As Amy demonstrated in class last time, the principles Saul Alinsky puts forth in Rules for Radicals could be very useful in a congregational or community setting. The introductory meetings Amy suggested in class have much promise as a way to get to know people both in the congregation and the surrounding community. I hope to have these kinds of meetings starting very early on in my first call and continue to do so as time goes on.
The greatest value in Alinsky's work, however, is its insistence on action. There are many things that frustrate people on a daily basis, and it is very easy to give up and develop a defeatist attitude in the midst of these struggles. This is certainly true of community issues, but it is also a characteristic of congregations as well, as slow-simmering conflicts and actions that do not match up with speech can really begin to take their toll. In the congregational environment, exuding an Alinsky-style insistence on action can also go a long way toward helping the members embrace their vocation as baptized children of God. The pastor is not and never should be regarded as the "professional" Christian for the congregation, and nothing reinforces this principle better than turning pleas for action back on the people who make them. This is not to say that the pastor should not be helpful along the way, but pushing people to be an active and involved part of the solution redefines congregational ministry and even the notion of what a congregation is.
Regarding the ministry matrix we discussed in the first class session, advocacy and organizing fit best in the community ministry and congregational development quadrants. As I discussed above, organizing within the congregation could be a significant form of development as people begin putting more time and energy into their faith lives. Organization would also be a natural fit for community ministry, as the surrounding community is where proficient organizers will be able to do the most good for the most people.
Advocacy probably fits best in the community ministry section, as one would be most likely to petition the government for legal changes that benefit the people in the community rather than for changes that favor a specific religious group. In most cases, the latter would be a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution anyway, making it an even less likely situation; however, advocacy could also fall into the congregational development quadrant if the pastor gets others in the congregation involved with advocacy initiatives. As people do more and more advocacy work, a new sense of suffering with the poor will develop in the congregation (as demonstrated by Shane Claiborne in The Irresistible Revolution). At any rate, though, both advocacy and community organizing must use the other two quadrants--context and your own leadership--as catalysts for the work that falls into community ministry and congregational development.
Of course, all this is not to suggest that there will not be difficulties in beginning to operate this way. Some people will lash out, contending that the church should not intervene in the public arena because of the separation of church and state. Certainly, the two are and should be separate, but it is critical to actually think about what this separation means in a practical sense. Simply put, the separation of church and state means that the church is not in the state's pocket, and vice versa. There is no reason why the paths of the two cannot cross, and moreover, the fact that the two are separate entities puts some responsibility on each to check the other's power and influence. The state has already exercised this checking power against the church by regulating things like prayer in public schools, so it is not only possible but also necessary for the church to engage in advocacy and community organizing to correct the injustices being perpetuated by the government. If anything, our sitting on the sidelines doing nothing is itself a violation of the separation of church and state, as silence equates to compliance in the public realm.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Bracket Busters: Social Justice Ministry
As congregational leaders in an urban setting, it is important for us to think about how we will engage urban issues. As a city dweller for most of my life, I have a practical sense of the issues facing urban residents. The particularly important part for leaders with prior background in urban life and work, however, is to not allow our previous experience to prescribe specific actions before we learn the needs of the particular community in which we are serving. For instance, my hometown has been increasingly plagued by drug-related violence and theft. While drugs may be the most pressing issue there, my ideas may not be as useful in a community that is struggling most heavily with prostitution. Thus, the primary task in relating to urban issues is observing what is going on--both observing passively by looking and listening and observing actively by asking questions and building relationships with people.
From the new relationships will then come a path into social justice ministry in the community. Certainly, congregational education will be important to prepare them for the work we will get into, but perhaps the more important angle is sharing with them the community relationships I have built. It is important that we all get to know each other and appreciate each other's backgrounds so that our shared work will develop organically and have deeper meaning for us all. This should help people become (and stay interested).
