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Sermons & Writings |
Loree Penner
Saint James, Monkton
May 17, 2009
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I grew up spending summers on my grandfather's farm near Fresno, California. It was a magic land for children - dogs, cats, fish in the pond, a peacock who ate the tomato worms out of my grandmother's garden, bullfrogs, iced tea, the ubiquitous white-faced Herefords, and my grandfather's horse named Julie, which we all learned to ride at an early age. But most of all there were the grapes - acres and acres of them, with wide spaces of sandy soil in between the rows, and irrigation canals running alongside. Now Calfornia is known for its wine, and pictures abound of the beautiful vineyards of the Napa Valley and surrounding areas. But these vineyards were not wine grapes; they were Thompson seedless, once the largest crop in California. Those green table grapes you buy in the store are Thompson Seedless…sort of… they are not quite as tasteless as storebought tomatoes, but let me tell you, they are a far cry from the Thompsons taken straight off the vine. The Thompson Seedless is a sweet grape with high sugar content, and you know it best when found in those little Sunmaid raisin boxes. At Harvest time, the grapes are cut from the vine in clusters, and laid out on paper trays to dry on that hot sand. A lot of prayer goes up during that time, because if it rains while the raisins are drying, they rot, and the crop is ruined, and all that is left to the farmer is to sell those ruined crops to…where?? To the wineries. You know that really cheap, terrible rotgut wine that most of us wouldn't drink? Its made with rotten raisins, among other things. Somehow I don't think that would fit with Jesus' mandate for us to bear fruit that will last…. But when the raisins have their week or two to dry without rain, they are harvested, and send to SunMaid, or Dole or one of the other plants, and we have from them dried sunshine - seedless grapes with added iron; healthy, nutritious, dried fruit. Fruit that will last. Last week, Charlie talked about the beginning of the 15th Chapter of John, in which Jesus likened himself to a vine, and his father as the vine tender. This week we continue Jesus' teaching about the vine. This chapter of John's gospel is part of the farewell discourse that Jesus gave to his disciples at the Last Supper. He took time to tell them the things that were most important. Abide - LIVE in me, as I live in you. He said, today, as you have loved me, so have I loved you - abide - LIVE in my love. And the way we do that - the way we abide, live, in God's love, is to keep his commandments. Now Jesus didn't give a redress of the 10 commandments - in order to live in my love, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, thy neighbor's fur coat, thy neighbor's horse…. No - he summed it all up in the new commandment that he gave - That we love one another. It is the love for one another that will bear the fruit that will last. Abide - LIVE in the vine. Be aware of Christ's presence with you and within you daily, hourly….and then take that presence and learn to love with it - love one another, and God loves us. Many years ago there was a missionary who was working with a very remote tribe in New Guinea. He was with a group that went into primitive cultures and translated their language into written form, and then used that written form of language to teach them the Bible. As he spent time with this people group, he discovered that they had no word for "love." They were not a tender people; in fact there was evidence that they were headhunters. He did not see great shows of affection given from one person to another, yet he saw family bonds that appeared to be very tight. How did one teach that God loved these people, when they had no world for love in their language? But as he continued to spend time with them, one of the women of the village gave birth to a child. He observed her afterward, singing to her child, cradling it, carrying it closely, as all mothers do. So he asked her, "What is it that you feel toward your child?" And she answered him, "I feel strong, strong, strong toward my child." I feel strong, strong strong, toward my child. And in that sentence, he had his message about God's love for this people. That God felt strong, strong, strong toward them. So strong, in fact, that we was willing to give up his own child, Jesus, in order that they might have life. Jesus knew that the only way for us to bear fruit as Christians, fruit that would last, that is, is to love one another - - to feel strong toward one another. And the only way to love one another, is to abide, to LIVE with our lives strongly held to the Vine that is Christ. There is a lot of love being shown lately at St. James. A lot of this love doesn't have a great deal of emotional content - it is often love for someone unknown. There is a group of knitters that have given out somewhere between 8 and 10 prayer shawls and blankets to people who are sick in the last month - either in the church, in the academy, or who are friends of the people of St. James. There's been a lot of Eucharist taken out to members of the church who cannot be here with us on a regular basis, taken to them, not by clergy alone, but by four different lay Eucharistic visitors. There is prayer for healing for each person that comes to the service on Wednesday morning. Last week there was a retreat at a parishioner's home for one of the groups that meet regularly here at St. James. There, the love flowed between the verses of songs that people wrote and shared about God's help in difficult times. There is so much more going on, as always here at St. James. The children in Sunday School, with your help, raised enough money for 28 mosquito nets to be sent to Africa. We continue to support the work of El Hogar in Honduras, Paul's Place, the Ark, the Seafarer's Center, and many other needs through Social Ministries and the Men's organization. The circle of influence of this country parish continues to grow, continues to bear fruit that will last. And we plan to continue that influence, for we have a calling, not just here at St. James, but as those of us who call ourselves by the name of Christ: to continue the work of God's love as long as we have breath. To bear the kind of fruit that will bring lasting change to a broken world. For we feel strongly about God's love, and desire all to come within God's saving embrace. |
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