Sermon Text:
14 May 2006
To be or not to be -- that is the question. Remember the famous quote from Hamlet? That was the question for Shakespeare in the 16th and 17th century. The question for today is a little different: To be or to do -- that is the question. We live in a culture where we are caught up with doing. Frenzied doing sometimes.
Even the simple social question "How are you?" is answered differently now than it was 10 or so years ago. We used to answer "How are you?" with "Fine" or "Good" -- which is a state of being. Now we answer busy -- or too busy. Which is a state of doing. Usually frenzied doing.
I don't know when we transitioned from placing more value on doing than on being. But it's everywhere. We do this at the church also. Churches have all kinds of programs, but they lose touch with their purpose. They don't really think about God as a real presence in their midst, a real power to experience right now -- not just in eternity. So we end up doing church instead of being the church. Being the church means we understand our connection to Jesus Christ and the power and possibility that holds for us. It is possible to be so caught up in the doing of Christianity that we forget to be in Christ. Individually and as a church.
There are many lessons in today's scriptures -- love, fear, God's love for us, holy spirit, bearing fruit. But the lesson we're going to focus in on today is about abiding. Abiding in Christ. Staying connected to the vine. Knowing who we are and whose we are.
This word abide stands out in today's readings. Except in one instance in 1 Corinthians, only John uses this word in his gospel and letters. It is rich with meaning and like many words translated from Greek to English, we lose something in the translation. In the Greek this word has some nuances to it. There's a sense here of to remain, stay with, persist, persevere, continue, last. Instead of the word abide, substitute those meanings in John 15:4. Abide in me. Remain, persevere, persist, stay with, continue in me, Jesus says. There's no other way to bear fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.
This is a state of being not doing. But it also takes some doing to be this way. We've got some great examples over the centuries of what it means to abide in Jesus Christ.
In the 1600s there was a monk, Brother Lawrence, who lived in a monastery in France and wrote a little book called Practicing the Presence of God. His work in the monastery was pretty ordinary -- he was the cook in the kitchen. But the way he went about his work was extraordinary. And extraordinarily simply. He simply kept up a conversation with God, asking for grace along the way, all day, as he went about his work in the kitchen. That "prayer without ceasing" that Paul speaks of. (p. 36). His reasoning? In one of the chapters of his book he says, "To love someone, we first have to know that person. To know God, we have to think about Him. Then when we come to really love him, we'll think about him a lot . . . and on it goes. Our hearts follow our treasure. Let's keep this truth in mind." (p. 64)
Lest you start thinking that thinking about God is only for monks, let me tell you another story.
In the 20th century, there was a man named Frank Laubach, who spent his life working to eradicate illiteracy. He developed a literacy program called "Each One Teach One," which has been used to teach about 60 million people to read in their own language. In 1955 he founded Laubach Literacy which is still going strong today.
He was also the author of one of the most widely influential devotional works written in the last century. It was called the "Game with Minutes." In it, he urged Christians to attempt to keep God in mind for at least one second of every minute of the day. He did this, not as some impossible spiritual exercise, but as a reminder to stay connected to Christ. "We shall not become like Christ until we give him more time. . . Could [a teachers college] prepare competent teachers or a law school prepare competent lawyers if they studied only 10 minutes a week? Neither can Christ. To his disciples he said, 'Come with me, walk with me, talk and listen to me, work and rest with me, eat and sleep with me 24 hours a day for three years.'" All who have tried that kind of abiding for a month know the power of it -- it is like being born again from center to circumference. It absolutely changes every person who does it. And it will change the world that does it." Laubach called this practice the "Course with Christ." There are two assignments: 1) Read the Bible every day, and 2) Think of Christ at least one second of each minute.
I know, I know. We're too busy. Here's another idea from Frank Laubach. He said he actually began his minute-by minute practice of God's presence by "trying to line up my actions with the will of God about every fifteen minutes or every half hour."
Can you begin to imagine the power and possibility of this kind of connection if we did this? What if each of us checked in with God every half hour even with a simple prayer -- "God, is this what you would have me do this hour?"
What if we stopped every event and meeting in this church at least every half hour, and turned to God with that simple prayer "God, is this your will for this church in this hour?"
This surrender of our own will to God's will is what it means to abide in Jesus Christ. Intimately grafted -- connected -- into the vine, which is the source of all works. Only when we are in relationship with Christ can we bear fruit that will last. "Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing."
The abiding Jesus is talking about here is not some privatized, feel-good spiritual experience. This is important. This is why I talk about the Body of Christ all the time. In both of today's scriptures all the yous are plural. You plural abide in me. You plural remain in me. You plural continue and stay with me. Apart from me you plural can do nothing. Jesus is talking to the body of faithful who call themselves disciples. He is talking to the church. To us! There is no such thing as a Christian apart from the Body. You may have Christian beliefs and principles, but to be Christian, we need the discipline and the practice and the joy and the sorrow of being in a community.
The idea of community is reinforced in the letter from John. God as revealed in Jesus Christ is love. If we abide in love, we abide in God and God abides in us. This love is not some fluffy feeling -- it is an action we live out with each other. Church is a way we practice that love and then take it out in the world with us. The amazing thing about this love, is that it comes from God. We didn't do anything to get it. Our love is only a response to God's love which was revealed to us through Jesus Christ. God is here abiding with us. Its our job to pay attention to that. That's where our power comes from. Individually and as a church. "Apart from me you can do nothing."
Oh we can fumble along and do what we can. But it's not going to be what we could have done if we'd done it intimately connected with the source -- Jesus Christ.
We have all sorts of conversations going on about what this church needs for the future - leadership, money, more families, more youth, etc. If this church needs anything, it needs this - a deeper commitment to abiding in Jesus Christ. To praying and reading the scriptures. That is simple and that is hard. Because we can be in charge of all that other stuff -- leadership, money, hiring, figuring out the budget, programs. Abiding in Jesus Christ is something God does. We surrender our wills through reading scripture and prayer, and God works on us. We begin to notice God's presence more and more, and God's power -- the Holy Spirit -- begins to refine us. All we have to do is abide in Christ.
Today is Mother's Day. In our denomination and in many denominations, it is Christian family week. Today, we dedicated 3 of our children. Their family made promises and we made promises. There is something about family life that gives us a glimpse of God's love for us.
When my children were very, very small -- babies -- they would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night. Crying. I would go to their crib, pick up Matt or Andrew or James, and then go and sit in this rocking chair that I still have. And I would sit there rocking, sometimes humming a song. I would sit there a long time, sometimes -- I don't know how much time -- I never really thought about it.
Those days are long gone. But that image of just being -- not doing anything but rocking in a rocking chair holding a baby -- that has stayed with me. And that is how I think about God sometimes. God is in that rocking chair. God is there, and invites us to sit a while. Abiding in love. Abiding in God. That's where we get the strength to do all things.
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