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Monday, May 7, 2012

Are You Connected?

A sermon based upon John 15: 1-10
By Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Easter 5, May 6th, 2012

A newspaper reporter went to interview a successful small business owner. "How did you do it?" he asked. "How did you make all this money?"
"I’m glad you asked," the businessman said. "It’s a great story. When my wife and I married, we started out with a roof over our heads, some food in our pantry, and five cents between us. I took that nickel, went down to the grocery store, bought an apple, shined it up, and sold it for ten cents. "
"What did you do then?" the reporter asked.
"Well," he said, "I bought two more apples, shined them up, and sold them for twenty cents." The reporter thought this would be a great human interest story, so he asked excitedly, "Then what?" The businessman replied, "Then my father-in-law died and left us $20 million".

The businessman prospered not because of his own ingenuity, but because he was connected. Are you connected?   Of course, when we think of having connections in this “wired” younger folks think about being connected to Social media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.   In this “brave new world” of technology many think of being connected in a whole new way. 

King Duncan tells how a group of young children were sitting in a circle with their teacher. She was going around asking each of them questions.
“Davy, what noise does a cow make?”  He said, “It goes moo.”
“Alice, what noise does a cat make?”    “It goes meow,” she answered.
“Jamie, what sound does a lamb make?”  “It goes baaa,” he said.
“Jennifer, what sound does a mouse make?”  Without hesitation she answered, “It goes click!”

So, the question, “Are you connected?” means different things to different people.   But here we must be careful.   There is a certain danger associated with electronic connectedness.  Despite all the hype about being connected through the Internet, a number of studies suggest that this technology is actually disconnecting many of us from those around us.   A study of the Stanford Institute found that:  13 percent of regular net users that is, those who are on the web five hours or more a week reported spending less time with family and friends; 8 percent said they were now attending fewer social events; and 26 percent said they talked less to friends and family by telephone.  Being connected face to face with family and friends is what gives life meaning.   Another prominent researcher noted recently, that even as many people have a swarm of friends on Facebook,  “friending” people online is not the same as “befriending” or being a friend in real life.  Instead of creating a global village, the Internet can distract and distance us from each other.   The average American today already has only a third as many friends as 25 years ago, and one-fourth have no close confidants at all, according to recent research.  Even in a “wired world” we are fast becoming a very disconnected society (This statistics from a sermon by King Duncan entitled “How Connected are You) at www.sermons.org).

This could mean “trouble” ahead because staying connected is important to our health and general well-being as people and as a society.  That is at least what medical studies are showing us. One study compared 12,000 Japanese men living in Japan with Japanese men who had moved to Hawaii or California. The researchers looked at smoking, diet, exercise, cholesterol levels, and social support (the maintenance of family and community ties).  The group with the lowest social support (the California group) had a threefold to fivefold increase in heart disease.  The researchers concluded that social networks and close family ties help protect against disease and premature death.   By staying connected to other people, the research shows, and you will be healthier.   (From The American Journal of Epidemiology (1975): 102(6): 51425. Cited by Walter L. Larimore M.D., 10 Essentials of Highly Healthy People (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), p. 140.    But the effects of social isolation are not just medical.  A British study suggests that social isolation is in part responsible for the fact that suicides among those under the age of 35 have risen at such a dramatic rate.  In studying the lives of 148 young people who died of either suicide or natural causes, the researcher found that those who killed themselves were more likely to be living alone, single, unemployed and with few friends. In other words, they were socially isolated, disconnected. (Donald M. Tuttle, http://www.firstchristiancc.org/images/sermons/Oct%201,%202000.htm).

In his book, Real Age, Michael Roizen calculates how different factors affect one’s life expectancy.  For socialization he cites three factors: 1) being married, 2) seeing at least six friends at least monthly, and 3) participating in social groups, such as a church or a club.    The “real age” for a 55-year-old man who meets all three criteria married, has at least 6 friends, and goes to church is 46 in terms of life expectancy.    And you thought being married made you older.   Not so, in terms of life expectancy, it makes you younger.   If the 55-year-old man meets at least two of these criteria, his real age is 49.   If he meets one criterion, his real age is 53.  The real age of a 55-year-old man who meets none of these criteria is 63 eight years older than his chronological age.   For a 55 year old woman the real ages are 49, 53, 59, and 61. Presumably, says researchers, the effect is a little stronger for men because women in our culture are better at social networking  (From Michael Brickey, Ph.D., Defy Aging (Columbus, OH: New Resources Press, 2000), p. 18).

Need more evidence?   When a partner’s spouse dies, his or her risk of illness or death skyrockets for the first year.  Retirement also changes social networks and can be very stressful.  I’ll never forget how my neighbor in childhood, who did not go to church, died of a heart attack the very week after he retired.  The point is that it’s very important at any age and time in life to stay connected.  Are you connected?

