Sermon for 5/7/12

Sermon “Jesus Prunes Branches” Lord, conform us into your image, in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. I like growing things. Maybe you do too. Probably a lot of us enjoy seeing little plants and animals grow into big plants and animals. From the look of some of my garden spaces, you might think I concentrate on growing weeds. Well, they are interesting too, amazing survivors, and some of them are downright beautiful. But some of my emphasis on weeds has been due to an overloaded schedule, running here and there, doing this and that until it's been too long a day to think about pulling weeds and working the gardens. Our Scripture passages here have a lot to do with both of those ideas, both growing things and running here and there. In fact, they are very closely related. The early Christian church was full of activity. The disciples were going here and there, bringing the Gospel with them, talking about Jesus wherever they went. During that time something was happening to them. Not only was the Gospel spreading and growing, like those weeds do as soon as we turn our back on them, but also the believers were changing. They were growing in Christ as they saw how God works through His Word. They were being pushed outside of their normal surroundings, going to places they had never intended, meeting people they would never have planned to meet, and seeing that our Lord can work through His Word in those other people as well. This is at the heart and center of what Jesus is talking about when he says he is pruning the fruitful branches. It causes discomfort, there's no question about that. We who are fruitful, we who live out the Gospel, day after day we see Jesus coming at us with a big pair of scissors. He's trimming away the waste. But he's also simply making adjustments to us. What happens to that rose bush when you snip off a branch? Two branches grow from the place you cut. That makes it very difficult to get rid of a healthy plant. We cut it down and it grows back, bushier than before. Jesus sees us, he trims us, and we become more productive. Do we like the process of pruning? Do we like being pushed beyond our normal habits? Not at all. But like the athlete in training who knows he needs to go to the point of being tired and then continue a little farther, we see that our Savior pushes us just a little farther. He won't break us. He won't destroy us. But he's coming to trim us and change us. How does our Lord do this? I'd like to bring you three ways the Lord makes us grow in him, all from today's Scriptures. These aren't the only three ways he works in us, but they are three we can use. First, he prepares us by having us read and understand the Bible. Second, he sends us to love and care for our neighbors. Finally, he makes us depend on him. Philip was a man who knew the Scriptures. He had been appointed as a servant of the Church in Acts chapter 6. In our passage today he found himself helping a foreigner understand what the Bible said. Are we ready to take a passage of Scripture and explain it to others? It's my job, but it's your job also. I know there are people here who could explain the intricacies of their careers to me. Several people, for instance, work in industrial type settings. You could tell us all about safety shoes, the areas where you need to wear eye protection, how materials come and go, what kind of information is on the chemical safety data sheet, you could go on and on. Can you tell me from the Scripture about Christ crucified for you? Can you tell me from the Scripture how Jesus had to be completely man and completely God? Can you explain how a perfect human had to die in place of a sinful human or each sinful human would have to die on his own? It's all there in the Bible. Yet we often treat everything other than the Bible as more important. How are we going to live our Christian life knowledgeably without looking to the Word of God regularly and carefully? We need the Scripture, in large regular doses, changing our lives, changing our attitudes, changing our understanding of the world. That's why we're making as many opportunities for group Bible study as we can, not only in the children's and adult Bible classes on Sunday, but in the men's group starting in June, in teen Bible classes for this congregation and anybody else, starting soon in the evenings, in the Women of Life circles, in the after-school catechism class and Bible club, and any other time we can arrange for people to look into God's Word together. We depend on the Scripture. God changes us through His Word. As we depend on the Word of God, though, we go and help our neighbors. Are there people in this congregation who don't have what they need? Are we helping those we are aware of? What about people who need jobs, do we rejoice with those who have found jobs, like we rejoice with LouAnn, who finally gets to go to work next week? Do we go out of our way to help those who are suffering physically, mentally, emotionally? Do we show love for our neighbors in Christ? Or do we come in and present ourselves as people who need no help, who have no help to give, and who arrive, do our time in church, and then disappear as fast as we can to get on with our lives? The Bible calls us one building, one family, one body. We depend on one another. And our world is going to judge us based on our care for one another and for the rest of the world. Are we concerned about people who are suffering and dying? There are plenty of those people right here in this county, right here in this city. What are we doing? Does the love of Christ motivate us to get out of our little groups and serve our community? Can we show this as a distinctively Christian concern for our community by doing things together, as Christ's people, as the Church which is coming to love and serve our neighbors? We have two committees, Evangelism and Faith in Action, which, I confess, I have not worked with very well. Let's gang up on them. Let's try to make them so busy loving and serving our neighbors along with us that we won't know what to do. There's plenty of need. And as we read in 1 John, people can tell Christians by their love for their neighbors. What if we find that we don't have the time, resources, or talent to live this Christian life? It seems like a daunting task. Maybe you are like I am and have spent much of your adult life working sixty to eighty hours a week, much occupied with your business, your career, giving the rest of your time to your family. Maybe you find that you would like to have more involvement in the local church but don't know where it all can fit together. In all our readings today there was one underlying theme. Christians depend on Christ, the living God, their savior. We look to Jesus, who has given himself for us, who himself was consumed as a perfect sacrifice for our sins, on our account. We look to Jesus, who counted the cost, saw it would cost him his life, and that he who was perfect would have to bear the sins of the world in order to redeem us to God. And we depend on him. We depend on that redeeming love. We depend on his perfect righteousness. We depend on his grace to get the job done. Are we ready to trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to work through us, drawing our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our whole community to him? Do we realize that he can take our feeble offerings, our imperfect understanding, our commitment of a little time, a little money, and whatever else we have, and use them by the Holy Spirit to change the world? I've challenged you before to think of a few people you will pray for and minister to. I want to keep that challenge in front of us week after week. Do we know people who need Jesus? Every one of us needs Jesus' love and forgiveness. But what about those people who aren't receiving from God's word? What about those people who need someone to care for them in Christ's name? What about those people who don't depend on Christ because they have never heard of their sin and their need for a savior? Do we love them enough to be God's hand of mercy extended to our world? Do we love them enough to invite them to receive from the grace of the Lord along with us? You see, doctrine matters. If we are going to say we are Christians, and if we are going to say that we confess this historic Lutheran faith that says salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, revealed to us sufficiently in the Scripture, we need to live that out. If Jesus is the savior of the world, then we'd better be busy showing that to our world. They need Jesus, just like we do. It starts right here. It starts with confession of our sin. Maybe you've grown cold in your faith. Maybe you have never truly believed that Jesus is the savior. Maybe you've never thought about how he changes our lives from inside to out. Maybe you see those patterns of mistrust in your life, areas where you want to live your own way, not depending on Christ crucified for you. This is the time for repentance and forgiveness. It is the time to look to him in faith. It is the time to prepare ourselves to receive his body and blood, given and shed for us. It is the time to receive forgiveness, life and salvation. And it's all by grace through faith. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that Jesus comes to you with those big pruning shears. Today is the day he takes your branches and makes them grow and flourish in him.What if we refuse? Jesus has warned us we will be cut off, cast out, dried up, and used for kindling. May it never be! Let us rather be the fruitful branches, by faith in our Lord. Rise with me, if you can, to pray. Our Lord God, you have promised in your Word that you would change us, that you would use us in this world, that you would make us fruitful in you as we depend on you. Give us grace to believe with our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God. Forgive us our sin. Make us walk in your paths, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.