Morning Worship
3rd May 2015
Sermon
I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I wonder how many people here can remember the reading they had on their wedding day? I mention it, because we had the passage that you heard for our Gospel reading today. Neither of us wanted 1 Corinthians 13 and this passage, which is one of my favourites, seemed to be a good illustration of what I hoped our marriage would be – two branches yet grafted into one vine. I’m saying no more.
As I said, I love this passage; there is so much in it. To me, it’s reassuring because it speaks of the close relationship that Jesus wants us to have with him. It’s exciting because he doesn’t just want us to be close to him, but actually part of him in some way. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul tells us that we are part of the body of Christ; here Jesus tells us that we are a branch on the vine – not something tied, or added, on but actually one with it. This passage is also challenging, because it speaks of pruning.
Pruning may not be pleasant but it is necessary and something that God wants to do in us because he wants us to grow. My husband’s quite keen on pruning – usually as low as possible so that regrowth is slower. I don’t mind pruning, but I’m not as ruthless as he is, and don’t like pruning a branch if regrowth has already started. I’m not always that keen on God’s pruning either. But knowing that he cares about me so much, wants the best for me and wants me to be the person he made me to be, is pretty awesome. The secateurs are safe in our loving Father’s hands.
So there’s a lot in this passage; many gardening references to explore.But I wonder if there isn’t maybe another analogy here; one that may bring another perspective to the passage. Yes, a branch needs to stay attached to the vine, but that suggests a certain passivity. Branches don’t usually have a choice about that – they’re just there, and they remain there unless something happens to remove them. Jesus uses the word “abide” or “remain” 7 times in the passage we heard this morning and, according to my Greek dictionary some of the meanings given for this word are; live, dwell, lodge, abide, persist, and continue to live. “The Message” simply uses the phrase “make your home in”. I would suggest that living or making a home is something that we can choose to do. I think that many people these days can choose where they want to live and the type of house they move into. Even if someone was forced to move to another part of the country, to take a job or for financial reasons, there may still be some flexibility on the house they choose and even if this was denied them, they would be able to choose how to decorate their house, what furnishings and colour schemes to have and so on. When Keith and I moved to Surrey from the Midlands, we had a rented bungalow in the grounds of St George’s College, where Keith use to work. In some ways, renting was an advantage, but it never really felt like home to me. I wasn’t sure what we could do about decorating, or buying new carpets, and if we’d needed anything big doing we would have had to ask permission and wait for the school to arrange for it to be done. My room in the nurses’ home in Birmingham was a bit like that too. It was ok, and was where I stayed for a while, but it wasn’t really mine. When we move into a new house we can make it ours, personalise it, move the rooms around, an extension or change the colour scheme – and believe me, that was one of the first things I did after getting married and moving into Keith’s flat.
And maybe this is the point – that we need to be attached to Jesus, the life-giving vine, but that it is our choice to do so. God has created us, called us, chosen us and saved us, but we have a choice whether to follow and obey him, or not. We can live somewhere else or we can live in Jesus – bearing in mind also that Jesus has said that we do not belong to the world and that we cannot serve 2 masters.
So what does it mean to live in Jesus? Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” a number of times and John uses it again in the first of his letters. In his commentary on John’s letters, David Pawson tells how a German soldier told him that once, in “Hitler Youth” he was taken before an officer and asked where he lived.
“In Stuttgart sir, “he said.
“Wrong, where do you live?”
“In German sir”,
“wrong, where do you live?”.
In the 3rd Reich sir”
“wrong, where do you live?”.
This went on for a while until the young man said, “I don’t know what I am supposed to say, sir” At which point the officer said, “you say, ‘I live in Hitler’; that is where you belong.” Years later, that boy was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in England, where a lay preacher used to push sandwiches to him through the barbed wire fence. This former member of Hitler youth is now a Christian and Minister of the Gospel, and if you asked him today where he lived, he would say “in Christ. I am
abiding in Christ; he is where I belong.”
Obviously we can’t actually live inside another person but we can belong to them; we can belong to Christ. This reading from John’s Gospel is the one that is often read at our covenant service each year, just before our Minister urges us to give ourselves to God, and we respond with the words, “I am no longer my own, but yours.” Charles Wesley’s hymn “And Can it be?” includes the words, “Jesus, and all in him is mine”, and a more modern song says “for I am his and he is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ”. The NT tells us over and over again that Jesus died for our sins so that we might be reconciled to God, and that if we are, then we belong to him. In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us also that the Holy Spirit witnesses to us that we are God’s own children, members of his family and have been adopted by him. Sin separated us from God, but God wanted us to belong to him and be his children, and so did everything to allow that to happen. We can belong to God.