WE MUST MAKE CONNECTING OURSELVES WITH GOD PRIORITY ONE
In our Bible text for today, Jesus expresses the need for his disciples to stay connected.   In verse 4 we read these powerful words: “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.” (John 15: 4). 

Think about that word “abide” for a moment.   Brett Younger says it’s a “funny word to read out loud.”  Say it out loud with me ten times: Abide!  Abide!  Abide!  Abide! Abide! Abide!  Abide!  Abide!  Abide!  Abide! Abide! Abide!...   That’s probably ten more times than you’ve said the world in a year.  Abide is an old-fashioned word.   It’s just not used anymore.  How many times have you seen a Hotel Sign say, “Abide hear!”  In Baseball they don’t say, “one hit, one walk, and two ‘abiding’ on base.”  Mick Jaggar never sang, “Let’s abide the night together.”  The word “abide” belongs to another time.  It has to do with persevering, continuing, and lasting.  In our day, even the idea of “staying” with someone through thick and thin is becoming uncommon.  Maybe abiding is used so rarely today, because we have no real use for it.  Friendships normally break up.   National treaties are broken more than they are kept.  Business contracts are “on paper only”.  Marriage covenants are easily broken as the “best way out”.  Staying with anyone has become so hard most people don’t more than do. 

Staying with God is also hard and very difficult in our world today.    How can anyone “connect” with the God who has been chased “out of the public square” of our society?    For many people today sustaining a connection with God has become more difficult because faith has become an option or a choice, not a requirement nor a necessity.     But what we need to understand from this text, first of all, is that staying connected to God was not easy for Judas, Peter, or the rest of the disciples either.   Twelve of Jesus closest friends are with him on the night he was betrayed.   All of them will fail to “abide” with him when he needs them most.   “Abide” is a word that does not fit Judas, Peter or the rest of the disciples in this difficult moment.   It is not what they were always able to do, but it is something they have to learn to do, if they want to be fruitful with God in the future. 

This is why Jesus gives them this beautiful imagery of “The True Vine” and the “Branches”.    If you want to grow, mature and bear fruit in your faith, you must “connect”, “abide” and they must make their home in Jesus, as Jesus makes his home in them.   This is why Jesus says to them loud and clear:  “A branch cannot bear fruit by itself” (vs. 4)… “apart from me you can do nothing” (vs. 5).    All of us have walk around in our yard after a storm and seen a limb dangling from a tree, already within a day or so, withering because it has been disconnected from its life source.     In the same way, without staying connected with God, we cut ourselves off from the very life source we have been given by our creator.   But this happens all the time, in our world.   People tend to think that they can live, sustain life, and keep on enduring as a people, without making God the priority of our lives.   We think we can do fine on our own.  We think we can keep God as an option, but not as a requirement.    We think things will go along fine without keeping God in the main equation of our lives.  And we can do well for a time.   Elton Trueblood, the great Quaker theologian, once said of our time that our society without God in the center is a “cut-flower” generation.   By living on our own, without keeping God as our center, we look good all organized in pretty self-watered “vases”, but in reality we are just a few days away from withering and decay.    This is what Joseph Stalin’s daughter realized, when she left her Father’s atheistic communism for America, saying, “I can’t bear a life that is empty without God.”

We can still believe the serpent’s lie that “apart from God” we can do whatever we want, when in reality, just as Adam in the garden, our wrong choices cut can cut our very life cord so that the “fruit” we have enjoyed is about to dry up and run out.     In order to be truly fruitful in life, we must remain faithful in God.   This is what Jesus is describing to his disciples.  But what does that look like in this imagery of Vine and the Branches?

WE MUST REMAIN ROOTED IN JESUS BY CONTINUED PARTICPATION IN HIS LIFE OF LOVE
All of us need attachment to our “roots” to remain grounded and alive.   Jesus says, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit (vs. 5).  By abiding and remaining connected with Jesus we stay rooted and grounded in that which nourishes and replenishes our lives.    I found it interesting, that in the last three years, there has been a new “reality” TV show which traces the “roots” of celebrities.   Recently I watched the NBC show, “Who Do You Think You Are” as Reba McIntyre went overseas to try to find out why one of her ancestors left for America and why her family once own slaves.    Then, on her trip to Europe, she discovered that her ancestor George Brassfield was put on a ship as a helpless nine year old, after his mother had died.   She finds herself in tears as comes to understand many things about her family and their will to survive and thrive in the new world.

