Sermon for May 24 (Pentecost)

Pentecost 2015 (May 24) 

The reading

 

Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.  The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

The message

In 1960, A professor named Theodore Levitt wrote an article entitled “Marketing Myopia” for the Harvard Business Review.  For the next 50 plus years, the ideas in this paper have shaped the way that businesses have defined their strategic plans, marketing, innovation and work.  The main concept in the paper is the question “What business are you in”?  It is a challenge to leaders to broadly define the purpose of their businesses and asks if you are product centered or people and need centered.  His argument is relatively simple. Businesses that fail focus all their attention on refining and selling a particular product. At the same time, businesses that survive and thrive focus on anticipating and meeting ever changing customer needs.  He uses the example of railroads to illustrate his point.  For decades railroads were the only real option people had for traveling.  After dominance for many years, the rise of phones, cars, trucks and airplanes destroyed their business.  Some companies who insisted that they were in the railroad business continued to offer only rail related services through the change and they collapsed. Other businesses who thought of themselves as being in the transportation industry branched out into air, cargo, shipping and other modes of transport. Those are the ones who thrived.  

This article was a large part of several college classes that I took on Consumer behavior and Marketing.  It was fascinating to see how this idea could be applied to all different businesses and used to understand why some companies have succeed while others have failed.  For weeks after the first encounter with this article, it ways always trendy to comment that a particular company “was being myopic” to explain any sort of downturn or bad decision.  I never really thought about applying this question of how widely or narrowly we define the purpose of a business to the church.  This morning, for Pentecost, I want to explore that question. I do not love the idea of thinking about church as a business; God’s message is not a product and the church should not cater to people, telling everyone what they want to hear so that they stay around.  At the same time, I think we can learn a lot from wondering how we define our purpose.  

First, Levitt’s work can help us understand where the church is today. In the article, he highlights some of the flawed ideas that cause otherwise good leaders to define their businesses too narrowly and fail to grow through change.  These include the belief that growth can be assured by an expanding and more affluent population, the belief that there is no real substitute for your product and a preoccupation with mass production, efficiency and price reduction (that you can ensure grow by making things cheaper for customers).

I believe we can see these things happening every day in the church.  Despite booming population increases and growth throughout the developing world, we have all heard about the decline in Christian faith around Europe and the US (many of us have witnessed it amongst our own friends and family.)  For decades churches have assumed they would grow along with growing populations but that has not happened.  People have assumed there would be no real substitute for church but today people believe they are living complete (and even faithful) lives without it.  In church, we also hear a lot about efficiency, saving money, sharing space, closing buildings and laying off or just not paying pastors.   All of these indicate that we have fallen into every one of Levitt’s mistakes, we are defining ourselves too narrowly.  Our business has become the exhausting work of keeping buildings open, budgets balanced, bank accounts in the black, attendance up and worship service conducted on the appointed days.  Following Levitt’s argument about purpose and pitfalls, the church as an institution has a very narrow definition of our purpose and is in deep trouble.   

This morning, in the story of Pentecost, we are given a much different vision of the church, we see 

the start of an organization with a much wider purpose, it’s not about staying open, growing, or turning a profit, the church is nothing other than a group of people, possessed by the Spirit, comforted by grace and telling others, Christ is Risen from the dead.  Our purpose can be found in Acts 2:42 when all those baptized on Pentecost, the new faithful, devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer

To foster that sort of community is not the matter of giving people what they want. It is a matter of asking what are the spiritual and physical needs of our community and considering how we can address them in faithful ways.  On the first Pentecost, Peter notices the crowd of confused, curious and frightened people and he knows they need to hear that Christ is Risen from the dead, they need to hear the story of what God has done and be invited into God’s grace.  Peter stands up and shares the first Christian Sermon, walking the crowd through the scriptures, announcing that God’s promises are kept and explaining what they were seeing and hearing.     

