Interconnected

This week I’ve been thinking about how much I need all of you…how interconnected we are.

It takes all of us to attend to worship matters each week.  From the moment we set up the chairs to the time we put them away, so many hands, hearts and minds are at work.

Even before the chairs are set up, the Advisory team is arranging speakers weeks in advance, planning the service, and practicing music.  We couldn’t do any of this without you…without each other.

Last week, Sanders introduced us to the Passover Seder. This week, we return with Flo Kim to the night of the Seder table that became known as The Last Supper.  The final Passover Seder of Jesus' ministry. 

Imagine yourself in the scene:  Jesus washes your feet, you recline at the table together.  Jesus talks of many things that night. 

The bread…the wine…his betrayer…Peter's denial. 

And then we leave the table in the Upper Room and begin to walk.  As we walk, we pass one of the many vineyards in the area. 

Jesus begins the last of his "I am" statements:  

I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.

I'm reminded of a beatitude, of getting my inside world—my mind and heart—put right.  I hear Jesus say that this can happen by staying connected to him.  Just as I am connected to you.  Like branches on a grapevine, we are all connected together, to the vine that is Jesus.

Praise the Lord!

Image:  צולם על ידי עמוס מרון, Wikimedia Commons