It should not surprise us that famous people, wealthy people, even people who seem to have everything already, still need to find a sense of “rootedness” in this world.   As Christians, we too have deep spiritual roots and we need them.  Our faith comes “from somebody” and it comes “through somebody”.   As the writer of Hebrews wrote, “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses…”  (12.1) or as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received….” (1 Cor. 15: 3).  We need strong “roots” to remember and remind ourselves “who” we are.

Jesus says that his disciples remain “rooted” as they “abide” or “remain” in the vine as their life pipeline to the very roots of faith.   In order to remain “rooted” in Christ as the true Vine, as “branches” we have to participate in the very life he gives us.    This is what Jesus means when he says, in verse seven: “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you….”   Jesus does not mean being connected with him to get “everything we want”, but he is speaking of the “wishes” that pertain to his “words.”   It is made clear that “whatever we ask in the name of Jesus” (John 14: 13) and in the “love” of Jesus (John 14: 15-16; 15: 9-10), we participate in the very life of Christ that makes us strong and fruitful in this world.   

Prayer to God in Jesus’ name is the first way we participate in Jesus’ life, but our prayers are not just any kind of praying.   Prayers which are rooted in Christ reveal our desire to keep the way and commandment of love: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and abide in his love” (John 15: 10).    What all is there to praying and participating in keeping the commandment of love?  More than anything else, it means “practicing our faith” in ways that help us grow spiritually and making a real impact on our world.   According to a recent listing of Christian practices:
We practice and participate in the life of Jesus and in the Father’s love when we “honor our bodies” as the temples of God’s Holy Spirit and offer “hospitality” to strangers.  
We participate in Jesus’ life and love when we say “yes” to certain good things, and when we say “no” to things that are bad for us and our world.  
We participate in Jesus’ life when we “manage” the affairs of our own household well, and when we keep the Sabbath by worshipping God regularly.  
We also participate in Jesus’ life and remain rooted in him by having a testimony to his goodness in our lives and sharing it, by taking time to carefully study , pray and discern the times, by giving shape to community as we forgive others, offer care, concern, help and healing to others, and as we sing our way through life together, until we give our  lives back to God.    

 If you want a biblical picture of what participating in Jesus’ life means in the most practical, every-day terms turn to Romans 12:9, where Paul reminds believers to “let love be genuine; (to) hate what is evil, (to) hold fast to what is good; to love one another with mutual affection; (to) outdo one another in showing honor (respect).  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in sufferings, persevere (or that is, abide) in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers… Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Live in harmony with one another…..LIVE PEACEABLY WITH ALL…(Romans 12: 9-18).

Pastor Maxie Dunnam, tells how John Wesley, learned as a student at Oxford, about being rooted in Christ through loving God through others.  Early one evening, a poor porter knocked on his door and asked for the opportunity to speak with him.  Wesley invited him in and as they engaged in conversation.  The fella was shivering because he had on a very thin coat, and it was cold.  Wesley looked at him and said, you’d better get a heavier coat to wear.   And the porter said, this is the only coat I own and I thank God for it.   Then Wesley said to him, have you eaten today?  He said, the only thing I’ve had today is water to drink, but I thank God for the water.   

Well Wesley was getting a little bit upset with this, and he suggested to the porter that he might go home soon because his quarters might be locked up and he would have to sleep outside then.   And he then said to the porter, what then would you thank God for? And the porter responded, I would thank God that I had dry stones upon which to lie. Well Wesley was really upset by this time.  “You thank God for having little food, you thank God not having adequate clothing, you thank God for not having a roof over your head; what else do you thank God for?”   And in the most simple, straightforward way, the porter said, “I thank God that he has given me life, that he has given me a heart to love him, and the will serve him.     

The porter went his way that night with a coat from Wesley’s closet, and with some money to purchase some food, but also with a word of gratitude from Wesley.   And later that night, Wesley wrote in his journal something like this – I will never forget that porter, because he taught me something about Christianity to which I am a stranger.    What does God have to teach you through living and love in the name of Jesus, that you haven’t learned on your own?  Is this not how we also participate in the life of Jesus, as we learn to abide with him and keep on practicing his love in every situation of our lives?

WE MUST ALLOW FOR GOD’S PRUNING IN OUR LIVES
I have saved the “hardest” thing about abiding in Jesus for last.  But Jesus put it right up front when he told his disciples:  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.  He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.  EVERY BRANCH THAT BEARS FRUIT HE PRUNES TO MAKE IT BEAR MORE FRUIT” (John 15: 1-2).

This “hardest” thing about abiding and staying with God is the “pruning process.”  Who wants to be “pruned”?    In a PEANUTS strip Lucy is parked in her psychiatric booth, and Charlie Brown is sharing his problems with her.
"Sometimes I ask myself questions," he begins. "Sometimes I ask myself,  “Is this your real life, or is this just a pilot film?  Is my life a thirtynineweek series or is it something special?'"
 In no time at all Lucy analyzes his problem and gives an instant answer: "Whatever it is, you ratings are down.,  Five cents, please.!"

