In the gospel according to John, Jesus uses many “I am” statements to describe who he is.
I am Bread.
I am Light.
I am the Gate.
I am the Shepherd.
I am the resurrection and life.
I am the way, truth, and life.
And last, I am the vine.
And in this last “I am” statement, Jesus also includes us, his disciples.
“I am the vine,” he says, “and you are the branches.”
Here on the fifth Sunday in Easter, we hear this miraculous proclamation from Jesus. Jesus tells us who we are.
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have become part of the great I AM. We are the branches of the divine vine, with holy nutrients coursing through our very beings.
As branches on this vine, we are rooted and grounded in God.
What a radical idea!
The fact that Jesus considers us as branches, so intimately connected, is sheer grace, not to be taken for granted.
Jesus tells us our job as branches is to abide in Jesus, as Jesus already abides in us.
“Abide in me, as I abide in you,” Jesus tells us. Abiding in Jesus is essential if we are to bear fruit and to glorify God.
The definition of abide is “to remain, to continue, to stay.”
And to abide can also mean “to wait for, to accept without opposition, to remain steadfast or faithful to.”
Prayer is essential to abiding in God, because ultimately, prayer is about waiting on God with steadfast faithfulness, content to simply to be in God’s presence, and growing into our connectedness with God.
Prayer is the way in which God’s words come to abide in us, rich life giving loving words, and it’s dwelling in these words that then informs our prayers.
As our wills become more and more present and connected to God, we find that our prayers are less and less our own selfish prayers, but the very prayers that God would have us pray.
When we are abiding in God, then the things we ask for in prayer are the very things that God desires for us and for this earth.
As we abide in God, and dwell in God’s love, our prayers over time align with God, and we come to find that our only wish in prayer is for God’s will to be done.
Here’s a story from our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, that illustrates what I mean.
Bishop Curry says that Jesus taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” To pray for God’s kingdom to come in our midst, to pray for God’s reign to be realized in our midst, is to pray for God’s will to be done, to pray that God’s dram might be realized in our lives and in our time.
Bishop Curry grew up in a parish in Buffalo, New York, and in his church was a woman whose house caught on fire and burned down.
As a result of her injuries in that fire, both of her legs had to be amputated. She was so discouraged that she wanted to give up. But over time and many conversations with her priest, she said that her prayer was going to be, “If God will just help me have my legs again in some way I promise that I will serve him the rest of my life.”
And she was able to get two prosthetic devices. As a young boy, Bishop Curry remembers that between services every Sunday that Aunt Ruth, as everyone called her, would go on her crutches and those two prosthetic legs and make the coffee, and she also sewed the vestments for the little acolytes who were so small that the vestment companies didn’t make those sizes. Bishop Curry was one of these little children.
On the day that Bishop Curry was ordained a deacon, Aunt Ruth was there, and she said to him, “God answered my prayer. Because wherever you go, I go, your legs are my legs and God has answered my prayer.”
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s God’s will and God’s dream might be realized in our time and in our lives—Bishop Curry saw it happen with Aunt Ruth.
Bishop Curry told this story as part of the preparation for The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s worldwide prayer movement called Thy Kingdom Come, which takes place each year between The Day of Ascension and The Day of Pentecost. Since its early days and in the centuries since, the church has been using this time to pray in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. So the Archbishop decided to use the internet to provide the opportunity for people all over the world to commit to praying for God’s Kingdom to come together, and to encourage one another and to help each other along to make Jesus known throughout the world, by praying together on these days. You can participate in this prayer movement by signing up on the website.
Just go to thykingdomcome.global, and PledgetoPray. This website is fantastic! You will receive a short prayer prompt on each of the eleven days, and you can also find many prayer resources to use for yourself, and also for your family.
And during these eleven days, we will be praying here at St Peter’s about specific things each day. Our prayer schedule will begin on Ascension Day, Thursday, May 10 with an Ascension Day service at 7PM. The congregation of St Asaph’s will be joining us. And then each day until Pentecost, take some time to pray for those things I’ve listed. This list is also in the May newsletter, along with some specific directions about praying the Lord’s Prayer on the day we do that.
We’ll close this time of specific prayer on Sunday, May 20, the Day of Pentecost, with a prayer walk around Port Royal. This event is registered on the Thy Kingdom Come website, so people all over the world can link up with what we’re doing to pray in solidarity with the world here in our little corner.
Jesus said, “Abide 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. I am the vine, you are the branches.”
Beginning today, think about the miraculous statement of Jesus that he abides in us! In response, let’s get serious about intentionally abiding in him!
And may our prayer be the prayer that Jesus himself taught us to pray—Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, so that God’s will and God’s dream can be realized in our time and in our lives, as we bear much fruit and become ever more fully his disciples.
Amen.
Resource: https://www.thykingdomcome.global/videos