I think it’s also true to say that we can live for God; that he can be the centre of our lives, our focus, our Lord and our reason for living. People live for all sorts of things today. We may have seen recent pictures of ardent royalists; those who collect every book, article and piece of memorabilia that is written or produced on the Royal Family. Others might feel that way about a football club, film star or celebrity. Some people live entirely for their partners or children. None of these things are particularly wrong, but the level of dependence, or obsession, may be unhealthy. If the film star gets married or dies; if the children leave home or get married, or if the partner leaves, for whatever reason, it can leave the other person feeling bereft, distraught and questioning their self-worth.
Paul told the church in Philippi, “For me, to live IS Christ”. I wonder how we would inish the sentence “for me, to live is ……..? Church membership, maybe? My family? Work? Doing good deeds? None of these things are wrong, but I think it may be
unhealthy to define our lives by them. For Paul, life was about Jesus; he lived for Jesus, he did all the things he did and suffered all the things he suffered for Jesus.
So living in Jesus means belonging to him and living for him. How do we know though if we are living in him? I think that the answer to that can be found in the 1st reading we had today. We know we live in God because we love one another. John says twice in this passage that God is love. If we live in God, we are living in love and will naturally show love. John says earlier in his letter, that we love because God first loved us. If we really accept and know that God loves us, just as we are, sinners, and that he loved us before we could do anything to try to earn that love, then our response to that will surely be to love him. If we love him, then we will want to live as he wants us to, be the people he wants us to be and obey his commands. This is not something which we try to do in our own strength, but something that will flow from knowing, receiving and living in God’s love.
So we are called to live in God; to choose to be with him, belong to him and live for him. Having chosen this, we are called to continue to live, remain and abide in him. We will know that we live in him if we love one another; in fact other people will know that we belong to him if we show love. By this, will all know you are my disciples; if you have love for one another. My prayer, for this church and indeed this circuit, is that we will all know, truly know and accept that God loves us and wants us to be his children, part of the vine, living in his Son. Then I believe we will be released and empowered to love him and to tell others about him.
Mrs Gill Taggart
As I said, I love this passage; there is so much in it. To me, it’s reassuring because it speaks of the close relationship that Jesus wants us to have with him. It’s exciting because he doesn’t just want us to be close to him, but actually part of him in some way. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul tells us that we are part of the body of Christ; here Jesus tells us that we are a branch on the vine – not something tied, or added, on but actually one with it. This passage is also challenging, because it speaks of pruning.
Pruning may not be pleasant but it is necessary and something that God wants to do in us because he wants us to grow. My husband’s quite keen on pruning – usually as low as possible so that regrowth is slower. I don’t mind pruning, but I’m not as ruthless as he is, and don’t like pruning a branch if regrowth has already started. I’m not always that keen on God’s pruning either. But knowing that he cares about me so much, wants the best for me and wants me to be the person he made me to be, is pretty awesome. The secateurs are safe in our loving Father’s hands.
So there’s a lot in this passage; many gardening references to explore.But I wonder if there isn’t maybe another analogy here; one that may bring another perspective to the passage. Yes, a branch needs to stay attached to the vine, but that suggests a certain passivity. Branches don’t usually have a choice about that – they’re just there, and they remain there unless something happens to remove them. Jesus uses the word “abide” or “remain” 7 times in the passage we heard this morning and, according to my Greek dictionary some of the meanings given for this word are; live, dwell, lodge, abide, persist, and continue to live. “The Message” simply uses the phrase “make your home in”. I would suggest that living or making a home is something that we can choose to do. I think that many people these days can choose where they want to live and the type of house they move into. Even if someone was forced to move to another part of the country, to take a job or for financial reasons, there may still be some flexibility on the house they choose and even if this was denied them, they would be able to choose how to decorate their house, what furnishings and colour schemes to have and so on. When Keith and I moved to Surrey from the Midlands, we had a rented bungalow in the grounds of St George’s College, where Keith use to work. In some ways, renting was an advantage, but it never really felt like home to me. I wasn’t sure what we could do about decorating, or buying new carpets, and if we’d needed anything big doing we would have had to ask permission and wait for the school to arrange for it to be done. My room in the nurses’ home in Birmingham was a bit like that too. It was ok, and was where I stayed for a while, but it wasn’t really mine. When we move into a new house we can make it ours, personalise it, move the rooms around, an extension or change the colour scheme – and believe me, that was one of the first things I did after getting married and moving into Keith’s flat.
