CALENDAR OF EVENTS 

NEED A RIDE?

Let us know.  Some of those who walk to the building on Grove St. will have a hard time making it to the new facility.  Let us help provide transportation.  (73-473-4107).

 

BUY A SHIRT

We have royal blue polo shirts with the church name and a rainbow logo on the front for sale for $25 each.  Contact Pastor Ray. 

 

FOOD PANTRY

We are serving more people than ever through our Food Pantry program.  Your donations make a HUGE difference in people’s lives.  Everyone in need gets an emergency food bag that includes canned meat, tuna, peanut butter, breakfast cereal, dry milk, rice, beans, canned vegetables, pasta and sauce, pancake mix and syrup.  Please leave your donations in the Food Pantry box located at the sanctuary entrance. 

 

INTERESTED IN MEMBERSHIP?

Come learn more about the Presbyterian Church, this congregation’s ministry, and explore making a commitment to join us as a member.  Contact Pastor Ray for details.

 

WELCOME TO AA

We welcome several new Alcoholics Anonymous groups to our church building.  Five meetings lost their previous space (the building was bought and will be torn down).  We now have AA meetings in our building every night at 7:30 p.m.  Please pray for them and their important work in our community. 

 

NORTH JERSEY NEIGHBORS

Back to Thursdays!  We will meet for conversation, making new friends, munchies and beverages on August 26th, from 7-9 p.m.  See you there!!!

 

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Revelation 21:22-22:5

John 14:23-29                  FINDING PEACE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

 

 

 

            I first bumped into the book of Revelation when I was in High School. I still remember that my favorite English teacher, who also happened to be my pastor, introduced John’s visions by saying he must have eaten a large pepperoni pizza before he went to bed and had these dreams!  Revelation is a weird, book…at least to our ears.  Dr. Jan Love introduces it this way.  “We don't use Revelation as often as we do other parts of the New Testament...we don't find it listed frequently in the lectionary. We usually don't dabble in it for leisure, and we certainly don't read it to young children before bedtime! Most of this book is a ferocious mix of images, creatures, battles and symbols. We read about horsemen, dragons, beasts from the sea, beasts from the earth, lakes of burning sulfur, mouths with swords in them, and much, much more. Lord, have mercy!

“Yet despite its fairly bizarre contents, the book of Revelation has had a profound impact on Western culture. It is one of the most widely illustrated books of the Bible, depicted in architecture, tapestry, paintings, and altar pieces. Much literature reflects the pervasive power of this text, for example, in the poetry of Dante, John Bunyan, William Blake, T.S. Eliot; the novels of Charlotte Bronte, Ray Bradbury, and more. The Book of Revelation has also influenced a great deal of music, including Handel's famous Messiah and Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Timothy Luke Johnson, a scholar of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, says that, “few writings...have been so obsessively read with such generally disastrous results as the Book of Revelation...Its history of interpretation is largely a story of tragic misinterpretation...its arcane symbols...have nurtured delusionary systems, both private and public, to the destruction of their fashioners and to the discredit of the writing.”

Part of the problem is that Revelation is part of a genre of literature that we don’t find much of today.  It was more common…and more commonly understood in the first century A.D. when it was written.  Revelation is apocalyptic literature.  This kind of literature uses those wild images, crazy beasts, natural and unnatural disasters to make a point.  At a time when the early church was beginning to be persecuted by the dominant cultures, John hid a message of hope and a call to faithfulness within the wild imagery of apocalyptic literature. 

It wasn’t intended to be a roadmap to the end of the world.  It wasn’t written primarily to foretell the future 2,000 years down the road.  It was written to sustain Christians at the end of the first century when they were being arrested, tortured, crucified and fed to lions for sport.  It was written to tell them that their suffering had a cosmic purpose…that the temporal rulers that seemed so powerful would find justice in the end.

Because we misunderstand the kind of literature we are dealing with, we can easily misinterpret its purpose and message.  But even when we don’t understand it, it fires our imagination.  There are a couple of good reasons for that.

The first is that the Revelation asserts that the world can be a really scary place--not always, but enough of the time to fuel plenty of anxiety and apocalyptic imagination. Revelation is written in the late first century, a scary time for Christians.