I am inspired in social justice efforts by Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. His book has many helpful suggestions for community organization, and I think I may have some of the gifts for organization that he considers unteachable. I am hoping to find more role models in this area, as it is one that I have experienced less than fully in my work in the church. Alinsky's book, however, also reveals the scary element of social justice, as progress is necessarily fueled by conflict. I usually strive to create harmonious relationships with people, so the work of social justice may require me to step out of my comfort zone in this regard.
From the new relationships will then come a path into social justice ministry in the community. Certainly, congregational education will be important to prepare them for the work we will get into, but perhaps the more important angle is sharing with them the community relationships I have built. It is important that we all get to know each other and appreciate each other's backgrounds so that our shared work will develop organically and have deeper meaning for us all. This should help people become (and stay interested).
I am inspired in social justice efforts by Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. His book has many helpful suggestions for community organization, and I think I may have some of the gifts for organization that he considers unteachable. I am hoping to find more role models in this area, as it is one that I have experienced less than fully in my work in the church. Alinsky's book, however, also reveals the scary element of social justice, as progress is necessarily fueled by conflict. I usually strive to create harmonious relationships with people, so the work of social justice may require me to step out of my comfort zone in this regard.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Reflections on Luther Place
Luther Place is a vibrant and active congregation with a keen sense of social involvement, and it has grown into this sensibility through development in all four areas of the urban ministry matrix. The first area, context, has been critical to Luther Place's transformation during the last forty to fifty years. The surrounding neighborhoods have been in flux over this period of time, with homelessness, drug use, and prostitution dramatically increasing in some periods. The area was also characterized by marked unrest during the struggles of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, as the demographics of the neighborhoods and the city itself were changing rapidly and protests broke out nearby. Fast forward to the present day, and Luther Place's context is still evolving, with increasing gentrification and an emerging arts district near Logan Square. What has been most important for Luther Place, though, has been that the people there have been attentive to and involved their changing context. Congregations that cast a blind eye to their context are often doomed to shut down because they are not invested in the community and vice versa, and Luther Place has avoided this through a spirit of social justice.
This spirit, of course, has been nurtured by the pastoral leadership over the decades. Effective pastoral leadership, then, has led to congregational development, which has helped the congregation of Luther Place embody social justice ideas. A good example of this is the church retreat a few weeks ago. Getting seventy people to show up took a lot of effort on the part of the members, and it was great to see things turn out this way. Community ministry, then, flows from congregational development, as the most effective ministry happens when the congregation buys into the new course of action after having been educated and having engaged in Bible study and prayer about the new direction. Thus, I think the four-part urban ministry matrix may be more of a sequential process or cycle.
Luther Place demonstrated Radical Welcome just in a sheer sense of diversity during our last Saturday session. There were all sorts of people in the building, from many and various paths in life, and it was only Saturday morning! This limited view of the congregation was nonetheless inspiring. The building itself also helped to communicate a sense of Radical Welcome, as the door paintings celebrated people important to both the church and the community and the windows in the sanctuary featured a very broad range of reformers. The memorial garden was also a nice touch. All this, and I still have yet to mention the N Street Village! This program really seems to provide a sense of empowerment for the women who participate, and it certainly shows the roots of social justice. The congregation can continue to grow by forming stronger connections between evangelism and social justice, as Jesus is the one who liberates us from sin, death, and all other oppressors.
This spirit, of course, has been nurtured by the pastoral leadership over the decades. Effective pastoral leadership, then, has led to congregational development, which has helped the congregation of Luther Place embody social justice ideas. A good example of this is the church retreat a few weeks ago. Getting seventy people to show up took a lot of effort on the part of the members, and it was great to see things turn out this way. Community ministry, then, flows from congregational development, as the most effective ministry happens when the congregation buys into the new course of action after having been educated and having engaged in Bible study and prayer about the new direction. Thus, I think the four-part urban ministry matrix may be more of a sequential process or cycle.
