April 29, 2018 - Fifth Sunday of Easter - Abide in Me as I Abide in You

Pastor Ray drew attention to verse 4 "Abide in me as I abide in you" of today's gospel as key to this Gospel reading.

Before this his sermon stressed the intimate nature between vintner and the vines and branches in the vineyard. The vintner, to do the work of tending and pruning correctly, must know each plant and what contributes to each branch's health and what does not. The fruit we bear and what we contribute in this life does not come from our doing but because we branches of the vine, tended and pruned by our vintner-God. God’s love, presence, and pruning are gifts. The acts of throwing away and burning what does to contribute are not pointed out by Jesus as threats or punishments. Rather these are described as the ways that demonstrate God's concern and are designed so our world will bear more fruit and glorify God.

By saying "I am the true vine" in this passage Jesus also changes the Old Testament understanding as expressed in verses like Hosea 10:1 "Israel was a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit." Jesus, not Israel, will now be understood by Christians as the true vine.

The sermon, however, made the true beauty of mutual abiding apparent. Any assumptions humans may make about how Jesus abides in us and others are not necessarily correct. Jesus, as the true vine, may abide with someone who is not a follower of Jesus in a very different way than those who do profess. This is about freeing individuals to chose the best of what they can offer using the gifts they are given.

What an individual experiences as a saving, liberating and abiding presence in the midst of our day-to-day world functions as the true vine. This is the true promise of abundant life that challenges us to expand our love and understanding of God functioning in the world through the body of Christ.

The promise of "abiding" in Jesus is not made for its own sake, nor an end in itself. Jesus imagines and promises a dynamic and changing life for the disciple community. Vines are pruned and cleansed. Branches that wither and die are removed. This points to a constantly changing community that is called to be up and doing. This is a relationship of purpose and power.

This call to "bear fruit" may sound judgmental to our ears, but only if it is heard as the call of some distant or judgmental taskmaster. This taskmaster vision of God is compelling because this is powthat Martin Luther attempts to free us from. This is not about the works God dictates we do but what God promises. This is the God we pray to in the Lord's prayer as "Our Father..."

Such a promise invites us into the abiding relationship in which vine and branches are held together by the one whose glory is seen in his being lifted up on the cross for us and in a Father who also is glorified when those who abide in that Son are revealed in the faithful bearing of fruit in service to the world.

God's discipline allows us to trust that we can act through generous and abundant self-indulgence in how we share the fruits of what we have been given in the service of ourselves and others.