Tag: joy versus fear

• John 15: The Vine and Branches

  
  

  John 15: The Vine and Branches

  Saturday, April 5, 2025

  We continue our exploration of the way in which Jesus describes himself, helping us to sustain strength on our difficult journey, to remain always in and for the Lord.

  Because he understands the difficulties of our lives, Jesus explains our connection to him with a simple yet powerful image. This power, wisdom, strength, and understanding were predicted by the prophet Isaiah. Listen while I sing you this song, a song of my friend and his vineyard. (Isaiah 5:1)

  Later, Jesus tells his followers – as he tells us – just how important we are to his kingdom.

  I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

  Jesus says to his disciples – as he says to us – that we are essential to God’s plan.

  Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

  Jesus wants each of us to experience the joy of sorrow becoming celebration, of grief turning to gladness.

  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command you.

  Jesus leads us into the newness of redemption and resurrection with the grace of fidelity. Jesus leads us from fear to mercy with the gift of transformative love. Jesus shows us the Way from shadow to sunshine and invites us to join him in outrageous hope.

  Tomorrow, Isaiah and The Vineyard Song.

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  When we compare other translations of John 15, we discover how we might become strong branches on Christ’s sustaining vine.  

  Image from: https://redeeminggod.com/sermons/john/john_15_1-8/

   

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  April 5, 2025

  faith-hope-love, Isaiah 5, joy versus fear

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• Ezekiel 4: Inevitability – A Reprise

  
  

  Ezekiel 4 – Inevitability

  Sunday, September 15, 2024

  

  Today’s post is a reprise from December 24, 2011. We have an opportunity to consider the possibility of recovering from calamity, an opportunity to accept the gift of Christ, God Among Us. Let us imagine that we are about to celebrate the gift of the Nativity. And let us be grateful for God’s greatest gift of self for God’s generosity, love and goodness are inevitable. 

  There is a certain inevitability about Ezekiel’s prophecy.  He is certain that his predictions will come to pass.  From our place in history centuries later, we can easily see that what seemed impossible for Judah and Jerusalem does indeed take place.  Their fortified city is besieged and destroyed; their powerful and comfortable leaders are killed or deported.  Why did anyone doubt Ezekiel and the other prophets?  They reported what they saw in the present and what they saw to come.  They were accurate, so why did anyone have reservation about their words?   Most likely it was because the naysayers had too much invested in the corrupt system.  We might learn a lesson from all of this.

  There is a certain inevitability about Jesus’ story.  He comes to tell us that he is Emmanuel – God Among Us.  From our place in human history we can read about the miracles he performed.  We can also number the times that impossibilities take place in our own lives.  Jesus tells us that he will be destroyed and yet rise again in new life.  He tells us that he has come to take us with him on this amazing journey as his well-loved sisters and brothers.  Jesus tells us what the Creator has asked him to report to us: that we are free, liberated from anything that holds us to the material world in which we live.  This freedom includes freedom from anxiety and stress.  Why do we cling to our old and familiar discomfort when there is a newness offered to us without cost?  Why do we behave as those who heard but ignored Ezekiel’s words?  Do we doubt what Jesus has told us?  What are the reservations we have about his words or his actions?  On this eve when we celebrate his coming into the world as a vulnerable baby, why do we continue to ask for additional proofs and for further assurance that he will complete his promise to bring us to the new life he experiences?  Why do we hang on to our fears and reject the possibility of joy?

  

  So on this Christmas Eve, as we await midnight in order to join in praise of God’s goodness to us, we have this to ponder about our own acceptance of what we have heard and what we have seen.  What is it about Jesus’ story we do not believe?  What are the further proofs we demand before we accept the prophecy of his coming as true?  Who has lured us away from the one true story of redemption and the promise it holds for all?  How have we become like those who hear but so not listen?  When will we tire of hiding behind subterfuge, of supporting corrupt systems and people?  Why do we persist in being as blind as the inhabitants of Jerusalem to whom Ezekiel spoke?

  Let us reflect on God’s gift of inevitability as we pray . . .

  Tomorrow is the feast of Christ’s birth . . . the feast of the birth of newness in each of us.

  Tomorrow is the celebration of a new-found freedom . . . the celebration of our release from fear and anxiety.

  Tomorrow is the commemoration of the arrival of hope and God’s promise . . . the commemoration of God’s coming to dwell among us. 

  God’s love is inevitable.  Let us cease our resistance.  Let us rejoice in this good news and be glad.  Amen.

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  Ezekiel image from: http://ldolphin.org/ezekiel/

  Nativity image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gerard_van_Honthorst_-_Adoration_of_the_Shepherds_(1622).jpg

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  September 15, 2024

  Ezekiel, freedom, hope, joy versus fear, Nativity, rebirth

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