Scott Mims, Virginia Beach, VA

Warm-up Question

• When it comes to your faith, who have been some of the most important people in your life?
• What about them has made such a difference?

How Do You Know?

In 1651 a London tailor named John Reeve, claiming to have received a special message from God, started a small Protestant sect along with his cousin and group spokesman, Lodowicke Muggleton.  They were known as the Muggletonians, and a recent online article from National Geographic outlines how this staunchly anti-scientific group mapped the cosmos.

Against all evidence to the contrary, the Muggletonians insisted that the Earth was the center of the universe around which the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve. They based their views on a literal reading of the Bible, and yet now, thanks to the knowledge we have gained through scientific inquiry and space-age technology, we have a vastly different, more accurate picture of the universe.  Among other things, this story highlights what remains a lively debate between faith and science, especially when it comes to the question, how do we “know” what is real and true.

Discussion Questions

• How does science help us to know about our world?  What sorts of questions do you think are best answered by a scientific approach?
• What kinds of questions are best answered by faith and Scripture?
• Do you think one of these approaches is more true than the other? Why or why not?
• How do we come to really know another person? Is the “data” about them (height, weight, eye color, ethnic background, etc.) enough?
• How, do you think, we really come to know who God is?

The Holy Trinity/First Sunday After Pentecost

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Sometimes it is easy to forget that there is more to the third chapter of John than verse 16.  Few verses are as well known or have such wide appeal, and that can make it difficult to really “hear” the rest of this reading, because, like gravity, John 3:16 pulls us forward.  Yet, this week is Holy Trinity Sunday, so what might this passage say to us about who God is?

For starters, it is helpful to begin “in the beginning” with the Prologue to John’s gospel account.  Just as John 3:16 is a summary of the “good news,” the first 18 verses in chapter 1 are John’s summary of what is about to unfold.  Here it is, for instance, that we hear of the living Word who existed with God before even time.  “All things came into being through him,” John says.  This Word then “became flesh and lived among us” in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  He is, as John tells us, “God the only Son” who is close to the Father’s heart, and who makes the Father known.

Having the Prologue in view, we are ready to listen to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee and Jewish leader, comes to Jesus secretly one night seeking greater understanding of who Jesus is and what he is about.  “Rabbi,” he says, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  The great irony here is that Jesus has indeed “come from God,” but in a way that transcends what Nicodemus has in mind.

Likewise, Jesus’ response to Nicodemus goes beyond his expectations.  What emerges is a glimpse of the role of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, in the double-sided new birth of baptism.  For baptism both brings us into the visible community of Jesus’ followers and is the means through which we receive the new life of the Spirit welling.  As Jesus explains to Nicodemus, without being born from above (or born anew), one cannot even see God’s kingdom, let alone get into it.

What’s more, it isn’t simply that this gift of new birth is being poured out upon one group of people – it isn’t just for the children of Israel, for example.  “The wind (or the Spirit) blows where it chooses,” Jesus says in verse 8. You cannot lock the Holy Spirit up.  As last week’s celebration of Pentecost, and indeed the whole book of Acts, demonstrates, no one human family, tribe, organization, or nation can contain the Holy Spirit; the Spirit moves and works faith where and when the Spirit wills.

Finally, to Nicodemus’ continued puzzlement, Jesus returns to the question of who he truly is and how he knows these things he is talking about.  Here again, John 1:1-2 and 1:18 are in the background.  Pointing Nicodemus back to the story of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:1-9, Jesus then points him forward to the cross.  The cross, an instrument of torture and death, will become both the greatest display of the Father’s love for the world, and the means by which the Son will bring the world, and us, salvation and new life.

It is important to remember that, historically, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity did not take shape as the result of logical deductions about an esoteric, abstract truth.  Rather, our faith in a triune God is rooted in the concrete experience of a God who loves and heals us in a triune way. Christians come to “know” God as Trinity in the relational experience of how God is for us.  This week we get a glimpse of this as the work of the whole Trinity is displayed in John 3:  God the Father, Creator of all, sends the Son into the world. Jesus, the Son of God and Redeemer, is lifted up on the cross for the sake of the world. The Spirit of God, the Sanctifier, blows through our lives bringing new life.

Discussion Questions

• When you hear “the Holy Trinity,” what do you think of? How would you explain the Trinity to a friend? How has the Trinity been explained to you?
• When it comes to trying to understand the Trinity, do you think “mystery” is a helpful idea? Mystery as in, “The Trinity is something we cannot fully understand and we are okay with that.” Are you comfortable with mystery? Why or why not?
• Look over Martin Luther’s explanation of the Apostles’ Creed in the Small Catechism. Make a list of the ways in which God is “for us” as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. How does this help us to know the Triune God better?

Activity Suggestion

Watch the short video, “St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies.” You can find it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw     Do any of the analogies that you’ve heard before appear in this clip?  How can making God “understandable” through seemingly helpful images and analogies sometimes lead to unintended consequences?  As the clip makes clear, every analogy has limits, is the definition which Patrick gives at the end of the clip better?  Why or why not?

Closing Prayer

Gracious and loving Trinity, through water and the Holy Spirit, you name us and claim us and make us your own.  Thank you for the gift of new life and for the invitation to experience that life in the community of your church.  In your love, call deeply to our hearts.  Guide our thoughts and our understanding that we may come to know and love you as you reveal yourself to be, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.  Amen.

Dennis Sepper, Burnsville, MN

Warm-up Question

How can you tell if someone is telling you the truth?

Spirit of Truth

Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair with his project on Dihydrogen Monoxide.  Nathan urged 50 of his peers to sign a petition demanding strict control or the total elimination of the chemical Dihydrogen Monoxide because:

• It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.
• It is a major component of acid rain.
• It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.
• Accidental inhalation can kill you.
• It contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
• It decreases the effectiveness of automobile brakes.

43 of his peers said yes and signed the petition.  6 were undecided.  And one knew that the so-called dangerous chemical is…water!

It turns out what Nathan was really testing was how gullible we all can be to what we call today “fake news”.  86% of Nathan’s classmates just accepted what Nathan was saying and believed that “water” was a threat to humankind.  Following a report on Nathan’s project, an enterprising person set up a “Ban DHMO” website and was evening selling T-shirts for the cause (the website still exists @ DHMO.org)

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever believed something to be true but later found out it wasn’t?  How did you find out?  How did it make you feel?
• Going back to the warm-up question, how do you know if something you read or hear is true?  What resources can you use to find out the truth of something?
• Is there more to truth than “the cold, hard facts”?  Can a story be “true” in regard to what it says about human nature or even God?

Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (alternate)

Romans 8:22-27

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

On this Pentecost Sunday we remember and celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples, as promised by Jesus.  In this section of John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is called the “Advocate” and the “Spirit of truth” (see John 15:26 and John 16:13).  Jesus makes the promise that the Spirit of truth will guide us into the way of truth.  However, as we explored above, we might ask the question “what is truth?”

In the Gospel, John gives us some answers to that question.  First, John says that Jesus is the truth (Jesus is full of grace and truth, John 1:14 and Jesus states “I am the way, the truth and the life,” John 14:6.)  John also say that the Gospel Jesus proclaims is the truth (John 8:31-32).

What that means for us today is that in baptism we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This is the same Spirit of truth that Jesus speaks of in this week’s gospel text.  We take Jesus at his word that the Holy Spirit will guide us in the way of truth.

Martin Luther had another way of saying this in his Small Catechism explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed when he wrote, “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in true faith”

Then Luther goes on to say how the Holy Spirit also calls and gathers the community of faith…the Church.  The Spirit of truth is not just present in us as individuals but as a community, as the Church.  So while we have the ability to consider the truth of something compared to Jesus and to what Jesus proclaimed and taught, so the community of faith has that ability too.

One final point about this issue of truth…in the Gospel of John, and in the whole New Testament really, truth demands action.  The truth of Jesus calls us to be witnesses to Jesus and to the Gospel in the world.  Or to put it another way, we do not just know the truth, but the truth sets us free to action, witness, advocacy and service in the world (See John 8:32).

Discussion Questions

• What are some of the gospel truths you hold dear in your faith journey?  How does that truth set you free?
• What truths have your congregation or community of faith claimed as the reason for their ministry and mission; evangelism, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, working with prisons (and there are many more)?  How did your congregation come to that decision?

Activity Suggestions

There is an old activity that would work well this week.  It is called “Two Truths and a Lie” and it goes like this:  each person states two truths and one non-truth about their life and the others in the group must guess which statement is the false one.  The purpose of the activity, not unlike Nathan Zohner’s experiment, is to show us how hard it is sometimes to figure out truth from falsehoods.

Closing Prayer

Spirit of Truth, on this occasion of Jesus giving you as a gift to us and the Church, we ask that you remind us that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  By your power let us clearly hear the truth of the Gospel and Jesus’ teaching.  Move us to action as witnesses, disciples, and advocates in our own day.  We ask this in name of Jesus, our Savior.  Amen

Leslie Scanlon, Chesapeake, VA

Warm-up Question

Tell about a time this week you felt lonely.  Tell  about a time this week you felt part of a group.

