"Connecting"
How Christ helps us connect with God, with each other and with ourselves
Sermon Preached by
The Reverend Dr. Bill Fritz
Sunday, January 4, 2004
Text: John 15:1-12
Larry Crabb, a psychotherapist, has written an important book called Connecting. He begins with a personal story. He tells about his family, his wife Rachael, and their two sons Ken and Kep. Larry and Rachael tried to raise their sons with the Christians values of love, caring and responsibility. Kep, However was always a rebellious, wayward son. He always seemed to mete out to Larry and Rachael lots of headaches, problems and embarrassment. Scoldings, groundings, and other punishments just didn't seem to work.
Kep somehow scraped through grade school. He barely made it through high school. Yes, he wanted to go to university, so Larry secured grants and loans and Kep was university bound. Everything went well for Kep. He sent home glowing reports from his school. But one day an urgent call: “Come get your son.” Kep had been thrown out of school. He was expelled. Larry tells of driving the several hundred miles to the school. He was on the edge. Rage, anger and fury coursed through him. He rehearsed the several scenarios of blistering fury with which he would assault his son.
But in that journey to the school a deeply calming inner voice spoke to Larry. That inner voice disarmed his fury. When Larry met his son all that explosive energy to shout, scold, humiliate and threaten dissipated. Instead Larry exposed his deep inner feelings, layer upon layer. He shared his feelings of fear, hurt, loneliness and failure. Most of all, he talked about the distance he felt from his son.
There was silence in the car as they drove home. Then Kep spoke and Larry listened. Kep shared his profound sense of failure and loneliness. Larry states that in that shared silence both father and son experienced a deep connecting. After they arrived home and in the days to follow it was as if a huge gentle ocean wave had washed over their whole family. They felt cleansed. The fracture, the alienation and the disconnection were on the road to being healed. And now the whole family experienced a harmony and wholeness that they had not felt in a long, long time. They now engaged in a deeply emotional and spiritual connection. The anger, the irritation and the fury were all gone. Yes, says Larry Crabb, problems still lay ahead, but they were now working, playing and sharing together. He writes that today he and his family are connected as never before. He states that we all need to be connected to each other in this life.
Jesus tells us that our greatest need is to be connected to God, to each other and also within ourselves. Listen to those words again, which were so meaningfully read to us this morning:
Abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. If you abide in me and I abide in you, you shall bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)
Jesus spoke the words as he held his last meal - we call it the Last Supper - with his friends. We recall that last supper in our communion service today. Shortly Jesus was going to be separated from his disciples. Shortly He was going to the cross. On the cross Jesus was to experience a profound separation from God, from Himself and from the world. But through that separation Jesus was to reconcile and reconnect us to God, to others and to ourselves.
In the Bethel Bible studies we are learning that God created us to be connected. But the Garden of Eden story tells us of the great disconnection from which we all suffer. Jesus, the Son of God came to reconnect us to God, to each other and to ourselves. And Jesus invites us to work at the task of reconciliation and reconnection.
First and foremost Jesus calls us to be connected to God.
“I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in me and I in you,” says Jesus. Jesus invites us to be connected to him.
A little boy one day asked his dad, “Dad, where did I come from?”
Dad gulped and swallowed hard. His seven-year-old son was growing up. His son wanted to know the facts of life. So Dad got out all the medical encyclopaedias on the subject. There were charts, pictures and graphs and with all this he explained the facts of life to his son. “And that's it, son,” concluded the father. “That's where you came from. Now do you have any other questions?”
And the son replied, “Dad, I knew all that already! But what I want to know is this. Jason Smith says he came from Timmins, and I want to know where I came from before we moved to Toronto!”
We all have a biological location. We all have a geographic location. We all have a social location. And Jesus tells us that we all have a spiritual location. No matter where you come from - Timmins, Toronto, New York, England, Europe, Asia, Africa - no matter. What does matter is that you are a child of God. You belong to God. That is why Augustine said, “Our souls are restless, till they find their rest in God.” No matter what our social or material circumstances are, finally what really matters is our life in God.
Andrew and Judy Wark were missionaries with our daughter Mary in Belize. Andrew and Judy now live with their three children in Calgary. One year ago Andrew encountered harsh headaches that plagued him daily. Finally the doctors discovered Andrew's problem. Aggressive tumours were growing on his brain. All manner of treatment was applied but to no avail. Andrew and Judy Wark are being assaulted by a great disturbance. The doctors have told Andrew that he has just a few months to live. I can't even imagine how I would react if I were told that. And yet here is what Andrew has written:
How can my human mind hope to comprehend why a 38-year-old man, with a wonderful wife and three beautiful children must surrender his physical life so soon? I don't understand. But I have decided not to allow this journey to become a slow march to death but rather a celebration of life. Some ask, ”˜How can I have such peace and courage when death is staring me in the face?' It's only possible because I'm willing to trust Christ with my life, my death, my wife, my children and their future. It comes down to letting go of that which I cannot control and letting God.
Andrew Wark, age 38, is dying. Andrew and Judy Wark with their three children are assaulted by great turbulence. Yet they are trusting God. They are connected to God. Am I? Are you?
Secondly, Jesus calls us to be connected to each other.
“I am the vine. You are the branches.” On any living tree or vine branches are inextricably connected to each other.
The Bible tells us how terribly disconnected we are from each other. “Am I my brother's keeper?” echoes in our hearts. And we know what we fall short. Among us today tribalism and racism rear their ugly heads. We are wary. We fear each other. We distrust.
Two businessmen were flying from Toronto to Vancouver. They were seated beside each other and they had never met before. Nevertheless, on this flight, one wrapped his in-flight magazine into a tight cylinder, looked at his neighbour and suddenly—slap! He hit the man next to him a terrific blow to the face.
“Oh, ow! What was that for?”
“Remember Pearl Harbour? That's for what you and your people did at Pearl Harbour.”
“Look,” said the first businessman, “That was the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbour and I am Chinese.”
“What difference does it make,” said the angry businessman. “Chinese, Japanese, you people are all the same!”
The first businessman steadied his dizzy head as he smarted from the blow. But then he spotted the man's briefcase. It had his name on it. So he had an idea. He rolled up his in-flight magazine into a tight roll and—swat. He landed a terrific blow on his seat mate.
“Oh, ow! What was that for?”
“That,” said the man, “was for sinking the Titanic.”
“Sinking the Titanic? That was an iceberg that sank the Titanic and my name is Goldberg.”
“Goldberg, iceberg. What's the difference? You people are all the same!”
Tribalism, racism, road rage, hostility are on the increase. Surely there has to be a better way. And there is. Listen, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And He has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Cor 5:19)
Christ's way is not annihilation or separation. Christ's way is association. And that has to be our way as well.
“Food Fight” is the name of an article that appeared recently in the National Post by Charles Mitchell. The author states that in our cities, food banks are a way of life. He says increasingly food banks are being used not by the homeless, unemployed, street people. They are being used by the employed. Twenty per cent of the people using food banks are employed. He tells about Rose. She's 45 years old, a single mother of an eight-year-old daughter. She is employed full time. She works 50 hours per week in a coffee shop and makes $7.85 per hour. But after clothing, baby sitting, transportation, rent and utilities, often the money does not stretch far enough for food, so she goes to the good bank.
Surely it must make Jesus' heart glad that we have a food bank in our church. That we desire to associate with people who are in need. Sometimes on Wednesdays, I visit the food bank. I visit with the people who come. Most are uncomfortable being there. They are uncomfortable being interviewed. They are uncomfortable being served. They are uncomfortable talking to me. And I watch the people from our church and other churches who are there to help. I see the helplessness. I hear the encouragement. And the people are refurbished and restored. At Christmas time one man said to me: “Thank God for this church. Now my family will have a good Christmas.”
The way of the world may be annihilation and separation. But the way of Christ is incarnation and association. We have to make Jesus' word of love real in our lives. And we can all do our part. Some will serve in the food bank, others may be Stephen Ministers, others may fold letters in the church, others may work in service clubs and charities, but we are all called to do our part.
Just before Christmas I visited a wonderful lady from the church. She said to me she had spent her life working in and through the church, but now she felt so useless at age 90 because there was nothing more that she could do. I asked her if she prayed and she said she did. She prayed for her family, for the church and for the world. And that seems to me like very important work to do. There is always something that we can do as we connect with God and with each other.
Thirdly, Jesus call us to be connected within ourselves.
In this passage we are called to be living and not dead branches. We are to bear much fruit. If we are connected to God, to each other and with ourselves we will surely bear much fruit. For we will be fully alive - living branches. Christ calls us to be fully alive, fully awake to the possibilities within. Don't sleepwalk your way through life. Be in touch with every moment, every happening.
But often we are reactive and distracted. Henri Nouwen, that prolific Roman Catholic writer, states: “We are all very clever, but we are all very distracted.” And if we are distracted we are not fully in touch within. We are not fully integrated.
There are happenings and setbacks in our day-to-day living that tend to disconnect and unhinge us. Disappointments, lost hopes, shattered dreams, troubles, failures, sins. The loss of a job, loss of investments, loss of friends, loss of loved ones, loss of our health - any one of these things can send us spiralling downward. We become disoriented and disconnected. But we all need to be deeply connected within.
Ravi Zacharias in his book, Jesus Among Other Gods, tells this startling story. His friend, Douglas Coupland, was strolling one day in a park near his home. It was a bright and sunny day. As he was walking he came upon a group of women enjoying a picnic. They were laughing, talking and enjoying their food and drink. He observed that every one of them had a white cane. They were blind. When they heard him walking by, one called our asking if he would take their picture. She handed him a camera and he gladly consented. They all snuggled together to get into the picture.
As he continued his walk he wondered, “What on earth would these women, devoid of sight, want with a picture of themselves?”
In all probability they all have family. Likely their family members are not visually impaired and will see those pictures of their loved ones at the picnic.
May I respectfully submit to you that we, too, are like those blind women? We all have our own blind spots. We do not sense or see everything within ourselves that there is to sense or see. But there is One in our family who sees us as we really are. God, our God, knows our hopes and dreams, our sins, our fear, our failures. For as the Scripture tells us, “O Lord you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar.” (Ps 139:1-2)
And here it is at the table of our Lord that we can become deeply connected within. As we come to this table, as we receive the bread, the wine, let's also walk with God through the corners and corridors of our souls. Let's bring ourselves fully alive, fully awake at the table of our Lord. For in this act of communion Jesus could have us connect deeply with God, with each other and with ourselves. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.