Never Apart
You cannot be separated from God’s love in Christ by anything, so trust your connection to the Vine and God’s ability to grow fruit in you.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, year B
Texts: John 15:1-8; 1 John 4:7-21 (with a call out to Romans 8)
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Nothing. This promise of Paul for you and for me is our greatest hope in this life and for the life to come. Neither death nor life, nor the present, nor the future, nothing in all creation can separate you from God’s love for you in Christ.
But here’s a new thought today: if nothing can separate you from God’s love, then you can never be cut off from the Vine that is Christ Jesus. All the fruit of love and life that God dreams to create in you is possible because you’re never apart from the Vine.
Jesus says, “apart from me you can do nothing.” That’s not a warning, it’s a promise and a hope.
And you know this connection already, if you listen.
First John says today that because God’s own Spirit lives in you, you know you abide in God and God abides in you. You’re part of the Vine, as Jesus said.
So, do you have any trust in God at all? Your doubt and confusion are irrelevant. The smallest spark of faith is a sign that God’s Spirit lives in you.
Have you ever felt God pull you into some path, show you someone you could care for? Have you ever noticed you had a gift that seemed God-given? Have you ever had a moment where you felt God was with you? Then you already know God’s Spirit, and God’s Spirit is in you, and you abide in God and God abides in you. And that means you will bear great fruit.
Fruit is the beautiful image that sparks our joy, shapes our imagination, inspires our words and actions.
Fruit can’t grow without a connection to the vine or branch, down into the roots, into the soil. And Jesus and Paul both love to describe the life in Christ we’ve all been called to live as fruit. That’s huge. Your Christian life isn’t a job to do, a series of duties that weigh on you. Loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself isn’t something you have to work hard to do.
The Christian life, your following Christ, your love in the world, is fruit. It grows from your life that is connected to the roots, the branches, the sap of God’s love and grace. Since your baptism you have been joined to this Vine. And nothing, nothing can separate you from God’s love, God’s sap, God’s roots.
That means you will absolutely bear fruit. Isn’t that amazing? All the love you know God hopes you can share, all the Good News of God’s grace you wish everyone knew, all the calls to follow and love and care for others and do justice, all this is fruit. God grows it in you and me, and blesses the world.
And don’t worry about Jesus’ words about pruning.
Pruning doesn’t destroy the vine or tree. Pruning cuts away the parts that aren’t bearing fruit anymore, or never did. The parts that take energy and life away from the fruit.
God’s pruning helps you remove the things that fight against God’s fruit, the ways of thinking and doing and speaking that try to dry out the juice and keep the fruit from bursting into the world. That keep you and me from bearing the fruit of love. When we confess our sins and receive forgiveness, God prunes while forgiving.
You could pray for pruning with joy and trust. If you know things in you take away from bearing fruit of God’s love, ask God for help to get rid of them, toss them in the pile of old branches. So nothing can get in the way of love of God and neighbor flowing through you.
And trust the sap is flowing strongly for you to live your Christ life.
When you struggle with your calling, your following, take a pause and listen for God’s life flowing in you. It’s there. Nothing can separate you from God’s love.
When you fail to love, or despair at your inadequacy to heal the problems of injustice and oppression, take a breath and feel deep down to your roots, to where God’s love and hope are. Don’t beat yourself up for your failure, or your fear, or your doubt, trust this: what God needs you to bear as fruit of love and justice and peace in your life and in this world will happen.
And when you don’t have any idea what the next step on the path is, trust the Vine. Nothing can separate you, so trust the way will be revealed. God’s sap is flowing in you and giving you wisdom and possibility. God will ensure you know where to go, what to do, when to do it.
But remember to nurture your connection to the Vine.
Nothing can separate you from God’s love in Christ, from Christ the Vine.
But it’s harder to sense that connection if you distance yourself from God and the community of faith. It’s harder to hear the Spirit’s movement without others to encourage and notice. It’s harder to feel God’s strength if you live away from God’s voice and gifts.
You strengthen your connection to God’s roots by seeking and hearing God’s Word. Sharing in the Meal that gives you forgiveness and new life, new sap for your fruit. Staying connected to others who are also joined to the Vine, for encouragement and support and love. Jesus’ words today are a gentle reminder to nurture your unbreakable connection as intentionally as you can, so you know it better.
I am the Vine, you are the branches, Jesus said. And you will bear great fruit.
That’s a promise. Through you, it will mean hope for the world.
Because nothing can separate you from that Vine. And with God’s love flowing into you, nothing can stop the fruit of your life in Christ from bursting into the world with life and love.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Worship, April 28, 2024
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, year B
Download worship folder for Sunday, April 28, 2024.
Presiding and Preaching: Pastor Joseph Crippen
Readings and prayers: Sarah Stoebig, lector; Vicar Lauren Mildahl, assisting minister
Organist: Cantor David Cherwien
Download next Sunday’s readings for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.
