I am the true vine. Abide in me. As
the branch must abide in the vine to be fruitful, so you must abide
in Christ to be fruitful.
Okay, I'll admit it, I have a hard time
with this one, and for at least a couple of reasons. First there
seems to be a number of interpretations as to what it means to abide
in Christ. People from all sides – from the most conservative and
constrictive groups to the most liberal and permissive groups –
claim to abide in Christ and faithfully follow in his path. Which
one is doing it right? And how do we know?
Second, we don't have Jesus with us to
physically guide us anymore. We do our best in following him through
prayer, discernment, the guiding of the Holy Spirit, and church
teachings. But again, those get kind of fuzzy. Especially when we
consider all the atrocities committed in the name of God. Bearing
fruit seems to be based in so much subjectivity.
So the question remains: How do we
best abide in Jesus?
In John's letter that question is
excellently answered when he says that those who abide in love abide
in God. It's all about love. If we hate others, the love of God is
not in us. As he says, we can't love a God whom we haven't seen
while not loving brothers or sisters whom we have seen.
Saying we love God while denigrating,
abusing, marginalizing, or terrorizing others makes us liars and
hypocrites. Creating segregated systems of housing, education,
medical coverage, financial compensation, and the like that are based
simply on religion, gender, skin color, or other differences, is
based in nothing more than fear. And John correctly points out that
there is no fear in love. Those attitudes and actions have no place
in Christianity.
Let me be clear here – there's a
difference between fear and caution. Caution is being aware of your
surroundings and acting appropriately. Caution is locking your car
doors. Fear is buying into the rhetoric that says your very
existence is threatened by granting equal rights. Fear is shooting
those who scare you, or are different from you, first. But love
casts out fear.
God is love. If we abide in love, we
abide in God. If we live with love as our primary motive, we abide
in Christ. And when we abide in Christ we will bear much fruit.
Love, then, is the root of who we are in God.
This is all well and good, but what
does it actually look like? Because, while love is certainly the
basis, or should be the basis, for all we do, it's a little . . .
amoeba-like. It can be somewhat hard to grasp, especially with
“love” having so many different definitions. For instance, I
love this parish. I love my wife. I love officiating. I love ding
dongs and Bismarck doughnuts. We need a little clarity here.
The big question, then, is how do we
behave as Christians, and what does that look like?
This was the topic of discussion at the
Vestry retreat. And if you read the latest Soundings, you'll
know what's coming.
At that retreat I asked those gathered:
What do we do at St. John's?
People responded with all kinds of
answers: pray, Community Cafe, Micah's backpack, learning parties,
fellowship, Communion, proclaim, formation, maintain the building,
rites of life, and a whole slew of other things. As we went down the
list we discovered that we could group the list of what we do into a
few specific categories.
What do we do at St. John's? We
Worship. As a church, this is our primary objective – to worship
God with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our bodies, and
with all our souls. We worship every Sunday, yes, but we also
worship at other times. We offer Evening Prayer every Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We worship as a vestry when we pray
Evening Prayer before every meeting, and when we close with Compline
afterward. When we pray, either corporately or individually, we
perform a type of worship. Worship is what we do, and we have a
particular form of worship that helps shape who we are.
What do we do at St. John's? We
Welcome. We welcome people into our midst. We welcome people to
worship with us. We welcome people into educational opportunities.
We welcome people to a meal once a month. We welcome people to
explore their relationship with God. We Welcome people in a variety
of ways.
What do we do at St. Johns? We Serve.
We serve a spiritual meal of Holy Communion. We serve a physical
meal at the Community Cafe. We serve children through Micah's
Backpack and the Bester Community of Hope. We serve in various
callings and roles. We serve this community of faith through our
stewardship – financial and otherwise. We are a church that
Serves.
What do we do at St. John's? We
Encourage. We encourage people to learn and participate. We
encourage active prayer lives. We encourage people to connect with
others,. We encourage people in hard times. We encourage people to
grow. We encourage people to explore.
Everything we do can be summed up in
these four words: Worship, Welcome, Serve, Encourage.
Everything we might want to do in the
future can be summed up in these four words: Worship, Welcome,
Serve, Encourage.
These words are at the root of who we
are and what we do. These words are based in love and the life of
Christ. These are at the root of Christ the vine which produces the
branches that are us. If we hold to our roots, based in love,
growing from the vine, this branch of St. John's, and these branches
that are us, will bear much fruit.
Amen.
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