Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

John 17:6-19; Easter 7B; 5/13/2018                         Pastor Ellen Schoepf      

Some of you I am sure remember those iconic ‘70’s television ads for Calgon which used the slogan, “Calgon, take me away.”  The commercials encouraged us to slow down and relax with a bubble bath using Calgon bath beads.  It was a call to let go of the real, often difficult “stuff” of our daily lives and escape to a seemingly whole different dimension where we would have a lush, luxurious, heavenly spa experience.  It was all about experiencing escape from life as it is.

There is something very tempting about escaping from the world, and we all pursue escape in one way or another. This desire to escape from the challenges of life is as ancient as human history.  The human desire to escape is definitely as ancient as Christian faith and, I think religion often tends to intensify this desire.  For people of faith, once we experience and begin to understand what is holy, set apart and good about life together within the context of Christian community, we have a tendency to want to avoid the clamor and conflict of the greater world.  We tend to want to escape and cocoon ourselves within the safe, comfortable confines of Christian community while staying away from the major issues that confront the greater community, our country, or the world.  Monasteries, convents, utopias, and different types of communal living all testify to this desire to live unencumbered by the world while simply focusing on a faithful, set apart life.

This was the kind of desire John’s community was facing as the gospel writer penned the words of the Bible passage we read today.  Written at the end of the first century, John’s community was facing increasing conflict with authorities who opposed the gospel message.  These disciples were facing increasing persecution.  Many people thought that if they could simply stay together and remain in supportive fellowship with each other, they would not have to defend their beliefs.  Many felt that living together in such a community, where they would remember Jesus’ stories and sense his presence in their meals of bread and wine, would provide a safer way of life as they faced a growing hostile world. 

In today’s gospel reading, John’s faith community and each one of us get to overhear Jesus’ prayer for all those who follow him as he is about to face his own death.  On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus speaks words of prayer and promise for all his disciples.  We overhear him praying for all his followers, including each one of us, as he faces his own death, what John calls his “hour of glory,” his whole purpose for being here.  And what is it that Jesus prays for?  He prays that his followers may find God’s support, encouragement, strength, protection and courage to face the challenges that come from living in the world and bearing witness to the gospel of grace and love that comes from him.  And, he prays that his followers may be one in fellowship with each other and with God.

The world was a hostile place for early Christians and the world can be a very difficult, challenging place for us today.  The words we hear from Jesus on this day do not sugarcoat the challenges his followers face.  Jesus speaks words of truth about the world in which we live.  This is a world where war seems to be a constant.  Terrorism is a threat both here and abroad.  Poverty and homelessness are very real and present in our own community, throughout our country and around the globe.  Hunger is a monumental challenge around the world.  Chaos and uncertainty seem to reign supreme and explosive news confronts us every day.  It seems as though we are living in a culture that is becoming increasing dysfunctional as people become more polarized and tribal in their thinking and beliefs.  Racism is very present and there is a rage and anger that is just bubbling and festering below the surface in our own society.  Yes, the world is a difficult place and Jesus does not deny that.  In today’s reading, we hear him speak words of truth about what the disciples will face.  And, we who call ourselves Christian, need to hear these words, and we need to speak and hear words of truth about what we face in 2018.

Jesus’ words provide his followers with no escape from life’s difficulties.  His words to the Father are, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.”  He asks for God’s protection and support against all the evils of the world for all his followers.  Jesus does not pray that we be taken out of the world, but that we be fully present to its difficult and painful realities.  Jesus does not promise us exemption from the struggles of life, but he does promise and assure us that we are not alone in the struggle.  And, instead of retreating from the world, Christ offers us an alternative model that can empower us to live in the world without succumbing to its values and pressures.  We are to live amid all the knotted complexities without getting ourselves entangled.  And, by immersing ourselves in God’s word and God’s action through the living Word, by feeding us with the nourishment of Jesus’ very life through weekly Word and Sacrament, God reorients our yearnings for escape.  By immersing ourselves in the living Word, God transforms us as the truth of God’s word is revealed to us in the very real stuff of the world. 

