Patching old cloaks

A few weeks ago during Morning Prayer I challenged those who listened to reflect on the reading from Luke 5:27-end. Marian Bray took the challenge up and wrote the following poem…

Out with the old
in with the new
where do we stand
what should we do

do we accept it
and just carry on
do we have doubt
as we journey along

Patches on cloaks
patching torn clothes
work clothes and such
big families money scarce

didn’t have much
so it’s make do and mend
sounds logical to me
don’t you agree

wine in new wine skins
we had none of that
it was fresh spring water
out of the well not out of a tap

We have to accept change
or become stuck in the past
we might fall behind
sometimes it’s cruel sometimes it’s kind

Jesus new teachings
cannot be squeezed
into the mould of the
old legalism

and therefore it must
find new forms of expression
or the old will be destroyed
and the new spoilt

Marian Bray, 21/05/2022

…an extra note from Marian:
The comment at Luke 5:39 is a perceptive comment on human nature, the conservativism which mistrusts anything new.