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Remember Jesus's parable about wine and wineskins? It's been on my mind as 2024 ends and 2025 begins.

It's commonsense, Jesus seemed to say. You put new wine in new wineskins. New wine bursts old wineskins (Luke 5, Matthew 9), because new leather is naturally elastic, and new wine expands as it ferments. Without that new elasticity, old leather will split, and the new wine will spill. Old wine is better, but there's no shortcuts to old wine. Honoring and maturing the new requires flexibility, forgiveness, and a new container.

This is practical and deep wisdom. Timely, also.

For example, a staff position with its job description is a container of sorts. A wineskin, if you will. And when Pastor Janine, Zion's Director of Outreach for 16 years, departed from the staff, we naturally celebrated the good and long-lasting wine of this ministry. And we entered a new wine, new wineskins time. New role descriptions and staffing configurations—with flexibility and forgiveness!—were required. Now Kris Tucker oversees the food pantry; Beth Longlett leads the housing justice partnership; Rosie Bates and Pastor Clark attend to the meal site and Zion's relationship with Churches United.

As another example, I see Hike Church as a new container too. Every congregation needs many new containers to hold new faith.

The newly formed Companionship Committee is also a new container, for the new wine of the renewed relationship with Kirangare Lutheran Parish in Tanzania.

And within these pages, yet another example! There are no written annual reports from Worship and Music and Faith Formation this year. Did worship happen in 2024? Of course! Was faith formed? Absolutely! And the teams that give leadership to these ministries are in their own new wine, new wineskins time. These reports just fell into the fermenting broth and got lost.

What about the Kingdom Caucus? A new container too. I'm convinced it was a mistake not to identify leaders then and there for the new energy that surfaced at the Kingdom Caucus. I'm trying to forgive myself for that, as I pray it's not too late to pick these threads back up in the new year:

  1. Excite and Engage Young People & Foster Intergenerational Relationships
  2. Caring for the Body (Support Zion People & Heal Wounds)
  3. Make Zion as Inviting as We are Welcoming & Energize Worship & Music
    This is new wine/wineskin stuff too, so you don't have to fit any of the old molds to be part of moving them forward.

Of course, Jesus told this parable because what was commonsense with wine was (and still is!) hardly accepted when it comes to people, churches (and any organizations), or societies. It generally takes too much love and letting go. It's easier to blame the new wine than it is to risk change or to forgive.

And from the other direction, many really do throw out the baby with the bathwater, happily, it seems. Our culture's noisy obsession with youth and avoidance of death makes it hard to hear Jesus's wisdom for what it is. A promise not a threat. A call for the flexible, mature love of true elders to guide and mentor a generation that, in large part, has been raised in chaos.

Wine and wineskins has been on my mind because it describes a theme I saw in 2024. And also because I expect remembering Jesus's new wine, new wineskins will serve us well in 2025 and beyond. Questions to carry forward:

  • This overwhelm, frustration, burn out, or blame I'm feeling—is it a sign this is a new wine, new wineskins situation?
  • What's the new wine? What's the old wineskin?
  • What could a new container look like? Who might have a better imagination for that than I/we do?
  • What support do I/we need to exercise more flexibility, forgiveness, and creativity in living into a new container?
  • How has God been renewing me/us, to be part of that new container?
  • What risks is God calling me/us to take?
  • Who will I share these feelings and wonderings with? To ask for their point of view and feedback or their support, or to recruit them and their vision and leadership into the new wineskin project?

This is a parable about love and the cross, because there is no rebirth without death. And there is no death without resurrection. It's a parable inviting faith. Life and death, rebirth and resurrection are not achievements we win. They are losses in which true victory hides. They're not even really things we do. We can't. They are beyond us. They are done unto us. We surrender. Or not. The river of love will flow whether we fight it, or push it, or ignore it.

Thanks be to God, that river flowed throughout 2024. Jesus saved us, we did not need to save him.

Pastor Clark Olson-Smith

Brief Thanksgivings

Many are due thanks for their service in 2024. Here are just a few.

Those who helped cover the office tasks while Colleen Peterson was on medical leave: Kathy Morris, Sue Keller, and Kris Tucker

The 2024 Listening Team: Abbi Brown, Beth Longlett, Beth Meyer, David Hansen, Jody Kealey, Joseph Obelton, Julie Kalkwarf, Kathy Longlett, Kris Tucker (coordinator), Marissa Cherryholmes, Marlene Hartman, Mary Schnack, Rosie Bates, Steve Klecker, Sue Keller (coordinator), Troy Benton, and Wendy Essary

Zion’s dedicated staff: Colleen Peterson, Office Administrator; Gilbert Rios, Custodian; Dr. Keith Haan, Adult Vocal Choir Director; Rosie Bates, Children’s & Handbell Choirs Director; Jonathan Turner, Accompanist; Paul Madsen, Substitute Organist