Fifth Sunday of the Resurrection 5/10/09 Text: John 15:1-8
Fifth Sunday of the Resurrection
5/10/09
Text: John 15:1-8
Title: Connected
As Penny and I walked through the grand and glorious, covered in gold, filled with the most magnificent statuary churches of Italy we both came to the conclusion that something terrible had gone wrong in Christianity. These wonderful places of worship with their magnificent organs and statuaries had become, for the most part, museums, a place for the thousands of tourists to visit.
One Sunday morning we were in the back of one of these wonderful churches. It could have easily held 5000 or more in worship. The service started, the faithful started gathering, maybe 150 or so, and the tourists kept talking and filming. It was a sad moment for me for it was very clear that that for the most part this particular congregation was not important to the community, accept as a tourist attraction. I asked myself, “What went wrong? Why is Christianity of no importance in city after city?
I had plenty of time to think about it on that long flight home and came to the conclusion that Christianity had become of no value because the Christian churches had lost their focus. They had forgotten their purpose; that is the one thing that God instituted his church to do; making disciples and teaching them his Word.
And why had this taken place. I believe that they had in fact forgotten the resurrection of Jesus and its meaning for humanity. They had been influenced by society instead of influencing society with the Word of God and in not focusing on the command to make disciples had become worthless to generations of suffering dying people.
I don’t think it is much different here, for I firmly believe that Easter, no, Resurrection Sunday has no meaning for the vast majority of those who would consider themselves to be Christians. Easter, that is Resurrection Sunday has become about Easter eggs, a pagan fertility ritual, buying Easter presents, and family gatherings and not the resurrection of Jesus.
This past week I read some of the most disturbing statistics that I have seen in a long time. Now I have known for a long time that only about 25 % of Americans attend a weekly worship service, but I did not know that the United States is the fourth largest, as far as population is concerned, pagan nation in the world. China is first, then India, followed by Indonesia, then the United States. Christianity in America is following Europe in becoming meaningless to the vast majority of Americans.
While we are becoming less and less a Christian nation Africa, India, China, and South American are becoming more Christian. I was talking to missionary at the Pastor’s conference this past week and he was telling me that in the country of Ethiopia, where he works Lutheran congregations are growing at the rate of 365,000 new converts each year. The number of new Christian converts in India and China are staggering. People are hungry for the Word of God, the Good News of Jesus birth, his life, death, and resurrection.
Christian churches in Europe and America, have for the most part lost their focus. They have turned Jesus into something he is not. Give to Jesus and get money back and enjoy the good life. Don’t take a stand on any moral issue because of maybe offending someone. Don’t preach the Gospel, that wonderful news of God’s grace, for who really needs the Gospel, the good news of forgiveness. Jesus has in many ways become the Genie in the bottle. Rub him when you need him and put him back in the bottle when you don’t.
For all practical purposes Christianity has bought into the world’s way of thinking. The only way to survive is to give the people what they want and what they want is certainly not to hear that they need to be broken by the Law before they can be made powerful in God.
Spiritually sick, dying people need to hear that they are nothing without Christ. As our Gospel lesson teaches, they need to hear that our ultimate salvation does not rest in being united with the nation of Israel, but to be united in Christ. We are surrounded with teachings saying that people of Israel will be saved in the end, yet in as Romans 11: 13-23 tells us there is only one way the Jewish people can be saved. Paul writes; speaking of the Jewish people to the Roman Gentiles, “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as first-fruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”
Notice the people of Israel can be grafted in again, if they come to faith in Jesus as their Savior which as a nation they do not believe.
In our Gospel reading today, we see that it is our being grafted into the vine of Jesus that saves us; that alone, nothing more. We are one with Jesus and since Jesus and the Father are one, we too then are one with the Father.
What wonderful good news. We don’t have to be united with a certain type of people. We don’t have to be looking toward Politian’s and wealthy donors for strength. We don’t have to be all those things the world thinks are best, for Jesus tells us our fruitfulness starts in a different place; that is him, for he is the vine from which we get our nourishment and strength. As soon as we turn our back on him, our strength begins to drain away.
Without our connection to Jesus, we are completely dependent on our own resources, resulting either in total unfruitfulness or lapsing into the wild growth that is no longer shaped by his word, into activism or idealism that is neither derived from nor directed to him.
Jesus tells us that when we are in him we will bear fruit. That is where we start to get into trouble, for as we gauge what and how much fruit each person bears. In other words we take the focus off of Jesus, the reason for our fruitfulness and start to focus on how good we are at making fruit.
Just what is the fruit that Jesus is talking about? We only have to go to Galatians 5:22 to read the list of fruit we are to bear. Paul writes that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
Do you find that you fall short of meeting those requirements? I am sure you do, for as hard as I try I do, that is when I do the trying and not let the vine Jesus give the nourishment, that is the strength to bear the fruits of the Spirit. Every day I thank God for his forgiveness and his pruning that I so sorely need.
I want to finish this morning by asking two questions. Two questions that will help you stay firm in Christ the life giving branch.
Question 1: What has been pruned out of your life in the last five years and what new fruit has Jesus produced in your life during that time; anything? If you can't think of anything, maybe you have not been letting the Word of God cut into the depths of your life leading to confession, repentance, and cleansing.
Question 2: What in your life needs pruning out now? What keeps Jesus from producing new fruit in your life today? Remember the fruit you produce yourself, by your own will, is inferior fruit even though you might be really proud of it. True fruitfulness can only come from Christ. If you can think of some things in your life that need pruning rejoice, for that means the sharp-edged Word of God is working in you pruning and purifying, killing and making alive.
Rejoice in the Lord, the master pruner, for his Word has made you clean, that is in him you are free of all those things in your life that try to suck his energy out of your life. He has removed them. Don’t pick them back up and stick them back on. Amen.
