Easter 5B April 28, 2024

Prayer

As a Vinegrower, O God, you have grafted us onto Christ, that we may abide as living branches joined to the true Vine.  Bestow on us the comforting presence of your Holy Spirit, so that, loving one another with a love that is sincere, we may become the first fruits of a humanity made new and bear a rich harvest whose fruits are holiness and peace.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.


From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.


Some Thoughts on John 15:1-8


"There’s not a lot of agency for us in this text. God prunes us."

"Vines and Branches?" Nadia Bolz Weber, The Hardest Question, 2012.

"In the promise of an 'abiding' presence God's Easter people find not some abstract speculation about a distant or imaginary Trinity, but an invitation to experience the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a saving and liberating presence in the midst of our day-to-day world."

Commentary, John 15:1-8, James Boyce, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Like the good shepherd of last week's text, this week's image of the vine is another extended metaphor, which also borrows from and adapts Old Testament imagery for Israel."

Commentary, John 15:1-8, Meda Stamper, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"I think one of the difficulties of living in our age is that we're offered a lot of things as substitutes for honest-to-goodness relationships, and while they may be pretty good at what they were designed for, they're finally not actual relationships."

"Getting Real," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Last week, the church experienced Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This week, we are offered a theological reflection on God as a vine grower.

God in Christ Jesus is the source of living water, he is the bread of heaven that gives life, and he is also the vine, and we are his branches.

This passage comes after Jesus has prophesied His suffering, death, and resurrection and promised to return and not leave His followers alone. Our passage, like the Good Shepherd passage, is a teaching about life in God and in Christ.

The image is of God, the vine grower and the gardener. Jesus is the vine, and we are branches bearing fruit.  The vine is trimmed, and this certainly has eschatological (end time and judgment) implications, but this is not the stress nor focus of the teaching.  This image offered to us is about abiding and remaining.  The image of the vine grower, vineyard/vine, and branches is one about the living Word existing as the lifeblood of those who belong to Jesus.

Raymond Brown, in volume II of his work on John's Gospel, says that this passage is about the disciples remaining in Christ.  In our current culture, we talk about following Jesus and leading to a virtuous life. However, in the abiding language of John's Gospel and in Jesus' words, the notion that Jesus + me = a virtuous life is simply not present.  The abiding leaves a notion of being, not the more modern idea of becoming.  God is, Christ is, we are.  A virtuous life is a life lived in God in Christ.  Raymond Brown points out that this is not quite the notion that Matthew's Gospel offers.  Nevertheless, this Sunday, we are preaching Jesus and the living Word; we are preaching about abiding.  I don't want to get off track. So I asked myself, what is this abiding?

I am reminded of St. Augustine's sermon on the Ascension, wherein he writes:

Christ, while in heaven, is also with us; and we, while on earth, are also with him.  He is with us in his godhead and his power and his love; and we, though we cannot be with him in godhead as he is with us, can be with him in our love, our love for him. 

He did not leave heaven when he came down to us from heaven; and he did not leave us when he ascended to heaven again.   His own words show that he was in heaven while he was here: 'No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.' 

He said this because of the unity between us and himself, for he is our head and we are his body.  The words 'no one but he' are true, since we are Christ, in the sense that he is the Son of man because of us, and we are the children of God because of him. 

For this reason Saint Paul says: 'Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is also with Christ.

We abide in God in Christ Jesus unless we are abiding in something else. John's gospel describes a life of virtue that gives us a sense of what life abiding in Christ is. Abiding/remaining in Christ is love, and it is living in tune with God's commandments.

What do we see then if we are abiding in Christ? We see a life that forms a world around itself where God is central.  Not the false gods created by our ego desires, but God.  As Episcopalians, we describe this abiding life this way.  We would say (as we do in our Book of Common Prayer) that an abiding life is one where:

We trust our lives in God, and others come to know him by our life.  Nothing is put in the place of God, least of all our ego and projections of desire.  God is respected in our words in our actions, and in the results of our actions.  Life is lived out in an ever-flowing experience of worship, prayer, and study.  As we abide in God, we abide in our true selves and in the thin space between heaven and our soul.

To the other, we are faithful as well – treating neighbours with love as we experience God's love for us and love ourselves; to love, honour, and help our parents and family; those in authority are honoured, and we meet their just demands.  We, as Episcopalians, believe that life that is abiding in Christ is one that shows forth respect for the life God gives us; work and prayers for peace are always present; malice, prejudice, or hatred is not born in our hearts; and kindness is shared with all the creatures of God.