As this prayer continues, we then hear a great crescendo as Christ prays, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”  This is a very strong phrase because the words “sent into the world” are the exact opposite of escaping from or “getting out” of the world.  This verse in today’s gospel is patterned on Jesus’ own life and calls the church to follow his example by becoming engaged with the world in all of its distorted powers and pressures.  It is Jesus’ prayer that we be able to engage the dangers of this world while wholeheartedly entrusting our protection to God. 

We do live in a difficult and often painful world.  And, we can at times become exhausted, even feel despair as we view ceaseless violence and corruption both here and around the world.  This feeling can cause us to want to stay cocooned within our own safe community, not addressing the needs of the world.  However, Jesus’ words today tell us we have been sent to bear witness to the truth that God loves this whole world, broken as it is. Our work and our mission is to trust that God does protect us while we are in this world so that we might engage it fully, unafraid and free.  And, we have been promised Christ’s presence with us and to us as we vitally and faithfully live into this mission.  Energized and fed by the truth of God’s word, we are called not to escape, but to do the necessary work to which we are called so that all people might have a more abundant life here and now. 

This is a special musical performance of Sing of the Lord's Goodness by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical performance of Sing of the Lord's Goodness by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Today, our gospel reading from John is a continuation of the words we heard Jesus speaking last Sunday.  This whole section of John’s gospel is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse because he is preparing the disciples for his death.  He knows he is going to die and he will be leaving them.  In John’s gospel, these words are some of the last words Jesus speaks during his earthly life, and his last words are all about love.  Jesus speaks of his love for the disciples and, by extension, his love for us.  Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you, and so you should love one another.”

In our culture, the word “love” is highly ambiguous.  In Greek, there are many different words for different types of love that become translated into English simply as the word love.  In today’s passage, the word that has been translated as love comes from the Greek word agape.  This kind of love describes the excellence of character that God has by nature.  It is all about relationship and it is the kind of love we find characterizing the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity.  It is the kind of love in which we participate through sheer grace.  Agape describes the Father’s love for the Son and it describes God’s love for us.  Agape is all gift – a gift from God.  Agape is not a feeling or inclination.  It is the kind of love that responds as obedience to God’s commandment to choose to love others as God has chosen to love us.  Agape love is always primarily interested in the good of the other person, rather than one’s own self.  It is never a love that attempts to possess or dominate others.  The concern is always for others and agape is never subordinating.  It always allows authentic, genuine space for others to be and become and grow.  And, it is always offered without reserve – it is superabundant.  

We live in a culture that is extremely self-serving and self-focused, a culture in which love takes on possessive characteristics.  In fact, there is frequently a tendency to view love as a commodity, even something that becomes a scarcity as some people begin to think others are receiving more love than they are.  This is never what love is about.

In his book, What’s So Amazing about Grace?, Philip Yancy tells this wonderful story about Mother Teresa and the definition of agape love that she shared at a National Prayer Breakfast.  He writes:

… Rolled out in a wheelchair, the frail, eighty-three-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate needed help to stand up. A special platform had been positioned to allow her to see over the podium. Even so, hunched over, four-feet-six-inches tall, she could barely reach the microphone. She spoke clearly and slowly with a thick accent in a voice that nonetheless managed to fill the auditorium.        

Mother Teresa said that America has become a selfish nation, in danger of losing the proper meaning of love: "giving until it hurts." [p. 244]

I have to say Mother Teresa’s analysis of our nation was right on.  We have become a very selfish nation and far too often self-interest is placed at the top of any list of priorities.  In fact, we have become a nation that is increasingly exemplifying the characteristics of narcissism – America first.  We also tend to be people who talk about love as this warm feeling inside, this euphoric feeling one has when with some special person.  We talk about “making love.”  We throw the word love around and use it in cheap ways as we talk about loving objects like our house or our car.  Quite often we talk about loving something we want to get or have or possess.  What we claim to love is often borne out of a consumer driven culture.  But, when it comes to people and relationships with others, we can be rather stingy about our love.  And, yes, we are self-serving.

So, today it is fitting that Jesus’ words break into our lives with a message of love, the love God has for this world, for all people and for each one of us.  The love God calls us to live into every day is a very different kind of love.  The nature of this love is giving – as Mother Teresa says, giving until it hurts.  That is the love Jesus was talking about and that is the love he lived.  Jesus not only gave until it hurt, he gave of himself unto death on a cross, all for the sake of love.  That is how much he loved the disciples and each one of us.