5/10/09
Text: John 15:1-8
Title: Connected
As Penny and I walked through the grand and glorious, covered in gold, filled with the most magnificent statuary churches of Italy we both came to the conclusion that something terrible had gone wrong in Christianity. These wonderful places of worship with their magnificent organs and statuaries had become, for the most part, museums, a place for the thousands of tourists to visit.
One Sunday morning we were in the back of one of these wonderful churches. It could have easily held 5000 or more in worship. The service started, the faithful started gathering, maybe 150 or so, and the tourists kept talking and filming. It was a sad moment for me for it was very clear that that for the most part this particular congregation was not important to the community, accept as a tourist attraction. I asked myself, “What went wrong? Why is Christianity of no importance in city after city?
I had plenty of time to think about it on that long flight home and came to the conclusion that Christianity had become of no value because the Christian churches had lost their focus. They had forgotten their purpose; that is the one thing that God instituted his church to do; making disciples and teaching them his Word.
And why had this taken place. I believe that they had in fact forgotten the resurrection of Jesus and its meaning for humanity. They had been influenced by society instead of influencing society with the Word of God and in not focusing on the command to make disciples had become worthless to generations of suffering dying people.
I don’t think it is much different here, for I firmly believe that Easter, no, Resurrection Sunday has no meaning for the vast majority of those who would consider themselves to be Christians. Easter, that is Resurrection Sunday has become about Easter eggs, a pagan fertility ritual, buying Easter presents, and family gatherings and not the resurrection of Jesus.
This past week I read some of the most disturbing statistics that I have seen in a long time. Now I have known for a long time that only about 25 % of Americans attend a weekly worship service, but I did not know that the United States is the fourth largest, as far as population is concerned, pagan nation in the world. China is first, then India, followed by Indonesia, then the United States. Christianity in America is following Europe in becoming meaningless to the vast majority of Americans.
While we are becoming less and less a Christian nation Africa, India, China, and South American are becoming more Christian. I was talking to missionary at the Pastor’s conference this past week and he was telling me that in the country of Ethiopia, where he works Lutheran congregations are growing at the rate of 365,000 new converts each year. The number of new Christian converts in India and China are staggering. People are hungry for the Word of God, the Good News of Jesus birth, his life, death, and resurrection.
Christian churches in Europe and America, have for the most part lost their focus. They have turned Jesus into something he is not. Give to Jesus and get money back and enjoy the good life. Don’t take a stand on any moral issue because of maybe offending someone. Don’t preach the Gospel, that wonderful news of God’s grace, for who really needs the Gospel, the good news of forgiveness. Jesus has in many ways become the Genie in the bottle. Rub him when you need him and put him back in the bottle when you don’t.
For all practical purposes Christianity has bought into the world’s way of thinking. The only way to survive is to give the people what they want and what they want is certainly not to hear that they need to be broken by the Law before they can be made powerful in God.
Spiritually sick, dying people need to hear that they are nothing without Christ. As our Gospel lesson teaches, they need to hear that our ultimate salvation does not rest in being united with the nation of Israel, but to be united in Christ. We are surrounded with teachings saying that people of Israel will be saved in the end, yet in as Romans 11: 13-23 tells us there is only one way the Jewish people can be saved. Paul writes; speaking of the Jewish people to the Roman Gentiles, “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as first-fruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”
Notice the people of Israel can be grafted in again, if they come to faith in Jesus as their Savior which as a nation they do not believe.
In our Gospel reading today, we see that it is our being grafted into the vine of Jesus that saves us; that alone, nothing more. We are one with Jesus and since Jesus and the Father are one, we too then are one with the Father.
What wonderful good news. We don’t have to be united with a certain type of people. We don’t have to be looking toward Politian’s and wealthy donors for strength. We don’t have to be all those things the world thinks are best, for Jesus tells us our fruitfulness starts in a different place; that is him, for he is the vine from which we get our nourishment and strength. As soon as we turn our back on him, our strength begins to drain away.
Without our connection to Jesus, we are completely dependent on our own resources, resulting either in total unfruitfulness or lapsing into the wild growth that is no longer shaped by his word, into activism or idealism that is neither derived from nor directed to him.
Jesus tells us that when we are in him we will bear fruit. That is where we start to get into trouble, for as we gauge what and how much fruit each person bears. In other words we take the focus off of Jesus, the reason for our fruitfulness and start to focus on how good we are at making fruit.
Just what is the fruit that Jesus is talking about? We only have to go to Galatians 5:22 to read the list of fruit we are to bear. Paul writes that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
Do you find that you fall short of meeting those requirements? I am sure you do, for as hard as I try I do, that is when I do the trying and not let the vine Jesus give the nourishment, that is the strength to bear the fruits of the Spirit. Every day I thank God for his forgiveness and his pruning that I so sorely need.
I want to finish this morning by asking two questions. Two questions that will help you stay firm in Christ the life giving branch.
Question 1: What has been pruned out of your life in the last five years and what new fruit has Jesus produced in your life during that time; anything? If you can't think of anything, maybe you have not been letting the Word of God cut into the depths of your life leading to confession, repentance, and cleansing.
Question 2: What in your life needs pruning out now? What keeps Jesus from producing new fruit in your life today? Remember the fruit you produce yourself, by your own will, is inferior fruit even though you might be really proud of it. True fruitfulness can only come from Christ. If you can think of some things in your life that need pruning rejoice, for that means the sharp-edged Word of God is working in you pruning and purifying, killing and making alive.
Rejoice in the Lord, the master pruner, for his Word has made you clean, that is in him you are free of all those things in your life that try to suck his energy out of your life. He has removed them. Don’t pick them back up and stick them back on. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 1:34 PM
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