Life abiding in Christ is a life where bodily desires are not used to fulfil our ego needs but rather are lived out as God intended for the mutual building up of the family of God.

We live lives that are honest and fair in our dealings. We seek justice, freedom, and the necessities of life for and with all people. We use our talents and possessions as people in a relationship with God. We speak the truth and do not mislead others with our silence.

Life abiding in Christ resists temptations to envy, greed, and jealousy and rejoices in other people's gifts and graces. We share in our fellowship together as we all abide in Christ and, therefore, as St. Augustine points out, with others, with God, and with the saints who are in heaven.

Here is the thing, though: We humans love to substitute something else for the vine. We like to think that sex, money, power, or some other thing will work just as well as the True Vine. The truth is, they really don't. We know it, too.

Abiding in Christ is, in some very real way, accepting our true nature as sinful creatures and then living in, remaining in, Christ, being Christ's own forever - as our baptismal liturgy tells us.  Accepting our chosen ness by Christ (despite our behaviours) and abiding in love, which then abides with others.  And giving up our ego's desire for control and rather, live a life that is birthed in grace.

Some Thoughts on I John 4:7-21

"Who knows how the awareness of God's love first hits people. Every person has his own tale to tell, including the person who wouldn't believe in God if you paid him."

"Salvation," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

"Much of the anger that erupts within the church under the banner of loving God and defending God's truth often seems to grow instead from love of self and of the power that comes from winning the argument, even at the expense of the church's unity in love."

Commentary, 1 John 4:7-21, Brian Peterson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"'Love' is an abstraction and a quality of God's own self. 'Love' is personification and God is person. Love is something. God does things, sends a Son, atones for the sins of the world, and gives commands."

Commentary, 1 John 4:7-21, David Bartlett, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

The beloved community is built around faith in God as revealed in Christ Jesus and revealed in the loving members of the community. The Holy Spirit's work enlivens this faith and love, bringing about a rebirth into a new creation.

God, who is love and is bound to us in love and through the loving work of Christ, is also at the centre of the beloved community. The beloved community members love one another because of this God who is love. God is love, and we learn to love all those we meet in God's community. This is outward flowing of the inner life of the Trinity. 

This outflowing of God's love is also at the world's transformative center. Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, enables those of us in the world to find a path not only into the beloved community but into the life of the Trinity itself. 

This means God is working on the individual as they journey. The work of the Christian, the member of the beloved community, is to love those as they enter our community and point the way to God. In this, we have an example of and an outward illustration of love. Our love for one another as they journey is evidence of the Holy Spirit within us. 

Many people believe there is an important "but" that goes in here. We love you "but"...Whenever we get into the "but" business, what is taking place is that we are working less on our path to God and more on other people's paths. We are undermining the fraternal love we are supposed to illustrate. We are, in fact, not fulfilling our invitation by the Holy Spirit, and in the end, we are eroding God's beloved community.

The natural response to the above paragraph is fear, anxiety, and concern.  The disciple is clear: if this is present, then we do not believe in our inter-related nature with our brothers and sisters. Then, we do not believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to work. Then, we do not believe in the power of Christ Jesus to save. 

The fact is that our intolerance for one another is an example of not living in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. "But" they....you will say.

I am afraid that there is no "but" in the Gospel of Jesus.

If we are members of the beloved community, if God's Holy Spirit is with us, and if we are doing the work Christ has given us.. then we will be in the midst of love.

One cannot love his fellow humans and not love God. One cannot love God and not love his fellow humans.

We might add one who does not love their fellow human does honor the love of God and one who does not love God will not love their fellow human.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”—Martin Luther King Jr.

Some Thoughts on Acts 8:26-40

"So Philip baptized him, and when that black and mutilated potentate bobbed back to the surface, he was so carried away he couldn't even speak. The sounds of his joy were like the sounds of a brook rattling over pebbles, and Philip never saw him again and never had to."

"Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog. "Conversion," Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words.

"God who raised Jesus orchestrates unlikely relationships that the status quo does not otherwise permit for the transformation of marginalized individuals."

Commentary, Acts 8:26-40, Mitzi J. Smith, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"A friend of mine gives away bumper stickers of a favorite phrase of his: 'Keep Church Weird.' By that my friend means church—or any gathering recognizing God’s lovely, strange people—is a place where we might break out of our ordinary expected un-weird culture and be, well, weird."

"Castrating Our Customs," Rev. Adam J. Copeland, Day 1, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Now, this is a great passage. It only comes up once every three years, so it is time to preach it. You will get "abiding" passages from John a bit more.

This is a great passage that gets heisted by the church. So, let us look at the pure structure of the story again for the first time.

