Fifth Sunday after Easter
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I came to this country in 1991. I still remember the first time someone asked me, “Are you saved? Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?” In all my years growing up in Germany, nobody had ever asked me that. It’s not a bad question. It just isn’t the kind of language I was used to in talking about faith.
I have since learned that I am not the only one who is a bit uncomfortable with this question. Many Lutherans, as well as Catholics, Episcopalians, Reformed Christians, Orthodox Christians, and others, don’t quite know how to respond to the question, “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?”
I admit, at times I am jealous of people with that faith tradition. In worship, they are asked to come to the altar and admit Jesus into their hearts and claim him as Lord. Long lines of people respond to the call and approach the altar. Watching this at, say, a Billy Graham crusade and seeing the masses of believers streaming to the altar to accept Jesus, that is an awesome sight. It almost makes me jealous.
This week in my sermon research, I read the words of a theologian who reminded me that we Lutherans and Catholics and Episcopalians also come to the altar on a regular basis. We don’t call it an “altar call”. We come for holy communion.
Think about it: what better way is there to accept Jesus into your heart than to eat his body and drink his blood? Is there a deeper way of expressing my desire to have Jesus in my life than to accept the bread and wine of his presence? In communion we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us, his death and resurrection for our salvation; in that, each communion celebration is a celebration of Jesus as my savior.
In our gospel reading today, Jesus desires for us to abide in him and he in us. This abiding is expressed in a really powerful way in holy communion. We eat the bread of Christ’s presence and we drink the wine of Christ’s love. What an amazing way to experience this abiding in Jesus Christ.
Jesus also talks about the vine and the branches. He is our vine. Out of him we grow; in him we are rooted. Think about what it looks like when we celebrate communion: Lines of people come down this aisle and go back via those aisles. They come to the altar and spread out again. From above, this looks just like a vine with branches going every which way. Here at the altar, the place of Christ’s presence, we are rooted. From here, nourished by the meal of Christ’s presence, with Christ abiding in us, we go forth to be Christ’s presence in the world; to bear fruit, as Jesus calls it today.
It is our abiding in Christ that helps us bear fruit.
One colleague had a parishioner say to him, “I go to church; what more does God want?” After biting his tongue, the pastor answered, “A whole lot more.” He said to us fellow clergy that he is afraid too many church members think that going to church, reading the Bible, and praying are the fruits they bring for God, and God should be happy with them.
In truth, though, worship and prayer and Bible study are more like the sap that runs from the vine into the branches. Those spiritual practices are how Christ abides in us and we in him. They give us the faith, the hope, the peace, the energy, the guidance, the calling, the urgency to bear fruit. Our ability to bear fruit for Christ depends on us reading the Bible, worshiping, and praying. That is why Christ says today that apart from him you can do nothing.
These are hard words to hear. In our self-reliant, individualistic culture, we pride ourselves on going it alone. Jesus’ assertion that we are dependent on him might not sit well with us.
They are true, however. And they are actually words of grace. Jesus says the words we read today on the last night he spends with his disciples. Jesus knows he will be dead soon. Therefore, he is trying to prepare his followers for the time when they can no longer see Jesus, can no longer enjoy his physical company.
On this last night together, Jesus gives them the promise of his ongoing support for them, his ongoing spiritual presence with them, and he uses for this promise an image they can easily remember: I am the vine. I will give you what you need: my love, my guidance, my presence, my encouragement, my forgiveness, my joy. Even when I am gone, you can still tap into my death-defying power, my love that casts out all fear.
These are words of promise that invite us to rely on Christ, the true vine, so that we can feel him abiding with us. The community of believers, the body of Christ in the world, will continue to be nourished by Jesus Christ. That is truly good news.
That also points us to the importance of being in community.
When we gather for worship, when we approach the altar for communion and look from above like the branches of the true vine, we do that with other Christians. We can’t do it alone. When we gather around God’s table, we proclaim that Christ is not only our personal savior, but also the savior of all the people surrounding us. It’s a group thing.
There is a verse in today’s gospel that has been used and abused by many believers. Jesus says: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Some people take this to be some kind of magic formula, something like a genie’s offer to grant three wishes. They think, “If I am good and study my Bible, God will have to answer my prayer requests.” This is not what Jesus means.
It doesn’t come through in English, but the “yous” in this verse are all plural. We could translate it as: If you all abide in me and my words abide in you all, whatever you may resolve, ask for it and it will come into being for you all.
What Jesus has in mind is that the believers together abide in Christ and Christ in them. The believers together remain rooted in the true vine. The believers together let Jesus’ nourishing sap run through them in worship, Bible study, and prayer. The believers together discern what Jesus wants them to do.
Several years ago, Calvary went through a process called LEAD. We did exactly the kind of discerning Jesus is talking about. By talking to God in prayer and reading scripture, and by asking questions among our people and in our neighborhoods, we wanted to learn what our calling might be. A lot of what we discerned is summed up in our mission statement: As followers of Jesus, we are called to be an inclusive and compassionate community, where everyone is connected in relationship with God and each other to foster wholeness of mind and soul.
When I read this mission statement side by side with today’s gospel, it strikes me that our calling is to invite other people to be rooted in Christ, so they can be nourished in faith and grow to bear fruit.
That’s what the mission of Mar-Lu Ridge is, our synod’s camp. Rooting children, youth, families and adults in the love of our Savior is what they are all about, and in doing that, they transform lives.
We are receiving new members into our faith family today. Many of you have shared with us how welcoming you experienced this congregation to be. You joined us at the communion table, became branches of the vine of Jesus growing here, and received the nourishment you sought so you could grow in faith and bear fruit.
This week, I witnessed as powerful example of the blessing it is to be part of the vine rooted in Christ. Our members Carl and Terry went through a terrible ordeal. Carl dropped to the floor from a massive heart malfunction. Terry was there to do CPR and call 911, and Carl was rushed to the hospital where a pulse was reestablished, but Carl was in a coma.
The people from this congregation began praying hard. I sent out the prayer request to everyone I could think of who knew Terry and Carl. Every time I sent an update on the situation, I was asked to add more people to the list. The branch grew and grew, and with it the love and support and hope for Terry and Carl, and for all of us, as well.
Jesus promises that through faith community, worship, prayer, and scripture, we would continue to feel his love. We sure did!
Together, let us rejoice in the blessing it is to be a branch of the vine that Jesus Christ. Let us give thanks for the love of our Risen Savior, for Alleluia, Christ is risen – he is risen indeed. Alleluia!