Luther Place demonstrated Radical Welcome just in a sheer sense of diversity during our last Saturday session. There were all sorts of people in the building, from many and various paths in life, and it was only Saturday morning! This limited view of the congregation was nonetheless inspiring. The building itself also helped to communicate a sense of Radical Welcome, as the door paintings celebrated people important to both the church and the community and the windows in the sanctuary featured a very broad range of reformers. The memorial garden was also a nice touch. All this, and I still have yet to mention the N Street Village! This program really seems to provide a sense of empowerment for the women who participate, and it certainly shows the roots of social justice. The congregation can continue to grow by forming stronger connections between evangelism and social justice, as Jesus is the one who liberates us from sin, death, and all other oppressors.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Radical Welcome and a Simple Typology
I was thrilled this week reading Stephanie Spellers' book Radical Welcome. Spellers does a great job of pinpointing the issues that I think frustrate pastors everywhere, especially in mainline denominations. Having grown up in urban congregations, I was all too accustomed to the striking incongruity between the faces I saw in church on Sunday morning and the faces I saw in the rest of the neighborhood. However, I was also stuck in a church culture where we did things the way we wanted them done and were not too excited to deviate from that pattern. My church experience so far has been a little bit of everything that was not the radical welcome type.
The most important revelation to me from Spellers' book was the importance of shifting the congregational leadership as new people and ethnic groups join. For some reason, it never occurred to me that the composition of the congregation council and committees should reflect the demographics of the congregation itself. This is the same idea as the above one, but I just failed to connect it until now. Getting new people involved in efforts that guide the congregation's future is incredibly important, as they are able to provide some fresh direction and help the congregation grow.
In class, we covered four ingredients for urban ministry, including:
All of these are important for work in urban ministry, and ministry in just about any setting. Clearly, the context of the congregation factors into what will happen there, but context can be extended to include the context of the parishioners as well as the pastor(s). Since many members--and pastors, for that matter--commute to church, a functional contextual understanding of the congregation must include what happens in all these places. The pastor and council's leadership styles and skills are also important, hence the popularity and value of leadership institutes run by institutions like the Illinois megachurch we read about in class.
The first two ingredients can then combine to bring about the third, as knowledge of the congregation's neighborhood and effective leadership make it possible to come up with vital ministries that can help provide what the community needs. By supplying much-needed services in the community, the congregation usually sees more foot traffic through the facilities, which may lead to some new people attending worship services. This, then, is where congregational development becomes incredibly critical. Potential growth is nothing if it is not embraced by the congregation, who must take ownership of God's call to spread the gospel to new people. Growing a congregation is not something we are supposed to do simply to pay the bills or to look better on denominational demographics reports; rather, it is simply something the Lord expects of us and equips us to do with the help of the Holy Spirit. We do not have to invent radical welcome--God has already established it through the power of water and the Word in Holy Baptism. Now, the challenge is to broaden our hopes and visions for our congregations to more fully incorporate, as Spellers calls it, "the dream of God."
The most important revelation to me from Spellers' book was the importance of shifting the congregational leadership as new people and ethnic groups join. For some reason, it never occurred to me that the composition of the congregation council and committees should reflect the demographics of the congregation itself. This is the same idea as the above one, but I just failed to connect it until now. Getting new people involved in efforts that guide the congregation's future is incredibly important, as they are able to provide some fresh direction and help the congregation grow.
In class, we covered four ingredients for urban ministry, including:
- Context
- Your Leadership
- Community Ministry
- Congregational Development
All of these are important for work in urban ministry, and ministry in just about any setting. Clearly, the context of the congregation factors into what will happen there, but context can be extended to include the context of the parishioners as well as the pastor(s). Since many members--and pastors, for that matter--commute to church, a functional contextual understanding of the congregation must include what happens in all these places. The pastor and council's leadership styles and skills are also important, hence the popularity and value of leadership institutes run by institutions like the Illinois megachurch we read about in class.
