The context Mark provides for Jesus’ teaching is a dispute over fasting. His critics ask why his disciples do not fast as John’s disciples do. Jesus responds that with him there is a new age–the age of the bridegroom–the Kingdom time of a perpetual wedding when the appropriate response is celebrating and feasting, not fasting and abstaining.
Jesus then uses two metaphors to indicate how inappropriate certain structures and ways of living are in light of the impinging Kingdom of God. He says that people don’t use new pieces of cloth to patch up old garments. When the patched garment is washed, the new patch will shrink and tear a bigger hole in the garment. In a similar fashion, the ways of the Kingdom can’t be used to patch up the old structures of religion which are not in harmony with God’s penetrating presence and will.
Neither do people put new wine (which will ferment) into brittle, old wineskins. If they do, as the new wine ferments, the gasses will stretch the old wineskins to the point of bursting. New, supple wineskins are needed for new wine. In the same way, new structures and ways of living are needed in light of the Kingdom of God pressing on the people of Israel.
There are many rabbits we could chase in this passage. I believe Don Kraybill, a Mennonite biblical scholar, can help us as we distinguish between wine and wineskins and as we discover the difference between God’s agenda and our sacred cows. Kraybill suggests that we must distinguish between three realities: the Kingdom of God, the church, and the structures of the church. Very often we confuse these three. We identify the Kingdom of God with the church. Or we equate the church with its structures. In other words, we confuse the wine with the wineskins. All three–the Kingdom, the church, and its structures–have their legitimate places and purposes. But they are not to be equated and certainly are not to be given the same weight and allegiance.
According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is our ultimate allegiance: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.”
Let’s begin with the Kingdom of God. New Testament scholars tell us that the primary message of Jesus of Nazareth was about the present and coming Kingdom of God. According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is our ultimate allegiance: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.” All of his parables pointed to and revealed the Kingdom. In the prayer he gave us, before we are to pray for daily bread or even forgiveness of our sins, we are to pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom.
But what did Jesus mean by the Kingdom of God? No question is as crucial to the future of the contemporary church as this question. The Kingdom of God refers to the rule of God in our hearts, our relationships, and our world. It points to a God who is present and active in our midst. As Matthew reminds us in his version of the Lord’s Prayer, the Kingdom of God is when God’s will is done: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Jesus teaches in his parables how different God’s Kingdom is from the ways and expectations of the world. This Kingdom is usually a surprising reversal of human values. Where we expect arrogant power, God works through sacrificial love. Where we expect holy judgment, God comes with transforming compassion. God’s Kingdom is truly an Upside-Down, Inside-Out Realm where the first are last and the last are first, where little children know the way to eternal life, and where the poor shall possess the Kingdom of heaven and the meek shall inherit the earth.
Now, let me ask this question: By this definition, is the Kingdom of God among us? Is God’s will done in our hearts, in our relationships, and in our world? I would have to answer “yes” and “no” to that question. At times we acknowledge the presence and rule of God within our hearts as we do God’s will. At times our relationships are blessed by the guidance of God’s holy will. And even in our weary, blood-stained world, there are times when God’s will is done as truth overcomes falsehood, peace supplants war, and justice overcomes oppression. But is God’s will always or even predominantly done in our hearts, in our relationships, and in our world? I think we all know the answer to that question. So, God’s Kingdom is here and it is not here–God’s will is done and it is not done. God’s reign is present but longs for its fulfillment when the lion will lie down with the lamb and the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.
This “already here” and at the same time “not yet” quality of the Kingdom of God reminds us that every reality other than God’s Kingdom stands under the judgment of that Kingdom. What God wills is always more than we humans can flesh out in our lives and in our world. Even our best efforts fall short of all that God wants in this creation. And so, every person, every institution, every structure, every nation, every Christian, and every church is judged by this full and final Kingdom. Consequently, nothing in our lives and in our world is sacred in the sense of being ultimate and beyond correction and improvement.
What then is the church? As Kraybill says, “The church is the assembly of persons who have welcomed God’s reign in their hearts and relationships. The church consists of the citizens of the kingdom. It is the Body of Christ composed of obedient disciples following in the way of Jesus. The church isn’t a building, a sanctuary, or a program. It is the visible community of those who live by Kingdom values.”
The church’s mission is to provide a witness to the Kingdom of God–to seek, reflect, and incarnate God’s will in this world.
The church’s mission is to provide a witness to the Kingdom of God–to seek, reflect, and incarnate God’s will in this world. The church points to the Kingdom but is not itself the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is far more than the church can even imagine, much less be. Ultimately, the Kingdom will be all creation redeemed in the heart of God. As Paul says in I Corinthians 15, the ultimate goal of the Kingdom is for God to be “all in all.” Even Christ will find his place under God as the final Kingdom finds fulfillment.