We continue to live in scary times…if for somewhat different reasons.  The leaking oil pipe in the Gulf of Mexico defies all attempts to contain it and promises long-term ecological disaster.  This week, dumb luck kept a terrorist from exploding a car bomb in Times Square and injuring unknown numbers of innocent people.  On Thursday, some hapless Wall Street trader hit the “B” instead of the “M” on his keyboard…and instead of trading a million shares, tried to trade a billion.  That mistake let us know how fragile and afraid our economic system is.  In a matter of minutes, the Dow average lost 10% of its value.  When it was discovered a few minutes later that the world was not coming to an end…at least the economic world…stocks rebounded.  But we are jittery and feel seconds away from disaster on so many levels….

Revelation gives voice to our fears.

The second reason that the book of Revelation remains a profoundly powerful text is that it promises a better end.  One commentator once said, “I don’t understand much about the book of Revelation, but I can sum up its meaning in three words.  ‘God’s gonna win.’”  And that’s what we read this morning from the 22^nd chapter.  At the end of the tale, God promises healing, peace, and justice.  God’s gonna win.

In the passage from John 14, Jesus tells the disciples that he will not always be with them. He is speaking to them about their fears, anxieties, and despair. He offers them a choice. He says, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." In Eugene Petersen’s modern rendering of John’s gospel he translates this passage as, “if we keep God's word, God will ‘move right into the neighborhood!’” God shares the neighborhood with us, but only if we choose to live there! We choose to live there by embodying God's love for the world. "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" , Jesus says. Christ will be with us, even in scary times, if we genuinely strive to love one another and live life in all its fullness.

The passage from Revelation 22 offers a similar choice. Throughout the book, Babylon serves as the primary symbol for the Roman Empire complete with its injustice, violence and oppression. Candler scholar of New Testament, Gail O'Day, says, "...the goal of Revelation is to invite the churches to move out of Babylon and into the grace of the city of God."

And what a city it is, this new Jerusalem! The city comes "down out of heaven from God". There's no need for a temple because God's presence permeates everything. The gates are always open and the gifts of creation are abundantly available to all--all the nations and rulers of the earth. The Tree of Life is planted on each side of the river of the water of life and produces twelve kinds of fruit; "the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations". Professor O'Day claims that "The only way to be excluded from the city is to choose to practice falsehood and deceit, practices which by definition do not belong to the city of God."

We experience the peace of God when we choose to listen…when we take time to remember that God is present with us…that the good news of Revelation is the same good news that fills the rest of scripture. 

We already belong to God.  The Holy Spirit fills our hearts and lives and gives us a new perspective.  We don’t need to live in fear.  God is bigger than oil spills, terrorists, and computer glitches.  God is bigger than our diseases, our worries, and the rulers of this age who try so desperately to control us.

Kindness, justice, truth, grace, love and righteousness on earth! What a vision. We speak of it every time we pray the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Those of us who know the saving grace of Jesus Christ need desperately to live out our belief that God intends to reclaim, restore and redeem the life of all creation to its divine intention. If ever there was a time when the world needs the healing, saving grace of Jesus Christ, it is now.

          John reminds us that we find God’s peace when we choose to live God’s way rather than the world’s way.  Peace comes when we practice the presence of God in our lives.  God’s peace happens when we worry less about ourselves and more about those around us.  God’s peace fills us when we offer food to the hunger and a place for those who have no place.

          Love conquers hatred…and there, God’s peace will reign.  Inclusion creates a vibrant community that is not as familiar…not as safe…but a lot more interesting…and a lot more fun.  God’s presence give us peace, calls us to laugh, and to always remember the promise of John’s Revelation.  God’s gonna win.

         

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Isaiah 60:1-6

Matthew 2:1-12                               SEEKING GOD

 

 

          I grew up in Richland, Michigan, population 212.  One of the best memories I have of my childhood was our family’s annual Christmas visit to Bronson Park in the big city of Kalamazoo.  It was a great place for a little kid.  One half of the park was decorated with huge candy canes and reindeer and Santa Claus.  And on the other side of the park was a Menorah and a life sized Nativity scene.  I remember walking through that Nativity scene, looking at the life-sized plaster statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus nestled in the warm straw of a cozy barn.  You could walk right up to them and look baby Jesus in the eye.  The display also included everything else that was supposed to be there:  angels, shepherds, lots of sheep, some cows and birds…but probably most magnificent were the huge camels carrying the three wise men.  Everything was there together, wrapped in neat little package.

