The Rev. Kristin Krantz, St. James’ Mt. Airy, May 2, 2021
Acts 4:5-128:26-40, Psalm 22:24-30, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The eight short verses of today’s gospel passage are chock full of rich images written to evoke our imaginations and call us into discipleship.
They begin with the seventh and final “I am” statement in John’s gospel, which began with I am the bread of life, followed by I am the light of the world, I am the gate for the sheep, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the truth, and the life – and finally today – I am the true vine.[1]
All of these “I am” passages tell us something important about the relationship between God and humans and about what it means to follow Jesus, and today’s is arguably the culmination of Jesus’ teachings about this.
It makes sense when you back up to look at the context of this passage in John’s gospel over. Today we read from what is called Jesus’ Farewell Discourse in John.
This Farewell Discourse encompasses chapters 14-17 and is set during and right after his Last Supper with the disciples, the night before his crucifixion. It falls roughly into three parts.
In the first, Jesus washes his friend’s feet, gives them the final commandment to love one another, and tells them he will be going away to the father but will send the Holy Spirit to guide them.
The second part includes what we read today, this allegory of the true vine (more on that shortly).
The third and final part includes Jesus praying for his followers and the church. Known as the High Priestly Prayer, it is the longest prayer Jesus prays in any of the Gospels.
So again, here is the context we’re working with: Palm Sunday and the events in Jerusalem that heightened Jesus’ conflict with the religious authorities have just happened over the previous few days. Jesus and his friends have just shared the Passover meal. And now, Jesus has just told them he will only be with them for a little longer and that where he is going, they cannot come. They are bewildered and confused.
And so, Jesus offers them an image of consolation and hope: I am the vine, you are the branches. It is a vision statement, if you will, of deep connection and intimacy, one that is promised to abide even after Jesus’ departure. What follows is a mission statement, calling the disciples to enact this abiding relationship through bearing fruit.
And for all that we can explore the themes of growing and pruning that this passage points us toward, the images that have captured my attention all week are those of abiding and bearing fruit.
Now abide is such a fascinating word. It can mean, variously:
- to bear patiently
- to endure without yielding
- to await
- to remain stable
- to stay or live in a place
Abide occurs seven times in these 8 verses, beginning with the instruction, “Abide in me as I abide in you.”
Now any time a word is used repeatedly it can both capture our attention and focus it, but it can also ironically diminish the power of the word – it can kind of just run together. So hear again that verse using the various definitions of abide:
Abide in me as I abide in you.
Bear patiently in me, as I bear patiently in you.
Endure without yielding in me, as I endure without yielding in you.
Await in me, as await in you.
Remain stable in me, as I remain stable in you.
Stay and live in me, as I stay and live in you.
On a night that was fraught with worry and confusion, that was starting to feel like a long goodbye as the disciples were grasping for their friend and knowing that things were about to radically change, Jesus made a promise to them – and to us – to abide. To bear patiently, to endure without yielding, to await, to remain stable, to stay and live.
It is no small thing – this abiding. It is a reminder of the promise told over and over again throughout scripture that God is with us always.
Jesus is the vine, the father is the vinegrower, and we are the branches. We are interconnected and our existence depends upon God and each other. This is abiding, and our response is to bear fruit.
What is this fruit? Well, that could be another whole sermon – but sticking to our theme of abiding, our reading from 1 John today gives us one way to understand bearing fruit.
The epistle begins, Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. It continues on, and later in verse 16 contains what is one of my personal guiding scripture passages, and one I often use as our offertory sentence before communion: God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
The Christian life begins in love, is carried out in love,[2] and ends in love. The love we have for God, for our neighbors, and for ourselves is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual abiding we commit our lives to as followers of Christ.
It is more than a feeling – it is meant to be a tangible fruit after all. It is wrapped up in the final commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us, or as the writer of 1 John puts it, “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.”[3]
Abiding in love, then, is about creating a world in which God’s love is seen through justice, compassion, and reconciliation – the bringing of all people into the fullness of God’s love.
So here I want to end with a poem, as I am wont to do from time to time. This time from Methodist Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes, who writes a daily poem/reflection every weekday on his website Unfolding Light[4]. May it be a blessing to you this day – a call into living a life of abiding love.
God is not just a loving being—
some nice guy in heaven—
God is love itself;
God is being itself.
Love is God.
The energy of loving,
the act of loving,
the happening of love,
that is God.
When you love someone,
that is God happening.
Loving creates being,
creates the world,
sustains everything, infuses everything,
vibrates in everything.
God loving someone
calls them into being.
Their being (our being)
is the emanation of love,
outpouring of God,
unfolding of Loveliness.
Beloved, faith is not thinking
the right things about God.
It’s receiving love,
radiating loveliness,
and spreading love.
It is that alone that we practice.
Praise to the Holy Trinity:
the Lover, and the Beloved,
and the Loving that flows between.
Amen.
[1] John 6:35, John 8:12, John 10:7, John 10:11, John 11:25, John 14:6, John 15:1
[2] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, Theological Perspective.
[3] 1 John 4:20.