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” .
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