          It makes a nice image.  But that’s not the way it really happened. 

          The angels made the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, and they came right away.  They probably didn’t bring their flocks with them, and they weren’t herding cattle, either.  The star appeared in the sky, and the wise men began their journey, but by the time they arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus and his parents were out of the manger and living in a house.  Scholars seem to agree that the Magi could have appeared as much as two years after the birth.  Long after the shepherds had gone…long after the angels had vanished…and long after the drafty barn had been replaced by something much more suitable.

          A colleague brought my attention to three groups of people in this story of the visit of the Magi to Jesus.  First, he reminded me of the shepherds.  These were uneducated people.  Shepherding was not a glamorous or well-paying occupation.  It was tough, dirty, exhausting work.  I’m sure that more than one Jewish mother scolded her son to “learn from the Rabbi…or you’ll end up tending sheep”.  It was not something to which people aspired.  But they were the first at the birth-bed of Jesus.  They were the first to kneel down…offering the gift of the story that the angels had given them.  They didn’t know the prophecies.  They didn’t study the stars.  But they heard the angels, and they responded in faith.  And in their seeking, they found the peace and wonder that God had prepared for them that night.

          The second group are the Magi…the wise men…the kings…from somewhere in the East.  We don’t know much about them, except that they were educated men who spent time studying the stars.  They saw a new star appear in the sky and interpreted that star as a sign that a great new king had been born.  They put together a caravan, went shopping for some gifts appropriate to give a new-born heir to the throne, and set out on a journey.  They let the star lead them…but then let their brains get in the way. 

          If he’s a king, he must be found in the capital city.  They went to Jerusalem.  They went to the palace.  But there was no new heir there.  Finally, armed with some new information, they continued on their journey and found the child they were seeking….in a humble house in a tiny village.  And they knelt down to worship him, offering him costly gifts and reminding people that God came in the form of a baby…not just to rescue the Jews, but to call strangers and foreigners back to God as well.

          Their learning got in the way.  But they were open to encountering something new.  They continued to let God guide their search.  And in spite of their intelligence…in spite of their learning…God was able to touch them.

          The most tragic of the three groups of people are the scribes.  These were the holy people of the nation of Israel.  They were people knew the scriptures backwards and forwards.  They had the revelation of God at their fingertips.  They spent their days feeling smug and superior because they had dedicated themselves to the teaching of God.  There they sat…with all of the scriptures…with all of the prophecies…with all of the advantages.  And they missed the whole thing.

          Even when magnificent strangers from far away lands came asking about the great new king that had been born…they missed it.

          Even when they surmised that the star might very well signal the birth of the Messiah…they missed it.

          Even after they searched the scriptures and came to a consensus that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and not in Jerusalem…they missed it.

          They sent other people on the quest…but they sat around and did nothing.  They didn’t go to Bethlehem.  They didn’t go shopping.  They didn’t pack their suitcases.  They just went on with their lives and ignored the thing God had spent centuries preparing them to recognize.

          I find myself looking way too much like the scribes.  How about you?  When is the last time we dropped everything to go running after some new thing that God was doing?  When is the last time we left our sheep in the field…setting aside the cares of the world long enough to let God step into our lives?  That what the shepherds did.  They discovered the wonder that Isaiah had promised centuries earlier. 

          I am a scribe.  I am surrounded by all sorts of God stuff:  beautiful buildings meant to inspire, yards and yards of books that talk about God’s movement and direction, music and art that is meant to stir my spirit, fellow Christians who challenge and encourage me, a family of faith who welcome me and love me and live out God’s love and grace every day.  And I am surrounded by people who need some of that love and grace and reconciliation.  We are all surrounded by those people.  And what do we do?  We sit in our comfortable pews, satisfied with the beauty that surrounds us, waiting for someone or something to entertain us or stir us or bless us.  But we don’t do anything.  We sit.

          Maybe we expect God to come and wait on us. 

          But perhaps it’s time for us to get up and go looking for God.

          Maybe we need to hunger and thirst for God’s presence. 

          Maybe we need to risk leaving our sheep…. Or journey someplace new…

Or simply pay attention to all of the goodness and blessing that God has already given to us and say “thank you”.

          Perhaps you can find God in the face of somebody hungry or homeless as you offer your abundance.  Maybe you can find God in a renewed commitment to generosity or study or prayer.  God is more often found when I ask, “What can I give?” instead of “what did I get?”

