Fifth Sunday of Easter

Title

Abide in Him

Outline

I do not blame the disciples for being suspicious of Saul

After all, he had been an enemy and violent persecutor

They had not seen his baptism or his 3 years of preaching in the Damascus area

Perhaps this claim to discipleship was a ruse to discover where the disciples were hiding

It took love “in deed and in truth” - love of an enemy, love that takes risks - for Barnabas to seek out Saul and bring about his acceptance by telling his story

God was pruning distrust, resentment, and fear from the disciples so that love could grow (and late pruned Saul from his issues, sending him off to Tarsus)

Jesus talks about this pruning process

The problem is the suckers that grow on the vine, the sprouts that will not bear fruit or that choke the rest from bearing fruit

How do we recognize them? How do we recognize that this way is a deviation? We recognize it by our being rooted in him, drawing our sap from the root

Sometimes this pruning is through his pointing out where we are loving in word only and where we are loving in deed and in truth - he is truth, and without him we do not know the truth about our actions

Sometimes it is through our conscience informed by him. We remember his commandment and we realize that while we may rationalize this behavior it does not really match up.

Sometimes it is though our experience of dryness, which can come from many causes, but it may be that we are not one heart and mind with him, not drawing from the root. So our asking is not reflecting his asking of the Father, not reflecting his will. We try to find a way to force God to give us our request. But this type of dryness is a mercy, for if responded to it prunes us and we avoid the more serious dryness that ends with our being cast forth.

Sometimes it is though the Holy Spirit within. “Yes, that is good, but it is not the best, let me draw you to the best.” It is that inward voice that is drawing us to the beloved, especially as the more obvious issues are pruned away. This voice often points to good things that must be pruned, things that conscience or love will not see, for this voice brings our loves and our will into unity with that of the Beloved.

We want to bear fruit for Jesus, to be successful

But the goal of our passage is not to get us to put effort in that direction

Its goal is to guide us to let God prune away all that is less than him: that which is not true love, that which is not true obedience, obedience guided by conscience, that which is not of the Spirit.

Then we will bear fruit, for the sap from the root will flow through us without hindrance or diversion. That is a natural process, for we are joined to Jesus the vine.

Readings

First reading

Acts 9:26–31 RSV2CE

26 And when he had come to Jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, 29 preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists; but they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him off to Tarsus. 31 So the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied.

Epistle

1 John 3:18–24 RSV2CE

18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.

Gospel

John 15:1–8 RSV2CE

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

Notes