who seem worry-less.  There first response to things that should cause great worry is "let's pray".  They've learned by experience that running around flinging things and struggling with things usually amount to getting tied up and hitting yourself in the back of the head.  It becomes effortless once you know the truth about 10 and 2 to cast exactly where you want to.  It becomes effortless when you know that the results of casting your worries on Jesus will always be as consistent as 10 and 2.  Now that you've gotten rid of that big sack you can work on casting.

One of the things you'll notice when you're fishing, after you've figure out how to get your little fly out there, is  it always goes down stream.  Rivers always flow down stream.  Things are always carried downstream by the power of the river, they are swept away.  As you fish, you start at the top of a pool and make your way down stream, it is effortless.  Two cast, one step down stream, no resistance, the water actually helps move you in the right direction.  Try fishing upstream if you like.  It's very difficult and pointless.  You'll spend so much time and effort fighting against the force of the water that you'll never be able to cast.  if you cast upstream, you're fly will just float into you and get wrapped up in your boots.  And the old guy who just caught the 10 pounder will shake his head at you.  It will become obvious and natural the more time you spend in the river that you should move with the river, that you should cast with the river not against it.  It will become obvious and natural as you cast your worries on Jesus that you should go in his direction, that you can let him carry the things away.  That once you've made the cast, he will move things in the right direction.

I've gone fishing lot's of times and never caught a fish (well not lots) but I've never gone fishing and come back feeling empty handed.  Sometimes I've seen a new part of the river, sometimes I've seen an eagle catch a fish.  Sometimes I've met people from other countries who've flown halfway around the world to experience something God's put in my back yard.  Sometimes I've fallen in.  Sometimes I've had hours to just talk to Jesus and cast my worries on Him.  Fishing doesn't always pan out the way I think it's going to.  Sometimes when I think the river should be full of fish, I've totally missed the run.  Casting our worries on Jesus can be like that, it doesn't always look like I think it will.  But I never fell empty hand when I do it, just lighter.  Sometimes, if I pray hard, I even get to see a fish.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7

Old tea in a new wine skin

Hey Church, it’s me again.  I had another thought for us.

I just read the account of Jesus hanging out and eating with a bunch of tax collectors and notorious sinners in Mark’s book about his time with Jesus.  It starts in the 2^nd chapter around verse 13.  It’s an interesting little story about how the religious leaders weren’t all that impressed about Jesus choice of regular dinner guests, in fact, they weren’t just unimpressed, I think they were totally confused.  Jesus goes on to tell them that he came for sinners not good people like them, which seems a little harsh and I’m sure put the bee in their bonnet, so to speak.  I bet they were having a really hard time figuring out why all these people who wanted nothing to do with them and their rules and religion were flocking to this new rabbi on the block and his bizarre modus operandi of hanging out with the wrong crowd and offering them unconditional positive regard, even love and forgiveness.

Anyway, at the end Jesus says something I’ve always found a little weird, because my wine comes in a bottle, not a skin.  It’s one of those cultural/technological differences that cause us to lose some understanding once in a while.  He says, “no one puts new wine in an old wine skin, the wine would swell and burst the skin.  The wine would be lost and the skin ruined.  New wine must go in new skin.”

I think what Jesus meant was he was bringing in a new system that was going to be very different from the old, that would open up the kingdom of heaven to a previously unreachable sector of society and that it was going to take some time (about 3 more years) before everyone would see what he meant.  The wine had to ferment, some things had to happen at the right time under the right conditions and the wine had to expand some more before it was ready.  It wouldn't fit in the old packaging once it was ready - aka the Law - but would be better and sweeter than the old stuff.   That all makes sense to me in a theological sort of way.

Here’s what doesn't make sense; after a couple thousand years, we have tried our best to mix the old wine and the new wine back together and expect that it will taste good.  Slowly over time, we have introduced new traditions and rituals with old traditions and rituals that look very little like what Jesus said and did. We've managed to turn the wine back into grape juice.  We've sanitized everything to the point that the wine tastes more like bleach than wine to most people.  We’ve tried to sell people the idea that Jesus came and did everything it takes to give us a free gift of salvation by grace, but here are all the rituals, religious things and rules you need to follow anyway.  Now I know that some of this wine metaphor is lost on you because “Christians shouldn't drink wine” but try to stick with me. 

Let’s try tea, maybe that’ll go down easier.  Any respectable tea drinking parishioner would never invite someone over for tea and reuse the bags from last Sunday’s service.  You’d never put Red Rose and Earl Grey in a pot together, that would just taste like dirty water.   You’d never give someone green tea and expect them to believe it is orange pekoe and you’d never make tea in the coffee machine.  You probably wouldn’t give someone one of the double shot mocha latte’s from Starbucks and try to convince them it’s just Tetley.  “Here’s your cup of black tea, that doesn’t really have what it takes to make you well so I put in some spinach peanut butter protein shake to give you a little extra boost and keep you going.”  OK maybe that’s too far.  But if you were to offer someone tea, they'd expect to receive tea.  If you did any of the above, people would question if you knew what tea was, they might even wonder if you were a christian.  

Somehow over the years we’ve managed to put back into the mix most of the things Jesus came to say were not necessary, not helpful and not tasty, trying to pass it off as the gospel.  If we keep mixing new wine and old wine, the new wine will not do what it’s supposed to do.  The old wine will stop the reactions that cause the new wine to expand and grow. 

We have to look at our wine skins again and see what we’re putting in there.  Are they the things that Jesus said we should do like care for the poor, the hungry, the naked, the broken, the lost, the sick, the most desperate, most notorious, most sinful members of our community, or are we pandering to the respectable “law” keepers.  Are we doing the things that Paul told the churches he wrote to; living by the Spirit not the law, following Jesus gospel not the twisted false gospels of men, living lives fully submitted to the law of love rather than the law of sin.

New wine in a new wine skin can’t keep looking like mixed wine, watered down with grape juice in tea cups.  New wine in an old skin will be ruined and wasted, mixed wine anywhere will taste like crap to whoever we try to serve it to, even the winos and tax collectors, will spit it out.

Paul says this in Colossians 2:6-23

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.  For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,

and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?  Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.

These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

Don't let anyone serve you a cup of week old tea at the end of some pointless ceremony.  And if you're going to drink wine, look for the real thing.  After all, Jesus saved the best wine for the first miracle at the end of the wedding feast, I think he wants you to have the best wine and know the real gospel.

Be Blessed.