{"id":511574,"date":"2006-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-24T11:46:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:46:35","slug":"theologians-through-the-ages-easter-5-b-2006","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/theologians-through-the-ages-easter-5-b-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Theologians Through the Ages…, Easter 5 (B) – 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Theologians through the ages have written about Christians\u2019 penchant for a \u201cmilquetoast Jesus,\u201d who is, in today\u2019s parlance, something of a wimp. Dorothy Sayers, better known for her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries than her essays, wrote in exasperation in her book The Greatest Drama Ever Staged<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him \u2018meek and mild,\u2019 and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t have to look very far to see this image played out in liturgy and song. Think of the hymn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awake, awake to love and work!
The lark is in the sky;
The fields are wet with diamond dew;
The worlds awake to cry
Their blessings on the Lord of life,
As He goes meekly by.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is depicted here as meekly passing by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walk into church halls across the land, and any depictions of Jesus will be soft, solemn, composed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scripture passage we call \u201cThe Beatitudes\u201d \u2014 or as the writer Robert Schuller publicized them, the Be (Happy) Attitudes<\/em> \u2014 is much preferred over Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple. Jesus welcoming children is more often cited as descriptive of our Lord than his pronouncement \u201cI come not to bring peace, but a sword.\u201d In an odd sort of way, all of this is consistent, too, with our current trends toward inactivity and obesity. Overall, in our lives as in our faith, it is much more comfortable to sit still \u2014 to take a load off and rest awhile \u2014 than to be active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus tells his disciples, \u201cAbide in me.\u201d Oh, this is comforting! These words are alluring and welcoming and warm. We love to hear the reassurance that comes with our Lord inviting us into a kind of security, a resting in the everlasting arms of Jesus just like the old hymn proclaims. These words have been offered for generations as words of comfort. They declare the loving goodness of Jesus, the gentle savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. \u2026 Abide in me as I abide in you. \u2026 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good news! Comforting and encouraging words! But is that all? So often this seems to be the sense of this lesson, indeed of the entire Gospel message and of Jesus. But there\u2019s more to it than that. If we stop with the comforting words, we miss the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This passage also includes the message of pruning, and being thrown away, and withering \u2014 of being thrown into the fire and burned. That is the part we often don\u2019t hear, and it is sobering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message of Jesus is clear when read closely and in its entirety: he expects something of us. He is not meek and mild, and doesn\u2019t expect us to be. Our call is his call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another excerpt from this same gospel reading demonstrates. \u201cAbide in me as I abide in you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.\u201d These words are from the same gospel reading, and even use the admonition \u201cAbide in me.\u201d But listen closely to the difference: \u201cAbide in me as I abide in you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many ways can we say this today?
\u2014 Quid pro quo.
\u2014 No such thing as a free lunch.
\u2014 What goes around comes around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other sayings of Jesus we hear:
\u2014 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
\u2014 Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
\u2014 Love one another as God loves us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However it\u2019s phrased, it\u2019s a two-part deal. The responsibility goes both ways. There is mutuality, reciprocity, an even exchange. Just as Jesus is not the meek and mild savior, neither are his disciples expected to be lazy and inactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image of the vineyard is common throughout Old Testament scriptures and was a familiar image for Israel. Perhaps it was rooted in the Garden of Eden and the tension between being cast out and longing for return. Vineyard language \u2014 rich, harvest language \u2014 is used throughout the Hebrew scriptures to describe Israel and the promise of God\u2019s restored goodness. Here, though, the vineyard language describes our relationship to God through Jesus, and makes clear the expectations of discipleship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the time of year when many of us (gardeners at heart), begin planting seeds, or hailing off to the local nursery for bedding plants, or tending the shoots emerging from winter soil. We know that just because we want something to grow doesn\u2019t guarantee that it will. We also know that getting our roses to bloom means cutting back the canes; that encouraging the growth of the tomato plants means pinching off the gangly stems; that getting a second bloom from the impatiens, or the pansies, or the sweet peas and zinnias, means cutting back the early flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If something is growing where it doesn\u2019t belong, we pull it out and call it a weed. If something is dead, or not growing well, we cut it off. If something is too big, or too small, we move it, stake it, tie it back. This is what John\u2019s gospel describes of God and the disciples\u2019 learning process. Gardening is not an armchair activity, and neither is faith. There are choices to be made. It is difficult work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This passage from John\u2019s gospel utilizes the image of vinedresser and vineyard to describe the relationship between God and Christian believers. What is the purpose of such care and tending? That we will bear fruit. That we may perhaps have a clearer understanding of our relationship to the vine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is Mother\u2019s Day. Many of us are mothers. Many of us have mothers. Any understanding of motherhood includes cajoling, guiding, and giving \u2013 as well as taking away, in the form of grounding, being put on \u201ctime out,\u201d or being sent to our room. Isn\u2019t this a bit like God\u2019s role as the Vinedresser? God tends, mother guides. God counsels, mother teaches. God prunes, mother takes away, or puts on \u201ctime out,\u201d or in some way lets us know that we will behave!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases, the aim is to grow good fruit. For Mother, we are to become strong and wise and educated and courageous and ethical and use very good table manners. For God, well, for God we are to abide in God. Abide. Find our home in. Stake our claim in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds so easy, doesn\u2019t it? We have only to glance again at the epistle reading from 1 John to realize how hard this is. We must love our brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine this in the family scenario: What does Mother do when we don\u2019t love our brothers and sisters? Remember the old expression \u201cgettin\u2019 smacked upside the head\u201d? John\u2019s gospel uses the more elegant language of pruning to describe the vineyard scene, but it amounts to the same thing. We are to grow, to develop, to learn well from our teachers and to live the life to which we are called. And it\u2019s hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this conviction that we are called and expected to answer our Lord\u2019s love with action, with fruit bearing, is rooted in our baptism with the promise \u201cI will, with God\u2019s help.\u201d There\u2019s that give-and-take construction again. In this Easter season it is good to remember that for the earliest Christians, baptism was the claiming of faith and being claimed by God. It was the nurturing and tending of the seedling until the tender shoot grew strong. The preparation for baptism took months and even years to accomplish because of all there was to learn and do in order to take on an active role in the community of faith. We stand on the shoulders of these saints in our present-day faith, charged to remember that the activity of faith is not easy or optional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbide in me as I abide in you.\u201d Jesus said. This doesn\u2019t mean settle down, it means get busy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theologians through the ages have written about Christians\u2019 penchant for a \u201cmilquetoast Jesus,\u201d who is, in today\u2019s parlance, something of a wimp. Dorothy Sayers, better known for her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries than her essays, wrote in exasperation in her book The Greatest Drama Ever Staged: \u201cWe have very efficiently pared the claws of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,43,52,3],"tags":[199],"class_list":["post-511574","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easter","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-easter-5b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":22,"label":"Easter"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":199,"label":"Easter 5B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3485529,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511574\/revisions\/3485529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}