Rooted in Love

Transcription

1 John 15: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide 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. 5 I 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. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 1

2 Rooted in Love We think of the Bible as a spiritual book, and of course it is. It is the Word of God. Yet the Bible often expresses the truth of God with the most earthy imagery. It isn t afraid to get down in the dirt with us, quite literally. The Bible is filled with agricultural images, i.e., with images of soil and earth. If we look only at Jesus parables we hear him speak of seeds, trees, fruit, roots, weeds, wheat, and farmers fields. And, although not a parable, today s passage presents us with yet another image drawn from agriculture the vine. As someone who has spent most of his adult life in and around cities, many of these agricultural images feel a bit distant to me. The closest I ve ever come to seeing an actual grapevine is in a glass of Pinot Grigio. Which is to say I m more familiar with the finished product than I am with the raw materials. Perhaps if Jesus were to come to our world today, where most of our populations live in urban environments, rather than the grapevine, he might use a more modern metaphor [SLIDE]. I am the network. Plug in to me. Stay connected to me. Then again, maybe not. There is something universal about this image of the grapevine. Perhaps we ve only seen pictures, but we know how grapes grow on branches connected to one another through a network of vines [SLIDE]. Jesus likens himself to such a vine. In other words, he is the source of life for the branches that are connected to him. As the vine is the life s blood of the branches, nourishing them and sustaining them with energy so that they can bear fruit, so Jesus is the life s blood of the disciples, nourishing and sustaining them not only while he is alive, but even in his death. In John 15 Jesus knows that his death is drawing near [SLIDE]. Chapter 15 is set within the context of the Last Supper sort of. I say sort of because unlike the 2

3 other Gospels, in John there is no institution of the Lord s Supper. Jesus does not use the words that we will hear later in this service as we celebrate the Lord s Supper together: Take, eat. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. While John s Gospel does not feature this command from Jesus to continue to celebrate this meal in his honor, it does feature other words of Jesus a lot of them, in fact. Beginning in chapter 13 and continuing until chapter 17 i.e., for five entire chapters, or one quarter of the Gospel Jesus sits and talks with the disciples. It is the last time the twelve of them spend together with him before his death. It is his farewell discourse, and he has much to tell them. He began this long goodbye not with any words but by kneeling down and washing the disciples feet. That was in chapter 13. Later in chapter 14 he let the disciples know that he would be leaving them but that he would not be leaving them alone. He assured them that the Holy Spirit would come and continue to guide them. Now in chapter 15 he is reminding them that even in his absence they are called to bear fruit and that they can only do so as long as they abide in him. That s not such a common word abide [SLIDE]. It s a small word but it has multiple meanings, each with its own nuance. It can mean any of the following: (1) to endure or put up with ( I cannot abide your rude behavior ); (2) to accept without objection ( to abide the judge s decision ); (3) to wait for ( to abide the coming of the Lord ); (4) to remain or continue in a particular condition (if you ve seen the movie The Big Lebowski, you may remember the phrase the Dude abides ); and (5) to dwell or reside. This last meaning becomes clear when we think of the related word abode, which shares the same root as abide. An abode is the place where one lives. It s a dwelling, a home. Perhaps because abide has so many meanings some Bibles choose instead to use the word remain. Remain in me as I also remain in you says the NIV, a popular Bible translation. I understand the appeal of opting for remain. It s simple. It s clear. It s direct. No one will need to reach for a dictionary to search for its meaning. 3

4 To remain is to be settled in a fixed place. Don t move this way or that. Remain where you are. Although I understand the NIV s decision for clarity and simplicity, I really like what our translation, the NRSV, does by using abide. It s not as clear and direct, but I think it gets closer to what Jesus is saying. I think that especially because of the last sense of the world that I mentioned a moment ago, i.e., to dwell or reside. Abide in me means live in me. Make your abode in me. Live here. It s active. Remain is more passive. It suggests not moving. Remain says don t go anywhere, whereas abide says be here. Jesus is calling the disciples to something active. He is calling them to bear fruit. The whole point of abiding in Jesus is to bear fruit: Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me, he tells them (Jn. 15:4). Another interesting thing about this word abide, it appears twenty-four times in the New Testament [SLIDE]. Actually, that s not the interesting part. The interesting part is that all but one of them twenty-three out of twenty-four occur either in the Gospel of John or in one of the letters of John. Last week we saw how the title Good Shepherd was unique to John. Now we see another instance of John using his own unique vocabulary regarding Jesus. John s perspective is different from that of the other Gospel writers. Part of that may be due to John s personality, but another factor is his context. Of the four Gospels, John was written last, near the end of the first century. John was written at a time when the early Christian movement had acquired its own identity apart from Judaism. Christianity, we must remember, began as a movement within Judaism. Most of the earliest followers of Christ considered themselves Jews. But by the time John was writing, which was about sixty years after Christ s death, Christians 4

