Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“See, the enemy is puffed up;
    his desires are not upright—
    but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—
indeed, wine betrays him;
    he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
    and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
    and takes captive all the peoples.

• Habakkuk 2:4-5

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. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

• Luke 5:37-38

He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
    oil to make their faces shine,
    and bread that sustains their hearts.

• Psalm 104:14-15

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over.

• Ruth 2:14

The New Boilerplate

My wife filled a small book with “Angel” on the cover.  It was hidden with a box of crafting things.  On 18 July 2025, I thought I had posted the last of these.  But this little angel book held a prayer, followed by 71 quotes.  So, the “with a little help” series is back in business for a while.  And it will be fun for me.  She did not attribute any of the quotes.  The first, next week’s installment, is from James A. Garfield, the 20^th president of the USA.  The next one is disputed, with some thinking it originated with Teddy Roosevelt and others saying Fred Astaire.  After the prayer, these might be on the lighter side.

Her quote

“Men are like wine. Some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.”

• Pope John XXIII

The Discussion

Seeing the source of this quote, it changes the entire meaning, but maybe it should not.

From a dignified view, any good Christian man should improve with age, becoming more like Jesus.  But I would expect a church leader to put it as being sanctified instead of improve with age.

If this was said by a woman, maybe one who had affairs with multiple men or acted in movies as the romantic lead, then this quote might raise eyebrows.

But is turning to vinegar a bad thing? When you go to a nice restaurant, they give you a choice of oil and vinegar on your salad.  I grew up drowning turnip greens (but usually mustard greens) in wine vinegar.  Ruth and Boaz dipped their food in wine vinegar.  Wine vinegar cannot be all bad.

Wine can make you glad as in Psalm 104, but wine can bring out the arrogance in you where you try to command the situation, as in Habakkuk 2.

Jesus warning us to put new wine in new wine skins is a safety measure, in that new wine expands, and old wine skins would burst under the pressure.  But Jesus was comparing His disciples with John’s followers.  John’s followers were anticipating the arrival of the Messiah.  Jesus’ disciples were enjoying His presence.  Thus, while John’s followers fasted with anticipation, Jesus’s disciples were enjoying the feast, thus they had no reason to fast.

This quote seems to be like a good joke or examining a frog.  If you dissect it, it dies somewhere along the way.  Sorry, that’s a modified Mark Twain quote about examining a good joke.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory