Pruned Branches

John 15:1-4 (RSV): Pruned Branches

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Last year, we had overgrown trees in our back yard. One tree was estimated at about 80-90 years old, and it was mammoth. The tree overspread into my neighbor’s yard, too. This tree was especially a nuisance, for it constantly dropped dead branches in the slightest wind, much of the deadfall landing in my neighbor’s yard. Additionally, it harbored a growing colony of boxelder bugs, black and red insects that got into everything. We had to take action.

We hired a tree expert to guide us in our vision of a better back yard. We wanted to keep some shade and beauty, but the mess we currently had needed serious pruning. After deliberation, we decided to remove two trees, including the behemoth that overspread both properties. One tree, a healthy, medium-sized maple, stayed. We had it neatly pruned for better growth and shape.

In the end, our back yard was transformed. The remaining maple tree was pruned into a shape that now, in the height of the spring bloom, shows a beautiful, even spread of promising leaf buds. None of this, however, could have happened had we not taken action against the needless overgrowth in our yard.

Jesus teaches that God the Father does the same pruning to our spiritual overgrowth. When we abide in Jesus’ word, example, teaching, and love, we graft ourselves onto the life of Christ. But we do so in an imperfect way. For instance, we can go overboard or become lukewarm in our faith. Our spiritual lives, moreover, become uneven and lopsided, causing imbalance and ugliness. God prunes us to be better versions of our spiritual selves. He prunes us to bear the fruits of love more authentically.

As we accept the gift of this week, let’s consider the areas in our spiritual orchards that God has “nipped and tucked” and offer up a prayer of thanks.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for paring back our spiritual overgrowth and stimulating new life in our moments of spiritual anaemia. In this pruning, we know that our lives will bear the rich fruit of your love, a love to be shared with others. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

Have a blessed week!

Stan

Who are God's Chosen?

Acts 9:13-15 (NRSV): God’s Chosen

But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about [Saul of Tarsus], how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.

Denver Moore was a poor sharecropper from Louisiana, living his life in a shack and in debt to his boss. He lived much of his life as a “modern” slave, unable to break free from the debt piled on him by the farm owner for whom he worked. Losing almost all of his family over the years, Denver decided to leave everything behind and hop onto a boxcar headed to Fort Worth, Texas. There, he lived for decades as a homeless man, surviving on the streets with nothing but the ragged clothes on his back and the free meals he ate at the local mission or out of dumpsters. Denver became a callous loaner, bitterly rejecting the company of all people. The last years of Denver’s life, however, were formed in the company of a living saint, Deborah Hall. She and her husband Ron nurtured a nearly impossible relationship with Denver. This slowly unfolding friendship led Denver to become one of the most loving, self-sacrificing people to those around him, including those people at the Fort Worth Mission he once shunned and ignored. Denver’s story is recounted in the book Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together; it is a tale of radical transformation. It is a story, moreover, of God’s grace and how he chooses those we least expect to be his agents of mercy and love in this world.

In Acts 9, Ananias cannot believe that God chooses Saul of Tarsus, a man who has done evil to Christ’s faithful and has imprisoned many in the early church. No one at that time would have chosen Saul to be “an instrument . . . to bring [Jesus’] name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” Saul was the last person anyone in the early church would have expected to become Christ’s voice.

God often chooses the least likely to be his ambassadors of love in the world. Both Saul of Tarsus and Denver Moore exemplify this.

Who, then, is God calling? The question is twofold: Not only should we question our own calling from God, but we should consider who God has called from the least likely among us. Let us examine our day-to-day lives and those we encounter with the eyes and heart of Christ. And let us think who just might be the Saul and Denver among us.

Heavenly Father, our eyes are often closed to the miracles around us, the least likely who are called to do your will. Please grant us the grace to see, love, and support those who are called to be your agents. And when you call each of us, kindly grant us the grace to respond in love. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

Have a blessed week!

Stan

To Be a Witness to the Risen Jesus Christ

Luke 24:36-48 (NRSV): To Be a Witness

Then [the risen Jesus] opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

As a father, I face the daily challenge of witnessing to what is good. I want my children to understand the difference between virtue and vice. And it is my prayer that they choose virtue. Now, I can talk the talk, but my children do not hear my words as much as they observe my actions. Practicing is far more important than preaching. Some might even say that we preach through what we practice.

In the above passage from Luke, Jesus commissions the apostles to go out and preach the good news “to all nations.” The message is simple yet profound: Through faith in Christ and turning away from the vice of our sins, we are forgiven. But this commission is not just for those initial apostles 2,000 years ago; it is a commission for us today. Through our lived experience, we are to be “witnesses of these things.”

To be a witness for Christ is multifaceted, but it all starts with God’s free, unmerited grace. Through grace we are given the gift of faith, and in that faith it is our choice to live out lives of love, imitating the agape (self-giving love) that Jesus modeled for us all the way to the cross. The agape that we are called to imitate, however, is related to our position in life. Are we praying for the holy Spirit enlighten us? What might our witnessing call be in this life?

As servants to others, we are called to give our time and talent to the individual and group. This is not a half-hearted call, although I often do not give my whole heart to it. It is why repentance is such an important part of the Christian life. Each day, I have to ask for the grace to be better, to serve with the unconditional love of my God who offered himself up as a condemned criminal for my sins. Whenever I ask: How much is enough, Lord? All I have to do is look at a crucifix. The answer is plain.

Where is God calling us to serve? It is not usually the in grandiose religious context we envision, but it is in the small spaces of our lives and with the people closest to us. For it is those spaces and people that I most take for granted.

Heavenly Father, grant us the grace to serve with love and attention those whom you place in our midst. Allow us to be fully-committed witnesses to the love and healing grace of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have a blessed week!

Stan

To The Doubting Thomases

John 20:25-29 (NRSV): The Doubter Within

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Skepticism and inquiry are human attributes associated with our intellect. When presented with something new, we are compelled to Google it. It is the way of our information-driven world. Faith and trust, however, do not come easily when Google is in the palm of our hands. Gone are the days when a person informs us of an idea and, through trust and faith, we take it as truth. We live in a culture of argumentative overload.

Enter St. Thomas. On the day that Jesus enters the upper room and reveals himself to apostles, Thomas is not there. Keep in mind, this is a time of fear and chaos. Jesus was handed over by the religious leaders and brutally executed by the Romans. The apostles, then, are scared for their lives, huddled together behind locked doors not knowing their next move. Why was Thomas absent? Scripture does not contain an answer. Thomas returns, however, and doubts his closest friends’ testimony about the risen Lord: Thomas states, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Thomas requires evidence, for he must experience the risen Jesus through his senses. And he does.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” And the lesson is simple: Faith is a blessing. It is a grace that God gives us even in our darkest moments of doubt. There comes a time in all of our lives when we doubt what we have been taught about God. Even the most dedicated servants of Christ experience this “dark night of the soul,” as John of the Cross puts it. Mother Teresa (now a canonized saint), for instance, went fifty years without feeling God’s presence in her life. Doubt is nothing of which to be ashamed, however. It is how we deal with our doubt that matters. Thomas, in touching the wounded hands and side of the risen Christ cries out, “My Lord and my God!” His reaction is one of affirmation. Do we live with our minds, hearts, and senses open to Christ’s presence? And what will our reaction be?

Loving God, please open our eyes in faith so that we can see and affirm your presence all around us. Heal our weaknesses and strengthen us in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God. Amen.

Have a blessed week!

Stan

Living in the Resurrection

Colossians 3:1-4, 12-16a (GNT): Living in the Resurrection

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory!

. . . .

You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity. The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful. Christ's message in all its richness must live in your hearts.

St. Paul writes to the troubled, confused church of Colossae. Scholars say that Paul did not establish this church but felt responsible for it, especially since he heard that many false teachers demanded its members adhere to strict rites and rules including circumcision, dietary restrictions, and worship of “spiritual” authorities. Paul’s voice is authoritative and a clear reminder to these Christians about the true Good News of being alive in Christ. “You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits,” Paul says. He reminds the faithful, moreover, to look away from the things of the world that distract.

Faithful Christians, Paul reminds his readers, are a chosen people of God called to live in union with the risen Jesus Christ. And that union does not rely upon false, external practices. Instead, union with Christ evidences internal transformation -- a life built around the Christian foundation of love. Paul iterates this love with precision:

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.

The Christian life, a life living in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is grounded in the love for God and neighbor. It is a life of patience, peace, and forgiveness. It is a life of humble compassion and kindness. Living in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is living in tolerance and solidarity with all people of good will. It is a life of loving unity.

Paul reminds the church to live in peace with one another. He writes:

The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful. Christ's message in all its richness must live in your hearts.

Peace, a peace generated from the risen Christ, unifies. It is a guide to right choices. It is a peace that breeds appreciation and thanks. Christ’s peace, Paul reminds the church, is a message that enlivens our hearts and brings us closer to God and each other. It is the peace that only a life lived in the love of Jesus Christ can bring.

Loving God, help us to live authentic lives in union with your risen Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And in that union, let our lives be filled with your peace so that we can be ambassadors of your love in this world. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

Have a blessed Easter!

Stan