5 perceived themselves, and were perceived by others, as having diverged from Judaism. John, therefore, is writing to the church. It s good to remember this because it serves as a necessary corrective to the excessive individualism that can often be found, not only in the culture, but sometimes in the church as well. I am mostly referring to American culture, which for better and for worse, emphasizes the rights of the individual. There are 300 million of us, but we have a stronger sense of our individuality than we do of our commonality [SLIDE]. We decorate our cars with bumper stickers to highlight our political or religious beliefs or lack thereof. They scream look at me! By contrast, I don t think I ve seen one bumper sticker since I ve been in Korea. Individuality is in our national DNA. The Declaration of Independence, the document that asserted we did not want to be a part of England but could rule ourselves, famously says that it is self evident that every individual has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We believe strongly in our individuality, not only when it comes to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but even when it comes to our faith. American Christianity, at least some strands of it, is highly individualistic. It emphasizes personal salvation and the relationship between the individual and Jesus Christ. We hear it in the type of evangelism that asks potential converts, Are you saved?, as if personal salvation was all that Christ cared about. It wasn t. In the Gospels Jesus speaks much more about the kingdom of God, i.e., a community, than he does personal salvation. When we re so focused on ourselves, we lose sight of the fact that Christ calls us into community. That is what the church is Christ s community. We are a community gathered by and for Christ. It even says so on the home page of our Website! We are all branches connected to the vine of Christ. Well, I ve addressed America, but what about our context? Things are different here, no doubt. It s true that Asian culture in general, and Korean culture in particular, tends to emphasize community and shared identity versus individuality. Blending 5

6 in is more valued than standing out. We see examples of this throughout society, e.g., [SLIDE] in school uniforms, [SLIDE] in mandatory military service, [SLIDE] in the sameness of all the K-pop groups (I m sorry, it s true), [SLIDE] in the fact that when the national soccer team plays every spectator wears red, [SLIDE] and in the fact that nine out of ten cars on the road are silver Hyundai Elantras. However, one exception to this emphasis on community is the Korean church, which, it must be noted, has been greatly influenced by the American evangelical church. I am making a generalization, but in general and throughout its history the Korean church has tended to emphasize the salvation of the individual, apart from, and almost in opposition to, any sense of shared identity and responsibility. This church is an exception. Our senior pastor focuses on the kingdom of God. I am reminded of what an exception this church is whenever someone not from our church hands me a religious tract. I often walk to and from church its about three kilometers from my apartment to the church and a few times now I have been handed religious tracts that told me of my need for personal salvation. That in itself is fine, but there was no mention of my relationships with, and responsibilities to, other Christians or other people in general. It was all about me my faith, my salvation. The type of church that Jesus describes in today s passage from John looks nothing like this. Maybe we missed it when we first read the passage, but in the metaphor of the vine Jesus is describing the church. He is also talking to the church, for the disciples are the founding members. And Jesus has a particular message for the disciples [SLIDE]: Abide in me as I abide in you. I think Jesus knows that the disciples might be confused by his words. The concept likely sounded strange to them, so Jesus uses a metaphor to help them understand: Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches (Jn. 15:4-5). 6

7 The branches abide in the vine, which nourishes and sustains them. They are each individual branches. They each take a different form and shape. Some are longer or shorter. Some are thicker or thinner. But they are all connected to the vine, and through the vine they are all connected to each other. What s more, the life of the branches is in the vine. Because they are connected to the vine the branches can bear fruit. Jesus wants the disciples to bear fruit. This is not news to them. Jesus has already told them, as we ourselves heard a few weeks ago in John 12, [U]nless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (Jn. 12:24). In one sense he says this to prepare them for his death. But he also is directing it to their own lives, as today s passage makes more clear. They are to abide in him so that they can bear fruit. This now is the hardest part of the sermon for me. I thought about defining what it means for us to bear fruit [SLIDE]. Is it worship gathering in Christ s name to declare our praise? Is it evangelism sharing the Gospel? Is it works of social justice supporting the cause of the poor, the hungry, the homeless? Is it acts of personal piety things like prayer and Scripture reading? Is it Christian education preaching and teaching that ensures faithfulness to sound doctrine? Is it missions being sent as God s ambassadors at home and abroad? What does it mean to bear fruit? As you see, the question led only to more questions. But I wanted to quantify it. I wanted it to be measurable. I wanted to put a name and a number on it and say, This is what it looks like. After all, sermons are supposed to end with some sort of application or call to action, but I was at a loss for identifying what that might be. Now go and bear fruit? And then I had an epiphany a sudden realization Jesus never defines what he means when he tells the disciples to bear fruit. He doesn t give them a specific answer. He tells them to do it, but he doesn t tell them how to do it. But he does tell 7

8 them one thing the most important thing that they can only bear fruit if they abide in him [SLIDE]. I call our attention again to verse 4: Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me (Jn. 15:4). The most important thing isn t the fruit. Jesus isn t creating a plan of attack for the disciples. He isn t giving them a roadmap with the route neatly drawn out. He never tells them what the fruit looks, smells, or tastes like. But he does tell them that bearing fruit means being connected to him. As Christ s modern-day disciples, the source of our life as a church is not evangelism, or worship, or social justice, or personal piety, or Christian education, or missions. Don t get me wrong: those are all good things. They are expressions of our common bond in Christ. They are the sweet fruit that feeds a spiritually starving world. They are signs of our life in Christ. But the source of our life as a church does not lie in a sign in anything we say or do but rather, in a person in Jesus Christ himself [SLIDE]. He is the vine that binds the branches together, that gives them life so that they may bear fruit. We are rooted in Christ himself, which is to say, we are rooted in love. 8