Sermon: John 15:1-17

Theme: Remain in me – remain in Love

About this:

I prepared this talk for my old church in London.  I chose the passage without knowing that the church was focusing on it.  It is a passage that I read a lot as I find it helpful to be reminded that what Christ requires of me is ‘simply’ to remain in him.  That is where my home is and that is where I will find everything I need.  In this talk I unpick what this means and how it has an impact on my life.

It is hardly edited at all.

The picture that I used in the talk is of the same tree that is on this blog - only that it showed the tree in leaf.  Hopefully you can use the picture on the blog along with your imagination!

Here is a link to the passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015:1-17&version=NIV

Good morning!  I love coming back here and pray that what I share with you this morning will speak to your hearts and encourage you in your faith journey.  I was happy to be asked to speak but, to be honest, when C+M let me know that I could speak on what ever I wished I was a bit perplexed.  Where to start? How to decide?!

So, I settled on this passage from John.  I use it when I spend time in silence, and I find it helpful, and what I hope to do this morning is explain a bit about why I find it helpful and how that relates to my own evolving understanding of God.

There is a big question alongside this…  What is faith?  In some ways this seems like a basic question – surely we all know what we mean by faith?  But, no, I think it is important that this is a question that we continue to grapple with. Our faith is centred on our relationship with God and, as with all relationships, this evolves and changes.  The way that I relate to God now is different to the way that I related to God at a younger age.  The way that I think about God now is different to the way I thought about God at a younger age.  But God is the same God.

Can that be true?  Does that make sense? Something that I have discovered about my faith is that when things seem to contradict each other, there I find a deep truth.  A truth that is rooted in the beginnings of time and will not change. This one is still embryonic in my mind but here it is:  I believe that God is the same – yesterday, today and tomorrow – and I also believe that God is evolving.  To my human mind that doesn’t make sense – how can both of those things be true?  Yet God says, in Isaiah (55:8): “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”.  God is beyond our understanding – so when I meet a seeming contradiction I don’t conclude that I have got this wrong: I accept that I cannot understand everything.

And that is why I find this passage from John so helpful.  Jesus’ teaching here is maybe a little mystical, but his message is clear.  He says plainly: Remain in me.  When I come across things that I don’t understand – whether that be when I am reading the Bible, or when I am praying, or when I switch on the news – I can go back to this ‘simple’ teaching: remain in me.

Part of me just wants to stop here.  Just leave you with those words of Jesus: Remain in me.  Can I encourage you to take some time to ponder these words over the next week?  For now, let’s look in a bit more depth at our passage in John.

I don’t know about you, but I find a vine difficult to picture.  I’ve not spent much time around vines.  Whereas I love trees and have spent a fair amount of time looking at them…! And when I think about what Jesus means in these words about being a vine I feel a tree can give us the same image and a more familiar image to work with. So, let’s look at a picture of one of my favourite trees! Can we just pause for a moment and look at this tree?  When Jesus says he is the true vine he is like the tree – let’s say for just a moment, like this tree.  He is this tree and he is saying we are a part of him – we are the branches.

As you look at the tree, let me just read verses 1-5 from our passage again:

 ‘I am the tree, and my Father is the park manager. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already pruned back because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the tree. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. ‘I am the tree; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

I find this image of Christ as a tree very powerful.  This tree that we are looking at shows the scars of its life.  The trunk has a huge opening – a bit like Christ’s side was opened after he died on the cross – and yet it continues to give the branches what they need, so that they can produce leaves and acorns.  This tree is rooted in the earth – the goodness of God’s creation, and Jesus says that his father is the gardener (I changed this to park manager to fit with the image).  Tending to the tree.  What a beautiful image.  And he says to us: Remain in me and I will remain in you.

This opening in the tree reminded me of something Julian of Norwich said in her visions of love.  Julian of Norwich was a 14^th century Christian mystic who had visions of God when she almost died of the plague.  She then became an ‘anchorite’ – living in a closed room at a church and giving advice to people who sought her out.  Reflecting on her visions Julian wrote this:

He gently drew my mind’s eye into himself, through the wound in his side.  And he revealed within a fair and delightful space, large enough to welcome all humanity saved in him and resting in peace and love.

Remain in me.

