Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’

Today’s gospel focuses around the practice of fasting, an integral part of the Jewish religion, especially among the devout Pharisees who would fast twice a week. This outward sign (along with sackcloth and ashes) could be used to measure a person’s holiness and piety. And yet we know that there is a danger in getting so caught up in these practices without them drawing us closer to God and being open to his grace. There is also the temptation to feel as if we have earned our salvation or be able to measure how well we are following God by the number of times we fast or devote ourselves to these and other pious practices. We know that God’s love is unconditional and freely given and only God knows what is in a person’s heart.
Jesus’ teachings are so often discombobulating – able to turn our worldview and mindset upside down. Instead of fasting, Jesus talks a whole new language of wedding feasts, bridegrooms, new wine and new cloth.

In these uncertain times, perhaps Jesus is inviting us all, at the start of this new year, to re-examine or let go of our old habits, thought patterns and ways of behaving and with his help, venture into the sumptuous wedding feast of God’s unconditional love.

A mediaeval mystic once wrote: “Do not be fooled by your prayers and fasting. Look at how you treat others, for that is the true reflection of your soul.”