The story of a brand new bag…
Dan Harper
October 06, 2025
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Luke 5: 33-39 (NIV)
33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
In 1965 James Brown released a two-part single that accelerated Funk into the wider popular culture. Arriving with a bang from the burgeoning R+B scene, the funktacular hit ‘Papa’s got a brand-new bag’ leapt from the groove of many records and into the ears of anyone that would listen.
During his epic stage shows, Brown developed a shtick where he would drop to his knees, be covered with a cape, and lead from the stage exhausted and seemingly unable to go on… but the Funk brought him back, the music revitalised his soul.
In our reading we hear about new bags, old bags, and how we all yearn for something new. That clinging to the old and worn will let us down, ripping new cloth and spilling new wine.
Let us be new wine skins, new bags. Brand new bags, brought back to life in Christ, who revitalises our soul.
Prayer:
Dear God, when we feel exhausted and overcome, drape your love over us, that we might know new life in you, and burst back into life in all its fullness. Amen.
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