The pliability of love

  'I am the vine' so says Christ in one of his famous quotes from John's gospel (15:1). Not only is Christ saying this but he is also saying 'God the vine' as 'I am' in Jewish literature sources is tantamount to the name of God. So, in a twisted manner Christ is proclaiming himself God but also asserting that the twisted vines that produce grapes are part and parcel of God. Yet, the analogous writing of John goes even further in stating that we are to be embedded in the vine as branches that source their nutrients and growth potential from the root stock of the vine. So, Christ is the vine, excluding the branches as it is we who are the branches in some cases grafted on, we would assume that the vine is more than just a woody growth.

We must make some valid assumptions at this point or else the analogy will not hold together. The first one is that our concept of God / Christ as the main stem of the vine means that this is composed of love. In other words it is not a rigid structure but rather something that is fluid and ever changing. If we think in terms of rigidity then we become bogged down in human concepts and an inability to become one with God. The second assumption is that all parts of the total plant are bound together by this same structure and it is through this that the Spirit flows to the outer extremities so that we become productive and produce the grape of peace and compassion in our lives to serve as sustenance to the world. If we are happy with this then we can proceed to acknowledge our usefulness to the world.

The interesting thing about these assumptions is that it suggests that our preconceptions of community as a rigid structure must fall away. If we are to be intimately involved with God we must allow for flexibility in our response. The love of God is not a rigid characteristic but rather is more pliable, the moment we become rigid we are likely to fracture from the source. Our broken branches pile up around us and eventually burn as suggested by Christ (Jn. 15:6). It is because we have withered or rather not allowed love to flow into our selves and become rigid in our outlook. The harmony of creation and created things shows us the harmony of God. The interconnectivity of all things demonstrates to us the interconnectivity of God. Thus, the vine shows the interconnectivity of all things when they are harmonised to the fundamentality of God as love. This love that we refer to as God contains all forms of love within it and cannot be described in any one way except perhaps to suggest that love viewed in this way is something that does not induce harm, hatred, disconnection or any other form of violence that disconnects a person from love itself.

It is the pliable growth that bears fruit not the woody growth that is eventually pruned away

The writer of the letter 1 John suggests that the epitome of love is self sacrifice as seen in Christ's immolation on the cross (1 Jn. 4:9). This is a love that transcends the other and is able to sacrifice ourselves and our ideals to attain the peace which comes in the presence of God. This is what we require in our lives, a sense of the ability to give up all but at the same time to gain all. We tend not to consider compromise or the giving up of a position as something that is strong or the way to obtain what we are after. Usually, if we do not create the circumstances for our win we resort to violence in order to overthrow the alternative. Yet, more often then not it is in the surrendering of an ideal that creates the situation in which both sides of conflict find a win-win solution to the underlying issue. Like Philip (Acts 8:26-ff) we are sent into situations which we might find impossible but it is with the pliability of love that we overcome our difficulties to find a way to obtain our goals. 

It is not by rigid precepts that we are able to minister to the people around us but rather by the flexible understanding that love covers many things and can be viewed from a wide number of places. It is often only when the hard exterior that becomes woody and with less pliability associated with a living plant or vine that pruning and desiccation set in. The pliability of the living vine allows it to wind its way around many different situations and when it becomes hard and woody it is often pruned away to allow for fresh growth. In our own communities we also become hard and brittle unable to twist and turn to find the way forward. In modern times, we can see the resistance of some parts of the church to such change. They may appear at first glance hardy but in time they always wither and do not produce sweet fruit but that which is sour. Let our efforts be more pliable in the face of change and our new reality so that we bear good sweet fruit rather than the bitter dregs of sour wine.

Programmed love or a love that never ends

 The Church has become inundated with a number of proposals as to what and how to "grow" and become relevant in society. Denominations are feeling the pinch with lowered numbers of those attending and in mainline denominations are burdened with requirements from "head office" to fulfil. Those who come to church feel burdened with the need to fulfil requirements of the "church" and then find time for the shared gospel. Perhaps the only time of solace is worship and we don't want any of that loud bangy music or a sermon that is so high powered that we do not understand half the words. We feel badgered but do not want to give up our place in the faith community's worship, We feel we don't want to contribute realistically to anything going on but rather will attend some event put on for us or the community. We appear to want to programme our faith lives as if they were computer chips rather than human beings filled with love.