          Learn from the shepherds and the wise men to pay attention to God.   Respond when God calls.  And be ready to set aside your preconceived notions so that there is room in your life for God to work.

 

 

Sunday, August 13

Eph. 4:25-5:2, John 6:41-51                      SPEAKING IN LOVE

      James Mouw writes that in the mid-1600s, Puritans and the Quakers were engaged in angry theological debates.  Both groups were centered in Christ.  Both groups were “outsiders”, reacting against the established state Church of England.  But their writing about each other was vicious.  The great Puritan preacher Richard Baxter wrote a pamphlet in which he lumped the Quakers with "drunkards, swearers, whoremongers…sensual wretches" and other "miserable creatures." And then -- just in case he had not yet insulted them enough -- he insisted that Quakers are no better than "Papists.” 

The Quaker leader James Naylor announced that he was compelled "by the Spirit of Jesus Christ" to respond to these harsh accusations. He proceeded to characterize his Puritan opponent as a "Serpent," a "Liar," and "Child of the Devil," a "Cursed Hypocrite," and a "Dumb Dog."

Mouw goes on to observe that, “this is strong stuff. What makes it especially sad is that the angry talk often makes it difficult to get to the real issues. The debate between the Puritans and the Quakers was actually a rather interesting and helpful one. Both parties engaged in some serious biblical exposition [over the role of women and the role of the Holy Spirit] ; if the heavy rhetoric were removed, the discussion could easily appear to have been a friendly argument between Christians who had some important things to talk about. But I doubt that either group heard the helpful things the other side was saying. Too much angry rhetoric was in the air.

Things haven’t changed much in the following 350 years.  We still have a hard time disagreeing with one another when it comes to issues of faith.  Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq, Protestants and Catholics in northern Ireland, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives, or “liberal” and “conservative” Presbyterians in the U. S. all believe that they are right and the other side is not just wrong…but led by the Devil himself. 

One problem is that the rhetoric gets in the way of conversation…and understanding…and in the way of God’s Spirit.

I think that God has something different in mind.   When the Apostle Paul writes some rules for Christians to live by in his letter to the Ephesians, he says, among other things, “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.  Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil...let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.  Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.   Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

I think that often our words are not “fragrant offerings and sacrifices to God.”  Instead, they become weapons that separate us from one another and get in the way of God’s ability to work in our midst and in the world.  Instead of allowing for differences, instead of becoming avenues of grace, we use words as weapons to prove our own superiority, set ourselves apart or above, and inflict all sorts of hurt on those around us.

Sometimes that in unintentional.  Someone misunderstands us, hears what we say through a filter of language or culture or experience…and our words have the unintended consequence of causing hurt.  But at other times, most of us are guilty of purposefully trying to cause hurt and division, skewing the facts to our own advantage, and trying to annihilate our opponents.

But in the church, we aren’t…or we shouldn’t be…opponents.  We are all children of God… loved and saved by the same Jesus…who probably have some differences of opinion.  But are those differences enough to beat one another up in public?  What sort of witness does that give to the person and work of Jesus?  How does that sort of anger or divisiveness allow for the movement and work of God’s Spirit in our midst?

    In our passage from John’s gospel this morning,  people complained about Jesus.  They were ready to believe the worst.  They talked to each other instead of listening to him.  They focused on a few words that offended them, and missed the point entirely.  How often do we do that?  What are you going to talk about when you go home today?  The Scripture?  The presence of God?   Or are you going to focus on the typo in the bulletin?  The one wrong note on the piano?  Someone’s dress, or perfume or annoying  habit?

Jesus responded differently.  He didn’t try to destroy his detractors.  He didn’t try to incite his followers.  Instead, he simply observes that, “no one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.”  Let’s just move on…and let God’s Spirit do the work.  Jesus had more important things to do than worry about destroying his enemies.  He knew that God would sort it all out in the end.  Instead, he offered a way of grace and peace.

What’s going to build people up?  What’s going to offer hope instead of pain?  How can our words heal instead of hurt?

It is said that “the average person spends one-fifth of his or her life talking? That's what the statistics say. If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day's words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year's time the average person's words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! Among all those words there are bound to be some spoken in anger, carelessness, or haste.”