The first two ingredients can then combine to bring about the third, as knowledge of the congregation's neighborhood and effective leadership make it possible to come up with vital ministries that can help provide what the community needs. By supplying much-needed services in the community, the congregation usually sees more foot traffic through the facilities, which may lead to some new people attending worship services. This, then, is where congregational development becomes incredibly critical. Potential growth is nothing if it is not embraced by the congregation, who must take ownership of God's call to spread the gospel to new people. Growing a congregation is not something we are supposed to do simply to pay the bills or to look better on denominational demographics reports; rather, it is simply something the Lord expects of us and equips us to do with the help of the Holy Spirit. We do not have to invent radical welcome--God has already established it through the power of water and the Word in Holy Baptism. Now, the challenge is to broaden our hopes and visions for our congregations to more fully incorporate, as Spellers calls it, "the dream of God."
Friday, January 7, 2011
Sermon Text
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord—the vine—Jesus Christ. Amen.
These days, it seems that more and more that subjects I used to dismiss in high school as “probably useless to me” are once again finding their way into my life and work. I remember sitting in my biology class during our unit on plants, seriously questioning the value of memorizing highly specialized terms like osmosis, cytoplasm, and mitochondria. After all, I was going to be a computer programmer or a physics teacher one day...or maybe a pastor who is interested in the relationship between Christianity and the natural environment. Go figure. God—apparently the vindicator of high school biology teachers everywhere—has one crazy sense of humor.
In today's gospel reading from John, Jesus himself is teaching a bit of a biology lesson. Using the visually striking metaphors of vines, branches, and fruit, he beautifully illustrates for his disciples the relationship they share with him. These 8 verses are a small but poignant part of a larger story unit consisting of John, chapters 14 to 17, where Jesus is teaching the disciples at the Last Supper. This unit is unique to John.
But this text and its broader unit are not the only unique points of interest here. The central issue of these 8 verses from John 15 is a change of pace from Jesus' usual subject matter. This time, the problem at hand is not poor conduct or lack of understanding or faith on the part of the disciples. It's not hunger, disease, or poverty. It's not even bad behavior on the part of Jesus' favorite targets, the religious leaders. No, the problem at this juncture in the Gospel of John is the impending repercussions of something Jesus is about to do—namely, dying on the cross so that all who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life. The problem is that Jesus' death will cause him to be physically separated from the disciples.
To guide the work of the disciples after his crucifixion, then, Jesus develops this analogy of vines and their typically entwined and interwoven branches to illustrate the interconnectedness that is to exist in the Christian community despite his physical absence. He calls them to live life in him, but the disciples would discover that life in Christ would necessarily be different from the life with Christ to which they were accustomed. Their connectedness as branches of Jesus the vine would be difficult to maintain in the wake of events that would, at least in the physical sense, result in the vine being cut off from them. After all, branches cannot live separate from the vine, and they quickly become weak and limp, finally separating from each other as well.
Even after Jesus' resurrection and ascension demonstrated divine victory over sin and death, and the Holy Spirit was sent to ensure a connection between Jesus the vine and the human branches, humanity yet lives in a manner suggesting that the vine has been cut off from us. Tensions between people and groups have escalated to the point where the branches would appear to be coming untangled. War, civil injustices, and lopsided distribution of human necessities like food and clean water are driving people apart all across the globe. In more individualistic societies like ours, there is also great temptation to think of ourselves as self-made, self-deterministic branches rather than ones God is continually pruning and trimming—according to God's purposes and desires.
Neither is the church exempt from these difficulties. Although the church, God's called, gathered, and enlightened branches, rightly believes and confesses that the risen and ascended Jesus is a living and flourishing vine, we don't always feel comfortable interacting with the other branches. Sometimes this stems from disagreements between individual Christians, and other times from the differing perspectives on God expressed by the many denominations and churches. So, while we do well to acknowledge that we are all connected to the vine, we often come up short in our comfort level for being as closely entwined as God would have us be.
