John 15:1-8
Author and blogger, Sarah Bessey, tells a story about her son Joe when he was quite young. Young enough to be in a Sunday School class where the project was to draw a picture of whatever you think prayer is. At the end of class the teacher found Sarah and asked if she could talk to her for a moment which, of course, any seasoned parent knows that such a conversation can go a lot of different ways. So Sarah sat down with the teacher feeling a bit apprehensive. The teacher began by showing Sarah some of the pictures that the other children had drawn about prayer. These pictures included images of people saying grace around a table, leaders praying at the front of a congregation, a parent praying with a child at bedtime. A few of the submissions included images of what the child was praying for, like one kid drew a picture of an iPad, just in case this assignment turned out to be some kind of vehicle of getting what you wanted. Then finally the teacher showed Sarah one last drawing. The one her son Joe had done - and she breathed a sigh of relief. He had drawn a picture of himself sitting in a chair on his back deck. Sitting right next to him Joe had drawn Jesus. Above each of their heads was a cartoon bubble like in a comic strip when people are talking to each other. And in the bubble above Joe’s head he had written, “I love you, Jesus,” and in the bubble above Jesus’ it said, “I love you, Joe.” And then Joe had drawn arrows going back and forth to signal that they were saying it to each other over and over again: “I love you, Jesus;” “I love you, Joe.” “I love you, Jesus;” “I love you, Joe.” At the bottom of the page was written, “This is how we pray together.”
Although this is about prayer it seems to me that this image really communicates what Jesus is talking about when he says, Abide in me as I abide in you. Because what Jesus is doing is offering us an invitation to experience the fullness of God’s love for us and then for us to respond to that love in kind. To open ourselves up to the reality of Love that pulsates through all of life for God’s love is the source of all creation. It is God’s love that provides the central meaning to our lives. Love is the very reason why God made us. We were created out of love so that we might know the fulfillment of being loved and loving others. Abiding is the way to live life as we were created to live, that is, rooted, connected, and nourished in love.
But how do we do that? How exactly does one abide? Well, there’s no single way to do it. For some of us it may look similar to the boy, Joe’s, drawing as we sit quietly with a sense of Jesus sitting next to us exchanging words of love back and forth. For others it may take a more active form, connecting to God’s love by going the extra mile, so to speak, and serving in a sacrificial way for the benefit of another. Still others may experience a sense of being filled with love when they are taking in the beauty of a spring day or gathering with friends or becoming immersed in a project. There are so many ways to connect and abide in love, but with all of the differences what is at the core of every experience is being present to whatever moment you are experiencing in an open and honest way.
And when we do that, when we are open to the boundless love of God what naturally happens is that very love is produced in our lives. Jesus speaks of this when he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit. The fruit, of course, of which he speaks is love. Acts of love that seek the well-being of others, both others as individuals and others as communities. The fruit is not forced, but it comes naturally from the connection.
But one aspect that is particularly remarkable about this metaphor that Jesus uses of God as vine and we as branches is the interconnectedness, the mutuality that it suggests. When we go to church it’s probably not surprising to hear a message about how we need and depend on God for life itself. But what may be surprising is that God, in great love and humility, chooses to need and depend on us. For God as the vine cannot produce fruit on its own. The vine needs the branches to make that happen. Only when the vine and branches are connected and abiding together that there can there be fruit. God depends on us to embody the fruit of love in this world. St. Theresa of Avila probably put it best, “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.”
So how might God be depending on your hands, your feet, your eyes to bless the world? The answer is found in abiding. Abide in me as I abide in you. As we abide in God and God abides in us the fruit of that abiding love will indeed be sweet, plentiful, and a blessing to the world.
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