New Wineskins
As we start out 2015, we can look around us and quickly see that our world is full of problems:
- Some of you have been keeping up with that airline that crashed into the sea in Asia.
- There’s a cyberwar going on with North Korea that’s a bit surreal.
- Our military is in harm’s way in global hotspots such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
- If you go back a few months everyone was freaked out by the Ebola virus possibly spreading in America.
- Here in America, you watch the news and see people being shot by police officers, people rioting and now killing police officers. Racial tensions are on a knife’s edge.
But the problems are much more than just issues out there. They’re problems affecting us personally: Sickness and health for your family. The tough economy and trying to get by month to month. Some of you had a tough Christmas with the holidays reminding you of what you don’t have or who you’ve lost. We all have family members and friends that are going through hard times, far from God, making a mess of their lives.
So life is tough. The world is full of problems. Our lives are full of problems. The question for us to wrestle with is: How do we respond? How will we respond? As you encounter problems, here are three bad ways we can face them:
- Condone: Will we throw our hands up and give up? Life’s too tough? Or maybe we just don’t fight back? We go along to get along?
- Condemn: Do we look at all the problems and get angry and condemn all the sin and sinners in the world?
- Run Away: Or do we run away and huddle inside our home or a church building and pretend like the world and its problems don’t exist?
Those are three options that many have taken. Many that we know have taken one of those options. Maybe you’ve taken one of those options in the past. When we look at how Jesus addressed the problems in first century Israel, he chose a fourth option. He chose to be part of the solution. Here’s the Old Testament prophecy Jesus used to announce to the world that he was the promised Messiah:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19
Jesus chose to be part of the solution. As his followers, will we do the same?
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