May 3- I John 4, John 15:1-8
John 15:1-8 I’m attracted to this image of the vine in that the branches are connected to each other through the vine. I don’t think we can find any distinctions between the various branches of the vine. When I think of a vine, I think of a lush tangle of growth and fruit. It’s hard to tell an individual branch amidst the weaving of growth. WWW stands for a web, interconnections.
From an early age we are trained to be independent, to make it on our own. The truth is that when we get disconnected from each other and from God, we get disconnected to our own selves. When a prayer goes unanswered, we may feel that God is disconnected from us. A lost friendship does diminish the quality of our lives. When we get cut off from each other, we lose the connection that allows fellow feeling. Sadly, some relationships do wither on the vine. Poisons threaten the branches that prevent the nutrients from reaching them
We know that distance does not have to undercut connection. Communication builds up the strength of our relationships. We speak of a wired, or better, wireless world for connection. When I was in Bloomington, I was struck by so many of the students walking about with cell phones pressed to their ears. My daughter’s phone has one type of ring for calls and another for a mysterious, to me, form of communication called texting, or receiving short thought bubbles, tweets. We can directly use some of the same notions for prayer life. I guess we could call short prayers as tweets. I love the idea of keeping our spiritual cell phones close to our ears to hear what message God may well be sending us. Cut off from the vine, we may allow ourselves to wither away from it.
Easter life is life that pulses with new growth and abundant living. Easter life is a life of connection to the source of our very being, a constant transmission of life-giving energy to each one of us. We are not made to wither on the vine, but to flourish..“We bear fruit not by squeezing it out of ourselves but because we are extensions of the vine. God who wants us to be fruitful. God’s love, presence, are abiding place of our soul.
If we want to bear Jesus’ fruit, to abide in him, in his love-kinship language- Love not self-generated-, but a gift.we are both conduits of it and live through it. Jesus as one and only begotten, one of a kind-Jesus in this world, -loved us in and through Jesus -mutual love is here, very sign of remaining abiding indwelling.maturity moves us toward the goal, purpose of God so it fits,perfects-this is what we are designed to be together. We are recipients of divine love-but it has both vertical and horizontal dimensions of love. Recognizing and staying connected
v.10 has the reformed emphasis on God as the source of love. Our love is a response. Perfect love casts our fear.(v.18). To what degree does fear of punishment motivate us? Should it be religious motivation? v. 8, 16 assert:How is this prone to becoming overly sentimental?-love perfected (v.12) has the sense of a purpose fulfilled, a telos, an end, a goal met. It could be seen as the abstract made concrete. I love that it refuses to separate love of God and love for others. It is a direct assault on the sort of piety that judges others harshly and sees others as objects, not people to love. God is love. What does that mean to you?
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