5th Sunday of Easter

There is an interesting tension in today’s readings that I don’t think I have ever paid much attention to before. Today’s Gospel from John 15:1–8 and the 2nd reading from 1 John 3:18–24 are about our relationship with Jesus. In the Gospel Jesus tells his disciples and us, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” And he explains why this commandment is important. If we don’t stay connected to Jesus like branches on a vine, we cannot bear fruit. In the 2nd reading we hear a similar line, “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.” The commandments referred to in John’s letter are we should believe in the name of Jesus Christ and we should love one another.

The tension is in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles 9:26–31. This is the story about Paul’s introduction to the disciples in Jerusalem. It didn’t go down very well. After his astounding conversion and baptism and after some death threats, Paul journeyed to Jerusalem to join the disciples. They didn’t want him. The disciples were afraid and they couldn’t believe that this man who breathed “murderous threats” against them was now a disciple of Jesus. Fortunately Barnabas befriended Paul and through his witness to Paul’s conversion the disciples finally accepted him into their circle. But then Paul got into trouble with the Hellenists who tried to kill him so the disciples bundled him off to Tarsus. It was only after getting Paul out of Jerusalem that “The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.”

What is interesting is that Paul’s problems with the disciples and the Hellenists didn’t stop him from bearing fruit. Paul’s branch was pruned and his ministry thrived, not in Judea, Galilee or Samaria but in the far reaches of Asia Minor. None of Paul’s experiences diminished his deep and abiding belief in Jesus. Jesus told the disciples, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches.” He didn’t say branch. Jesus’ vine has many branches and they are all different. Paul’s branch was not the branch of the disciples in Jerusalem but they were connected to the same vine. We are connected to the same vine as well. And so we can pray:

Our living and loving God,

you have made yourself very close and dear to us

in your Son Jesus Christ.

Through him we can live your life,

rich and generous and reaching out to others,

for Christ lives in us and we can live in him.

Let your Son bring all together in him,

that all become branches on the same vine

and that the new wine of justice and love

fill all this earth with joy and peace.

We ask this through him whose sap of life flows in us,

Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen