Sunday, May 11, 2014

4th Easter 2014, All Depends

4th Easter
John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you.
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.
These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.
No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.
You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.
If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.
Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.
If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

4th Easter

May 11, 2014
John 15: 1 -27

A good gardener removes dead branches. This is not only for esthetics. It is also because on some invisible level, a dead branch becomes something that prevents the plant or tree from filling out its own form properly. Something dead becomes a place the plant has to work around. It weakens the tree’s energy.
We too may have dead areas in our lives. On the physical level, the ‘dead branches’ are those things and objects we never use. We may even be paying rent, pouring out our monetary energy, to store them! Emotionally such branches may be relationships that are no longer living, perhaps even debilitating. Spiritually our dead branches may be practices in prayer or meditation or reading that have become stale and no longer vital. Once we remove what is no longer living, our life, on all levels, can take on its own proper form. For the essence of living things is change – new growth, another flowering, seeds for new life. And because we are all connected, this new life affects everyone. The poet says:

Vine and branch we’re connected in this world
of sound and echo, figure and shadow, the leaves
contingent, roots pushing against earth. An apple
 
belongs to itself, to stem and tree, to air
that claims it, then ground. Connections
balance, each motion changes another. Precarious,
 
hanging together, we don’t know what our lives
support, and we touch in the least shift of breathing.
Each holy thing is borrowed.  Everything depends. [1]

Christ is the sap of our lives, individually and collectively. He bears and orders the life of the world.  He would penetrate us, give us new living forces, so that we may truly live, so that our lives together are fruitful, physically, emotionally, spiritually. The Good Gardener helps us trim our lives clean, so that we all remain strong, healthy and productive.




[1] Jeanne Lohmann , in Shaking the Tree

4th Easter 2013, A Great Need

4th Easter
John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you.
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.
These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.
No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.
You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.
If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.
Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.
If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’


But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning. 


4th Easter
Corrine Vonaesch
April 21, 2013
John 15: 1-27

Once in a while an appliance fails to work. Experience has probably taught us that the first thing to do is to first check that it is plugged in to the power source.

We humans are ‘plugged in’ to two different power sources. One is a survival system that is set to save our individual lives. Fear is its early warning system. When activated, we either fight or run.

The other power source is aroused by seeing need in others. It activates nurturing and cooperation. It supports the good of the whole. Another name for this is love.

Interestingly this second power source can override the fear-based one. Sourced by love, people can do amazing and courageous things, things which may threaten or even end their own personal survival.

Christ is the energy source for this second power source in us. To choose to act out of love is to connect with the Source of Love itself. Connected with Him, motivated by His power, tendrils of love grow into the world. They blossom into nurturing deeds, based on working together. They bear its nourishing fruit to all who need it. The poet Hafiz says:

Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.
Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For
That.[1]


Amazingly, Christ also needs us in order to operate in the world. Without our being sourced in Him, He can do nothing. He also needs us, needs us to be connected to Him, so that He can operate in the world, so that He can continue to keep the world alive.

www.thechristiancommunity.org



[1] “A GREAT NEED”, in The Gift – versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky). Picture: The Good Samaritan, by Corrine Vonaesch.