Verse 4 is a bit longer than this: Remain in me, as I also remain in you.  Interesting.  It is not just that we remain in Christ, but also that he remains in us.  Everything that the leaf needs at the end of that branch, moves through the roots, through the trunk, to the branch.  Water and nutrition travels through the tree and seeps into each part of it – so that it can flourish – so that it can live and grow.  Christ remaining in us, giving us everything we need.  Christ is the whole vine – the whole tree.  Not the trunk, or the main stem.   He is the whole thing.  He remains in us.  And to use another of Jesus’ images - he is that spring of living water, rising up inside us, ready to overflow.  Can you get a sense of that truth?  Because it is a truth.  Christ is in you.  Christ lives in you.  Christ remains in you.  Jesus promised that he would never leave us or forsake us.  If life is a bit tough for you at the moment, maybe that is the truth you need to hear.  Christ is in you – he has not gone anywhere.

I love the translation of this verse in the Message version of the Bible.  It says: Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.  Christ is our home.  A home that can never be taken away from us.  Reflecting on the fact that it is Refugee Sunday today this seemed a very apt encouragement.  Christ is a home that can not be taken away from us.  A home that we carry with us wherever we go. 

And he makes his home in me!  That is humbling.  I know what the home inside of me is like.  Sometimes, frankly, a bit of a mess.  But Jesus never said ‘I’ll come and live in you once you have sorted yourself out; when you are sure you know what you’re doing; when you are sure you know what you believe’.  Jesus just wants to make his home in us and he does.  As we live in him, so he lives in us.

There’s another one of those impossible contradictions.  How can I live in Jesus who lives in me?  It feels a bit chicken and egg.  It feels a bit impossible to understand.  But there we have it.  God is beyond our understanding. 

Jesus prayer in John 17 talks again of this indwelling: (v20-23) I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

There’s some really powerful stuff there about us being one: but let me not stray away from what I am trying to highlight.  There is something going on here which is quite mind-blowing.  Jesus asks his father that we have the same relationship as he has with his father – As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.  We are invited into this relationship between the Father and the Son.  We are invited to dwell in them – that’s what Jesus asks his Father for us.  And then: so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me.  Jesus making his home in us, and the Father in Jesus.  Somewhere in me, lives Jesus, and inside him, God the father.  This is mystical language and it is powerful language.  I don’t feel I need to be able to justify or explain this – it is mystery.  And when I take the time to ponder it I can sense that truth inside me – mind-blowing as it is, Jesus lives in me.

Getting back to John 15, Jesus says to us ‘remain in me’.  As the branches on the tree; connected to the tree; an integral part of the tree.  We see that it is the branches that remain part of the tree that produce fruit.  The ones that don’t remain part of the tree wither.  Here then is a picture of the uselessness of what we do when we are not in Jesus.  We wither.  The energy has gone out of that branch.  The life force has gone.  I don’t want to dwell too much on this part of the passage but that withering, or drooping, is a picture to bear in mind.  The branch lacks what it needs, and the leaves and the fruits cannot continue to grow.  I want to pick up that branch and graft it back onto the tree – reconnect it with its life power.  When we are connected to that life power – a part of that life power – we produce fruit.  And that fruit is transformative.  It transforms us and enables us to support and feed others.

How, then, do we ‘remain in Jesus’?  Let’s look at verses 9 and 10:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

It’s all about love!  All this talk of the Father being in Jesus and Jesus being in us – it’s all about love!  The Father loved Jesus; Jesus loved us; and we are called to remain in that love.  And not only that but to keep his commands: his commands to do what?  His commands to love!  To love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, and to love our neighbour as our self.  Remaining in Jesus is remaining in love.  It is as simple as that!

Love is my ‘benchmark’.  When I do something am I doing it in love?  Is love the motivation?  Is love the result?  When I think to myself – what is the ‘right’ thing here?  Then I don’t think there will be one answer, but is the answer I choose rooted in love?  Will it grow the kingdom of God, which is love?  Will it produce fruit, which is love? 

Sometimes we lose the love.  Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where there is no love.  I feel like it is those situations that should sound an alarm bell – where love is absent God is absent.  How do you bring God back into that situation? You bring love.  God’s absence from a situation leaves a huge hole – a hole that desperately needs to be filled with his love.  Let’s not be afraid of those situations that are absent of love – perfect love drives out fear – let’s come to those situations with love.  Love is the most powerful force in the universe.  If we don’t realise that, maybe that is something we need to dwell on – myths and stories that speak to our soul speak of the power of love.