That is a part of the history of our church. In the very beginning, around 1860, St Jacobus started because people in the community needed a church that was centered on good teaching, preaching, true fellowship and proper worship.  Throughout our history, seeing the needs of the community and trying address them has always been part of our church, 30 years or so ago, St Jacobus started the preschool, in response to the growing community’s need for quality, faith based education.  Today, in response to the needs for places to gather, play, worship and celebrate together, we share our space with 5 churches, 6 or 8 sports groups,  4 anonymous meetings and many special events.

Spiritual needs can be difficult to see but they are there.  The people we know, work with and live near, need to hear the Spirit that came to the word as violent wind and tongues of fire has never left. They need to hear the comfort of God’s saving work though Jesus death and resurrection. They need to come to this place, feel they are welcome with us and with God, Like each of us, they need to feel the joy of worship, praise and giving thanks, They need to witness the power of prayer to change things,  They need to know we are here to walk with them in faith and life. That work is our business. 

Sermon for May 17, the Ascension

Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."'

The message

Our first reading this morning was the opening verses of the book of Acts (short for the Acts of the Apostles).  This biblical book tells the story of the church in its early days. It begins with the Ascension, which we celebrate today, when Jesus is taken up into heaven, 40 days after the Easter resurrection.  After this, the next big event in Acts is Pentecost, which we will celebrate next week, when the promised Holy Spirit comes to Jesus followers to prepare and equip them for ministry.  Throughout the rest of the book, Acts focuses on the work of Jesus followers.  We hear the reports of events that include:  Paul’s conversion and missionary journeys across the known world, the disciples preaching and baptizing large groups of new believers,  the debates and decisions made about how to be church and who to include, the signs of power and miracles performed by Jesus followers, and the sermons, speeches, conversations and service of new followers like Lydia.  Acts is filled with remarkable, faithful people who give up their lives, comforts and social status to do brave and risky things. All of these actions are done in order to tell the world, Christ is Risen from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins and let people know God wants us to live a better way.  

In some ways, it is easy to think of the book of Acts as a comic book or movie, a story of heroes, people with superpowers and supernatural abilities who overcome great obstacles and do incredible things like raise the dead, heal the sick, walk through walls to escape imprisonment, survive shipwrecks, and endure great persecutions. We are tempted to think of them as somehow different from us.  The true wonder of Acts is that, while these great saints of the church lived lives of faith and example for us, they weren’t anything special. They were not the holiest people in the world, they did not have magic abilities, and they did not spend their whole lives preparing for the work they would do.  Jesus followers were all different.  They were rich, poor, and in-between, they were highly educated, a little educated or unschooled, they were powerful, weak or completely irrelevant, they were young, middle aged or old, life time believers, marginally faithful or doubters, and they were strong, healthy, or sick.  God calls each of them to work, witness and love.  Jesus first followers really only had 3 things in common,

1-      they saw, heard and experienced that Christ is Risen from the dead

2-      They took on the responsibility to go and tell the others,

3-      They could do nothing without God   

Those reasons are why the book of Acts begins the way it does, those first words are necessary for us to understand that the entire book is not the story of superheroes, it is the story of what any person can do when they embrace God’s grace and God’s gifts.  Acts begins:

In the first book,  Theophilus,  I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day he was taken up into heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he chosen

In this sentence, the first book refers to the Gospel of Luke (which had the same author as Acts, which most people believe was Luke, a physician and traveling companion of Paul. Theophilus,  is a person’s name and most people believe he is the patron of Luke, who supported him while he wrote these books.  After this introduction, Luke goes on to remind the reader of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the ascension. This is not just a transitional sentence to connect these two books. Luke wants to make sure the readers do not think of Acts as a book about people who do great things.  He wants his audience to read acts knowing that it is connected to the Gospel, to the story of Jesus life, death and resurrection, Luke wants the readers to know everything that happens in the next 28 chapters of Acts, all of the wondrous deeds were God’s work and our hands (to use the phrase our ELCA has been circulating for the past few years).  Acts was not about them, it was about the Gospel.  It was not about superheroes, it was about the power of God to act in the world through people just like us. 