As the struggles of disciples ancient and modern have shown, then, the interconnectedness and harmony of the Christian community (not to mention the world at-large!) is far from perfect when left to its own resources. The branches cannot live or bear fruit without Jesus, the true vine. But Jesus reveals to the disciples in our gospel reading how he intends to keep everything together. This is through the community abiding in him, or perhaps more clearly stated, living each day with faith in him. Faith, inspired and nourished by the Holy Spirit, is the means by which the community is to abide in him. It is the foundational virtue of life in Christ, the virtue which leads to the hope and love that intertwine us more profoundly.
And, lest we forget, Jesus reminds us that the branches—his disciples—rely not only on the vine but also on the vinegrower, God the Father, who trims afflicted and unproductive parts from the branches so that they may bear more fruit. Thus, the life and nourishment that is provided by Jesus the vine through abiding faith is meticulously nurtured and made more abundant by the creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen.
And the fruit that the disciples are to bear? Well, again, I don't have much affinity for biology, but I discovered with a little research that fruits are, essentially, vehicles for transporting seeds. Some are sweet and delicious like grapes, while others are inedible and odd looking like the maple tree's little helicopters, but the long and short of Jesus' insistence on the branches bearing fruit is that his disciples will transport the seeds of the good news of Jesus to new people and places.
Certainly, we live in a different time than the disciples who were gathered around him at the Last Supper, but the vineyard still looks much the same. Like Christ's original branches, we are branches with much growing to do and much fruit to bear, and we do these things by loving our neighbors as Christ has loved us. We can and should invite people to church, and we can and should selflessly pray, advocate, and provide for people in need. By doing these things with faith that Christ can and will act, we abide in Jesus and enjoy the abundant life that he, the true vine, provides.
So, as we observe this Eco-Sunday, let us delight in this message of hope that Jesus has constructed from the earthiest of metaphors. We are indeed connected with the natural environment and all creatures because that God is the creator of all things seen and unseen, and we respect and embody this interconnectedness by striving to live more gently with the earth. But appreciating how God has entwined all of creation begins first and foremost in cultivating relationships with the human branches around us, whom the Holy Spirit inspires, the Son, Jesus Christ, nourishes, and the Father enhances.
And so, beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God—the Father, and the Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
These days, it seems that more and more that subjects I used to dismiss in high school as “probably useless to me” are once again finding their way into my life and work. I remember sitting in my biology class during our unit on plants, seriously questioning the value of memorizing highly specialized terms like osmosis, cytoplasm, and mitochondria. After all, I was going to be a computer programmer or a physics teacher one day...or maybe a pastor who is interested in the relationship between Christianity and the natural environment. Go figure. God—apparently the vindicator of high school biology teachers everywhere—has one crazy sense of humor.
In today's gospel reading from John, Jesus himself is teaching a bit of a biology lesson. Using the visually striking metaphors of vines, branches, and fruit, he beautifully illustrates for his disciples the relationship they share with him. These 8 verses are a small but poignant part of a larger story unit consisting of John, chapters 14 to 17, where Jesus is teaching the disciples at the Last Supper. This unit is unique to John.
But this text and its broader unit are not the only unique points of interest here. The central issue of these 8 verses from John 15 is a change of pace from Jesus' usual subject matter. This time, the problem at hand is not poor conduct or lack of understanding or faith on the part of the disciples. It's not hunger, disease, or poverty. It's not even bad behavior on the part of Jesus' favorite targets, the religious leaders. No, the problem at this juncture in the Gospel of John is the impending repercussions of something Jesus is about to do—namely, dying on the cross so that all who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life. The problem is that Jesus' death will cause him to be physically separated from the disciples.
