Abiding In Jesus, Growing In Love

April 28, 2024

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

John 15:1-8; 1 John 4:7-21

Abiding in Jesus, Growing in Love

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus encourages us to abide in him. He likens our abiding to a grape vine with its branches. The branches grow from the vine. Without their connection to the vine, they would become disconnected from everything that supplies them with sustenance and vitality. They would wither and soon die.

We don’t really grow a lot of grape vines around here. You can find them growing at local vineyards, for sure. But the presence of grape vines in western Wisconsin is nothing like it is in Israel, and especially in Jesus’ day. Everyone in the hearing of Jesus’ teaching would know exactly what he was driving at. They could easily picture the imagery in their minds.

The vineyard also held a special place in the consciousness of Israel. A vineyard had long been a symbol of God’s relationship with Israel. When the Hebrew spies entered Canaan, they came back bearing a grape cluster so large it had to be carried on a pole by two men. The Promised Land was a good and abundant land.

And the prophets used the imagery of a vineyard. God was the vinedresser and Israel was the vineyard. What kind of grapes would Israel bear?

Grapes and grapevines were a very common part of everyday life in the culture of first century Palestine. So Jesus calls upon an image his disciples would readily know. “You need to abide in me in the same way as a branch grows from the vine.” He tells them that when they remain grafted into him and his message, they will bear abundant fruits. What good is a grape plant that doesn’t produce any fruit? None! The whole purpose is the fruits.

Jesus says that when we “abide” in him, then we will bear abundant spiritual fruits.

Interestingly, Jesus utters these words on the evening of his arrest. He will enjoy just a few more hours in the presence of his disciples. So it seems a bit untimely for him to encourage them to abide in him just as he’s about to leave them.

But as we all experience, you can be separated from someone for a very, very long time and still abide in them, in their love, in their very being. My father died when I was 16 years old. He’s been gone for 48 years now! But he is very much present with me every single day. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him, don’t cherish my connection to him. I abide in him and his love.

And we’ve all had friends or kinfolk we haven’t seen for years. But when we do get together, the relationship doesn’t skip a beat. It’s just like yesterday. Something between us has abided through all the years apart.

Jesus urges us to abide in him. “Apart from me you can do nothing,” he says. Like the branch from a grape vine, if we become detached from Jesus, we are detached from his divine energy and focus.

In our modern-day view, we might compare the grape vine image with an electrical cord. If a fan or a light isn’t plugged into a live socket, it won’t work. The implement is no good if it isn’t supported by energy. If we aren’t connected into our divine energy source, we won’t be energized and fed by the divine source of all goodness and life.

So…if we’re not plugged into Jesus, if we’re not tapped into the life-giving source of divine life and light, what are we plugged into?

No matter who we are, we’re fueled by and tapped into some thing. Something drives us, so, if not Jesus, then what? There’s an endless cast of players contending for our attention. If we just explore the letter A, we get:

• Ambition

• Adulation

• Anger

• Acceptance

• Addiction

• Alienation

• Abuse

• Animosity

• Anguish

• Ashamed

• Accomplishment

• Arousal

• Arrogance

• Amusement

• Apathy

Whatever it is that we’re tapped into, it will fill us with its energies and drives. What fuel are we receiving? What fruits will it grow within us?

In his novel The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein included the tragic figure Gollum. He wasn’t always called Gollum. By birth, Gollum was a Hobbit who lived among the River Folk. At that time, he was known by another name, Smeagol.

Smeagol was a regular fellow. One day he went fishing with his relative, Deagol. While they were fishing, Deagol found the bewitched and terrible ring in the river. And when Smeagol saw the ring, he immediately came under its spell. He demanded that Deagol give it to him. But when Deagol refused, Smeagol strangled his relative and took the ring.