Teilhard de Chardin put it like this: Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

God is love.  Love is powerful.  If we remain in Jesus, we remain in love and love can work in us and through us.  Fruit will grow.  It does grow.  It grows amongst you as you meet to worship together and love one another; it grows as you get on with your day-to-day life showing love to those you work and spend time with.  Maybe especially when you find that person difficult to love.  And maybe especially when you open yourself up to receiving love as well.  Because love is dynamic and it flows both ways.  When you recognise love in someone, are you not recognising God?

The universe has a pattern.  It is expanding.  It is the pattern of love, and it is the pattern of God.  God does not hold back.  God does not keep hold of the love he has.  It pours out of him into our world and it is fruitful.  God gives and receives love – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and he invites us into this divine dance: into his ever-expanding love.

‘Remaining’ sounds like quite a static thing.  But remaining in Christ – remaining in love – is being a part of something that is dynamic and alive.  Growing and reaching out.  Remaining in Christ doesn’t mean nothing is happening.  It is tuning into the lifeforce of the universe that continues to expand. 

In the world that we live in and in the news that we hear this optimism can seem out of place.  What about pain?  What about suffering? Yes, there is pain.  Yes, there is suffering.  Jesus showed us the way into that as well.  Amidst the pain, can we find the hope that is in love – in simply remaining in love, and allowing ourselves to be transformed?  Julian of Norwich lived in times which were about as difficult as the times we are in but as she understood God’s love and mercy and compassion in the midst of all the pain and suffering her conclusion was ‘all will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well’.  The suffering and the pain that so many face at the moment are not to be trivialised in any way – they are real.  And Christ makes his home in us and invites us to remain in him; remain in his love.  Because that is real too.  And it is powerful.

As I reflected on what I was going to say this morning -spending a little time in silence – some words came to me.  They were: I am who I am, in you. God describes himself to Moses as ‘I am who I am’.  God is the great ‘I am’. The ever-present presence that birthed the universe.  Who am I? Well that’s still a journey of discovery – but I know where to find myself – my true self.  In God.  I am who I truly am by remaining in Christ, by remaining in love.  And it brings me joy that through that same love we are one.

God bless you.

Musing #3:  Lessons from Harry Potter (i)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Harry Potter let me describe to you a scene in the first book.  Harry, Ron and Hermione are attempting to find the Philosophers Stone which they know is hidden through a trapdoor under a huge three headed dog.  They manage to get past the dog and drop down through the trapdoor into the unknown.  Their fall is broken by a plant, which seems fortunate until the plant begins wrapping its tendrils around them and they recognise that they are in huge danger.

Hermione is the one who recognises the plant as ‘Devil’s Snare’ and has to wrack her brains to remember how to free them.  In the book Hermione is not caught by the plant and orders the boys to ‘stop moving’, in the film Hermione is trapped too but releases herself by relaxing – Harry follows her instructions, but Ron continues to panic and the plant grips him tighter.  The words that echo in my head are in the film and said by Hermione to Harry about Ron: He’s not relaxing is he?

I feel like I can hear these words being said about me.  Sometimes it’s like I’ve tried to drop down into that deeper place and something has caught me – maybe an idea, maybe a meeting or an activity, maybe a book or a person.  At first being caught seemed like a good thing but then that distraction starts, metaphorically, attacking me; stopping me from dropping deeper and actually ‘killing’ me.  And the way out of this situation? I need to relax.  I need to disengage.  I need to still my mind – find what Rumi calls ‘that pure bead in the centre’ – and then all those things that have been clinging onto me will release me and I can drop deeper.  Letting go of things that are not important is a vital practise, but sometimes the practise is one of relaxing and finding peace, so that the things that cling to us will let us go.  Sometimes the way to the deeper place is to stop struggling and relax.

In both the book and film poor Ron finds it impossible to relax and the plant grips tighter, threatening to take his life.  I feel his pain! Hermione has to come to the rescue by remembering that – in the book – the plant does not like warmth or – in the film – that the plant does not like sunlight. 

So, if we find it practically impossible to relax, the way that we can be helped is through warmth and light.  Powerful elements from which the ‘Devil’s Snare’ shrinks.  For me, this is a potent image of the powerful energy of love which loosens the grip of the things that hold us and stop us dropping deeper into love.  Sometimes we need the light and the warmth of love to free us so that we can drop into its arms.

Interesting that the plant is called devil’s snare.  Interesting that it is possible to free yourself from it by relaxing. Interesting that it shrinks away from light and warmth.  Lots to ponder: lots to learn!

