Sermon for May 2, 2021 – 5th Sunday of Easter

“God is love, and we experience that love and are empowered to share it by being rooted in Christ. ”

Let us bow our heads in prayer.  Gracious God, we thank you for the gift of your presence in this time and place, within each one of us, and in the many places we are gathered this day. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day; and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

I don’t know if you remember the children’s television show “Sesame Street”?  I’m afraid I’m too old now to know if it is still playing.  But it was frequently on the show that you would hear these words, “Today’s show is brought to you by” a certain letter – like a “D” or “F”, or something like that.  Well today’s second and third Readings from the First Letter of John and from the Gospel of John “are brought to you by two words:  love and abide, and so we need to attend in some depth to those words today.

Today’s Second Reading from the First Letter of John, Chapter 4, is sometimes referred to as the ‘love chapter’ of that letter.  In fact, the word ‘love’, ‘loves’, or ‘loved’ occurs 26 times in 15 verses.  “God is love.” - is what the chapter says, “and those who love are born of God, and those who don’t love don’t know God.”  The author makes it very clear that you have to first be loved before you are able to love.  It is so true, isn’t it, when we think of children and how they really need to experience that all-encompassing love.  And sadly, it is so true of many broken adults who did not receive that love as children – especially those many who have ended up in our prison system.  It’s serious.  We need to receive that love!

First John makes it clear that the love of God, and the love of each other are intimately connected.  And the letter confronts us with a reality that I think is as true in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century.  He says this, “Those who say ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters are liars.  For those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.  In other words, if you can’t love other people then you’re not loving God.  And this is one reason why it is so damaging, in our present society today, to our integrity as disciples of Jesus Christ, when Christians insist on protesting against, and defying, Covid-19 public health orders.  If you don’t love other people enough to try and protect them, how can you claim to love God? 

Fortunately, God’s supreme love has already been given to us in the gift of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that love is made real in the very depths of our being through the gift of the Holy Spirit that has been given to each one of us. 

But that love of God only becomes real and active and potent when we engage in loving other people – in acting out of that God-given reservoir of love that each of us has been given.  And how do today’s Scriptures describe that reservoir?  They refer to it as ‘abiding in God’s love’ – the second important word in today’s readings.  ‘Abide’ or “abides’ occurs 6 times in 15 verses from the First Letter of John, Chapter 4, and the key verse that connects the two is this: “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.”

Now, unfortunately, the word ‘abide’ is not a common word in our everyday usage these days.  And for many church people, what immediately comes to mind is that favourite evening hymn Abide With Me.  But, unfortunately, since it’s often used at funerals, we tend to associate it as a prayer for each of us as our bodies weaken and approach death.  ‘Abide’ carries with it a sense of intimacy, of connection, and of rest.  So you might think of saying that you’re ‘abiding in your home.’  But you wouldn’t use it to describe a one-night stay at a Best Western hotel on a trip to British Columbia.  You wouldn’t say, “Well, when we got to Brooks in Alberta, we abided in a hotel. 

So to explore this word ‘abide’ more deeply, let’s go to the Gospel Reading from John.  And in that reading, ‘abide’ or ‘abides’ occurs 7 times in just 8 verses.  In this passage, Jesus introduces a new metaphor for himself.  You might recall last Sunday when we were reading from John chapter 10, Jesus used the metaphor of ‘shepherd’ – “I am the good shepherd.”  This week, it is ‘I am the true vine.’  Now last week we also learned that shepherding was the quintessential work activity in Israel.  This week we can learn that throughout the Old Testament, Israel is portrayed as God’s vine – something that God, as gardener, has planted and cared for that vine.  Last week we emphasized the sacrificial love and protection of the shepherd for his flock, and the flock’s willingness to follow him as a result.  This week, in the metaphor of the vine, we emphasize the radical interdependence between the vine, its branches and the vine grower who is God.  We learn that the vine grower prunes the branches to help them be even more fruitful, and that if a branch does not abide in the vine, it will not bear fruit.  It will wither and die.  And we learn from both the Gospel reading and the reading from First John, that abiding in Jesus will result in bearing fruit – meaning touching others with God’s love, and keeping Jesus’ commandment to love one another. 

Again, note the interdependence.  You can’t abide in and with God without being an active and connected part of the vine, with all of the other branches.  So this description of the vine gives us a good description of this interdependent ‘abiding’ that we’re supposed to do with Christ, and to express with each other.  But how do we really get a handle on this sense of ‘abiding in love’ – what it feels like?  I think one of the closest common human experiences of abiding is a newborn baby’s “abiding’ in the love of a healthy mother.  This little one doesn’t need to search for, or make happen this abiding in Mom’s love.  It would never occur to this baby to fear its mother.  This baby is immersed in, and bathed in, its mother’s (and later its father’s) love.  All of its learning, growing, and experimenting with new behaviours emanates out of this foundation – this reservoir – of love.  So this little child abides in its parents’ love, and as a result its life becomes fruitful, and the person grows into a loving and mature adult.

So what does this look like for us as mature persons – as disciples of Jesus Christ with God.  Well, in one sense, it’s the same – except that through our life experience, we have sometimes separated ourselves -  we’ve moved out, so to speak, of abiding in a home with God, and we’ve lived elsewhere – sometimes on our own accord, sometimes we’ve been pushed there by the violence of others.  And remember that the root word for sin means ‘separate.’ 

So it’s not that our abiding place with God, or our spot on Christ’s vine is not always there – it is.  But rather, we have to be intentional.  We have to adopt attitudes and behaviours to choose to abide in Christ along with each other.  What does that look like?  Well, much like any other deeply loving relationship – it’s choosing to be interdependent with the person we love, letting them, and their presence, help shape my life.  It’s realizing that all of my life and its experiences are rooted in, and emanate from, abiding with them in their love.  And sometimes, it’s a challenge.  Just as our job or our special interests can cause us to step away from, or ignore, or take for granted abiding in our spouse’s or an intimate friend’s love, so it can and does happen to our abiding in Christ.  This is where we help each other.  This is where we become visible, concrete expressions of love, and needing to be loved, for each other.

“Those who abide in love, abide in God, and God abides in them.”

 Amen.