May 10, 2009 Message

1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
“Abide”

Last week, John used the image of a good shepherd to describe the close, caring relationship between God and Jesus, and between Jesus and us. Its message of ‘love’ reassured the disciples and the early Christian community, as it does us today. We all need, from time to time, words of assurance from the risen Christ, that we aren’t alone.

There is a saying: “God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.” In this week's Gospel, Jesus uses the image of a grapevine and its branches, to help his disciples understand what their relationship with him is to be like in order to bring about the right fruit. Jesus uses a key word in talking about this relationship, which is to be ours as well. He says we are to ABIDE in him as he abides in us. In Wiktionary (an online dictionary), abide means 1) to stay; 2) to continue in a place; 3) to live; 4) to dwell; 5) to sojourn. Later, we will explore what it might suggest to us, but first a couple questions about the grapevine.

1. What is our image of the vine and its branches and its meaning for us? Most of us know what a grapevine looks like – with its entwined branches, winding their way tightly around one another in ways that make it hard to tell where one branch starts or another one ends. What we may not know though is that it is the vine that provides nourishment to the branches and not the other way around; the branches are a conduit through which the fruit is nourished. The quality of the branches and the fruit they bear depends solely on the quality of their connectedness to the vine. The vine IS the life force of the plant, sharing with its branches the nutrients that sustain it – even closer than a shepherd to his sheep.

2. How does John's image of the vine challenge our values today concerning individual achievement and personal success? Paul, in I Corinthians 12, highlights the different gifts and roles within the community, pointing out that it is those differences that make it a body. However, John’s image of the vine and the branches – where it is hard to tell one branch apart from another, instead of highlighting our particular gifts and roles, downplays them, and challenges our understandings of personality, individualism, and self-expression. When it comes to discipleship, each “branch” or individual gives up his or her desire for individual achievement in order to become one of many encircling branches — a community that is rooted and nurtured by Christ, relying on his “life force” and not its own. Gail R. O'Day, author and professor at Candler School of Theology, says, "For John, the mark of the faithful community is how it loves, not who are its members."

3. What does the word "abide" suggest to us? John uses the word, "love," a lot. For him, love is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It is the measure of faithfulness. Love is a state of being, of living, of abiding. Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” I think it means we are to remain very close and connected. What do you think it means? Fred Craddock calls abide "the central verb" in today’s passage, and "one of the most significant words in the Gospel." Eugene Peterson (The Message) translates "abide" a little differently, but with the same meaning; verse 4 is translated, "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you" We need air to breathe; we need food and water to live. We need a home and community to live. And for life as God intended, we need to abide in Christ, who is love.

4. What are the implications of this passage to the church and to us? First, it encourages us to look more closely at ourselves and consider what we are doing as a community engaged in discipleship, service and mission. Are we involved in works that bear witness and bear fruit at the same time; and are the things we do dependent on abiding in Jesus, the real vine," for their success? It causes us to look at ourselves as branches and to remember that branches are fruit-bearing, not fruit-making. The closer we are to the vine, the more fruitful we will be. The “life force” of anything we do comes from “the Vine.”

Next, it provides reassurance for the church seeking new life that there is fruit to bear and causes us to think about what "bearing fruit” actually means for the church. In its image of the vine, branches, and fruitfulness, are found the idea of connectedness, permanency, and vitality, as well as the concept of growth, usefulness, and nourishment. There is an image of connectedness and of “the communal nature of this life,” as O’Day would say. It may even cause us to ask questions like, “What would happen if our congregations spent less time talking about and working on our survival and more time on becoming “connected” to the vine, and abiding in Christ?

And finally, on the personal note, it reassures us that living close to the vine, we will be sustained and will find "shalom, which speaks of wholeness, completeness, and health. Here, we will find nourishment. We will find hope and joy. And here, close to the vine, we will find peace concerning everything we face, and all the things that we pray for. Abiding in Jesus Christ, we live wanting what God wants, we live a life centered on God.

5. What is its challenge for us? The challenge for us is both personal and communal. How do we do it? How do we stay close and connected? How do we ABIDE in the Risen Christ? Spiritual disciplines are helpful: reading, meditating and praying through the Scriptures are important, as are our involvement in acts of piety and mercy. Yet, it isn’t about what we do, but where we find ourselves to be when fully trusting Him. We cannot do it alone! Trusting in our own strength to get things done does not bear good fruit. Abiding in him means relying on him for the “life force,” the strength, and the grace needed. Then there will be fruit that blesses the world and reveals us as the followers of Jesus, a community of love. As branches, connected to and “abiding in” the source of God’s love and grace, we are conduits and not the end product. God’s grace and love always come to us on their way to someone else; someone who will be able to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8) because we have been faithful branches.

1 John says it is in our love for one another we “see” evidence of this abiding, both us in Christ and Christ in us – all because of the Holy Spirit. What we do is “confess that Jesus is the Son of God” – and in doing so, we live in Christ, we abide in him. In this we experience the “love God has for us.” 1 John says, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” That is good news indeed! Let us pray…