The Olive Branch, 4/27/24
Hired No More
Your Shepherd will never lose you and calls you to shepherd all Christ’s sheep with the same insistent passion and care.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday of Easter, year B
Text: John 10:11-18
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
The problem with the hired help is they don’t have the same investment.
The owner of a business has their whole livelihood bound up in that business, so everything about it matters deeply to the owner. Their employees are paid to do their jobs. They can walk away or be fired. But the owner is in it completely.
So, Jesus is right. The shepherd of the sheep cares for all of the sheep because the sheep belong to the shepherd. Their whole lives are in the shepherd’s hands. If wolves attack, there’s no choice but to defend the sheep. If sheep get lost, the shepherd has to find them. If they’re hurt, the shepherd must help them. The shepherd’s life is bound up in caring for the sheep.
Those who are paid to care for the sheep don’t have a reason to lose their lives keeping the wolves away, or climbing down a cliff to rescue them. At some point, they’ll abandon their job if the risk is too great. Jesus knows what he’s talking about.
Because there are plenty here who’ve been abandoned by Jesus’ hired hands.
Abandoned to the wolves by others in the Church, the hired hands (even though they’re not actually paid). Maybe you’ve been told to leave by someone Jesus asked to love you. Or marginalized by those supposed to care for Jesus’ flock. Things got challenging and you were left out and alone.
For decades this congregation has been a sanctuary for those kicked out of other sheepfolds, rejected both by leaders and members of the flock. What you’ve found here is this good news: Jesus the Christ, God-with-us, is your Good Shepherd, and no one can snatch you out of his hands. No matter if the hired hand is the pastor, or the bishop, or the person in the community ignoring you, or telling you you’re not acceptable to God, the Shepherd’s voice reigns over all. You belong. You are loved, and worthy.
But many of us have also been the hired hands.
How often have some of us disappeared in the face of adversity, leaving some of our fellow sheep, our neighbors, exposed and alone? How often have we decided we were the gatekeepers to the sheepfold, as if we knew whom God loved and didn’t? How often have we looked the other way when other sheep were unheard, ignored, patronized, or pushed to the side? Especially if they weren’t part of our own flock.
There’s also good news here for you if you’ve been such a hired hand. Your Good Shepherd still loves you and loves me. Being a bad hired hand is forgivable.
But the Shepherd still has a powerful word today for us to hear clearly.
Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
That means this sheepfold we know as the Church isn’t the whole flock. There are many other sheep, and Jesus knows and will find them. All God’s sheep belong to Christ, who gives his life for them.
So, Jesus clearly says here we hired hands don’t have a vote over who are Christ’s sheep and who aren’t, over who is loved by God and belongs to God. Only God does. And God’s word, repeatedly given by the Son of God, but also the prophets and the martyrs, is “all are mine. I won’t lose a single one. I will draw all people, all things, to myself, into my love and life.”
The Triune God is the only one with a vote. And the vote is: all are to be found and kept safe and loved.
Since we’re not the Shepherd, we don’t naturally have that kind of instinct, investment. But what if we did?
If you belong to Christ the Good Shepherd, and are cared for, and loved, and no one can snatch you out of the Shepherd’s hands, which is true; and if you are now called to care for the other sheep, whoever they are, which is also true; here’s the question: can you grow into the same investment Christ has? To be willing to do whatever it takes for any of Christ’s sheep, like Jesus?
Isn’t that what Jesus meant by “love one another as I have loved you?” That you and I actually love as God loves in Christ? Not caring for others because someone told us to. Not looking out for our neighbor because we think it’s expected. Not welcoming all, or setting aside our privilege, or changing how we think about another person because that was what we were required to do. No – because our heart was changed into Christ’s and it was the only thing to do.
Love as I love, Jesus said. Stop being a hired hand and become one of my shepherds.
This is the new heart we pray God gives us in the Spirit.
That you are transformed into someone who loves as passionately and as deeply and as committedly as the holy and Triune God. So that you never run away when someone is in need because they are yours, you love them, and it would be unthinkable. You never think or tell or treat someone as if they’re outside God’s embrace because you can’t imagine a situation where anyone would be.
The Good Shepherd needs other shepherds to help, not hired hands, because all God’s children need to be cared for and protected. Especially – and hear this clearly – especially the ones outside the sheepfold of the Church. We are called to love all with the same unbreakable, unstoppable love you and I have from God in Christ.
Now, the Good Shepherd will bring everyone into God’s love. Jesus says so. There will be one flock, and one Shepherd. You can count on it. But what if, because of your Spirit-transformed heart and love, and mine, all could experience and know that right now? If every heart knew the love of the Shepherd for them, and beat to the rhythm of the Shepherd’s heart themselves, what could this world look like?
Well, God has a good idea – but you are needed for it to become reality.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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