 

 

 All is Well: A Journey in Contemplation

c. Getting Started

Where does this contemplative journey begin?  Maybe the first thing to recognise is that the journey has begun – you are already on the road.  If you’re reading this blog you’re already thinking about contemplation and may well already be developing some practises that help you.  The danger here is that we procrastinate – we spend our time trying to find the practise that is perfect for us; or we read endless books about the benefits of contemplation or the science behind it; or we get bogged down in the theology; or we make a very long list about all the reasons why we can’t get started!  So, begin by recognising that you have started, and that Love dwells within you and is with you.  You are not alone.

Everyone is different, and though some have given very particular guidelines on how to meditate or express gratitude or pray, in the end what we do is up to us.  And what each of us do will differ, and that doesn’t matter.  There are no hard and fast rules here, but there is lots of wisdom to draw on and that can be helpful.  Any wisdom I have about getting started is gleaned from others: here let me share some of the basics that I have found helpful.

A first step is to slow down.  Our tendency in modern life is to fill our life completely to the brim – our lives become so full that we end up rushing from appointment to appointment; grabbing food on the go; squeezing in a conversation here and a visit there.  The answer to ‘how are you?’ has become ‘busy’, and often that is seen as a very positive thing.  In fact, if you can’t reel off a list of all the things you have been doing recently you can be made to feel a bit like a failure.  For some of us the Covid lockdowns created space and time – many of the things we had filled our lives with came to a standstill: we were released from that prison of activity and focused on what really mattered.  It was a lesson:  we need to slow down.  We need to eat a meal and really experience what it tastes like.  We need to have a conversation and really listen.  We need to pause before moving on to the next thing on the list.  Here we have a battle with our ego – we feel better about ourselves when we feel needed; when we have something special to talk about; when we can be the centre of attention.  But if we are to slow down we will have to let go of these things.  How often have you heard people claim that they don’t have enough time?  As you read this are you already thinking: I don’t have time to slow down?  We will have to ‘deny ourselves’ and let the ego die a little.  The truth of the matter is that I cannot magically make time.  To find the time to slow down, I am going to have to die a little.  I am going to have to let go of some things and consider what I want to hold onto. And whatever it is that you’re holding onto really tightly – that you really don’t want to let go of – can you try to open your hand a little?  Can you hold it more lightly?  Can you open your hand and let whatever it is rest there instead of gripping it?  When we let go, when we loosen our grip, we create space.  When we slow down, we open up gaps.  Gaps into which God can climb; space into which God can grow.

How tempting it is to fill the space we open up with noise.  I have enjoyed my own company most of my life.  Or maybe I have thought I have.  Because what I have enjoyed is listening to the radio or reading a book.  It is so easy to fill our lives with information and communication.  We no longer just have the radio or books, we have tv and podcasts and emails and Facebook and Instagram…  As soon as we make space there are literally hundreds of things waiting to invade that space and fill it.  We easily fill up the space that God could have climbed into.  To keep that space open we need the ‘disciplines’ of silence, stillness and solitude.

The wonderful gifts of silence, stillness and solitude can be taken at your own pace and according to your own need.  For myself I know that I have only dipped my toe into each – there is so much more there.  Because these three are expansive, free and freeing.  It is important to recognise that it is not easy for everyone to find a place of silence or stillness, or to be on their own in solitude – if it is difficult for you try taking the opportunities as and when they arise.  To me these three are like blankets that we can wrap ourselves in and part of the ‘trick’ is to recognise opportunities and take them.  For me days at home were often accompanied by the radio – even when I was not really listening to it – the discipline of leaving the radio off has opened up some silence for me.  Times of solitude have been taken through walking home from work instead of taking the bus or making the most of washing up or doing another chore on my own.  I probably find stillness the biggest challenge which leads us on to ‘meditation’.

Meditation is taking time to be still.  To still not just the body but also the mind.  On a contemplative journey it is a key practise, and there are many books you can read about it and much advice you can find.  My advice would simply be to have a go.  Have a go, remembering that nobody says this is an easy practise.  Don’t judge what happens: don’t think about your failure or success.  To the extent that you can, just be.  Your mind will fill with thoughts, you will find yourself distracted, or you may find yourself asleep.  Forgive yourself, turn back to God, and try again.  But try not to try – just be.  Again, different people will find different things helpful. Some find a sacred word helpful; for others engaging with one particular sense can help to still the mind; for others a mental picture can enable them to let go of thoughts.  I sometimes get a sense of where I am sitting inside of myself – as I relax into meditation I can let myself drop deeper, underneath all the agitation and, sometimes for a moment, the thoughts slip away.  I find I need to let go and purposefully orient myself towards God, towards Love – there is something intentional – I am not ‘switching off’ I am switching on to something divine that is beyond my understanding.

