5th Sunday of Easter

5th Sunday of Easter

Readings: Acts 8v26-end; Psalm 22v25-end; 1 John 4v7-end; John 15v1-8.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

A Word: The 22nd psalm speaks of a time when there will be a great gathering of people who will be worshipping, praising and giving thanks to God. The psalm tells us that this gathering will be drawn from the four corners of the earth. It will be a gathering made up of people who worship God and people seeking God. This gathering will include poor and destitute people, powerless and sinful people, as well as powerful people who have come to their senses. The psalmist says that this great gathering of people will be drawn together because of those people who pass on the good news from generation to generation, and the good news is that God always fulfils what God says he will do. I believe that this psalm tells us about our mission as Christians. This is that we must pass on the good news about God in every generation, in order that people will be drawn together to seek and worship God. I believe that this calling is really important because as we hear in the letter from St John, the God we worship is the God of love, the God who showed his love to us first so that we could learn how to love. For true love banishes the fear of death and the fear of judgement and it also prompts us to love God and other people.

However, there is more to being God’s people than worshipping God and loving other people. For as Jesus tells us in the gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as the “True Vine” and his father as the farmer who takes care of the vines. Jesus says that because he is the true vine that we can be grafted into him as vine branches, branches that will bear fruit as we mature as Jesus’ disciples. Jesus also warns that his father will cut off, throw away and burn all of the branches that separate themselves from the true vine, as well as those that do not mature and bear fruit. I believe that this is a warning that in our mission as Christians we must grow and mature so that we bear the fruit that God has designed us to produce. Jesus also tells us that his father will help us to stay connected to Jesus, so we can mature and bear fruit, by pruning away everything that distracts us from being God’s people.

For God is up to all sorts, in the mission to save and bring people back to himself. As we heard in the book of Acts, God will even do the most extraordinary of things, just as he did with Philip. First God sent an angel to tell the disciple Philip to take himself at midday to the desolate road that connects Jerusalem with Gaza. Philip did as he was asked and once on the road, he saw a man riding a chariot. The spirit of God then prompted Philip to speak to the man in the Chariot and as Philip drew near, he could hear that this man reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The words he was reading were about a lamb who was led to the slaughter, so Philip asked him whether he understood what he was reading. As the man had questions, he invited Philip into his chariot and Philip took the opportunity to answer the questions by preaching about Jesus. After this the man asked to be and was baptised and the spirit of God took Philip away. All so extraordinary, all so amazing, all so surprising – and yet all well within what God can and does do.

So today, let us grow like branches so that we become all that God wants of us. Then let us dare to follow as prompted and guided by God.

Let us pray: Most merciful God, we give you thanks for your son Jesus who came to earth to deliver and save the world. Help us to live like he did, so that we can be servants of others in the world for which he died. Teach us how to grow into the people you would have us be, so we pass on the good news to this and the next generation. Amen

Thank you for joining us.