To guide the work of the disciples after his crucifixion, then, Jesus develops this analogy of vines and their typically entwined and interwoven branches to illustrate the interconnectedness that is to exist in the Christian community despite his physical absence. He calls them to live life in him, but the disciples would discover that life in Christ would necessarily be different from the life with Christ to which they were accustomed. Their connectedness as branches of Jesus the vine would be difficult to maintain in the wake of events that would, at least in the physical sense, result in the vine being cut off from them. After all, branches cannot live separate from the vine, and they quickly become weak and limp, finally separating from each other as well.
Even after Jesus' resurrection and ascension demonstrated divine victory over sin and death, and the Holy Spirit was sent to ensure a connection between Jesus the vine and the human branches, humanity yet lives in a manner suggesting that the vine has been cut off from us. Tensions between people and groups have escalated to the point where the branches would appear to be coming untangled. War, civil injustices, and lopsided distribution of human necessities like food and clean water are driving people apart all across the globe. In more individualistic societies like ours, there is also great temptation to think of ourselves as self-made, self-deterministic branches rather than ones God is continually pruning and trimming—according to God's purposes and desires.
Neither is the church exempt from these difficulties. Although the church, God's called, gathered, and enlightened branches, rightly believes and confesses that the risen and ascended Jesus is a living and flourishing vine, we don't always feel comfortable interacting with the other branches. Sometimes this stems from disagreements between individual Christians, and other times from the differing perspectives on God expressed by the many denominations and churches. So, while we do well to acknowledge that we are all connected to the vine, we often come up short in our comfort level for being as closely entwined as God would have us be.
As the struggles of disciples ancient and modern have shown, then, the interconnectedness and harmony of the Christian community (not to mention the world at-large!) is far from perfect when left to its own resources. The branches cannot live or bear fruit without Jesus, the true vine. But Jesus reveals to the disciples in our gospel reading how he intends to keep everything together. This is through the community abiding in him, or perhaps more clearly stated, living each day with faith in him. Faith, inspired and nourished by the Holy Spirit, is the means by which the community is to abide in him. It is the foundational virtue of life in Christ, the virtue which leads to the hope and love that intertwine us more profoundly.
And, lest we forget, Jesus reminds us that the branches—his disciples—rely not only on the vine but also on the vinegrower, God the Father, who trims afflicted and unproductive parts from the branches so that they may bear more fruit. Thus, the life and nourishment that is provided by Jesus the vine through abiding faith is meticulously nurtured and made more abundant by the creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen.
And the fruit that the disciples are to bear? Well, again, I don't have much affinity for biology, but I discovered with a little research that fruits are, essentially, vehicles for transporting seeds. Some are sweet and delicious like grapes, while others are inedible and odd looking like the maple tree's little helicopters, but the long and short of Jesus' insistence on the branches bearing fruit is that his disciples will transport the seeds of the good news of Jesus to new people and places.
Certainly, we live in a different time than the disciples who were gathered around him at the Last Supper, but the vineyard still looks much the same. Like Christ's original branches, we are branches with much growing to do and much fruit to bear, and we do these things by loving our neighbors as Christ has loved us. We can and should invite people to church, and we can and should selflessly pray, advocate, and provide for people in need. By doing these things with faith that Christ can and will act, we abide in Jesus and enjoy the abundant life that he, the true vine, provides.
So, as we observe this Eco-Sunday, let us delight in this message of hope that Jesus has constructed from the earthiest of metaphors. We are indeed connected with the natural environment and all creatures because that God is the creator of all things seen and unseen, and we respect and embody this interconnectedness by striving to live more gently with the earth. But appreciating how God has entwined all of creation begins first and foremost in cultivating relationships with the human branches around us, whom the Holy Spirit inspires, the Son, Jesus Christ, nourishes, and the Father enhances.