Like the women and men in the book of Acts, we have been touched by the same Spirit and power, heard the same promises, been saved by the same grace, and received the same gifts.  I  often ask myself, what am I or what are we doing with these awesome things and then I often get scared or depressed.  

This week, we had a short prayer service after a meeting of church leaders on Tuesday.  I didn’t really want to go to the service since I was hungry and still not feeling great but my sense of obligation got me upstairs to the chapel. Of course, I have learned that when I do not want to do something and drag myself to it anyway, it often turns out to be an important experience. The service was the corporate confession and forgiveness (it is in our red hymnal but I have never honestly seen it before). One of the lines in the service struck me, this group including the bishop, well known pastors, and leaders of the church gathered together and asked forgiveness for various things including “for idleness in witnessing to Jesus Christ and for squandering the gifts of love and grace”.    

I do not want to be too negative this morning, to get caught up in all those moments of idleness in witness and squander of grace, to be stopped by the past.  We cannot forget that those moments are forgiven (after all it was not just a service of confession, at the end we are reminded that “in the name of Jesus Christ, your sins, the idleness, squander and everything else, are all forgiven”)

With that said, perhaps the better question to ask is looking forward and challenging. We need to ask ourselves “What will we do with the gifts that God has given us”. It is the Ascension today and we are reminded that Jesus entrusts us, with all our anxieties, hopes, failures, triumphs, struggles and celebrations with being witnesses to God’s love in our words and deeds.  Next week, we celebrate Pentecost, we will be given a much needed reminder that the Holy Spirit will be with us in this work.   

    

Sermon for May 10

The reading

John 15:9-17

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another

The message

Here at church, we are coming to the end of the Easter Season. For the last 6 weeks we have started our worship with the great proclamations: Christ is Risen: Yes he is Risen, Alleluia and this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. For the last 6 weeks we have ended our worship by declaring: Christ is Risen, Yes, he is Risen Indeed.  During this time, we have also shared Easter moments, standing up and talking about the times when we experienced the joy of Easter, when the news that Christ is Risen from the dead, impacted, motivated or caused us joy.  This week, the Easter season officially ends. On Thursday, 40 days after Easter, we mark the Ascension, when Jesus is taken up into heaven. An event reported in the last words of Luke’s Gospel:  

“Then Jesus led his disciples out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. 

With this, the world of Jesus followers changed completely and forever.  Jesus would no longer be physically in the world, he would no longer appear to them just to sit, eat and talk, he would not be waiting for them when they returned from their missionary work to encourage, correct and strengthen. Jesus would no longer appear into locked rooms to prove he was truly risen from the dead. Jesus followers, guided and touched by the Holy Spirit, would now be responsible for encouraging, strengthening and correcting each other as they shared the good news of what God has done.  Jesus did not really belong in the world, he belonged with God in heaven. Jesus had completed the work for which was born as one of us, taught about God’s presence and love, performed miracles and signs of power, confronted obstacles, called followers, advocated for the welcome of all people, cast out evil, fought for peace, suffered, died and rose again. With this death was defeated, sin no longer had any power over us, nothing could separate us from the saving love of God.  The message was shared, the way of salvation was opened. The power of God was shown, natural laws were briefly violated, the sick were healed, food was multiplied, evil spirits were cast out, storms were stopped, the dead lived. 

The ascension is not that sudden though. Jesus spent a lot of time preparing his followers for that moment. The church was ready to witness, it would not be perfect but they would announce all they had learned, seen and heard. Although  the long talk Jesus has with his followers in John chapters 14 -16, known as the great discourse, occurs before Jesus death, resurrection and ascension, it is a central part of Jesus preparation for leaving. In that conversation, Jesus talks about the ways we would be connected and in relationship with God and with one other.  The way is love, the word is abide, and the metaphor is the vine and branches: There are promises in this message: God would abide, remain with, and endure with all those who love one another. That love would be how we see, know, experience and understand God’s presence. That love would be the public witness of the Easter resurrection, That love would be the way people recognized those who were followers, to quote the famous hymn we sang a few weeks ago, “They will know we are Christians by our Love”.   

