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True, whole prayer is
nothing but love.
–St. Augustine
St. John 15.1-11 (NRSV)
1‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
In our St. John passage for today, Jesus speaks of himself as the vine, while we are the branches. We are to abide in him, as a branch abides in the vine. Of import for this life of abiding, or remaining in, is Jesus linking abiding in him with his abiding in us and our abiding in Love. Verse 4 begins:
Abide in me as I abide in you.
Jesus clarifies that, like the mutuality and participatory sharing of a vine and branch, we share a synergistic union with Christ, which Paul speaks of as our being “in Christ” and the Church being the “body of Christ.”
Theodore Runyon, in The New Creation: John Wesley's Theology Today," using the term “synergy,” a term from the Greek and meaning “to work together,” writes that this synergy with Christ is “the cooperative working together of the human and the divine, at every step in the process of salvation.” This refers to what some Christians have called “mutual indwelling” or “co-inherence”; however, neither mutual indwelling nor co-inherence brings out the dynamic, participatory mutuality entailed in the term synergy.
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However, Christ indicates the nature of this synergy, when he equates abiding in him with abiding in love:
9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
To abide in Love, is to abide in Christ. To abide in Love, to abide in Christ, is to enter the life of Christ abiding in the Father, to enter into the synergy between the Creator, Who is the Source, and the Word, the Incarnating Aspect of the Father.
John Wesley reminds us through his sermon “The Law Established through Faith” of the centrality of abiding in Love within the Christian Journey:
Love is the end, the sole end, of every dispensation of God, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things. And it will endure when heaven and earth flee away; for ‘love” never faileth’” (I Corinthians 13.8 [Love never ends. ESV]). … “Faith itself, even Christian faith, … still is only the handmaid of love. As glorious and honorable as it is, it is not the end of the commandment. God hath given the honor to love alone.
Let us remember, this Valentines Day 2006, the centrality of Love in life and faith. Let us abide in the One, Who is the Love of the Father, the Paternal and Maternal Wellspring of all aspirations and actions of Love.
What does it mean for you to abide in Christ? What spiritual practices do you engage to abide in Christ? In St. John 15 what is noted as the consequence of the Abiding Life?
Prayer
O grant that nothing in my soul
May dwell, but thy pure love alone!
O may thy love possess me whole,
My joy, my treasure, and my crown!
Strange fires from my heart remove;
My every act, word, thought be love!
(John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection)
Affirmation
Living in Christ, I experience fullness of joy.
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
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