First, it is a missional story. Why? Because Philip is sent out. He goes where God tells him to go. Sometimes people say, "What does missional mean anyway?" People also like to try to make a church congregation's work inside the building missional. Well, that isn't what it means, and you can't be missional if you stay inside the church. Missional means to go outside the church, to go outside the boundaries of religious norms, to go. This is a missional story, so don't preach about the work Christians need to do inside the church. This is a story about going out.

So, Philip goes out. He heads into the wilderness outside of Jerusalem. This is important! He doesn't just go out and then travel to his friend's home. He is invited by God to go to the very place where robbers and evil and the devil dwell. Go out to that road that goes down. It goes down from the holy place to the lowly place. That place you don't think anything good can come out of...that place you don't walk alone...that place you have heard stories about. Philip gets up and goes. Literally, "he got up and went."

As he comes along the road he meets an Ethiopian eunuch. Don't get tripped over this business about him being a court official. Let's parse this bit out... He is Ethiopian. He was a foreigner and a Jew. He was reading the scriptures, and the text said he came to worship. Travel to Jerusalem for religious reasons was more common than trade. But he was on his way because of Candace, the queen, and he was the treasurer. He is on his way home and stopped by the side of the road.

So here we are with a few types of importance regarding our conversation. Philip is sent to meet someone who is not a follower of Jesus and from another country. And the spirit sends Philip to join "it". This is important too. While he was a treasurer a jew, and a member of the court...he was not considered a part of the community. Why? Because they could have no heirs and, therefore, no loyalties. They made good servants, slaves, and advisors because of this. So, the Ethiopian eunuch is more of an "it" than a "he". Eunuchs are mentioned several times in the bible, and you may not have known that at all. In fact, they are mentioned in both Esther and Isaiah...and maybe others, though those are debated.

Now, before we go much further, you need to know that the religion of the day understood this about eunuchs...they were not welcome in the kingdom - even if they worshipped God! Deuteronomy 23.1. "No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord."

So, people reading the passage may think that Eunuch is reading from Isaiah. Because we are in the Easter season, he is reading about the suffering servant, which we have been steeped in over the last few weeks. We see, in fact, that he is reading from the part about how the sheep will take on the suffering without a word.

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

But, there is another passage from chapter 56:3-5 of Isaiah, which goes like this:

Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
For this is what the LORD says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.

Here is what seems very important...remember Deuteronomy... Isaiah's vision is radical. It says, look these people are not part of the kingdom, but when God comes a new kingdom will be created. Creation will be reformed and this reign of God will be catholic - universal. That all people will worship God, that it will embrace the whole of the cosmos and world. As part of that prophecy, Isaiah says that even Eunuchs will inherit the kingdom. 

It is a story about moving from being outside the community to being received into the community of God's reign. 

Philip goes up and asks if he understands. They get into a conversation—not one where Philip tells him how it is but one of equal footing. It is one where Philip guides him. We help him understand that through the suffering upon the cross, Jesus has, in fact, brought about enough grace that all people, including eunuchs, will inherit the kingdom of God. Through the work of Jesus, Isaiah's prophesy has come true.

Now, they are going along the road. This is very important. Philip did not go out and get the eunuch, bring him back to Jerusalem, put him in a classroom, or instruct him. He is guiding him and listening and talking. And he is walking with him in the wilderness. They are going together in the same direction. So often, we think that missional is about going out and getting them to come in here and walk with us. This passage reminds us that missional is about going out and walking with others in their life, upon their road, heading in the same direction.

This is when the eunuch asks Philip to baptize him. And he does so. And, then he continues his journey, and Philip is taken away to Azatus. He goes to the next place. He goes - being sent by the Holy Spirit. 

This is the final piece of what seems essential. This baptism (like all the others) clearly does not end with the eunuch entering a community of faith. Let me say that again. The baptism is not about and does not result in, the eunuch entering a community of faith. Instead, it results in the eunuch being sent. He goes - being sent by the Holy Spirit. 

This is the first individual baptism described post Easter and, interestingly, it makes no mention of it being an entrance into any community. Instead, it is a pure acceptance of God's gift through the crucifixion and a part of being sent out to share the good news. One is baptized into the catholic community of Christ - as a sign of what has already occurred in Golgotha. It includes the promise that one also receives with sure and certain hope what happened on Easter morning.

This is a great passage to preach...but don't heist it for the institutional church. 

Previous Sermons For This Sunday

The Dude Abides

May 8, 2015, Sermon on Easter 5B 2015 at St Davids Austin and Trinity Marble Falls