And maybe this is the point – that we need to be attached to Jesus, the life-giving vine, but that it is our choice to do so. God has created us, called us, chosen us and saved us, but we have a choice whether to follow and obey him, or not. We can live somewhere else or we can live in Jesus – bearing in mind also that Jesus has said that we do not belong to the world and that we cannot serve 2 masters.
So what does it mean to live in Jesus? Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” a number of times and John uses it again in the first of his letters. In his commentary on John’s letters, David Pawson tells how a German soldier told him that once, in “Hitler Youth” he was taken before an officer and asked where he lived.
“In Stuttgart sir, “he said.
“Wrong, where do you live?”
“In German sir”,
“wrong, where do you live?”.
In the 3rd Reich sir”
“wrong, where do you live?”.
This went on for a while until the young man said, “I don’t know what I am supposed to say, sir” At which point the officer said, “you say, ‘I live in Hitler’; that is where you belong.” Years later, that boy was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in England, where a lay preacher used to push sandwiches to him through the barbed wire fence. This former member of Hitler youth is now a Christian and Minister of the Gospel, and if you asked him today where he lived, he would say “in Christ. I am
abiding in Christ; he is where I belong.”
Obviously we can’t actually live inside another person but we can belong to them; we can belong to Christ. This reading from John’s Gospel is the one that is often read at our covenant service each year, just before our Minister urges us to give ourselves to God, and we respond with the words, “I am no longer my own, but yours.” Charles Wesley’s hymn “And Can it be?” includes the words, “Jesus, and all in him is mine”, and a more modern song says “for I am his and he is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ”. The NT tells us over and over again that Jesus died for our sins so that we might be reconciled to God, and that if we are, then we belong to him. In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us also that the Holy Spirit witnesses to us that we are God’s own children, members of his family and have been adopted by him. Sin separated us from God, but God wanted us to belong to him and be his children, and so did everything to allow that to happen. We can belong to God.
I think it’s also true to say that we can live for God; that he can be the centre of our lives, our focus, our Lord and our reason for living. People live for all sorts of things today. We may have seen recent pictures of ardent royalists; those who collect every book, article and piece of memorabilia that is written or produced on the Royal Family. Others might feel that way about a football club, film star or celebrity. Some people live entirely for their partners or children. None of these things are particularly wrong, but the level of dependence, or obsession, may be unhealthy. If the film star gets married or dies; if the children leave home or get married, or if the partner leaves, for whatever reason, it can leave the other person feeling bereft, distraught and questioning their self-worth.
Paul told the church in Philippi, “For me, to live IS Christ”. I wonder how we would inish the sentence “for me, to live is ……..? Church membership, maybe? My family? Work? Doing good deeds? None of these things are wrong, but I think it may be
unhealthy to define our lives by them. For Paul, life was about Jesus; he lived for Jesus, he did all the things he did and suffered all the things he suffered for Jesus.
So living in Jesus means belonging to him and living for him. How do we know though if we are living in him? I think that the answer to that can be found in the 1st reading we had today. We know we live in God because we love one another. John says twice in this passage that God is love. If we live in God, we are living in love and will naturally show love. John says earlier in his letter, that we love because God first loved us. If we really accept and know that God loves us, just as we are, sinners, and that he loved us before we could do anything to try to earn that love, then our response to that will surely be to love him. If we love him, then we will want to live as he wants us to, be the people he wants us to be and obey his commands. This is not something which we try to do in our own strength, but something that will flow from knowing, receiving and living in God’s love.
So we are called to live in God; to choose to be with him, belong to him and live for him. Having chosen this, we are called to continue to live, remain and abide in him. We will know that we live in him if we love one another; in fact other people will know that we belong to him if we show love. By this, will all know you are my disciples; if you have love for one another. My prayer, for this church and indeed this circuit, is that we will all know, truly know and accept that God loves us and wants us to be his children, part of the vine, living in his Son. Then I believe we will be released and empowered to love him and to tell others about him.
Mrs Gill Taggart
Image courtesy of Gualberto107 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
