1 May 2013 - root access

1 May 2013 - root access

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.

The great temptation that we all face is to try to do things without him.  Often they are not the right things.  We can be like raspberry bushes trying to grow bananas or lilies trying to produce rose petals.  These efforts are particularly futile.

But even if we are trying to be exactly what we are created to be we can't do it without the source of our life.  We are like dry kindling on the ground trying to grow into trees by wishing it.  We need the life-giving green sap that comes from the vine.

Our efforts on our own do not bear fruit.  However, they are often sufficiently distracting to be a problem.  We get so fixated on our plans and our ideas about how great our plans are that we don't even really notice that our life is drying up.  But unless we stay connected to vine our life is assuredly drying up.  Without the vine we have no access to soil or moisture and we have no roots.

Now the good news.

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

It's true, this is some tough good news.  But it is good!  We tend to be happy about these branches of distraction which waste our lives.  But they are hurting us.  So even if it hurts for a time to have them removed it is a grace and a mercy.  We experience this when the LORD prevents us from finding fulfillment in the things on which we waste our efforts.  These might be things which are otherwise good when they are not a distraction.  They may have even been legitimate pleasures which the LORD wanted us to enjoy earlier in our lives.  Perhaps now he is calling us more fully to have our joy in him alone.

Our God only does any of this because there is a greater joy we can find in him if we aren't distracted by the passing things of this world.

I rejoiced because they said to me,
“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”

When we are following him and putting him first we may still have to discern whether things which were once useful to us are still important.

But some from the party of the Pharisees who had become believers
stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them
and direct them to observe the Mosaic law.”

We may or may not be called to leave these things aside.  The important thing is for Jesus to so rule in our lives so that he can tell us whether or not they are part of his plan for us.

The Apostles and the presbyters met together to see about this matter.

He is calling us all to live together in his presence in the heavenly Jerusalem.  There are various temporal goods which are directed toward that end, and these he encourages.  If we remember our destination and proceed there with joy we won't turn aside along the way.  We won't waste our effort trying to grow branches which aren't ours to grow or to make alive dry wood without soil or moisture or roots.

Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.
According to the decree for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

I can't find either of my two favorite versions of this psalm or a taizé rendition, but this one seems cool.