A challenge I read recently asked, “If someone paid you ten cents for every kind word you said about people, and collected five cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?”

Our words have a powerful effect on the lives of others.  I read the story of Mary this week.  She grew upknowing that she was different from the other kids, and she hated it. She was born with a cleft palate and had to bear the jokes and stares of cruel children who teased her non-stop about her misshaped lip, crooked nose, and garbled speech.

With all the teasing, Mary grew up hating the fact that she was "different". She was convinced that no one, outside her family, could ever love her ... until she entered Mrs. Leonard's class. Mrs. Leonard had a warm smile, a round face, and shiny brown hair. While everyone in her class liked her, Mary came to love Mrs. Leonard.

In the 1950's, it was common for teachers to give their children an annual hearing test. However, in Mary's case, in addition to her cleft palate, she was barely able to hear out of one ear. Determined not to let the other children have another "difference" to point out, she would cheat on the test each year. The "whisper test" was given by having a child walk to the classroom door, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and then repeat something which the teacher whispered.

Mary turned her bad ear towards her teacher and pretended to cover her good ear. She knew that teachers would often say things like, "The sky is blue," or "What color are your shoes?" But not on that day. Surely, God put seven words in Mrs. Leonard's mouth that changed Mary's life forever. When the "Whisper test" came, Mary heard the words: "I wish you were my little girl."

What sort of words do we speak?  Do we join with the throng that feared Jesus and his teaching, and so tried to turn his followers against him by murmuring about him in public?  Are we like the Quakers and Puritans calling each other names and poisoning the air with our words?  Or do our lives begin to heal as we lift up one another, encourage one another, and reach out in God’s love to those who hurt us…because they are hurting themselves?

Let your words be words of healing.  Let your words build up those around you.  Let your words bring the love of God to others as you offer grace and goodness.

 

 

 Sunday, May 14

Acts 8:26-40

John 15:1-8             GRAFTED, GROWING, AND BEARING FRUIT

 

           It seems to me that God never takes the easy way out.  The book of John is organized around a series of “I Am” statements that Jesus made as he taught.  “I am the light of the world.”  “I am the bread of life.”  “I am the good shepherd.”  And this morning we hear, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

          Sheep and vineyards were things that would have been common experience to all of the people in Jesus’ time.  Using these examples helped bring his teaching to life.  Everyone knew that the shepherd had a tough, miserable job, and that sheep were contrary creatures who took an extraordinary amount of care.  Two shepherds in my congregation in Readington used to say that the only thing dumber than a sheep is someone who would own them!  When Jesus likens us to sheep, he isn’t giving us much of a compliment.  My own experience with grapevines makes me think the Jesus wasn’t really offering much of a compliment here, either.

          When I moved into the manse in Michigan, several years ago, the back of the lot was bordered by a grapevine.  The gardener in me was thrilled.  I had visions of an abundance of grapes for snacking and cooking.  It was obvious that the previous residents didn’t have much interest in the grapes.  They simply chopped the vines to the ground each spring and then let hem run wild.  I would do better.

          I armed myself with books, learned a new vocabulary, and practiced pruning techniques.  I learned that grapevines are usually grafted onto the roots of wild grapes.  Wild grape plants don’t produce the best fruit, but they have strong root systems that provide wonderful nourishment.  The domesticated varieties are carefully grafted to these root systems so that we can have the best of both worlds.

          Jesus taught that we human beings have the best potential when we are grafted onto the best root system.  Jesus invites us to be grafted onto his vine.  God is willing and able to give us the best possible nourishment and a root system that will allow us to thrive.

          Grafting is a relatively simple procedure when the gardener knows what he or she is doing.  The grafted branch can’t do it alone, but a master gardener can quickly make the correct cuts and tie a new branch into an existing vine.  God is the master gardener who will do that for us.  All we need do is accept the good news that Jesus Christ has been crucified and raised to new life in order to restore us to God.  When we respond in faith to that announcement, we discover that we have been attached to the “roots” of Jesus.  We find strength and nourishment in him.

          But, as I said at the outset, God never takes the easy way.  Grafting is only the first step in producing grapes.  The first spring I lived in that manse in Michigan, I chopped down all the suckers that sprang up from the roots and watched as the good, grafted branches began to grow.  I chose the most promising shoots and trained them up the supports that had been built with care.  The first year took a lot of pruning.  I ended up with branches about four feet tall and four lateral shoots that each extended horizontally about 4 feet.  I had managed to create the beginnings of a good framework.  But not a single grape was produced that first year.  The severe pruning had arrested the development of the fruit.  But all of the books promised that things would change next year.  It was a good beginning.

