This is the Pastor’s Blog for the Service on Sunday August 9th. This week begins the 1st in a 4 Part Series titled “The Three Bs” and this message is titled “What is Christianity For?”. Included here is the primary Scripture of this message and the Pastor’s notes.
Scripture: John 15:1-17
15 ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Pastor’s Message;
Last Sunday, we stood with the disciples on a hillside with thousands of hungry people who had gathered around Jesus. As the day grew late and everyone was getting hungry, the disciples saw only scarcity: five loaves, two fish, and a crowd far too large to feed. But Jesus saw something else. He took what they offered, blessed it, broke it, and gave it back to the disciples. The disciples then placed the bread into the hands of the hungry. By participating in the miracle, a realization began to dawn on the disciples about who they were becoming. They were becoming more than spectators of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus invites them into his ministry and they in turn become ministers of the gospel themselves.
That same invitation is extended to us. Christ continues to feed us—not so that we remain spectators, but so that we become participants in his life and his mission.
That leads to an important question: What is Christianity for?
That may sound like an easy question, but it is one that every generation of the Church must answer anew. We know why the Church exists: God has called us together in Christ and sent us into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. But what difference is God calling us to make? How is Christ shaping us into the people we are meant to become?
When Jesus gathers with his disciples just hours before he is arrested, he speaks of himself using a rich metaphor: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in me.” Jesus doesn’t try to persuade with biblical arguments, or ask the disciples to sign off on a list of doctrines. He calls them into relationship. Before Jesus tells them what to do, he tells them where they belong. They belong to him and to each other.
The Christian life always begins there.
For a long time, many people in the Church have thought that the journey of faith begins with believing. If people can understand the Christian faith and accept its teachings, we will learn how to live as Christians and eventually find our place in the life of the Church.
For many people today, however, that is no longer how faith begins. Diana Butler Bass, a, author and scholar of the current landscape of Christianity in the United States, has written that increasingly people are not asking, “What do I have to believe before I can come?” They are asking, “Is there a place where I belong? Is there a community where I can ask honest questions, be welcomed as I am, and discover what it means to follow Jesus?”
Something important happens when people find that kind of community. As they experience grace, worship alongside others, serve their neighbors, and share life together, their beliefs begin to take shape. Their lives begin to change. In other words, belonging often becomes the doorway to believing, and believing begins to bear fruit in the way we live.
Last week, I mentioned the community at Taizé, an ecumenical Christian community in eastern France. When I travelled there on pilgrimage with a group from seminary, there were also groups from other parts of the world. One of those groups was from Germany. One day at lunch, a young woman from that group sat down across from me and introduced herself. Her name was Sylvia. As we began getting to know each other, she shared that she was an athlete and had been a member of Germany’s women’s rowing team that went to the Olympics. She had no experience with Christianity or the Church, and asked me why there was all this talk about “God, God, God, God!” She just didn’t relate to it and didn’t understand it.
As the week went on, it was really something to worship with these folks who had no experience of the Church or Jesus begin to settle into the Taizé style of sung prayer which also included fifteen minutes of silence – three times a day! At the beginning of the week the unchurched groups were fidgety, whispering during silence and passing notes to each other. But that began to change. We all grew quieter. Sometimes Sylvia and I would sit next to each other in worship. As the week went on, she began to relax into worship, enjoying the prayers, the singing, and the silence.
Our last night at Taize was a Friday night. Friday night worship at Taize always incorporates the veneration of the cross. The members of the community take the large cross which usually stands at the front of the sanctuary and lay it on the floor surrounded by candles. Worshippers can then circle around the cross, spending time in silence and prayer. Sylvia got up from where she was sitting and went to the cross and sat down. Then she leaned over and touched her forehead to the cross and remained that way for some time. Afterward, she shared with me how meaningful that was to her, even though she didn’t completely understand it.
Isn’t that often how Christ works? He called fishermen to follow before they fully understood who he was. He welcomed tax collectors before their lives were in order. He shared meals with sinners before they had all the right answers. Again and again, Jesus created a place of belonging, trusting that faith and transformed lives would grow from the relationships that formed.
All of this doesn’t make believing less important, or behaving according to the life of Christ optional. Rather, it reminds us that these three dimensions of faith belong together: belonging, behaving and believing.
Or we could say it this way: we find belonging; we learn to believe, and we discover a new way to live and grow into that way of life. It’s the journey of a lifetime.
Jesus invites us into all three with one simple word: “Abide,” an old-fashioned word asking us to remain, stay connected, and live in Christ’s love. The branch does not struggle to manufacture grapes, it stays connected to the vine. Fruit grows because life is flowing through it.
Sometimes churches accidentally reverse that order. We tell people to behave before they know they are loved. We expect people to believe everything before they have experienced grace.
Jesus’ disciples certainly did not understand everything. Peter misunderstood constantly.
Thomas doubted. James and John argued about greatness. Yet Jesus kept saying, “Stay with me.” As the disciples stayed with Jesus beyond his resurrection and his ascension, they learned and they changed. And then they bore fruit.
Faith isn’t about mere information – it’s about transformation.
Sometimes people assume Christianity is mostly about agreeing with a list of statements. There are times thoughout history when churches have presented Christianity this way, and that is still the case today in some congregations. Living our faith is more than being a good person or being a part of a social organization or giving assent to a list of doctrinal statements.
The Way of Christ offers something richer than any of those. What Christ offers is a shared life rooted in his way of compassion, grace and mercy which reshapes our lives and creates a community where people know they belong because Christ first welcomed us.
Over the next several weeks, we are going to explore these three dimensions of Christian life.
We’ll spend time reflecting on believing—not simply agreeing with a set of doctrines, but as a way of learning to trust God revealed in Jesus Christ.
We’ll consider behaving—not as earning God’s favor, but as responding to God’s grace through lives of compassion, justice, generosity, and love.
And we’ll celebrate belonging—discovering that before we have everything figured out, Christ welcomes us into a community just as we are, questions, doubts, and all.
Jesus’ invitation still begins with one simple word: “Abide in me.” Remain. Stay connected. Belong. That is what Christianity is for – a way of life that makes abiding in Christ’s life possible; a way of life that transforms us more and more into the image of God that is within us.
Day in and day out that invitation is renewed. We receive grace before we deserve it. Our faith is not simply something we think about. It is a life we receive. It is a community we share.
It is a love we learn to embody.
Thanks be to God.
Closing prayer