And so, beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God—the Father, and the Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Some Commentary Links
Here are a few sources from which I've derived some inspiration for this sermon:
- Full texts of the lectionary lessons courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library
- Reflections from Pastor Brian Stoffregen on CrossMarks.com
- Dr. Hedahl's 2009 commentary on WorkingPreacher by Luther Seminary
- WorkingPreacher's weekly Sermon Brainwave Podcast from 2009 on the Easter 5B texts
- The Text This Week portal for John 15:1-8
- Gospel Analysis from "Sermons from Seattle" (Pr. Edward Markquart of Grace Lutheran Church, Des Moines, WA)
An Emerging Sermon Outline!
Text: John 15:1-8—Spring Eco-Sunday (Easter 5B)
Love for/care of creation starts with the same between people.
Some Background: Vines
- The branches of vines are entwined, twisted together. Not so much like tree branches, which are arguably more independent structures.
- Interconnectedness of creation
- But the interconnectedness of creation begins with the interconnectedness of humanity. Just as diseases or parasites on one branch can negatively impact neighboring branches, so can animosity anger spread from one person or group to others.
- Connection to the vine allows each branch to live.
- A branch may intersect with new branches as the vine continues to grow and climb.
Page One (Law in the Text)
- Literary Context: Farewell Discourse, John 14-17. John is the only gospel where Jesus teaches extensively at the last supper. He speaks almost nonstop for four chapters. You'd think he would be in a hurry, but this doesn't appear to be the case.
- Unlike the vast majority of scenarios in the gospels, the problem at hand is not poor conduct or lack of understanding or faith on the part of the disciples. No, the problem at this juncture in the Gospel of John is the impending repercussions of something Jesus is about to do—namely, dying on the cross so that all who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life.
- The problem is that Jesus' death will cause him to be physically separated from the disciples.
- So, Jesus develops his analogy of vines and branches to illustrate the closeness that is to exist in the Christian community despite his physical absence. Elaborate here on the illustration, maybe begin to draw in tech...
- With all the content here, it is difficult for the disciples to focus, and it takes the community a long time trying to figure out what Jesus means—hence the reason for the three letters of John in the NT, which helped the community continue the discussion.
Page Two (Law in the World)
- Unfortunately, it's still difficult for us to understand and embrace what Jesus is talking about in today's gospel lesson.
- Tensions and conflict between denominations, religions, nations, and neighbors
- Liken this to disease in a vine—starts somewhere, then spreads
- Certainly, the world today appears to be full of blighted branches.
Page Three (Gospel in the Text)
- The Gospel of John, along with all the other NT writings, demonstrates that the interconnectedness and harmony of the Christian community (not to mention the world at-large) is far from perfect when left to its own resources.
- The branches do not flourish and bear fruit without Jesus, the true vine, but Jesus reveals how he intends to keep everything together. This is through the community abiding with him, or—probably more clearly stated—living each day with faith in him.
- And the branches—the people and churches—rely not only on the vine but also on the vinegrower. As the vinegrower, God trims from the branches the afflicted and unproductive parts, that the branches may bear more fruit. I'm not much of a biologist, but by definition, fruits are vehicles for transporting seeds. Some are sweet and delicious, while others are inedible, but the long and short of Jesus' insistence on the branches bearing fruit is that the branches—those in the church—will transport the seeds of the good news of Jesus to new people and places.
Page Four (Gospel in the World) & Conclusion
- Jesus' words speak as clearly to us as they spoke to the early Christians. Like them, we are branches with much growing to do and much fruit to bear, and we do these things by loving our neighbors as Christ has loved us. We can and should invite people to church, and we can and should selflessly pray, advocate, and provide for people in need. In doing so, we abide with Jesus and enjoy the abundant life that he, the true vine, provides.
- So as we observe this Eco-Sunday, let us delight in this message of hope that Jesus has constructed from the earthiest of metaphors. We are indeed connected with the natural environment and all creatures, in that we share God as the creator of us all, and we respect this interconnectedness by living gently with the earth. But appreciating how God has entwined all of creation begins with cultivating relationships with the human branches with whom God has surrounded us.
- And so, beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Amen.
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