Recap from Tim Bowyer's Homily

Prayer of Calling:
O God, who has grafted us into your own self and prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass human understanding: Pour into our hearts such love and gratitude toward you, that we, loving you and thanking you in all things and above all things, may remain in you and obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

This week, we focused on Christ as the true vine (John 15:1-11), who gives us life and reminded each other that the human response is one of trust and gratitude in His abiding love. The Heidelberg Catechism and John Calvin helped us think about this reality and its implications:

The Heidelberg asks, "What is your only comfort, in life and in death?"
and then answers:
"That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him."

and Calvin reminds us, "We make the freely given promise of God the foundation of faith because upon it faith properly rests. Faith is certain that God is true in all things whether he command or forbid…For in God faith seeks life: a life that is not found in commandments or declarations of penalties, but in the PROMISE OF MERCY, and ONLY in a freely given promise. For a conditional promise that sends us back to our own works does not promise life (Institutes III II 29)

These confessions properly locate the source and content of our faith in God's freely given promise of mercy, which is something that we in no way can earn.

This gives us immense permission to come to God experiencing all that it is to be human, including our personality, and our angst, worry, doubt, sin, ambivalence, and fear, with assurance that we are not somehow mucking up the operation by being ourselves or by being human. For we receive grace from outside of ourselves, namely in Jesus Christ, not from summoning the will to change from within our hearts. The service of the table reminded us of this, as we came with open hands to receive provision of bread and of wine.

I shared a story about climbing a mountain in Eastern Tennessee (Mt. LeConte). As I climbed, in spite of my love for hiking and all the beauty around me there, I felt distracted, tired, and unable to be fully present. I wanted so badly to take it all in, to just breath and to rest and to do what that mountain seemed to be doing with such ease - to worship God, but whenever I started to let my mind and heart rejoice with the open air and the trail . . . there was this nagging sense that I wasn't experiencing the hike like I was supposed to be - that because I was tired and anxious, I was missing out or messing it up.

I noticed that this is often how I approach God and the gospel - I sometimes, even in the midst of Communion, Worship, and living life in community, think that I am not doing enough, or anxious that my mind isn't focused enough or thinking correctly. I come to God without a great feeling of assurance or permission to be myself.

When we read John 15, we often flip the text on end, to make the primary emphasis human responsibility or keeping commandments (v. 10) instead of what Christ has accomplished. We falsely consider this text to be speaking about a contract, as though either we keep our end of the bargain by abiding or we are cut off from the vine. We fail to notice that Christ is not saying, attach yourself! but he is saying "REMAIN in me."

Christ's assurance to his disciples was that God has attached himself to us in Christ and as a vine grower, HE is pruning us so that we might bear fruit. And while there is a connection here between obeying God's word and abiding in Christ, the word is not meant to strike us with fear of God's wrath, but to evoke deep gratitude and abiding trust that the Salvation of God is sure in Christ.

In Institutes Book III, Calvin allows for conflict in the heart of the believer and then turns to hope. He says, "The godly heart feels in itself a division because it is partly imbued with sweetness form its recognition of the divine goodness, partly grieves in bitterness from an awareness of its calamity; partly rests upon the promise of the gospel, partly trembles at the evidence of its own iniquity; partly rejoices at the expectation of life, partly shudders at death . . . because faith does not rest in a certain and clear knowledge, but only in an obscure and confused knowledge of the divine will." He continues, "If you contemplate yourself, that is sure damnation. But since Christ has been so imparted to you with all his benefits that all his things are made yours, that you are made member of him, indeed one with him, his righteousness overwhelms your sins; his salvation wipes out your condemnation; with his worthiness he intercedes that your unworthiness may not come before God's sight . . . We ought to hold fast bravely with both hands to that fellowship by which he has bound himself to us." (Book III, Ch. II 18-24)

This might as well be a commentary on John 15! It is how we ought to come to this text: "ABIDING in Christ" as holding fast to that fellowship by which He has bound himself to us. It is an affirmation that we find LIFE in Him and Him only. Why do we need such a reminder? I suggest that the reason we need such a reminder is that we often look for and are distressed trying to find life in everything else, especially in our own ability to feel assured and good about ourselves. We live in a time and place, where we might easily come to forget our humble state. We are told by advertisements and in a spirit of autonomy and independence, that we can be self-made and find virtue and hope or joy if we search well enough inside ourselves. This text wakes us up to our folly! It reminds us that we are entirely dependent upon Christ, even as a branch is dependent upon its vine. So a posture of humility and gratitude attaches us to Christ and gives us hope and helps us to bear the fruit of a strong connection to the vine.

When we live honestly and dependently upon God in this way, we help build a healthy community that reinforces this honest and self-effacing dependence upon Christ. For when we abide in Him we are also trimmed of our pride and self-interest (branches that do not bear fruit) so that we might bear the true fruit of self-giving love. When we practice self-givinglove, we demonstrate an abiding trust in Christ and his love for the world with a deep gratitude for his mercy. Thus, we remain in Christ by trust, by gratitude for his love and by self-giving love for one another.

Questions:
1. In what ways have you experienced division in your life, whether in faith or in your experience of something else? How do experiences of inner conflict affect your trust in God?

2. Why is it important to let faith trust in the Word, the promise of God, Christ, and not in the self? Is this dichotomy necessary: Either we trust in God or we trust in ourselves? Does the account in John where Christ urges his disciples to abide in him help you think about what gives us life?

3. How does Calvin's permission for imperfect faith ("division of the heart") comfort or disturb you?

4. I suggested that by abiding trust and gratitude, we hold fast to the fellowship by which he has bound himself to us and that this leads to self-giving love. How do we depend humbly upon Christ and form habits of self-giving love?