So, the church is not the Kingdom–it is a witness to the Kingdom. The special place of the church is not to be found in its destiny as the only portion of creation redeemed. The special place of the church is its present witness to the Kingdom which will one day incorporate all creation. We are an appetizer of the banquet to come–a preview of God’s great coming attraction–a hint of the dreams of God that will one day become flesh and blood reality. When we are what we are called to be as the Body of Christ, the world should be able to look at us and see where history and creation are going. Through our words, deeds, attitudes, compassion, and faithfulness, we are called to point to that blessed experience when God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So, how good a witness to the Kingdom are we? By our words and deeds, do we point to that Upside-Down, Inside-Out Kingdom Jesus came to proclaim? Can the world perceive from our witness God’s goal for history and creation? Sometimes the church shines as a pure and faithful witness to God’s Kingdom. Sometimes we fulfill our mission. Sometimes we are indeed the Body of Christ. But often we forget our mission of bearing witness to God’s righteous Kingdom. Often, we confuse the church with God’s Kingdom and substitute our agendas for God’s holy will. And too often, rather than pointing to God’s Upside-Down, Inside-Out Kingdom, we simply mirror the values and ways of the world. An honest appraisal of church history will reveal both times of faithfulness to God’s will and ways and times when the church failed miserably to offer even a humane example of goodness, much less the discipleship and love mandated by Christ among his disciples.
The church is not the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom, not the church, is ultimate. And we are valid as the Body of Christ only as we reflect God’s holy will in our world. The church is eternal only in the sense that it is the first fruits of God’s final harvest–only as it anticipates a redeemed creation–only as it prefigures that final blessed community in which God will be all in all.
What about structures? We have defined the Kingdom of God and the church. What about the structures of the church? Wine does not do much good without a container. You’ve got to put wine in something, or it will flow onto the ground and be lost forever. In the same way, the church needs structures, institutions, and programs to help bear witness to the Kingdom of God. Those structures may be denominations, Sunday schools, worship traditions, mission agencies, ecumenical endeavors, church camps, buildings, committees, policies, agendas, projects, and campaigns. These are all needed to fulfill the mission of the church. They are the means–the nuts and bolts of bearing witness to God’s Kingdom. They are the social skins–the servant structures the church creates to do its Kingdom work. But they are not the church, and they certainly are not God’s Kingdom.
The structures of the church, designed to express Kingdom ways, can become brittle and leak the precious wine. Though useful, structures are not sacrosanct. They may be created, overhauled, and abandoned as they fulfill or fail to fulfill their purpose. They are human works, not divine creations. And great care must be taken to assure that they are servant structures and reflect Kingdom values.
The danger, of course, is that we take these structures too seriously. They become our sacred cows, are given lives of their own, and outlive their usefulness. When that happens, the structures cease to be means whereby we bear witness to the Kingdom. Instead, they become idols which may even contradict Kingdom values. Structures within the church are necessary, but their validity depends on how truly they reflect God’s holy will.
So, there we have it: The Kingdom of God which is ultimate and deserves our supreme devotion–the church which is the Body of Christ called to bear witness to God’s Kingdom–and the structures of the church which are the means whereby the church bears witness to the Kingdom. Most church fights and crises are over wineskins, not wine. In other words, rather than concerning ourselves with Kingdom issues, we are tempted to become preoccupied with the structures of the church: how do we worship–when do we meet–what color should we paint the dining hall. Rarely do churches concern themselves primarily with the Kingdom of God and how it can best bear witness to that Kingdom. But I believe in our current era, we would best spend some time considering what is Kingdom, what is church, and what are structures. If we as the Body of Christ are going to bear faithful witness in our time and place, we must be and do church very differently in the future. Our worship, our ways of Christian education, our approach to all age groups, our involvement in our neighborhoods and our world, our way of fellowshipping, and so many other wineskins must be reassessed with only one goal in mind: Do these structures bear faithful witness to God’s Upside-Down, Inside-Out Kingdom?
There are probably some sacred cows we need to put out to pasture, if not out of their misery. And there are definitions and understandings of the church which are unhealthy (if not idolatrous) which we need to discard. And there is a Kingdom just chomping at the bit to burst into our hearts, our relationships, and our world if only we could recognize its presence in our midst. As we seek to be God’s people, let’s put first what is first by the grace of God. And may the wine flow to a parched and thirsty world.
Communion
Is communion wine or wineskin? To a great extent we decide the value of communion every time we approach this Table. If our deepest desire is to seek God’s righteous rule in our lives and in our world, then communion can empower us to be faithful witnesses to God’s holy will. If our primary allegiance is to something other than God’s Kingdom, then communion can become a useless charade/a stale meal as it ceases to be a valid vessel for God’s presence and power. The orientation of the heart determines all things in our faith. As we approach this Table, what is the primary allegiance of our lives? If it is the Kingdom of God, then we shall be nourished and refreshed for our journey of faith.
Commission
In II Corinthians Paul says, “We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” What matters in our witness is not our success or achievement, but how purely God’s righteous rule shines through our lives. We bear witness not to ourselves, not to any structure, not even to this church—ultimately, we bear witness to the Kingdom of God. As we go out into the world, may we put first what is first to the glory of God.