When we live into this kind of love, it is a choice.  We choose to love and it becomes a way of life through which we become changed.  To love in this manner means obeying Jesus’ command to love.  Agape love is a disciplined habit of care and concern, one that we work on perfecting over a lifetime as the living Word changes us, continually challenging us, taking us to new places, and continually making us new.  The love God shows toward Jesus is a demanding love, but it is also full of presence, promise and joy.  It is a love that prunes, cleanses, challenges, molds, forms and carries Jesus throughout his ministry, and it does the same to us.  It is that kind of love we are called to live.  

The love of God that we are invited into is a love without limits.  It is a wasteful love.  It is love that is selfless and thus produces and enhances life.  In fact, this love we see in the person of Jesus Christ is a love that invites us into a whole new dimension of what it means to be human, a love through which we become more fully human.  When we live this kind of love, the strictures of life – the boundaries that establish status and power – are reversed and all human images of protective barriers that provide security are removed.  When we live this kind of love, the boundaries that have been created to separate us from those considered “others” are obliterated.  This love is a servant love that truly cares for all others.  When God’s love lives in us, we will serve the world.  We will give our love and our life to others.  The status games that human beings play no longer work when we live into this kind of love and when we experience this new consciousness because there are no master-servant relationships inside the embrace of love.

Friends, God is defined as love.  And, the love of God, the love we are called to live, is not an entity so much as it is a penetrating experience.  It is the experience of God in our lives.  We discover that God’s love embraces people as they are.  And, we discover that we cannot create this kind of love.  One can only receive it and, when it has been received, it must be immediately shared.  The love we are called to live is a love that cannot be stored.  This love cannot be saved for a rainy day and it cannot be used later like leftovers.  The love we are called to live must be passed on because love that is not passed on dies.  This is the love that binds us to God and one another.  And, this love is the very meaning of Jesus. 

Adelle, Owen, Viktor, Atu, Griffin and Brenna, today you will be making public affirmation of your baptism as you are confirmed into Christian faith.  This is important, life-changing stuff!  This is a life-giving commitment you will be making today.  Confirmation is not like graduation.  Confirmation is all about making a commitment to fully become part of the faith community, to become deeply connected and live into relationship with God and others as you participate in this Faith community.  And, as you make affirmation of your faith, you are called to love and continue to live into this love God has for you and all people.

Today, Jesus’ last words to the disciples and each one of you are, “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me.  Make yourselves at home in my love.  If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love.  That’s what I’ve done – kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.  I’ve told you these things for a purpose:  that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.  This is my command:  Love one another the way I loved you.  This is the best way to love.  Put your life on the line for your friends.”

Today, our gospel reading from John is a continuation of the words we heard Jesus speaking last Sunday.  This whole section of John’s gospel is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse because he is preparing the disciples for his death.  He knows he is going to die and he will be leaving them.  In John’s gospel, these words are some of the last words Jesus speaks during his earthly life, and his last words are all about love.  Jesus speaks of his love for the disciples and, by extension, his love for us.  Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you, and so you should love one another.”

In our culture, the word “love” is highly ambiguous.  In Greek, there are many different words for different types of love that become translated into English simply as the word love.  In today’s passage, the word that has been translated as love comes from the Greek word agape.  This kind of love describes the excellence of character that God has by nature.  It is all about relationship and it is the kind of love we find characterizing the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity.  It is the kind of love in which we participate through sheer grace.  Agape describes the Father’s love for the Son and it describes God’s love for us.  Agape is all gift – a gift from God.  Agape is not a feeling or inclination.  It is the kind of love that responds as obedience to God’s commandment to choose to love others as God has chosen to love us.  Agape love is always primarily interested in the good of the other person, rather than one’s own self.  It is never a love that attempts to possess or dominate others.  The concern is always for others and agape is never subordinating.  It always allows authentic, genuine space for others to be and become and grow.  And, it is always offered without reserve – it is superabundant.  

We live in a culture that is extremely self-serving and self-focused, a culture in which love takes on possessive characteristics.  In fact, there is frequently a tendency to view love as a commodity, even something that becomes a scarcity as some people begin to think others are receiving more love than they are.  This is never what love is about.

