5th Sunday of Easter, Year B
Sunday, March 6th, 2012
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 8:26-40
1 John 4:7-21
Psalm 22:24-30
John 15:1-8
Today’s gospel passage sounds pretty darn good to me. There’s a lot of abiding in God and bearing fruit. Jesus is the vine. His father is the vinegrower who prunes the vine so it bears fruit. Jesus invites us to abide in him as he abides in us so that we might bear fruit. That’s all we have to do. Simply abide in him, and we will bear fruit. Even without bearing fruit, abiding in Christ sounds rather lovely, and add to it that by abiding in Christ, we will bear fruit, and I’d say we could just about pack it in for the day, but for verse seven, which is a little troubling.
In verse seven, Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” That may sound great on the surface, except than I’m guessing many of us have had the unthinkable happen. We’ve asked God for something, and God seems to have said, “no.” So what’s going on here? Was Jesus lying? Was he wrong? As followers of Christ, why don’t we get whatever we wish when we ask?
Well for one thing, God would often have to say yes to only one of Jesus‘ followers when many are asking for something. Take lottery tickets for example. We may ask God that I might win, but we may be less willing to share with all the others asking God for the same thing. The part of our prayer we don’t really hear ourselves praying is, “well if you’re going to let everyone win and I’m only going to get about 10 cents out of this thing, ah, never mind.” We often don’t think of the full implications of our prayers and deep in our hearts, we may not want God to fulfill some of our petitions.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.” That’s a pretty substantial if. Jesus didn’t say, “If you are one of my followers and seeking to be my disciple, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.”
Now, is this the part where I say that if God has ever answered “no” to your prayer, that you don’t have enough faith? No. That’s no what Jesus said. Is this then, the part where we get to start feeling bad about ourselves, if God has ever said no to one of our prayers, because we aren’t good enough or Jesusy enough? No. This is the part where we explore what it may be like to dwell in Jesus and for his words to dwell in us. The short version is, if we dwell in Jesus and his words dwell in us, then we will be changed.
About 14 years ago, there was a science fiction movie called “The Matrix”. In The Matrix, the hero, Neo, trying to save humanity, fighting against bad guys called “agents.” Now the bad guys were super human, strong enough to punch through brick walls, and fast enough to dodge bullets. It’s science fiction. Neo, the hero, is also very strong and fast, but nowhere near strong or fast enough to defeat the bad guys. He’s training one day, and his mentor, Morpheus, tells him of the prophecy of The One. The prophecy says that The One would free humanity and would be able to defeat the agents easily because The One would be able to change whatever he or she wanted to in the world. Morpheus tells Neo that as strong and as fast as the agents are, they’ll never be as strong and as fast as he will be.
Neo says, “so what are you saying, that I can dodge bullets.”
"No, Neo,” Morpheus replies, “I’m saying that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”
Neo is very gifted at this point of the movie, but he has not yet become The One. He isn’t ready yet. He has to believe. He has to claim the mantle of The One, and become The One, and let The One become him. Once he does, says the prophecy, he won’t have to dodge bullets. Once he becomes the one, says the prophecy, whatever he wants to happen will happen. He has to change who he is and let The One dwell within him to become who he truly is.
“Abide in me, [and let] my word abide in you,” Jesus says. When we’re not abiding in Christ with his words are not abiding in us, we’re often not asking things to which God would possibly say yes, like “let me win the lottery.” At the same time, I know there are often very good things for which we pray to which God also seems to say, “No.” When our loved ones are sick and at the point of death, for example, sometimes they recover, and sometimes they don’t.
I’ve got no easy answers. If I did, the would come out in platitudes like “you just needed to pray harder.” What a bunch of hooey. Or, “well God needed your loved one.” Really? I didn’t think God needed a whole lot from us. Sometimes it seems it may simply be time for our loved ones to go. Sometimes their passing seems far too soon and not at all right. All I really know is this. Having spent years wrestling with questions like “why doesn’t God answer this prayer or that prayer?” and “why do some recover from illness and some don’t?”, I’ve found life to be far more beautiful and peaceful laying such questions aside and trusting in God without an agenda.
John tells us in his first letter which we heard today that as followers of Christ, our way is not to seek after God as some supernatural physican, but rather, as followers of Christ, our way is to love others, to abide in God and love each other.
John tells us to love one another. Love God. “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” (1 John 4:16b-18)
We believe in God not to have a supernatural physician or holy vending machine to call upon in our hour of need. We believe in God that we might dwell in God for God is love, and “if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
How then do we abide in Christ? What are we to do? Very little, it seems at once glance. It seems that loving one another would go a long way toward doing so. Additionally, taking time to notice the beauty of God all around us is a way to dwell in Christ. The more we love others and are at peace with the world around us, the more we are changed into the image of God in which we were made. The more we love others, the less we will come to fear. Many of our seeming needs will vanish. Jesus didn’t have a lot, yet he was full of joy. He had all he needed, dwelling in God, loving God and others.
As we come to dwell more fully in Christ, we’ll find that we may or may not have a lot, but we will be full of joy, dwelling in God, loving God and others. We will find peace, dwelling in Christ. As we dwell in Christ, we change, becoming who we truly are. Looking again at the analogy from the Matrix, Neo asks Morpheus, “so what are you saying, that I can dodge bullets.”
“No, Neo,” Morpheus replies, “I’m saying that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”
So what is Jesus saying, that as we dwell more fully in Christ, God becomes a Holy Vending Machine, giving us whatever we ask? No. Jesus is saying that when we’re ready, dwelling more fully in him, with his words we won’t need God to be.
When we dwell in Jesus and his words dwell in us, we change. Our prayers change. We still let God know our desires. We’re encouraged to do so, and we’re also ok when God says no. God told Jesus no, after all. “Father, if it is your will, let this cup pass from my lips, and God said, “No, it isn’t my will.” Jesus gave a big if with that prayer himself. He was seeking to tell God his desire and to align his will with God’s.
When Jesus’ words dwell with us, and we dwell in him, we seek to let god know desires and seek to align our will with God’s. When we dwell in Jesus and his words dwell within us, we may just find peace in our lives. So, I am going to end with a prayer about dwelling in Christ which we find in the Compline service in the Book of Common Prayer. “Be present, O merciful God, and protect us [throughout our lives], so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of the life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen.