Many people including the theologians of the ancient church, modern faith leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and C.S, Lewis and I’m sure many priests and pastors facing these readings today have all talked a lot about the different Greek words for love. (there were at least 3, Eros or romantic, pleasure seeking love, Philos or brotherly love and friendship,  and Agape or selfless, committed love used almost exclusively to describe God’s love for us).  This helps us understand that the love we are talking about is active and serving. It comes first, transcending time and place, transcending our needs, wealth, race, culture, education and all of those things that separate us from each other. The promise of God to abide with us and the fact that they will know we are Christians by our love is true in the chaos, class system and disproved ideas of the first century  through the knowledge, inequality, technology and science of today.  

I am going to share two stories of what this connection in love looks like and how strong it can be. One of the best examples of this connection happened in the end of the 1960’s when Buzz Aldrin, one of the first astronauts on the moon, took communion with him on the moon landing. Along with the small amount of personal things he was allowed to bring on the shuttle, he took bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ, consecrated by his pastor before the trip and prepared for space.  He took communion on the moon along with his church on earth.  Before taking communion, Buzz read John 15:5:  “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me”. What a profound example of our connection in love to the community of God’s people, even if we are on the moon. 

This week, I heard a report about a group called the Migrant Offshore Aid Station.  An American Millionaire from Louisiana and his wife have converted their large yatch into a resuce boat and formed a team to patrol the Mediterian Sea and rescue drowning migrants who got into trouble while trying to enter Europe illegally. Over the past few months, they have rescued over 3000 people from the waters.  The report mentioned the recent rescue of almost 400 Eterian Migrants from a part of Africa.  What stuck me about this is the observation that they had a shared faith with the founders of the group, they prayed together and “they were all Christians”.  Here is a story of a connection in love between a group of people, from a place I could never find on a map, doing an act some of us see as a crime and total strangers far from home simply because of faith and love for those in the most need.      

Both examples are not perfect, some people Aldrin’s actions as a violation of church and state and an exclusion of other people who did not share his faith (which is why it was not well publicized at the time). People today might say the rescue of migrants is encouraging crime and it may encourage more people to take the dangerous and illegal journey to Europe,  Love is not always neat and clean, love is a risk, it could jeopardize our power, privilege and stuff,  love will offend people, to love will be dangerous, challenging to our values, ideas and very way of life but those are things that Jesus asks us to do with the command “that you love one another as I have loved you” .      

Sermon for May 3

The Readings

Acts 8:26-40

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.  Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.  In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."  The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"  He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.  But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.  So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.  Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

John 15:1-8

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.  He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The message

This morning, I am going to talk about what it looks like when we abide with God and God abides with us. Now, other than the Hymn “Abide With Me” we do not use this word too much at church and almost never in our daily lives.  That is why I want to take a moment to talk about what it means. The word abide in the bible expresses something along the line of lives or resides with, stays in place with patience and endurance or remains unmoved.