In his book, What’s So Amazing about Grace?, Philip Yancy tells this wonderful story about Mother Teresa and the definition of agape love that she shared at a National Prayer Breakfast.  He writes:

… Rolled out in a wheelchair, the frail, eighty-three-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate needed help to stand up. A special platform had been positioned to allow her to see over the podium. Even so, hunched over, four-feet-six-inches tall, she could barely reach the microphone. She spoke clearly and slowly with a thick accent in a voice that nonetheless managed to fill the auditorium.        

Mother Teresa said that America has become a selfish nation, in danger of losing the proper meaning of love: "giving until it hurts." [p. 244]

I have to say Mother Teresa’s analysis of our nation was right on.  We have become a very selfish nation and far too often self-interest is placed at the top of any list of priorities.  In fact, we have become a nation that is increasingly exemplifying the characteristics of narcissism – America first.  We also tend to be people who talk about love as this warm feeling inside, this euphoric feeling one has when with some special person.  We talk about “making love.”  We throw the word love around and use it in cheap ways as we talk about loving objects like our house or our car.  Quite often we talk about loving something we want to get or have or possess.  What we claim to love is often borne out of a consumer driven culture.  But, when it comes to people and relationships with others, we can be rather stingy about our love.  And, yes, we are self-serving.

So, today it is fitting that Jesus’ words break into our lives with a message of love, the love God has for this world, for all people and for each one of us.  The love God calls us to live into every day is a very different kind of love.  The nature of this love is giving – as Mother Teresa says, giving until it hurts.  That is the love Jesus was talking about and that is the love he lived.  Jesus not only gave until it hurt, he gave of himself unto death on a cross, all for the sake of love.  That is how much he loved the disciples and each one of us.

When we live into this kind of love, it is a choice.  We choose to love and it becomes a way of life through which we become changed.  To love in this manner means obeying Jesus’ command to love.  Agape love is a disciplined habit of care and concern, one that we work on perfecting over a lifetime as the living Word changes us, continually challenging us, taking us to new places, and continually making us new.  The love God shows toward Jesus is a demanding love, but it is also full of presence, promise and joy.  It is a love that prunes, cleanses, challenges, molds, forms and carries Jesus throughout his ministry, and it does the same to us.  It is that kind of love we are called to live.  

The love of God that we are invited into is a love without limits.  It is a wasteful love.  It is love that is selfless and thus produces and enhances life.  In fact, this love we see in the person of Jesus Christ is a love that invites us into a whole new dimension of what it means to be human, a love through which we become more fully human.  When we live this kind of love, the strictures of life – the boundaries that establish status and power – are reversed and all human images of protective barriers that provide security are removed.  When we live this kind of love, the boundaries that have been created to separate us from those considered “others” are obliterated.  This love is a servant love that truly cares for all others.  When God’s love lives in us, we will serve the world.  We will give our love and our life to others.  The status games that human beings play no longer work when we live into this kind of love and when we experience this new consciousness because there are no master-servant relationships inside the embrace of love.

Friends, God is defined as love.  And, the love of God, the love we are called to live, is not an entity so much as it is a penetrating experience.  It is the experience of God in our lives.  We discover that God’s love embraces people as they are.  And, we discover that we cannot create this kind of love.  One can only receive it and, when it has been received, it must be immediately shared.  The love we are called to live is a love that cannot be stored.  This love cannot be saved for a rainy day and it cannot be used later like leftovers.  The love we are called to live must be passed on because love that is not passed on dies.  This is the love that binds us to God and one another.  And, this love is the very meaning of Jesus. 

Adelle, Owen, Viktor, Atu, Griffin and Brenna, today you will be making public affirmation of your baptism as you are confirmed into Christian faith.  This is important, life-changing stuff!  This is a life-giving commitment you will be making today.  Confirmation is not like graduation.  Confirmation is all about making a commitment to fully become part of the faith community, to become deeply connected and live into relationship with God and others as you participate in this Faith community.  And, as you make affirmation of your faith, you are called to love and continue to live into this love God has for you and all people.

Today, Jesus’ last words to the disciples and each one of you are, “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me.  Make yourselves at home in my love.  If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love.  That’s what I’ve done – kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.  I’ve told you these things for a purpose:  that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.  This is my command:  Love one another the way I loved you.  This is the best way to love.  Put your life on the line for your friends.”

