May 2, 2021

JOHN 15:1-8

INITIAL THOUGHTS

The final “I am”

Comes right before the Maundy Thursday Commandment Farewell discourse

“He is going where they cannot come, at least for now, and thus his words take on the character of urgent instruction for what life is like without his physical presence.” (Charles Cousar, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 314)

BIBLE STUDY

Major Themes: Abiding, bearing good fruit and Interconnectedness

If there was a Hebrew Bible text to go along with this, it could be Isaiah 5, a prophetic judgment against the vineyard that is supposed to produce fruit, but instead only produces bloodshed and oppression.

Jesus now the vine, allowing for the vineyard to be redeemed.

Jesus’ way of peace, generosity, and justice can be seen in direct contrast to what the vineyard had become in Isaiah 5.

Note on vines - “Going Wild” by Paul Bellan-Boyer

Vines can be persistent, beautiful, fruitful and life-giving - (kiwi fruit, squash, green beans, peas, melons) or wild constricting, overbearing, life-sucking pests (ivy, kudzu, jungle vines)

Many vines need a support- who will your support be? Will we allow ourselves to be abide in God and tended by God or simply grow wild? Growth is not the goal- bearing fruit is!

“The word I have spoken to you”- Not an argument for fundamentalism or legalism.

“Is it the whole oral teaching of Jesus or the simple fact that he came from the Father who sent him?

Message and medium - in this case a person - are the same in [John’s Gospel]. There is simply Jesus. His heavenly origins and his earthly task, which is to lay down his life for his friends, are one with his person.

Believing this and doing his commands is accepting his word or words.” (Gerard Sloyan, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, John, p. 189).

The words that Jesus spoke and the Word that Jesus embodied are inseparable.

We follow the Word, not the words.

Abiding - dwelling with God

Should we still use the word Abide? To dwell or live with, enduring, holding out, staying in place

Jesus is the authentic (better translation) vine as opposed to the inauthentic vine - what vine are we the branches of? Jesus or something else?

Abiding in God’s love, Christ’s love and love for one another- these are intertwined and inseparable

Bearing Fruit and being pruned

Jesus as the authentic vine is the source of all good fruit - to be separated from Jesus is to no longer bear good fruit

Opportunity to reclaim spiritual practices- to remind ourselves individually and communally what vine we are branching out from

Doing good works separated from the vine can lead to “selfish giving” Pruning is not always a bad thing- pruning can lead to an overall healthy plant

In what ways is the fear of pruning keeping us from bearing fruit?

Interconnectedness and Mutuality

“The mutuality between Jesus and the disciples spoken of here is both a gift and task. The passage intermingles indicatives with imperatives. It declares that readers are branches and that the divine

Gardener is at work to make the branches more productive… At the same time, readers are summoned to ‘abide’ in Jesus, which certainly entails a constantly renewed commitment. The mutuality and fruitfulness do not occur automatically… The demands [of discipleship] are surrounded on every side with grace.” (Charles Cousar, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 315-316).

Community is not something apart from our lives- but is our life- we are inseparably connected to one another in love

Community is not a static institution but a living, growing, thriving and even changing organism

Each part affects the entire branch

African Proverb, Because we are, I am

THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS

What does it mean to live in Jesus? How do we as a church (or individuals) live in Jesus in the way we worship, teach, welcome, spend money?

Who or what in our lives do we feel we cannot be separated from? Family? Friends possessions? What about the church community?

What needs to be pruned in your life/community/church? Is the church a withering branch? Have we ceased to bear good fruit?

The love that is both the content and aim of Christ's gospel continues to be active in those who understand that what you do "to one of the least of one of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" - Stephen A Cooper, Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide.

1 JOHN 4:7-21

INITIAL THOUGHTS

This is a dartboard passage. You could pin this passage to a wall, throw at it blindly with a dart, and whatever verse you hit, it’s golden.

The passage is so simple to understand, but surprisingly difficult to interpret. Partly because it is so simple and beautiful. The greatest challenge is to expound on what feels like a complete, and nearly perfect, thought.m

BIBLE STUDY

God is Love

Simple argument:

Love one another because God is love

If you love, then you know God and are born of/live in/ abide with God

If you don’t love then you aren’t born into/live in/abide with God

God loves us first

God’s love is revealed in Jesus anointing sacrifice

Not necessarily traditional sacrificial atonement theology V. 9 invites us to “live through Jesus” - suggesting Jesus reveals the way to live in reconciled relationship to God

Atonement - at-one-ment

In Jesus’ death he reveals how to be reconciled with God.

Many ways of understanding following Jesus as a way of life and as a reconciling or atoning sacrificing

Because God is love, men and women are now free to reflect God’s love in their own love of both God and their neighbor...God’s love lies at the heart of the life of faith, indeed, it lies at the heart of all of life.” (Texts for Preaching, Year B, p 307)

Not quid pro quo or transactional

God loves us first- no matter what - without any action on our part we are recipients of God’s love.

We are called to respond to that initial gift by loving ourselves and others in the same way “Contrary to our inclination toward quid pro quo, God has decided in our favor apart from our ability to reciprocate, gracing us with love prior to and independent of any response we might offer, for no reason other than that love is the very nature of God that is knowable by human beings.... Love is not one thing among many that God does; everything that God does is loving” (Clifton Black, New Interpreter’s Bible, volume XII, p. 433).

Love is not just a feeling, it is a conscious decision to act for the good of others. Thus, love is easily seen.

There is evidence of love that can be pointed to. It is not earned, but it is examined.

Circular Logic

“The theology of 1 John contains a certain circularity in that the concepts of 1 John 4:7-21 mutually interpret one another. God is love. When we love, God abides in us. We cannot see God but when we love, we know God abides in us. If we do not love sisters and brothers whom we do see, then we cannot love God whom we cannot physically see. When we love our sisters and brothers, we love God which, in turn, shows that God is love.” (Ron Allen, from Process and Faith)

God is love. God’s love is revealed in Jesus. We are to abide in Jesus. This is revealed in how we love.

THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS

How do we talk about God’s love without trivializing or romanticizing it? How do we confess that God is love to those that do not feel God’s love? Peculiar start to Psalm 22 (which the lection cuts out) might be helpful.

Even in forsakenness, God is love.

The Gospel and Epistle reading work so beautifully together, it is no wonder some call them the same author, and most consider them to be of the same community. Some even read the letters of John as the first Biblical commentary, and must be read in conjunction with the Gospel. Abiding in Jesus, being grafted into the vine, is done through love. There is no way to be a Christian and not love others.

The part that is easily missed in this letter is the adversary. This letter is to a community that is under fire.

There is conflict. There are false teachers. In the previous paragraph, the writer indirectly points to those who don’t “confess Jesus Christ has come as a human” (1 John 4:3). Yet the call to the abused community, time and again, is love. Never does the writer encourage those to seek out and destroy, defeat, or even convince the false teachers. They are simply encouraged to love as Christ loved. Love each other. That is all.