There are games theologians play. One of them is called, "I am no more modern than thou." I've played that game well. I make no apology for believing that the Lord didn't stop communicating when the last pages of the New Testament were completed. I believe some things written in our day are just as authentic as anything written in the first century. I cringe when old time religion means rigid, irrational conformity based on what someone said ages ago. Jesus was not stuck with a dusty tradition or what somebody back there once said, no matter how authoritative that somebody was.

"You have heard it said -- by some heavyweights -- but I say to you ... You can't put new wine in old wineskins, or new patches on old garments."

The kingdom of God, the main topic of his teachings, didn't look li…