Evensong, 23^rd April 2006
‘Remain in me and I will remain in you’
Isaiah 43 1-7 & John 15 1-8

It is a tremendous responsibility and honour to be asked to deliver a sermon.  The wonderful problem that I had was deciding which text to choose.   The passage in Isaiah is arguably one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible.  These words should perhaps be committed to memory, ‘I have called you by name; you are mine’ and ‘when you walk through the fire you will not be burned.’  These sustain us during the tough times in life.  In them we find sanctuary, God tells us that he has redeemed us, chosen us and that he will be with us ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you.’

However, I have chosen the passage from John’s Gospel, the analogy of the vine and Christian life.  There is a message in this passage, from Jesus for all of us.  Jesus makes us take stock of our faith and our relationship with God.  It is perhaps a prompting to us all to carry out a spiritual MOT.

In the story, Jesus tells us that he is the vine and that God the Father is the gardener.  The gardener, who is keen to help the vine grow, cuts off branches that produce no fruit.  The branches that do produce fruit he prunes.  The loving and diligent gardener helps the fruit-producing branches to bear more fruit.  Jesus then says as if to summarise, ‘abide in me as I will abide in you.’  Newer versions of the Bible use the word remain: ‘Remain in me and I will remain in you’.  This perhaps makes the meaning clearer.

So what is the message?  What was Jesus telling his disciples 2000 years ago and what is he telling us, his twenty first century disciples, today?

The image of ‘the vine’ has deep Old Testament roots.  Jesus uses it here to emphasise the importance of ‘remaining in him’.  Believers are attached to Jesus, as branches to a vine.  Just as a branch can only bear fruit if it remains attached to the vine, so believers can only bear fruit if they remain in Christ.

Notice that an emphasis is placed on us as believers, ‘remain in me and I will remain in you’ and if we are to remember just one thing from this evening’s service it has to be these words.

So, how do we remain in Christ and to what is Jesus referring when he talks about fruit?  The answer to the latter question is given to us succinctly by Paul in his letter to the Galatians.  The fruits are, of course, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  A ‘living faith’ produces fruits such as ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’.  But perhaps Jesus is also referring to a willingness to serve God, to go out and preach the Good News, to be lights for God in the world.

So in this spiritual health check, how do we rate?  Do we produce fruits; do we display love, joy, peace, patience, goodness?  If honest, we all have to admit that to varying degrees we fail to reflect this ideal.  We’re human and we all fall short of the perfection shown us in Jesus Christ.

But to concentrate solely on the fruits is perhaps missing the point.  The fruits are the outward sign of the inner condition.  To get back to the MOT analogy, the car doesn’t run if the engine’s broken.  We shouldn’t look at the fruits - we should focus on the vine, our relationship with Jesus.   When we’re right inside, and have a living and personal relationship with God, the fruits just grow naturally.

So practically, how do we remain in Him?  In short we ask him.  We pray, we talk and listen to God.  We open our hearts and ask him to fill us with his Spirit and his love.  Our relationship with God is just that, a relationship.  We have to work at it.  We need to take time to be with him and enjoy his presence and his love.  Relationships work particularly well when we afford them the time and effort they need.   We should all seek a living relationship with God.

I recently read a book called Too Busy Not to Pray.  The author maintained that Christians who took the time to pray regularly, who built up a living relationship with God were noticeably different, in the authors words ‘Some Christians stand apart from others even other Christians, as though listening to a different drummer.  Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine, their convictions more concrete.  They are joyful in spite of their circumstances and show wisdom beyond their age.’   Perhaps we can all think of Christians like that, they are steady in a storm and have a deep seated joy.

Christian life is a walk, a walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God.  Thus the heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God’s voice and developing the courage to do what he tells us to do.  Yes, we will get it wrong.  Sometimes we’ll look foolish.  But as we develop an ear for God’s whisperings, we come to understand how he speaks to us.  The Bible is littered with occasions of God speaking to people; it would be cynical in the extreme to think God didn’t speak to us today.

We seek his guidance and invite him into every part of our lives.  We put Jesus at our centre and keep our gaze firmly fixed on him.  And we must surely read the Bible.  God speaks to us through the Bible, it is the manual for our lives.  It contains Jesus' teaching and allows us to stay close to him, to remain in him.

I sometime wonder if we have things too easy.  We rarely want for anything, and we can fill our lives with excitement – holidays, cars, and parties.   We feel a long way from the Christians around the world who depend on God for their next meal and those Christians who are persecuted and endue torture and death because of their faith.  Did we fall asleep?  Have we been lured away from his presence by contentment and material ease?

We mustn’t turn our backs on God or declare independence from him.  Christianity isn’t a ‘lukewarm’ notion, we shouldn’t just turn to God when the chips are down and hard times come.  I like the CS Lewis quote which is used in the Alpha Course ‘Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.  The one thing it cannot be is moderately important’.

So if faith is of infinite importance, we need to work at it.  Knowing God and feeling his presence and his love for us day by day, is worth the fight.   Where has the passion gone for our faith, for God?  We can’t be passive members of a relationship.

What can we do then, if we’ve fallen asleep and the trail has gone cold?  Remember the story of the prodigal son?  The father welcomes his wayward son when he returns home.  He is so delighted to see him that he lays on a mighty feast.  And so it is with us.  If we’ve got lost, our forgiving and loving father will always welcome us home.  He will delight and celebrate our safe return.

So the promise that God gives us is that if we remain in him, he will remain in us.  When we do this the fruits follow.  They are perhaps a sign that we have a healthy relationship with God.  We don’t do good deeds because God will love us the more or because we want to score points, rather we love God and we want to serve him.

The love that God gives us, shines through us and we can’t help but love and see the good in people.  When we feel his love, we begin to look at people as he does, with unconditional love.  We can love and forgive people who hurt and judge us.  The fruits abound.  We’re all imperfect and all struggling through life, but nevertheless he loves us.

If you remember from the passage in John, Jesus says ‘every branch that does bear fruit’ is pruned.  What does this mean?  This is perhaps one of the most important New Testament ways of dealing with suffering (and that’s another sermon).  The meaning is, that just as a father disciplines those he loves, so God prunes those branches which he expects to bear fruit.  Christians must perhaps learn to see suffering, difficulty or adversity as a form of God’s pruning, by which he will make us better Christians and more effective witnesses to him in the world.

I wonder who it was who coined the phrase ‘nobody said it would be easy?’  And clearly the Christian walk isn’t easy.  Christian values are at odds with worldly values.  Our treasure is in heaven, not on earth.  But as Christians, we have each other, for friendship and for support.  We have William, John and David to help guide us.  So it is particularly important that as Christians we get on with each other.  Jesus said we should love each other and in truth we should all try harder in this respect.

As I draw to a close, it must surely be our prayer that our churches in Esher are a shining example of God’s presence in this world.  Let our churches be living churches, loving churches, welcoming churches.  Let us look beyond our lives to the constant of Jesus and let us all remain in him and hold him in our hearts.

Amen