Is life really working for you?
Is there something or is it that Someone seems missing?
In the film, “Joyful Noise” (January 2012) … starring Queen Latifah & Dolly Parton, … the small town of Pacashau, Ga has fallen on hard times. Its people are counting on their church choir to win the National Joyful Noise Competition & uplift the townspeople’s spirits. The film shows Christian people of all ages growing, trying new things, skirmishing a bit, but above all having fun precisely because of … living in union with Jesus.
Here’s their secret & ours ….
Live on in me, as I do in you. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who lives in me and I in him will produce abundantly.
….from Jesus of Nazareth, the right connection for life!
Jesus was familiar with the image of God as a gardener. In today’s gospel, Jesus claims to be the true vine & says that we, his disciples, are the branches drawing life from him. The relationship is intimate.
The relationship is essential.
The branches must be attached to the vine or else they will wither and die. We disciples must remain united with him in order to live a life of greater human purpose and divine meaning.
This intimate connection between God & ourselves is nothing new. We do not have a judgmental, stern, aloof, cold, and moody God who is isolated in some far off heaven, aggravated by most of what we do.
We have a God who loves us & likes to “snuggle”!
God loves “being with” us. Even in the Eden story, God is pictured walking in the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. The prophets spoke often about our relationship with God as a marriage, using lots of intimate images. If you don’t believe me, read the Song of Songs! Passages from that book are often chosen for readings at weddings. Other Old Testament readings tell us that our God remains faithful to us, taking us back again and again – no Puritan God here!
If that were not enough, God gets inside our skin, human flesh, in the person of Jesus. At birth, Jesus was called “Emmanuel,” meaning “God is with us!” God, in the flesh, talked often about the intimate relationship between God and us. Jesus spoke of himself as the good shepherd & us as his sheep. This shepherd lays down his life for us. Today he calls himself “the vine” & us “the branches.” He gives himself to us-his body & his blood as “bread & wine”- and asks us to “feed on” him. This Jesus “walks
2 with” his disciples on the road to Emmaus. After his ascension into heaven he makes us temples of his Holy Spirit, living within us.
Yes, we have a God who deeply desires “to be with” us,
… a God who loves to snuggle!
We are challenged by today’s gospel to consider our intimate connection to this God. The gospel uses the phrase “remain in me” … 5 times.We are not the center of the universe. God is! We can ignore God, and life can go on, but if God ignores us for one second, we would simply cease to exist. It’s not we who choose God, it is God who chooses us first.
The relationship is already there.
We can ignore it, cut ourselves off & try to go our own way, or we can wake up, smell the roses & realize our dependence on God, and draw life from him like branches on a vine. We have a choice.
That choice has implications.
God has already initiated this life-giving, life-enhancing relationship. It is already a part of us. We need to be conscious of what we already have! The ancient Jews wore scripture quotes in tiny boxes on their foreheads to remind themselves. My favorite way of reminding myself is to have an on-going, day long, conversation with God. I do formal praying but, I also like to picture Jesus with a cup of coffee in his hand - my friend & constant companion. We shoot the breeze together all day long!
(Ideas-adaptions: Sunday Nights, R. Knott)
This has a price. I’m more aware what needs to grow inside of me & what the needs of others are around me. By believing in Jesus, I think, we must be loving. Love of God means love for God and love in/for the other person. These two parts of God’s one “Commandment” must be fulfilled in a way that each authenticates the other. Our actions must support out words. Let me say that … “just the thought that counts” … won’t work now!
We want out lives to be fruitful & authentic.
We want to feel life, that our life, really counts for something.
With Jesus, it does.
Great or small words/acts of love transform a world “in Christ”.
Everyone is under our care.
At this Liturgy of the Lord of Life, we can be sure that God embraces us, in Christ, and empowers us, in the Spirit, to share not only this world,
but heaven itself! … now that’s a Joyful noise!