Come Monday
John 15:1-10
“Come Monday, it'll be all right
Come Monday, I'll be holdin' you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L. A. haze
And I just want you back by my side”
-Jimmy Buffett
Within each of us is a desire for this
kind of relationship with someone.
Someone whose presence makes everything seem bearable. Someone whose love and
acceptance make us feel better than we are. Someone who so loves us and
wants what is best for us that we know that when we rest in that
person’s arms that everything will be all right.
At their best, marriage and family gives
us that kind of relationship. As
Robert Frost famously said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go
there, they have to take you in.” At their best husbands and wives, brothers and sisters,
grandparents, aunts and uncles are those people who love us no matter
what and in whose arms we find comfort and security.
That’s why there are people who spend
their lives searching for that perfect person: the husband who
fulfills them, the mother-figure who loves them, the friend who never
lets them down, the perfect church, the perfect family, the perfect
relationship.
The problem is that while all these
relationships fulfill important needs in our lives, they are only a
taste of what we were created for.
All human relationships are fragile. We are sinners—broken
humans—and we hurt each other. We
are mortal—we die—and we leave those we love. We are temporal—limited by
time and space. We can
only be one place at one time. So if we are stuck in a brown LA haze,
we can’t possibly rest in the arms of the one we love in
Alabama
.
These relationships are a taste, but only
a taste of what God desires for us.
At their best, they simply point toward the love, acceptance
and security of relationship with the one who created us. There is no one person, one
relationship, one family or one congregation that can complete us. We were created for
relationship with God and it is only in that relationship that we find
ourselves complete—whole. Perhaps that is why the Greek word for
“save” also means “heal” and that there is a strong
relationship between being holy and being whole.
Listen to the words of Jesus spoken on the
night before he gave his life for us:
”I am the true vine, and my Father is
the vinegrower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears
no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more
fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I
have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as
the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you
are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not
abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches
are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and
it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my
love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his
love John 15:1-10
Abide in me as I abide in you! In ten short verses, Jesus says
the word abide eleven times.
What does it mean to abide? In Eugene Peterson’s
translation the passage is:
"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in
you. . . .I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with
me and I with you, the relation is intimate and organic . . . . 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.” John 15:4a, 5a, 9b-10
To abide in Christ is to make ourselves at home in him. Abiding is not visiting. It is
not weekend visitation nor is it just passing through. The word “abide” means to
live, to dwell, to persist, to remain.
Abiding is not dating or hooking up. Abiding is remaining in
relationship in the good times and the bad, in sickness and in health,
when rich and when poor. No
wonder marriage is used throughout the bible as a metaphor for the
relationship of the people of God with God and adultery as the
metaphor for idolatry!
To abide with God is to pray without ceasing, to be in
constant communication with God. Daily
bible study and prayer as well as weekly worship is a part of abiding
in God but it simply isn’t enough.
Remember this is a marriage, not a dating relationship! Abiding in God is not just
calling out when things are really bad or praising and thanking when
things are good. Abiding
in God means talking to God about your everyday struggles and joys.
Abiding in God is asking God’s guidance in all the myriad of daily
decisions: what or what
not to buy, who or who not to hang out with, what to say or not to
say, what to do or not to do.
I was talking to someone just this week who is struggling
with a major hurt in her life. And
she told me that in the face of that pain, she opened her Bible and
began to read the Psalms. As
she opened her Bible and called out to God for comfort and strength,
she was abiding in God. She—the
branch—was drawing her strength from the true vine—the source of
her being. She was
abiding—resting—dwelling in the arms of God!
But abiding means more than just taking from God without
giving back. When a
branch takes nutrients from the vine, the natural result is fruit. When we abide in God, then we
will produce fruit. We
will keep God’s commandments. And
here Jesus is not referring to the laws of the Hebrew Scripture or
even the lists of ethical demands that the gospels of Matthew and Luke
and the letters of Paul will give us.
Rather Jesus refers here to his command to the disciples: Love one another as I have
loved you.
You are greatly loved by God! Do you realize that? Husbands and wives may betray.
Mothers and fathers may abandon. Friends
may disappoint. But
God’s love is steadfast! No
matter how broken we are. No
matter how sinful we are. No
matter how far we may run from God. God still loves us! All you have to do is accept
it, rest in it, abide in it.
There is a wonderful old story of an Irish priest who
sees a member of his parish kneeling by the side of the road praying. Impressed by the old
peasant’s devotion to God, the priest says, “You must be very
close to God.” The old
man looked up from his prayers, thought a moment, and then smiling
said, “Yes, he’s very fond of me.”
God is very fond of you.
And if you abide in that love, then you will be very fond of
those God loves!
It’s the cross-shaped life we’ve talked about before. A life that reaches up to God
and out to those God loves!
Love is the essence of the Christian life. And if we miss this important
truth, we miss the essence of God because even God’s justice and
wrath is rooted in God’s love. God’s
love requires anger when we sin in the same way we must get angry when
someone we love persists in doing things that are harmful to them. God’s love requires justice
in the same way our love for others requires us to cry out for justice
on their behalf when they are misused, abused and mistreated. God cannot be both loving and
unjust. And love—true
love—demands righteous anger and wrath when those we love are
treated unjustly.