In my own experience spiritual direction has been very helpful.  A spiritual director is there as a facilitator – they do not tell you what to do but facilitate your relationship with God, inside you and around you.  A simple, well ‘managed’ conversation which helps you unpack what is inside you, also enables you to unpack God inside of you.  You can begin to recognise with greater clarity what God is doing in you and around you.  You can gain support and encouragement when you feel a bit lost: helped to find the piece of Light-God-Love that with nourishment will grow.  In many senses then, spiritual direction is not about keeping you on the ‘right path’ but about recognising God around and within you on your journey.  It is not a case of finding the right direction but of waking up to the fact that God is with, and within, you.

Through this contemplative journey our aim is connection.  God is all about connection rather than separation, so one way in which we can connect with God is through connecting with creation. Many of us will have been privileged to visit a place where the beauty of God’s creation is literally awe-inspiring.  The beauty and grandeur of mountains, the power and peace of the ocean, the comfort and company of a wood or forest.  There are times when we are tangibly touched by what we see, and we feel a stirring in our soul.  Not so many of us will have the fortune to live in a place of such beauty, but even if we do familiarity can lead to us taking what is around us for granted.  It is a discipline to find God in creation – to notice the things of beauty all around us and develop an ‘every day awe’ that can draw us closer to the Divine.  When we slow down we have the time to notice the natural world.  We see creation pushing through any spaces our concrete jungle leaves vacant – an echo of the way God will push into the spaces in our souls that we open up.  And of course, each one of us is a creation of God.  We find God through connecting with each other.  Through creating community and having the humility to see God in each other.

Which brings us to our own bodies.  We are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’.  For all our problems with image, with what we look like, and our health and the impact this has on our lives, we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’.  To recognise that I am made by God is to see my body as sacred in some way.  The Bible talks about the body being the ‘temple of the Lord’ and if I believe that God lives inside me then surely that is what my body is.  We can suffer in many different ways physically and when we do we often suffer mentally, spiritually and emotionally as well.  Our body, mind, spirit and soul are all linked which means that when we look after our body that has an impact on our mind, spirit, soul and our emotions.  We need to consider what we consume and what affect that has on our body.  We need to think about our activity, or lack of it.  Our body is a gift, a temple, a creation of God.  I started fasting on a weekly basis to help myself from a physical health point of view: I felt my gut needed a weekly rest.  I can not completely pin down the affect this has had on me spiritually but there is something.  Maybe giving my gut a rest, somehow gives my soul a rest too.  I can’t explain it, but the different elements of our being are one, so it makes sense to me that when I look after one part of myself the others also benefit.  This I know is a common experience – you don’t need to be an athlete or a wholefood guru to know that when you are fit or when you have eaten well, it is not only your body that feels good.  It has an impact on your whole being.

This wholeness is something we need to hold onto as we continue on our contemplative journey.  Modern life and thinking almost necessitates us to compartmentalise our lives, whether that be to think separately about our physical and mental health or keep our spiritual practises within a designated time. God is not like that.  God is about integrating and bringing things together.  Patterns in nature and his creation teach us this – everything has an impact on everything else: everything is connected.  So, it is critical that we do not think of contemplation as something new that we are going to carve out time for and create a new compartment.  Contemplation needs to be integrated into the whole of my life – wherever I am, whatever I am doing – it is more an attitude of mind than a practise.  Through contemplation I will see that God is woven into all the different threads of my life; I will begin to see the patterns he is making; and wake up to the beauty that she is creating that has always been there.

 

 Poem

Listen

 

Stop for a moment.

Stop for this moment.

Listen

 

Love is calling you.

Reaching out from the pain of the world

Alive in the eyes that yearn for connection

Tingling in the touch that affirms oneness

Seeding in you the joy that life can bring

 

Stop for a moment

Stop for this moment

Attend to the silence

 

Let yourself be held.

Let yourself be healed.

Love touches you,

Comforts you,

Lightens you.

 

Let go of the heaviness that holds you

And fly.

Be alive to life

Be alive to love

Dance in the freedom she brings

 

Listen

To the tuggings in your heart

To the stirrings deep within you

Answer love’s call and dance!