          Jesus tells us that we human beings are pruned by Gold in much the same way that a farmer prunes the grapevines.  When we are grafted onto the vine of Jesus, the Master Gardener prunes our lives.  Old habits give way to new life.  We learn a new set of values.  We need to immerse ourselves in God and in the stories of  God’s people as we learn who God is and what we are called to be and do.  Some of our lessons are painful.  Change is never easy.  But there is a purpose behind God’s pruning in our lives. 

          A good friend of mine was a campus minister.  He was young, single, faithful, and seemed to have his life together.  He was a great musician, and the two things that he treasured in his life were his guitar and his new Camaro.  One night, someone ran a stop sign and plowed into his Camero.  He wasn’t hurt, but the car was totaled and the guitar was smashed.  Later Mark was able to admit that the car and the guitar had become so important to him that they were getting in the way of his relationship with God.  So God did some pruning.  It was a wake up call for Mark and helped re-direct his life again.

          All of my experiences…the good and the bad…have been used by God to lead me into a deeper understanding of God’s presence and purpose in my life.  It has been the tough times….those times when I was faced with the loss of a loved one, a financial crisis, doubts about the direction of my life or the purpose of God… that God was most completely with me.  I have known God most intimately in those moments when I was so lost that there was no one else to turn to and nowhere else to go.  Those are times of pruning.

          But the pain is never without purpose.  I pruned those grape vines and expected to eat grapes.  The second summer came.  The vines grew and they were trained along the supports.  In late spring, there were blossoms.  And bugs.  And blight.

          A few grapes managed to appear and began to mature.  I fertilized.  I composted.  I watched carefully.  And in the fall, the birds harvested the grapes about two days before I was planning to pick them.  There was nothing left.

          The third summer brought the same work, the same frustrations, the same pestilence.  I fought back with more pesticides, more fungicides.  The grapes grew in beautiful bunches.  Netting over the vines kept the birds away, but the neighborhood children beat us to the punch.  The vines were picked clean by others who had been watching and waiting.  Three years of hard work, investment, and no fruit!  No wonder our predecessors had given up.

          When Jesus calls us branches on the vine, he is telling us that we take a lot of work.  There is much that can go wrong.  God, the Master Gardener, needs to be constantly attentive.  Grapevines seem to be the “sheep” of the plant kingdom.

          God gives attention.  God has grafted us into the vine of his Son.  God nurtures us, watches us, prunes us.  And there is a reason for all of this.  God expects us to produce fruit.

          Our lesson from Acts gives us an idea about the fruit that should fill our lives.  Philip is a man who has been touched and transformed by Jesus.  He has been grafted onto the vine.  And his life was filled with the fruit of the Spirit.

          Philip listened to the direction of God.  He let God set the agenda.  And we have much to learn from his example.  Philip felt led by God to travel the road south of Jerusalem.  He encountered a man who was sitting in a chariot reading from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.  He asked a simple question.  “Do you understand what you are reading?”

          “How can I?” came the answer.  “I can’t understand this alone.  I need someone to help me.”  And so he and Philip began to talk.  The passage in question referred to the suffering that the Messiah would undergo.  This was a passage that Philip understood.  Jesus had spent time teaching him about these words.  And so Philip shared what he had been taught.  Before the conversation was ended, the Ethiopian had confessed his belief in Jesus and asked to be baptized.

          Philip’s life bore fruit.  He did nothing more than listen to the leading of God and in the process he found an opportunity to tell what he had experienced.

          Philip’s story was simple.  He had encountered Jesus and he shared what he knew with someone else who was asking questions.  That is what God asks of us.  We are called to share what we know…and to continue learning so that we can share more.

          Tending vines in hard work.  At the end of all of that hard work is the expectation that there will be an enjoyable result.

          God has invested much in us.  God has gifted us in countless ways.  And God asks us to take his good news out into our community and our world and allow others the opportunity to discover God’s gifts.

          We have been grafted onto the vine.  We are encouraged to grow in faith and maturity.  And we are given a purpose…to bear fruit so that God’s kingdom might be proclaimed to a new generation.