This is a special musical performance of River in Judea by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of River in Judea by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As many of you know, Ken and I now have seven grandchildren, three of them having entered this big, beautiful world in the past eight months.  And, I must say, I love being a grandma.  I love watching the little one’s grow, and I marvel at the rapid changes in their lives, changes that are daily taking place.  One of the things I find so fascinating is the independence that begins to develop at a very young age.  It does not take long for a little one to begin saying, “Me do it myself!” That self-will and determination set the stage for many challenges as children want to do multiple things for themselves, some of which are not always healthy and wise.  That fierce sense of independence and the development of self-identity is something that we as Americans hold dear.  Independence of self and the “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” mentality is a treasured aspect of American identity.  However, it is also something that runs contrary to Jesus’ teaching, especially today. 

I love what Nadia Bolz-Weber says as she reflects upon the challenge of today’s gospel reading.  She writes:

I’m nothing if not independent.  Reportedly my first sentence was “Do it self!”  Yes, I will do it myself, thank you.  See I want choices.  And I want independence….What I wish Jesus said is: “I am whatever you want me to be.  And you can be whatever you want to be: vine, pruner, branch, soil….knock yourself out.”  What Jesus actually said is: “I am the vine.  My Father is the vine grower.  You are the branches.”  Dang.  The casting has already been finalized.  Vines, and branches off of vines, are all tangled and messy and it’s just too hard to know what is what…Not only are we dependent on Jesus, but our lives are uncomfortably tangled up together.  The Christian life is a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled mess of us and Jesus and others.  Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self!” set.

Yes, Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self” set.  And, nowhere does Jesus teach more clearly that we are not independent do-it-yourself-ers than here in today’s gospel reading.  You see, nowhere does Jesus demonstrate more clearly that we cannot go it alone, that we cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps when life puts us down, and that it is completely unreasonable to expect anyone else to either.  Today’s gospel reading is all about being connected to the vine, remaining connected and staying connected throughout this life journey we all are traveling.  It is not about independence, do it alone, and “me do it myself.” 

As we enter into today’s gospel, we find ourselves back on that evening of Maundy Thursday in John’s account of the Jesus story.  Jesus knows he is about to die, leaving the disciples behind.  So, he is urging them to remain in him, stay connected to him, and remain in fellowship with each other.  Jesus is saying to the disciples and to each one of us, “Stay connected.  Live in relationship to me.  And, stay connected and live in relationship to each other.  Make your home in me just as I do in you.  Continue on in my teaching and example and remain in fellowship with each other.”  And, he gives us this wonderful image of the vine and branches.

Now, if we think about wild grapevines, or any vine for that matter, one thing we soon realize is that vines and branches are tangled and messy.  And the truth of the matter is that our lives, our families, and our places of work or study or play are all messy places.  Life is just that way.  And, sometimes, as Nadia says, it is just too hard to know what is what.  Life is just a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled, tangled mess.  Yet, when we look at a cultivated grapevine, we can see that the vine grower has put an anchor to the main vine.  The branches are sorted out, trained and even disciplined.  There is a wire structure that supports the vine from below and from above.  All of the dead branches have been removed.  And, the vines and branches that are cultivated end up producing large quantities of grapes. 

With this image that Jesus shares, he shows us that Christ is the source of all life.  Our very existence is dependent on God, who nurtures and cultivates us.  We are not and cannot be the vine that gives life to all.  Neither are we the vine grower, the one who cultivates, stakes, supports and yes, prunes the branches, though sometimes we try to claim this authority.  We are the branches and, if we are to flourish, we need to stay connected to the vine, abide and remain dependent on the vine.

To abide is all about remaining, staying, taking up residence, and making one’s self at home.  It is about living in the community of Christ, participating in the life of that community, and staying connected to that community.  When we abide in Christ, God’s love is perfected in our lives.  When we abide in Christ, love grows in us, casting out fear and hatred, and empowering us to act boldly.

Abiding in Christ means admitting that we are not independent, do-it-yourself-ers who can boast saying, “Me do it myself,” or “I did it my way.”  Abiding in Christ means accepting that we are dependent on Christ and on each other.  It means graciously receiving the support Christ offers us, most often through the caring of our brothers and sisters.  It also means consenting to be pruned.  It means letting go of the things that hinder our growth in love, things like fear and hatred, greed and jealousy, grudges and resentment, shame and guilt, and all the other vine-y, branch-y, tangled things that mess us all up.  And, abiding in Christ is always about belonging, belonging to the One who gives us life, life that truly matters.  You see, this abiding in Christ is all about relationship.

