DATE: May 6, 2012
SCRIPTURE: 1 John 4:7-12; 18-21 (NRSV); John 15:1-8 (NRSV)
© Alison J. Buttrick Patton
1 John 4:7-12; 18-21 (NRSV)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent God’s only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us…
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because God first loved us. 20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
John 15:1-8 (NRSV)
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
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Earlier this week, a member of this congregation asked me why I said, “Yes.” Why, in light of a damaging fire, when we don’t even have our own building in which to worship, I would consider serving as the pastor of Saugatuck Congregational Church. It’s a fair question, an honest one. Here’s my honest response: Just a couple weeks after the fire I met with the search committee for a second interview. We began that interview with a prayer written by Russ Brenneman. “Bring us closer, through this fire, to the lamentations of those whom Jesus would have us serve,” we prayed. I was deeply moved by this humble appeal, so soon after the fire, that God expand our compassion and deepen our sense of connection with those beyond our own church walls.
It’s not easy, in the wake of a loss, to see past our own grief. Loss, any loss, feels so intensely personal, even isolating. “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” goes the old spiritual. And yet, like the tendrils of a vine, the words of our prayer that evening reached out and wound their way around our hearts, connecting us to each other and to God’s diverse people well beyond the scorched walls of Saugatuck Congregational Church.
We are connected, they murmured. We are connected to all those who suffer, to the displaced and disheartened; to homeless folks who stay at the Gillespie Center; to children who receive backpacks and school supplies from Covenant to Care; to youth in crisis and to families in need.
We are connected. We are connected to First Church of Christ, Simsbury, the congregation I served for five years, until last Sunday, April 29th. Andrea Cross, Sara and John Walsh attended my last worship service at First Church and participated in the litany of release that morning, on your behalf. Here’s what they heard:
“Having released Alison from her role here at First Church Simsbury, we send her with our blessings to serve in your midst at Saugatuck Congregational Church, in Westport, Connecticut. We pray a blessing on Saugatuck Congregational Church, that God may guide and inspire you as you serve God and God’s people in Westport.”
In turn, Andrea, Sara and John offered a blessing on the continued ministries of First Church Simsbury.
We are connected. Like so many branches on one vine, we are connected to all the churches of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ, and to the women who so lovingly stitched the altar cloth that now hangs on our communion table.
We are connected. Can’t you feel it? We are connected to and through the Risen Christ, the True Vine, the one who sprung up out of cold, winter soil, transformed a tomb into a garden and death into new life.
It was Jesus himself who said it: “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” He spoke those words as part of his farewell discourse, to give comfort and strength to the disciples on the night that he was betrayed. They didn’t know what was going to happen next, not really. But Jesus spoke, so his words might return to them in the days following his death, might remind them, in their grief, that he had not really gone, that he remained in reach –more than in reach: remained as connected to them as a vine to its branches.
It’s a compelling image, isn’t it? That we find our very life in Christ who sustains us, feeds us, and sends us out, not like so many individuals, separate and wandering, but like countless shoots from the one vine. It may indeed have given the disciples some comfort, in the days following his crucifixion, but this is Jesus, so we know his words were meant not just to reassure, but also to challenge. Look again, and realize that Jesus was speaking not only about a few folks gathered around on a Thursday night; he was talking about us, casting an image of the future church, not just a bricks and mortar church, not just stones built on stones-church, but a living, growing, greening church.1
Have you ever stood under a grape vine trellis, the sunlight filtering through a dense canopy of bright green leaves and low-hanging fruit? Vines, grape vines and morning glories, watermelon and honeysuckle… vines have a glorious way of filling up a space – creeping and crawling and cascading everywhere. Last summer, our purple pole beans wound their way all the way up a seven foot pole, then jumped to the garden fence and kept on growing, so that deep purple beans hung suspended above our heads like playful ornaments. My moonbeam watermelons spilled out of their raised beds, undeterred by the borders we imposed, and filled up the walkways between our carefully spaced gardens.
That’s what vines do. The image of the vine reminds us that we are connected to each other, that we are rooted in Christ and that we are called to grow … all over the place!
So how do we do that? How do we grow when we don’t even have a building? In just a few weeks, we’ll celebrate Pentecost; we’ll remember the birth of the early church; we’ll read about a different kind of fire, a Spirit-fire that filled those still-grieving disciples and inspired them to spread the Good News, to study and pray and share all they had in common. Every day they served God’s people, and broke bread together with glad and generous hearts… They didn’t need a building to be the church; instead, they found their dwelling place in Christ, the One True Vine that could not be uprooted. And so they bore much fruit: served and fed and healed and blessed.
There’s one more bit about the vine image to consider: Craig and I have a tendency to let our vines go, but really: vines need a bit of tending to thrive: early growth should be pruned, to encourage more growth; dead vines are cleared away; long, straggly branches are cut back because blossoms nearest the central vine produce best fruit. That, said Jesus, is what God does: God is the Vinegrower, the Master Gardener, who lovingly cultivates us: guides and coaxes, pokes and prods, prunes and praises… It is work, sometimes, this cutting away some parts to let other parts grow. But it is a labor of love, because God wants nothing more than to help us thrive.
Sisters and brothers in Christ: spring gardening has begun at Saugatuck Congregational Church! God, that First Gardener, is rolling up Her sleeves and digging into the dirt. God who rejoices not in death or loss but in new life: God prepares the soil with joy, waters the ground, pours out blessings on Her beloved Church. And we: we are ready.
THAT’S why I can say ‘Yes!’ Because I can already see the new growth: tiny green shoots emerging from the earth…hands reaching out to connect; hearts opening like so many blossoms…And soon, Sisters and brothers, soon I know: these Saugatuck vines are going to grow all over the place, will erupt with color and aroma, like grapes and honeysuckle, pole beans and watermelon: Those vines will grow right out of our carefully planned garden beds, head across the lawn and down onto Post Road East. Saugatuck vines will pop up all over town, lush and full of good fruit, they will find root among God’s people in Westport and Bridgeport and who knows where else!
We can’t do it alone. We rely on the love of Christ that binds us, and on God who tends to us along the way. So nurtured, so rooted, may we continue to be a living, growing, greening church: And everywhere we grow, may Christ inspire us to feed and serve and heal and bless. Amen!