Love is the essence of God and the essence of the
Christian life!
So you can follow all the rules. You can be in church every time
the doors open. You can go on an Emmaus Walk, take all the Disciple
Bible Studies, and read your bible every day. You can proudly proclaim that
you have never cussed, drank, smoked let alone steal or kill. But if you do not love, you are
not abiding in God!
You are an unfruitful branch in need of pruning!
Now let’s be honest here:
All of us are in need of some pruning! All of us have some attitudes
and habits that need to be removed if we are to abide fully in God. We
carry grudges. We fear. We
judge. We talk about
others. We believe our
needs are more important than the needs of others. We secretly think we are not
deserving of God’s love or we secretly suspect we are somehow more
deserving. We are
unfaithful to God, filling our lives with relationship and things
which mimic the love, acceptance and security of God. We worship our homes, our jobs,
our families, our country, our money, and our things. Then try to
justify them as love of God.
We need pruning.
Now I am the world’s worst gardener! And one of the reasons I am
such a poor gardener is that I hate to prune anything. In those rare cases when I get
something to grow and to flourish, I just can’t bring myself to cut
them back and the result is an unproductive plant. It looks good for awhile
but then . . . Any good gardener will tell you
if you want something to grow to be healthy, you have to prune. Pruning allows the nutrients to
flow to the fruit and the result is larger fruit, a healthier plant,
and a more productive harvest.
Pruning purifies the plant.
It removes the unhealthy, nutrient zapping parts of the plant
so that the plant can flourish.
What needs pruning in your life? Are you hanging on to an old
grudge or resentment that prevents you from forgiving and which zaps
your energy and passion for the things of God? Are there addictions and habits
in your life that are like dead undergrowth choking the very life out
of you? Are you spreading
yourself too thin? Giving everyone and everything your time, talent
and gifts so that you have little or nothing left over for your
relationship with God?
God is indeed very fond of you. Why miss out on that love?! What needs to be pruned
in your life so that you can abide in that love and so you can keep
Jesus’ commandment to love others as he loves you?
God is indeed very fond of you and wants you to live in
deep and organic relationship with him!
But here is more! When
we abide in God’s love, we not only receive the nurture of God’s
love but we also join ourselves with God’s people!
We weren’t created to go it alone! God created us to live in
relationship with him and with other people.
If you’ve ever been to a vineyard, you have seen the
rows and rows of pruned healthy grapevines. The vine comes out of the
ground and is quickly engulfed in the branches which twine around and
around the vine and around and around each other. The branches which abide in the
vine also abide with each other. So
it is with those who abide in Christ.
We are nurtured by the true vine but we are also supported and
encouraged by the other branches which are abiding in that same vine.
At its best, the church is our extended family. That is why at baptism we
promise to surround the newly baptized—whether they are 6 weeks old
or 60 years old—with a community of
love and forgiveness so that they may grow in their trust of
God, and be faithful in their service to others.
It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a church
to raise a Christian.
Just as the branches entwine themselves around the vine
and each other, so too we are called to deeply abide in God so that we
can surround one another with love and forgiveness and in doing so we
are all strengthened.
Then when families fail, when marriages fall apart, when
parents abandon, when the storms of life assail us, we stand rather
than fall because we have the support and love of God and of one
another.
Martin Luther King Jr. in
The Strength to Love tells of a particular tension packed week
that included arrest and threats on his life. He spoke at a mass
meeting where at the end of the meeting a woman came to him in front
of the church and said, "Something is wrong with you. You didn't
talk strong tonight." "Oh, nothing is wrong," replied
King. "Now, you can't fool me. I done told you. We are with you
all the way. And even if we ain't with you, God's gonna take care of
you."
This past week, I’ve
had the privilege of seeing the church begin the church: branches
firmly attached to the vine and supporting one another. I saw it last
week as some of you listened before and after worship to the hurts and
struggles of each other. I
saw it as you prayed for Wayne and then brought food and presence to
Denise in her grief. I saw
it as I passed the Outreach Center and saw people coming out the door
with much need clothing. I
see it when you lift each other up in prayer. I love seeing the church being
the church! When we do
those things , we lift our voices and proclaim, “Because God is with
us, we are with you all the way and you don’t ever have to wait on
Monday for comfort and strength because even if we fail you, God’s
gonna take care of you!”
This is the good news of
Jesus Christ: Those who
abide in God never have to wait for Monday to come!
You don’t have to
search for the perfect man or woman or the perfect family or even the
perfect church! God is
always there for you!
God’s arms are always
open for us to rest in his love. And
if that promise seems somehow empty to you, perhaps you need to look
within your life to see what unfruitful branches remain in your life. Ask God to prune them so
you can abide more firmly in his love and share his love more fully
with the world.
Those who abide in
God’s love know that everything may not always be easy but
everything will be alright because all things work together for good
for those who love the Lord. We—God’s church - are with you all
the way. And even if we
ain’t with you, God’s gonna take care of you!
Thanks be to God!
|