The relational connectedness Jesus is speaking of is a connectedness that is only found through experiencing life together within the context of a faith community.  And, yes, living in this kind of relationship, abiding in Christ and staying connected to Christ the vine, means it is not always going to be comfortable or easy.  It can be difficult.  Living in relationship with others requires give and take.  Such living requires us to be vulnerable.  Living in relationship with others means there will be ups and downs as we travel this journey together.  You see, living life together in community means we have to put up with real people, some who are nice and some who are not, some who want things their way and others who don’t want to challenge the status quo.  Quite frankly, life together means having to put up with people who are sometimes jerks.  And, let’s be very honest about something – it also means recognizing and having to admit that sometimes we are the ones who are being the jerks.  The truth is, real, authentic community is something we often would rather shy away from because it can be uncomfortable.  And, because we do not like to be uncomfortable, we are sometimes like a little child who says, “Me do it myself, I don’t need anyone else.” 

However, today Jesus invites us to be real, to be deeply connected, to be planted in the very life of God and live in intimate relationship with him and with each other.  Jesus invites us to be honest about who we are and what we are.  Jesus invites us to come together and confess our hopes and fears, to share our dreams and disappointments, to be honest about our accomplishments and our failures, to be open about our blessings and our sin, and to be dependent on Him.  In Jesus, we are invited into deep, authentic relationship with one another so that we can discover we are accepted, loved and forgiven by God who loves this whole world enough to send the Son. 

It is by being connected, being planted in God and participating in Christian community, that we learn what real love is all about.  When we stay connected to the vine and live together in authentic Christian community, the love that happens and is born enables us to then love others as we have been loved.  It is that kind of love that brings others in and grafts them to the vine.  And, it is that love that sends us out to make a difference in people’s lives both here and around the world as love becomes the fruit of living in relationship to God and others.

As many of you know, Ken and I now have seven grandchildren, three of them having entered this big, beautiful world in the past eight months.  And, I must say, I love being a grandma.  I love watching the little one’s grow, and I marvel at the rapid changes in their lives, changes that are daily taking place.  One of the things I find so fascinating is the independence that begins to develop at a very young age.  It does not take long for a little one to begin saying, “Me do it myself!” That self-will and determination set the stage for many challenges as children want to do multiple things for themselves, some of which are not always healthy and wise.  That fierce sense of independence and the development of self-identity is something that we as Americans hold dear.  Independence of self and the “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” mentality is a treasured aspect of American identity.  However, it is also something that runs contrary to Jesus’ teaching, especially today. 

I love what Nadia Bolz-Weber says as she reflects upon the challenge of today’s gospel reading.  She writes:

I’m nothing if not independent.  Reportedly my first sentence was “Do it self!”  Yes, I will do it myself, thank you.  See I want choices.  And I want independence….What I wish Jesus said is: “I am whatever you want me to be.  And you can be whatever you want to be: vine, pruner, branch, soil….knock yourself out.”  What Jesus actually said is: “I am the vine.  My Father is the vine grower.  You are the branches.”  Dang.  The casting has already been finalized.  Vines, and branches off of vines, are all tangled and messy and it’s just too hard to know what is what…Not only are we dependent on Jesus, but our lives are uncomfortably tangled up together.  The Christian life is a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled mess of us and Jesus and others.  Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self!” set.

Yes, Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self” set.  And, nowhere does Jesus teach more clearly that we are not independent do-it-yourself-ers than here in today’s gospel reading.  You see, nowhere does Jesus demonstrate more clearly that we cannot go it alone, that we cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps when life puts us down, and that it is completely unreasonable to expect anyone else to either.  Today’s gospel reading is all about being connected to the vine, remaining connected and staying connected throughout this life journey we all are traveling.  It is not about independence, do it alone, and “me do it myself.” 