Many stories we have of the early church are not always neat and clean but they are the stories of what it looks like when we abide with God and God abides with us.  We can see this from a survey of Acts 8 which our first reading comes at the end of. A lot of things happen in this chapter before Phillip has this beautiful encounter with the Ethiopian court official on the road to Gaza. Acts 8 begins with the first Christian Matrydom, Stephen is stoned to death by the crowd because he is preaching the Easter news, that Christ is Risen from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins. (This killing happens with the approval of pre-conversion Paul, then known as Saul, a feared persecutor and enemy of the new church).   This event sparks a widespread persecution of Christians and most of Jesus followers  flee to other places where they continue announcing that Christ is Risen from the dead.  Phillip goes to the non- Jewish area of Samaria. At this early time in the church, the inclusion of non-Jewish people was still a deeply contested and undecided issue.  Phillip converts and baptizes many people in Samaria, including a very prominent and highly followed magic worker named Simon.  After this, Peter and John arrive and pray for the new converts to receive the Holy Spirit  through laying hands on them (this is the same thing I will do at Confirmation in a few weeks).   Simon the magician offers money for Peter and John to give him the Holy Spirit as well.  He is scolded for this and they announce the gifts of God are not something we can buy and sell (Simon’s attempt to buy the Holy Spirit is the origin of the term simony, the sin of buying church offices, a common practice in the medieval world). 

After all this, the angel comes to Phillip and directs him down the wilderness road to Gaza, where he will encounter, teach and baptize the Ethiopian official.  In this story the Ethiopian official comes to faith through God’s word, hearing the good news about Jesus from a believer and the waters of baptism This is probably the most prominent convert so far in the Christian faith and the most foreign.. This person is the treasurer of an empire and servant of its Queen. He was an Ethiopian, which many viewed as extremely strange. He was also a Eunuch, a term with several possible meanings but one that usually refers to a man who had his male parts altered or removed to serve female leaders.  Eunuchs were seen as unclean and social outcasts. The welcome of this person into faith through baptism is an indication that this salvation though Jesus death and resurrection is for all people and that this new church has a place for everyone. 

These are the things that happen when we abide in God and God abides in us. The early church and its leaders shared the news that ‘Christ is risen from the dead” by their steadfast actions, placing faith at the center of life and work, facing obstacles, finding new ways to reach people, bravely approaching everyone to proclaim the good news, preaching despite the very real threat of death, knowing their scriptures and traditions, working together despite different ideas and always praying.  Over almost 2000 years, these things have not changed, even though the world has changed, these actions remain examples of what it looks like when we abide in God and God abides in us.

   

This is the same point that Jesus makes when he talks about the natural metaphor of the relationships between the vine grower, the vine, branches and fruit. Jesus metaphor explains and shows us spiritual things in physical terms, revealing what it looks when we abide in God and God abides in us in a way we can understand.   Here, God is vinegrower or caretaker, the one responsible for cutting out the dead branches and helping the ones bearing fruit thrive.  It is important for us to note that this is God’s job and God does not ask us for any help with it. It is too much for us to decide and often done in ways we cannot understand. 

Next, we hear that Jesus is the vine, the physical, touchable, understandable connection to God. Here, connected to the vine, is where we abide, where we find rest, reside, remain, know comfort, receive forgiveness, enter new life, get direction and experience peace. The branches are the ways we celebrate, share and invite others into this connection with God. The fruit this way of life bears, the things that are possible when we abide in God and God abides in us are incredible, throughout history, they have included innovations in music, art, science and medicine, efforts at relief and charity work, community improvement, advocacy for change, protest, and the fight for equality, sharing the power prayer and God’s comfort, joy, and hope (just to name a few)          

We might not always notice these things though. It might seem impossible for so much diversity to come from, be nourished and sustained by only one vine. Remarkably, even all these centuries later, we still have constant examples of how one vine can do all this. For instance, at the bank we go to for the church, there is a very long counter that you have to pass to go to the teller windows.  I have walked past this 25 or 30 foot counter 100’s of times.  I always thought that it was covered with a lot of different plants.  The entire area, from one end to the other is covered with leaves of all different sizes and shades of green.  This week, I stopped to take a closer look and I noticed that it was actually just one plant that took up the entire space.  There was only one pot, one set of roots, one source of nourishment supporting all of those different branches and leaves, even the ones all the way on the edges of the counter, the oldest and the newest leaves, and the ones that look a little different.  That is our church.  

 (on Sunday, I actually changed the last few paragraphs and I talked about what happens when parts of God’s vine are suffering, struggling or in need of help)