Poor Charlie Brown.  No one likes to be “pruned” especially from someone like “Lucy”.  Charlie Brown knows that nothing much is happening in his life, but he is afraid to make the changes that need to be made.  He is afraid of being “pruned”.  Perhaps we are too.  It’s hard to “remove” the branches from our lives that have become unproductive.  It’s hard to let go of things that strain us and keep us from  growth and maturity.   But this is exactly what a good Vinegrower does to the Vine.   A good Vinegrower knows that Vines need a lot of attention to bear the best fruit.  The ground has to be cleared and clean.  The vines need to be trained to grow upward.   The vines should not be allowed to grow too quickly so they need drastic pruning.  For the first three years a young vine is not allowed to bear any fruit.  It is continually “cut back” to conserve energy.  It has to learn to store its energy for maturity.  When the branch is mature,  the branches that are not fruit bearing are cut off, so the ones bearing fruit will have full strength.  Vines can’t produce good fruit without such drastic, continual pruning. 

We don’t like God’s pruning process, but when the Vinegrower prunes with caring and skilled hands, the Vine is not harmed, but helped.   The Vine is not injured, but is repaired, reinvigorated, and restored to full capacity and its greatest capability of fruitfulness.   The truth is, we will not fully mature and bear fruit, until we learn to allow some “branches” of our lives to be cut.   If we want life in the Vine of Christ, we have to rearrange priorities; we have to focus on the root purposes, and we have allow God to shape our lives, even by letting go of those things that drain our energy for good, for maturity and for life.  

I’m convinced that the reason many people don’t stay in marriages, don’t stay in long standing commitments, don’t stay as close and as committed to each other is because we resist the “pruning process” that is part of true connectedness.    You can avoid “pruning” with Facebook, but not so in real life connections.   If you stay married to someone very long, you’ll be “pruned”.  If you stay in a close relationship with anyone, you’ll be reprimanded or reminded of something.  It’s painful to be “pruned” in a relationship, but Jesus reminds his disciples that the Father, who is the Vinegrower, will also “prune” those branches that do not bear fruit.   Our God is a Father who “disciplines those he loves” (See Hebrews 12:6).   But it is this very process which brings us new energy and potential for life.  Pruning is, as someone has said, “the clearing away of the debris of our very messy lives.”

Last month, the night of April 14th and 15th marked the hundred year anniversary of sinking of the Titanic.   The anniversary of this tragedy has spawned a new 3D release of the film, a National Geographic minisub exploration special, and a fresh upwelling of Titanic memorabilia. Why is it that a shipwreck that happened one hundred years ago still holds our attention, still feeds our fascination?  The Titanic was considered the singular greatest scientific, mechanical, manmade marvel of its day. The beautiful, enormous, exceptionally engineered ship represented the epitome of modern design, scientific genius, and human creativity. The “Titanic” was not just a ship. It was the “fruit” of perfect human achievement.   And then it sank. It sank on its maiden voyage.  Over 1500 people died. Everything “Titanic” represented was suddenly leaden and dead wrong.    The “fruit of human perfectibility” — sunk to the bottom of the sea.

In the original movie about the Sinking of the Titanic, I recall a stringed quartet playing hymns as the ship went down.  The most well known hymn they played was "Nearer My God to Thee, but I believe they also played the hymn, “Abide with Me”.   It’s a very solemn hymn, normally only sung at funerals.     The first verse goes:  “Abide with me: fast fall the eventide; the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:  When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O Abide with me.”   I like the hymn, but the problem is that few of think of “abiding” except in this context of needing God when we die.  According to Jesus, abiding is not primarily about being with God when we die, but it’s about abiding with God so that we can live our fullest and most fruitful life.   It is the third verse of the hymn which we need to most to hear:  “I need thy presence every passing hour; What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?  Who like thyself my guide and stay can be?  Thro’ cloud and sunshine, O abide with me?”

How is God calling you to be better connected to the “True Vine” who can give you life?  How is God calling you to abide with Christ, through making God the number one priority of your life?   How is God calling you to participate more fully in the practicing the life of Jesus in your life?   How is God calling you to submit to his “pruning process” that seems severe and painful, but will bring to you focus and energy for faith?  How does God want your life to take root, to grow and mature into a being better person than you have been?     Asking and answering these questions for your life is what ‘abiding’ in Christ is about.  It is not about worrying about branches being cut off, but it is about having Christ’s joy in us and finding our joy complete in him each and every day (John 15: 11).

© 2012 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.    


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