So do we manage this or do we move out into mission or do we just allow the Spirit to move as it will? The literature and perhaps many of those in authority would have us believe that we must either manage our way out or go on a missional undertaking as that is the Gospel. "Prove" to our communities that we are relevant to their needs and bring the Gospel into their hearts and minds, but what is the Gospel, what do we have to "sell" that we can become more efficient like a business? At the end of the day perhaps we need to see the Gospel as an initiative that cannot be managed, be hyperactively managed or even be relevant to the local community. Huh! What a shocking thing to say for surely that is the purpose that we are asked to do in the sending out into the world? No, the heart and soul of Christ's message is in the passages from John (10.11-18), 1 John (3.16-24) and perhaps in action (Acts 4.5-12). All of these passages speak about acting and living in love, love of neighbour, love of God.  The mission of the Church is to behave in the manner that Christ behaved and by doing so spread the initiative of the Gospel, the good news, of how to live in love.

Do we programme our love like a computer chip or do we let love grow?

We have forgotten in the institutionalisation of the religious / faith journey that Christ interacted as another human being among human beings. He did not set up programs, schedules, etc for his disciples. He did not expect his followers to become followers of programs and schedules, mission undertakings to solve the problems of the world / country / community. Christ sent his disciples out into the world to bring the experience of love into the lives of others and in so doing bring them closer to God. We shepherd people through the example of our lives when those lives are consumed by love, not by money, not by comsumerisation, not by missional programmes or managed undertakings that make us more efficient. Perhaps we need to re-think how we let others know what it means to be Christian by extending our love into their hearts and minds.

Yes, we need to be part of our community to support each other and to operate as a Christian community within the community in which we live. Yes, we need to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices to enable others to find God and if this means that we attend meetings and plan goals and enable the faith community to work at showing God to the world then so be it. BUT this is not the end it is the means, it is not the purpose it is a way forward. We need to be flexible to be able to walk with people and not do for people, to show love and empathy not turn away in rejection. Even when we are tired and feel drained it is our continued outpouring of love that reaps the rewards of God's presence in our lives. If we are to withdraw to re-charge then we must come out of that withdrawal to reengage and form the bonds of love that are commanded of us by Christ.

Doubt that leads to fear

 Last week I talked about doubt. Among other things it is a source in our lives for the questioning of faith that we all need to have in our search for God's presence in our hearts. Just as with many things though doubt is two sided and last week I briefly spoke about the danger of self doubt. This week gives us the opportunity to look at the darker side of doubt and where that might lead. All of the Gospel stories of the resurrection contain elements of doubt that are handled in various ways. Last week, we heard John's story and this week it is the turn of Luke. In Luke's handling of doubt it is important to understand that Christ appears to criticise the presence of doubt in the disciples (Lk. 24:38b). Why, if we need doubt does Christ then criticise this feeling in the disciples?

Doubt if not allowed to move towards the positive need to query and investigate will descend into the festering hole of fear. Unless, hope is present as we quest for answers then the answers we seek will be obscured by our fear, which is enabled by doubt. Fear leads us towards the darker recesses of our humanness and encourages us to create our own answers that lead to depravity and a denial of our neighbours. It is our fear that drives the divide between those who our different as we fear that the difference may overwhelm us and make us also different. Science fiction, just like any other genre of fictive writing, can nudge our understanding of this phenomena if we allow it. In a series, by  author Michael Anderle, a very different world to our present one is described. However, what is clear in this particular series is the exaggeration that comes with fear of the other and how humanity can be driven clearly away from the love of neighbour. The fear that is present is driven by doubt and is clearly exploited by the books antagonists to rule over the population. In some respects these last few years have also shown how easy it is to manipulate a populace using the tools of doubt and fear.

