Time for New Wine

Tara ponders the sacred art of imagination and innovation in everyday life. Reflecting on her new pastoral role and Jesus's teachings, Tara highlights the importance of encouragement and community partnerships, drawing parallels to historical figures like Ada Lovelace, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This episode emphasizes the transformative power of imagination and encourages listeners to undertake new ventures with creativity and love. Concluding with a poem from Rumi, Tara invites us all to turn water into wine and to embrace life's sacred, yet unpredictable, spiritual adventure.

A note on this episode from Tara...
"In honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day, this weeks episode of Holy Shenanigans Podcast focuses on the power of encouragement and creativity; in efforts to do a new thing. King said this about creativity… “Not ordinarily do men (people) achieve this balance of opposites…But life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.”

Have you experienced creativity and encouragement as tools to foster new ideas? What happened? "

In grace and good trouble,
Tara

#encouragement #MLK #creativity

Transcript

S6 E7 Time for New Wine

Pastor Tara Lamont Eastman: [00:00:00] Welcome to Holy Shenanigans Podcast. I'm your muse, Tara Lamont Eastman, pastor, podcaster, and practitioner of Holy Shenanigans, where we cultivate the art of looking and being on the watch for the sacred showing up in everyday life. Thank you for joining us on this always sacred, never stuffy adventure that we call Holy Shenanigans.

 Imagination and innovation have the ability to transport us to new places and to make new discoveries. Imagination is a catalyst for change that some may understand as miraculous. Ada Lovelace, historically noted as the first computer programmer, because [00:01:00] of her skills in data processing, says this about creative action.

Imagination is that which penetrates into the unseen worlds around us. Or, in my words, Creativity has the ability of bringing the unseen and unheard to life. Over the past few months, I've just started a new pastoral call to First Presbyterian Church of Warren, Pennsylvania. In this time, I keep thinking about the power of imagination, and how to make the most of the energy and the enthusiasm of this new chapter.

How can I and these people work together? To bring our hopes and dreams to life. This last Sunday, my official installation service as their new pastor was held, and the focus of the worship service was a word from Jesus. [00:02:00] No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak and the worst tear is made.

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins, otherwise the skins burst and the wine is spilled. And the skins are ruined, but new wine is put into fresh wine skins, and so both are preserved. As we begin this new ministry together, I wonder how Jesus words, new wine is put into fresh wine skins, can inform, guide, and fortify us for our journey ahead.

One story of Jesus and wine leads to another Jesus story about wine with Jesus first miracle at the wedding of Cana, where he is prompted by his mother Mary to make sure the wine at the wedding will not run out. [00:03:00] The miracle of Cana was initially about keeping the wine flowing, but it's also about the official start of Jesus public ministry.

But I see a third miracle. And that miracle is the power of encouragement. Without the encouragement of his mother, I wonder how and when Jesus ministry might have started. Without the power of encouragement, the efforts of imagination and innovation might never get off the ground. With Mary's help, the wedding party keeps on rolling.

And the new wine of Jesus ministry starts to flow too. With a foundation of encouragement, imagination is the stuff of possibility, innovation, and good wine. I think encouragement is an essential ingredient [00:04:00] when we're trying something new. January 20th marks the annual remembrance of the life, ministry, and work of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and I'm reminded of the power of partnerships and community working together. Dr. King's efforts working for civil rights, for freedom, and jobs for the BIPOC community required a foundation of encouragement and partnership with others. Many people worked together to do something brave and brand new in the United States.

What started with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And the action of Rosa Parks led the way to King's role and the community's role to change the status quo of segregation and racism, and to move the civil rights movement forward. There are many ways to express the [00:05:00] details, work, and partnerships, as well as the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement.

But when I think of Rosa Parks actions, I see an example of someone turning water into wine. Ms. Park's actions demonstrated that ordinary African American citizens could band together at the local level to demand and win in their struggle for equal rights and dignity. Rosa Park's actions stirred up the work of many leaders in the civil rights movement, beginning at the grassroots and growing into a national movement.

Without the effort and example of Rosa Parks, would Dr. King have been inspired to his work in civil rights? This is a very good question, and one begs to ask with the foundation of encouragement. What efforts [00:06:00] of imagination and innovation is ours to pursue? Yesterday, as I sat in the sanctuary of my new church community, a pastor sitting next to me pointed to a banner that was hanging up.

They asked, I hadn't noticed that banner before. It's beautiful. Where did it come from? I smiled and said, it comes from us. The people of this church and I worked on it together. They replied, You made that? I paused, thinking of all the hands that made it possible. Each step of the process, every brush stroke, every hand involved.

And I responded, We made that banner. We made something new together. We made something new together, like water and twine, like words of encouragement. Like [00:07:00] all peoples assured equitable access and opportunities for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There are water to wine opportunities every day in the encouraging word, in a brave decision to do what is right in actions of imagination, which penetrate into unseen worlds around us and in us.

And create something brand new, like a church banner, like experiences of true community, like love lived out in real, meaningful, and tangible ways. I believe encouragement and imagination are the stuff of possibility, innovation, and good wine. This week, dear hearts, I commend you to use [00:08:00] your imagination to its fullest.

I encourage you to try a new thing and challenge you to take action in the name of love. It is time for water to be turned into some good wine. Hear this invitation to creativity and innovation in this poem from Rumi. She offers the sacred wine. So drink. Oh, wine, giver of enlightened hearts. Offer me the wine of your kindness.

For this is the reason you have brought me here from the desert of oblivion. Oh beautiful wine giver, pour me the wine that gives me insight. Offer me the wine from the sea of love and fill my heart with pearls. Pour it into my heart [00:09:00] until I shred the veil and go beyond reason. My spirit is consumed by judgment and my life is reduced by thoughts.

Pour that precious wine over the frozen cries of skeptics, until their words become warm and their nays become yays. I am your Holy Shenanigans Muse, Tara Lamont Eastman. Thank you for joining us this week for Holy Shenanigans that surprise, encourage, redirect, and turn life upside down, all in the name of love.

This is an unpredictable spiritual adventure. That is always sacred, but never stuffy. Thanks to Ian Eastman for sound production and editing. You [00:10:00] can help the Holy shenanigans continue by supporting us@www.buy me a coffee.com/tara l Eastman. Until next time, it's time for some new wine. May you be well, may you be at peace and know that you are always beloved.