Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 15:1–8 (NIV84)

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

I think passages like this are a bit of a Rorshack test.

A Rorshack test being those ink blot images people hold up and say “what do you see here?”

This passage has beautiful imagery that could be comforting.

But it also has phrases like “cut off” and “thrown into the fire" that could evoke more of a sense of dread

And in that light I find people can often hear the passage as more of a threat

And abiding and bearing fruit become mandates that we better figure out if we don’t want to get punished

“Shoot I better stay connected to Jesus even though I don’t really know exactly what that means or how to do it and I better be a good Christian in some measurable way though I don’t know what that means.”

But I want to explore these concepts of abiding and bearing fruit a bit more because I don’t think they should make us anxious

They should bring us peace

Let’s first talk about this concept of abiding in Christ or remaining in Christ

It’s figurative language that conveys a sense of connection

Purposeful connection that serves as your home base of sorts

A branch’s home base is the vine, it’s where it’s meant to be

connected to the vine that supplies its life

And when the life of the vine is flowing through it, the branch fulfills its purpose

It flowers and fruit emerges

Disconnected from the vine none of that can happen

Y’all have done enough yard work to know how this works

But if we press into this metaphor, what flows through Christ to us to bear fruit?

What’s the nature of that connection?

I think the second reading from the lectionary helps explain this to us.

1 John 4:7–21 (NIV84)

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Through Christ, the life of God opens up to us.

What is the nature of God?

Love. God is love.

So what flows to us like life that flows through a vine into its branches?

Love.

And what’s the nature of the fruit that it produces?

Love.

If he is in us and we are in him, if the connection is there and the life is flowing to us and through us then it animates our being and produces more love.

Easy, right?

Only problem is, for that connection to be made and for that life to flow through us, it’s not enough for us to believe the concept that God is love. We have to actively receive that love.

And that means I have to accept that God’s love, though as wide as creation, is also given to ME.

I have to believe that God sees me and knows me and accepts me and loves ME.

Do you believe that God loves YOU?

Do you believe that God wants the connection with YOU?

Think of that connection point where the branch attaches to the vine as the meeting place of you and God.

Do you imagine being embraced there?

Do you imagine being held like a child being held by a parent who never wants to let go?

Do you feel safe and secure?

Or do you feel like a stranger there? Like God probably doesn’t know you or care?

Does the connection feel forced or mechanical? Not genuine?

This makes all the difference in the world

Abiding in Christ is about RESTING in a connection to Him where we are secure in his love for us

Finding that connection is what restores us to who we were always meant to be

See, the desire to be loved is THE core human desire

We were created to love and be loved

And when we are secure in being loved we are childlike in the best sense of the word

We feel safe

We can play and laugh

We can rest

We feel hopeful

We can explore

Knowing we can always come back to what?

A home base connection to someone that affirms I AM LOVED.

But in a fallen world we very quickly start to get messaging that we are not loved

And it becomes the core human wound

And the messaging piles up and we get more wounded and insecure and defensive

And we try to find worth and security and joy elsewhere

And we try to MAKE ourselves lovable

by competing and pushing others down

And we try to manipulate to get something that feels like love

but we hide who we really are because we’ve internalize the messaging that we are unworthy of the real thing

And when we operate out of this insecurity and woundedness what kind of fruit do we produce?

Rotten fruit, if it’s fruit at all.

We pass our wounding on by communicating to others that THEY are unworthy of love

And we have a world of lost, confused, wounded people trying to heal their core wound but just making it worse

What’s the solution?

Learning to accept that God loves us.

Not learning to accept that God worked out a bankruptcy transaction so you could qualify for heaven

That’s cold and mechanical.

Learning to accept that God LOVES you

Not believing the Father begrudgingly accepts you because of Jesus.

That’s bad theology.

Jesus didn’t come to MAKE the Father love you

Jesus came BECAUSE the Father loves you and always has and always will

Step one in solving the human condition is the healing of our core wound, the lie that we are unloved and unlovable, by really truly accepting that God loves us and that we don’t have to earn it and that we can’t ruin it.

It’s believing that (Romans 8) “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Can you accept that?

Put it in the first person.

Nothing will be able to separate YOU from the love that God has for YOU.

Can you believe that?

Can you rest in that?

I’m more and more convinced that, as simple as it sounds, so much of the Christian life is simply learning to be loved by God and healing that central wound we’re all carrying and acting out on

For some of us it’s easier said than done.

I remember being asked once, when you picture going to meet with God like you are meeting in a room together what do you envision I said, “He isn’t there. Maybe he forgot we had a meeting.”

I have work to do to heal that wound and BELIEVE that God loves me.

Maybe you do as well.

But if we are able to rest in that then the connection to God becomes our home base and our source of life

We are able to find security there

We are able to let down the defensiveness and scheming and using and what flows from us in the rest of life gets transformed because we are now connected to the source of love

And when a community of people starts to operate from that place of security, with the life of the vine flowing through them, they become a healing community where others can start to believe that they can be loved too.

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Shackelfords

Job opportunity out of state

Moving in a few weeks

It is a huge loss for us

Alinea and Rya and Isaac have served our church so faithfully since the beginning and have really truly been an example for all of us of what it means to care for others

Moving states is alway hard, especially hard now

pray for connections to be made

church community

beautiful new friendships

good schools

a new house

pray for their life as a family

grace for one another

unity

fun

new situations

relieve anxiety