Fear builds walls when we succumb to doubt 

Christ challenges the doubt that the disciples feel in Luke's gospel to move them away from the fear that underlies their doubt. In all the Gospels that fear is prevalent and is overcome with the coming of the risen Christ. Yet, the harbinger of fear, doubt, is also present and in later years rears its head in many ways but can be seen most clearly in the removal of women from the leadership and power positions within the growing community. This is in reality just a symptom as underlying the symptom is the actual problem that of power and authority to influence others. Christ influences others in such a manner that their natural tendencies are overwhelmed, so that they come to understand love and the need to integrate power and authority within the community. This naturally means that all may share in the boundless love that comes from Christ. But what happens when we give in to our doubt and allow our fear to dominate. Then we set our hearts on the world as John states in his letter (1 Jn 2:15). In doing so we submit to our fears and turn away from that which calls for courage and questioning to find the way forward in faith.

Our natural tendency has always been to be ruled by our fears and thus succumb to doubt rather than be challenged to change by our doubt. In our fear we grab for what is available to us and more often then not that means grabbing and holding on to what the world gives to us. In doing so we are tantalised by the promise of more and more and thus forget that we travel with companions. In forgetting those that are around us we forget to give love and see those around us solely as means to attain our goals and our needs. So as to overcome our fears by ridding ourselves of that which challenges us. This is what the world asks of us; that we remove all obstacles and difference from our path to power and authority, no matter how small or great that is. Christ calls us not to succumb to the world but to cast aside our fears and allow our doubts to fuel our faith. It is only through the love that God displays that we are able to reach out over that which divides to ensure that we form the family of God in the community. Once we can let go of the fears that our doubt allows to grow, fears that are only fears of ostracisation as opposed to the inclusion that comes with love.

Doubt is part of our lives

 The place of doubt in Christian life has always taken front seat in the days following Easter as we read about the doubts of Thomas the Apostle (John 20.19ff). This is an obvious doubt that is easily recognisable. This is the doubt that states "I do not believe you." and then it is up to others to prove the case. Yet, there is another form of doubt that we do not talk about much but is even more harmful then the doubt that is displayed by Thomas. In fact, Thomas' doubt is perhaps beneficial because we can see ourselves and the resolution of our doubts in Christ. Unseen self doubt decreases our worth in our own eyes and thus our belief of peoples opinions and society in general often sending us into a spiral of despair.

Whilst similar to Thomas in that it is doubt in what has been said, in this case about oneself, it is not so easily overcome by the use of a simple proof test. In entering into new life at Easter we should die to our sins and leave them behind at the foot of the cross. What we often do is surreptitiously pick them up again as we proceed away from the cross. This then becomes part of our denial of ourselves and of our brokenness that is spoken about in 1 John (1.10). The very act of picking up that which we dropped at the foot of the cross breaks us once more. We believe that we have put it behind us but are in actuality carrying it.  We then say that we are without sin whilst hauling the baggage of our sin behind us like an enormous snail. In leaving those things that we have burdened ourselves with at the foot of the cross means that they should stay there. However, our self doubt makes us return and pick up those things that have comforted us on our journey thus far.

Are you a light in the darkness?

It is this self doubting of our worth and our ability to be loved by God that directs us to pick up the burdens of our prior life. The difficulty of course is obvious, how do you encourage someone who doubts themselves? The Gospel faith that Christ asks of Thomas and all others is a small clue towards our healing and redemption. It is in Acts that we find the final answer for ourselves (Acts 4.32-37). This story of the early community that was the body of Christ demonstrates where our burgeoning new life needs to be present. It is outwards towards the formation of community not inwards towards ourselves. We begin new life in community and in the presence of others as we saw on Good Friday. In turning inwards towards ourselves we begin the process of self doubt and believe ourselves not worthy enough. Here Thomas's interaction with Christ should be giving us the confidence to trust in God and allow Christ's presence to flow into our lives.

If we are to build a new community as reflections on Good Friday suggest then that community begins in trust. Trust in God / Christ that our previous inhibitions and burdens have been taken from us; trust in our companions in Christ that they are walking with us along the way; trust in ourselves that we are adult enough to ask for God's presence and the assistance of our companions when things get tough. It is only then that our lights lit by Christ at Dawn on Easter day will glow in the darkness of the world. In building ourselves and our communities in this light we begin to brighten the world around us until we become like the dawn fire of Easter giving light to those who are in darkness around us, lifting them up from their self doubts into the confidence of Christ's presence in their lives. This is the change that Christ brings the change that we are often so fearful of, a change that we cannot and do not recognise as Christ walks alongside us until we cast away our doubts into the fire of Christ's love.