Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10.44-48; John 15.9-17

Those of you who were with us last week will recall that we were thinking about our connection with Jesus, that we are like a branch on the vine that is himself and it's from him that we get our life and in living that life we are to bear fruit. Jesus talked, in the part of St. John's gospel we read, about 'abiding in him' as he abides in us so that we should bear fruit. And this week we continue in much the same way of thinking.

What we have heard today is not an easy thing to understand because we lead lives in which we are encouraged to be very independent. We are taught and encouraged to express ourselves, to put forward our own opinions and our own points of view, always. We are taught to recognise our own gifts and skills and abilities, to nurture them and develop them and to put them to good use. We are encouraged to make our mark upon the world, to succeed, and to excel in all we do. And there is nothing at all wrong with that. Where things can go wrong, however, is when that part of us that psychologists call the ego takes over and rather than becoming our servant, becomes the driving force that we are subservient to, and we might then end up putting all we are before anyone else in our struggle and striving to be at the top, to be successful, to be the winner. And that then might result in our doing more damage than good.

There is no doubt about it that Jesus expected his disciples to go and change the world. He expected them to continue to make God's kingdom real and for people to reap the benefit of it. And there would be no way that they could do that without being driven to succeed in all they did. When we read of the exploits of the saints and of St. Peter and St. Paul in particular, we can't help but think that they were driven by something, some power much bigger than themselves, something very deep seated within them and something which sometimes they used rather inappropriately. They were of course driven by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And there was no way they could have done what they did, succeeded in the way they did without that Spirit of Jesus.

In two weeks we'll be celebrating the time when the Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost and we'll remember just how powerful it is and can be. But first we need to remember something else, something without which that Spirit cannot work constructively and meaningfully and without which neither the saints of the past nor we and the saints of the present and the future can succeed in any Christian work or in making real the Kingdom of God in the present. And it's what Jesus refers to in the gospel reading today and which harks back to what we heard last week. This time when Jesus is talking to his disciples he talks about their love for him and for one another and their love for God. All are, as it were, connected by this love and they are to 'abide' in it. And it begins with obeying God's commandments, their active living of the life he has prescribed for them. Because it's in that living of God's commandments that they develop and show their love for God and for one another. No less will do and it's only in that way will they go on to do his work, that is, to bear fruit that will last.

As a mark of this Jesus says that they are his friends. He says the relationship they have with him and he with them has changed from that of master and servants to that of friends. And we all know how different friendship is from a master and servant relationship. The relationship of friends is one in which love does develop, even to the extent that those friends will give up their lives for one another. And we know that Jesus became and still is the model for that, through his death on the cross.

So, what we see here amongst the disciples is this special relationship they have with Jesus which is the same as he has with God. It's a relationship founded on and developed in love for one another. And it's in and out of this relationship that they are to excel and succeed in all they do, that is, they are to bear fruit that will last. Driven by the Spirit of God, all that they are, the gifts and skills and talents they have will be nurtured and developed and used in making God and his Kingdom real to people so that they might know the benefit of it in their lives.

That, believe it or not, is still happening through people amongst us who have that same sort of relationship with Jesus Christ, even in this day and age. And it's there for all of us if we take seriously our baptism into Christ, whenever that took place be it as a baby or as an adult. At our baptism we are initiatied into the life of Christ, we are initiatied into that relationship that Jesus has with his heavenly Father and it's for us to nurture that relationship throughout our lives, following his commandments so that we bear the fruit we are born to bear. And it's never too late to renew that relationship if it has lapsed. We can do that through repentance which is a simple 'change of mind'.

So today as we hear those words of Jesus to his disciples, let us dedicate ourselves anew to him so that we might continue to bear fruit for him and make God and his Kingdom real.