I see tiny branches anchored in each sturdy stem. From the sturdy stem, the branches receive all the nutrients and water they need to produce grapes. The tiny branches need a lot of support, though, to hold the heavy, juicy grapes that will grow. Without the support of the wires that run between the plants, the heavy grapes would rip the branches from the vines.
"I am the vine; you are the branches”, Jesus said. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you.”
Remaining in Christ requires us to be fully connected to Jesus in every moment. How do we do that? Who or what are your supports that keep you anchored in Jesus?
After comparing us to these branches anchored in him, the vine, Jesus tells us to love each other in the same way that he has loved us - sacrificially. What does this mean for us in how we deal with each other?
Jesus also tells us that only by staying connected to him, the vine, can we bear fruit in our relationships. How can the Trinity support us in staying anchored in Jesus?
To prepare for Sunday’s worship you might pray one or both of the scripture passages below, and/or watch this video about the magic of the Trinity:
John 15 NIVUK
‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.
Romans 8. 26-28 MSG
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
If you observe the following, you can be saved, ‘Be joyful at all times, pray without ceasing and give thanks for all things. - Abba Benjamin
What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love. We find the best formulation of the prayer of the heart in the words of the Russian mystic Theophan the Recluse: ‘To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you.’ … There God’s spirit dwells and there the great encounter takes place. There heart speaks to heart, because there we stand before the face of the Lord, all-seeing, within us. - Henri Nouwen
You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. - Jesus, Matthew 5:8 MSG
