May 3, 2015
Test: John 15:1-8
Why are you here?
Why are you here this morning and why are you part of 8th Day?
Our scripture today provides an answer: you are here because you want to stay connected to the vine. And what is the vine? You might think it is the church. According to our scripture, it is not. You might think it is the other branches, the fellowship. According to our scripture, it is not. It is rather, the source of life as revealed in the life of Jesus. In short, it is God's love.
I grew up in church; my father was a Baptist minister. I love the church as an organization. Where else in our society can you become intimate friends with people who are not like you, where a banker and a mechanic can serve together as deacons or on the leadership team? I have been known to say that even if there was no doctrine or commitment to the spiritual journey, I would still be a part of the church because it is such a unique, sociologically interesting place. But, this week, after working a bit with the scripture about the vine, I think that is probably nonsense. I am not here because of all of you, I am here because this is where I can stay connected to what is most important in my life -- I can be in community with God.
So, the scripture says we are branches and the source of life is the vine. Kayla McClurg, in her comments about this week's scripture in her small booklet, makes a point about the call of the branches. Here is what she says:
The branch does not need to be the source of all that is good, only to serve by letting the sap flow. Letting the blossoms come, being a good holder of fruit in season, the branch fulfills its calling.
So, does it help to think of the vine as the church? No. Churches come and go. If we thought the vine was the church then we would be in trouble when the vine died, as churches sometimes do. The vine is the actual flow of God's love, and that's what we have to stay connected to. We have to find the faith community that helps us do that. This church does that in two specific ways.
One is the notion of call. We as a community believe deeply in the idea that everyone is called to contribute to God's Kingdom in a specific way. Mary Cosby defines call as something you just cannot NOT do. Something you must do even if it seems crazy and unattainable. We nurture that thinking in this church. The results of that thinking are amazing: Just think about the call to start The Family Place, or Joseph's House, or the original, and then the renewal of, The Potter's House. Have you looked in the front of the Church of the Savior phone directory at all the nonprofit organizations that have come out of C of S? Each comes from one or two people hearing a call on their lives and responding. You have put yourself right in the middle of this type of church. Ask yourself why?
The other way we nurture people to stay connected to the source of life is to help individuals identify and celebrate their gifts. We say: not everyone has the same gifts, but everyone … everyone … has gifts. And when you are living out of your gifts, you are staying connected to the vine, the source of life. The result is that you will bear fruit.
Kayla says it this way: "Fruit bearing is the natural consequence of branch-being.” And here's the really good news: We don't have to struggle or work hard to bear fruit. No special knowledge, special skills or special anything else is needed. We just stay connected to the flow of what is Real by eliminating (pruning) what is not Real in our lives, so the juices (God's love) can keep flowing.
As I speak this morning, I am aware that many of you are facing difficult challenges in your lives. Staying close to the vine, to God's love, does not eliminate the challenges; rather, it gives us a source of strength and creativity to deal with the challenges. I think of our clients at Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR): They wonder how different their lives would be had they been able to stay connected to God's love. I think of my brother who served 6½ years in prison for a crime he did not commit; he did stay connected to God's love and is coming through that ordeal with amazing grace and forgiveness. You may want to ask: Why me?, God. Why is this so hard? Why did my loved one die? Why can't I find work? Why is my child so sick? Why can't I find a life partner?
Here is what I know from having had those questions in my own life: God's love is sufficient. You will be able to do what is necessary if you keep God by your side minute-by-minute. The AL-ANON meetings I went to sometimes multiple times a week for over three years helped me stay close to God through a difficult passage as I learned new practices about letting go of what I could not control and letting God be in control. This community provided a bed of love where I could be honest about what was going on and share my burden. What I can tell you is: stay close to the vine, to God's love.
As I speak, I am also aware that there are some of you who are waiting for a call on your life. You want to be of service. You know you have gifts. What I can suggest, based upon my experience, is: Listen and Be Bold. If you talk with others in the community, you will hear amazing stories of how individuals quit their jobs; moved here to be part of Church of the Savior; went back to school as adults and so on: bold actions.
Many of you have heard my own story. I was finishing graduate school, and I knew that I could probably get a job with the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as a writer. But then I heard a sermon on Psalm 137:
By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung up our harps, for our captors asked us for songs. Our tormenters demanded songs of joy. ... How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?
There I was sitting in a little Baptist church in Champaign, Illinois, and I heard my call. I knew I could sing the Lord's song in the familiar land of the church. But what about going into the secular world to sing the Lord's song? That was the year President Nixon was being impeached, and I figured that good people were needed to make our government work better. So, I packed up a small trailer with my books, a bed and a victrola, and I headed to Washington with $500 in my pocket (the equivalent of about $2200 today). I worked at Dart Drug for sixty cents an hour at night so I could look for work during the day. I handed out 150 resumés before I got a job. And on a Tuesday afternoon, having read Elizabeth O’Connor’s Call to Commitment in graduate school, I went to the Church of the Savior building to ask about taking one of the School of Christian Living classes. The only class available was Bill Price's class on Servant Leadership. The blurb about the class read something like: “Learning to be God's presence in the workplace.” Really!
It was an affirmation, one of many throughout my life, that I was walking in God's love. That was 41 years ago this coming July.
So here are some questions Kayla posed out of the scriptures:
What comes naturally to me when I allow it?
Where do I need to cut back to be more fruitful?
What practices give me the strength to hold on?
One practice is certainly to show up here each week, to BE a blessing as well as receive a blessing. I am grateful to be on this journey of faith and commitment with you.