As we enter into today’s gospel, we find ourselves back on that evening of Maundy Thursday in John’s account of the Jesus story.  Jesus knows he is about to die, leaving the disciples behind.  So, he is urging them to remain in him, stay connected to him, and remain in fellowship with each other.  Jesus is saying to the disciples and to each one of us, “Stay connected.  Live in relationship to me.  And, stay connected and live in relationship to each other.  Make your home in me just as I do in you.  Continue on in my teaching and example and remain in fellowship with each other.”  And, he gives us this wonderful image of the vine and branches.

Now, if we think about wild grapevines, or any vine for that matter, one thing we soon realize is that vines and branches are tangled and messy.  And the truth of the matter is that our lives, our families, and our places of work or study or play are all messy places.  Life is just that way.  And, sometimes, as Nadia says, it is just too hard to know what is what.  Life is just a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled, tangled mess.  Yet, when we look at a cultivated grapevine, we can see that the vine grower has put an anchor to the main vine.  The branches are sorted out, trained and even disciplined.  There is a wire structure that supports the vine from below and from above.  All of the dead branches have been removed.  And, the vines and branches that are cultivated end up producing large quantities of grapes. 

With this image that Jesus shares, he shows us that Christ is the source of all life.  Our very existence is dependent on God, who nurtures and cultivates us.  We are not and cannot be the vine that gives life to all.  Neither are we the vine grower, the one who cultivates, stakes, supports and yes, prunes the branches, though sometimes we try to claim this authority.  We are the branches and, if we are to flourish, we need to stay connected to the vine, abide and remain dependent on the vine.

To abide is all about remaining, staying, taking up residence, and making one’s self at home.  It is about living in the community of Christ, participating in the life of that community, and staying connected to that community.  When we abide in Christ, God’s love is perfected in our lives.  When we abide in Christ, love grows in us, casting out fear and hatred, and empowering us to act boldly.

Abiding in Christ means admitting that we are not independent, do-it-yourself-ers who can boast saying, “Me do it myself,” or “I did it my way.”  Abiding in Christ means accepting that we are dependent on Christ and on each other.  It means graciously receiving the support Christ offers us, most often through the caring of our brothers and sisters.  It also means consenting to be pruned.  It means letting go of the things that hinder our growth in love, things like fear and hatred, greed and jealousy, grudges and resentment, shame and guilt, and all the other vine-y, branch-y, tangled things that mess us all up.  And, abiding in Christ is always about belonging, belonging to the One who gives us life, life that truly matters.  You see, this abiding in Christ is all about relationship.

The relational connectedness Jesus is speaking of is a connectedness that is only found through experiencing life together within the context of a faith community.  And, yes, living in this kind of relationship, abiding in Christ and staying connected to Christ the vine, means it is not always going to be comfortable or easy.  It can be difficult.  Living in relationship with others requires give and take.  Such living requires us to be vulnerable.  Living in relationship with others means there will be ups and downs as we travel this journey together.  You see, living life together in community means we have to put up with real people, some who are nice and some who are not, some who want things their way and others who don’t want to challenge the status quo.  Quite frankly, life together means having to put up with people who are sometimes jerks.  And, let’s be very honest about something – it also means recognizing and having to admit that sometimes we are the ones who are being the jerks.  The truth is, real, authentic community is something we often would rather shy away from because it can be uncomfortable.  And, because we do not like to be uncomfortable, we are sometimes like a little child who says, “Me do it myself, I don’t need anyone else.” 

However, today Jesus invites us to be real, to be deeply connected, to be planted in the very life of God and live in intimate relationship with him and with each other.  Jesus invites us to be honest about who we are and what we are.  Jesus invites us to come together and confess our hopes and fears, to share our dreams and disappointments, to be honest about our accomplishments and our failures, to be open about our blessings and our sin, and to be dependent on Him.  In Jesus, we are invited into deep, authentic relationship with one another so that we can discover we are accepted, loved and forgiven by God who loves this whole world enough to send the Son. 

It is by being connected, being planted in God and participating in Christian community, that we learn what real love is all about.  When we stay connected to the vine and live together in authentic Christian community, the love that happens and is born enables us to then love others as we have been loved.  It is that kind of love that brings others in and grafts them to the vine.  And, it is that love that sends us out to make a difference in people’s lives both here and around the world as love becomes the fruit of living in relationship to God and others.

This is a special musical performance of Love is Come Again performed by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.