Think of it like “high/low,” “rose/thorn,” “mountain top/valley,” or whatever metaphor you like to use.

A Lonely Lot

With the rise of technologies that claim to facilitate communication, you might think that we would feel more connected than people in decades and centuries past.  However, an article recently posted by NPR reports that a survey conducted by the health insurance company Cigna concluded that “Americans are a lonely lot” with over 50% of those surveyed responding, “that they feel alone or left out always or sometimes.”

The UCLA Loneliness Scale uses a series of statements and a formula to quantify someone’s sense of loneliness and was used in the survey to determine that many Americans do not feel truly connected to those with whom they are in relationship.  Loneliness is not just an “emotional” issue, but can also negatively affect your physical health in a major way.

The survey results also suggest that the average sense of loneliness is progressively higher as you look at younger and younger generations. (Note: those surveyed were all over 18 years of age.) Some studies have reported a correlation between more screen time/less face-to-face time and higher instances of depression and suicide, but the Cigna survey did not find enough evidence to blame social media for the generational trends.  That might be because not all social media use is equal—positive and negative personal interactions can happen on social media platforms, but they can also be used somewhat passively.  Technology can aid in our relationships being built up, but can also be the means of breaking them down.

Discussion Questions

• What ways do you interact with people on a daily/weekly basis (outside of the obvious answer: school)?
• To what clubs, teams, and groups do you belong?
• How would you describe your use of social media (active/passive, regular/occasional, etc.)?

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

1 John 5:9-13

John 17:6-19

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

For the past two Sundays, the Gospels readings in John 15 have been from Jesus’ final discourse to the disciples before his arrest, trial, death, and resurrection.  This Sunday, we skip to chapter 17. Jesus is no longer talking to his disciples, but praying for them.

In the repetitive, seemingly roundabout sentences characteristic of John’s gospel, Jesus articulates in prayer to God (the Creator) that his followers are in fact God’s followers, and that, although he is about to die, it does not change that fact that they are God’s beloved children.

In verse 11, Jesus prays for protection for his flock which he is about to physically leave behind.  One of the reasons he worries for them is because they are going to remain “in the world” (v.11) without him, but “they do not belong to the world” (v.16).

This is not true just of those disciples who physically walked with Jesus, but is true of us too.  We are “in” but not “of” this world.  We are called to take part in the aspects of life that this world makes possible, but we are called to do so in a way that gives glory to God.  We are not called to tuck ourselves away and interact with only those who believe, worship, and look like us; we are called to be one (as Jesus talks about in verse 11).  That is not to say that everyone in the church is always going to agree 100% of the time on every topic.  However, there is a way to remain connected and in relationship, despite our disagreements.  We do all of this as part of keeping God’s word and making God’s name known.

This is not always easy work.  Jesus knew this, and that is why he prayed that God would protect, teach, and lead his disciples then and us now.  As people of faith, we are called to not be “of” the world—giving into every whim we might have or striving to be what society tells us we should be.  We are sent out into the world to do God’s work with our hands…as ONE people of God, ONE flock, ONE church.

Discussion Questions

• What is one example of how you are (or someone you know is) “in” but not “of” the world?
• What can get in the way of the church being “one”?
• You have been given the Word of God; what is God sending you out into the world to do? (be as specific as possible)

Activity Suggestions

• Make a plan of how your youth group can work together (as ONE) to do God’s work in the world…and get started. SMART goals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria) are helpful when working to create a concrete and achievable plan.
• Brainstorm ideas about how to make your youth group, church, or other faith-based group more “one.” What is getting in the way of unity in the midst of diversity?  How can you overcome those obstacles?
• Play a group-building game to help build “oneness” in your group. There are lots of ideas on Pinterest and Youth Ministry blogs.  When choosing, keep in mind the participants’ levels of comfort with physical contact.

Closing Prayer

Gracious and loving God, you have given us so much—your Word, life, and each other—for that we are thankful.  Thank you for being with us in our time together and we ask that you would continue to be with us and protect as we go out into the world this week.  Help us to remember that we are never alone. Amen.

Kris Litman-Koon, Isle of Palm, SC

 Warm-up Question

Think of someone who is not a member of your immediate family yet who has influenced who you are today. How did they do this? How would you describe their style of influence? (e.g. nurturing, stern, disciplined, laissez faire, hovering, etc.)

Achtung Baby

I am the father of 18-month old twin girls. That means my life has changed significantly in the last two years, and one aspect of my life that has shifted course is the content of what I read. Our home now has an entire shelf of books (if they were not strewn about the house) that discuss how parents can survive the stages from embryo through toddler. Then there is another shelf of books (likewise scattered) that say in summary, “So you have twins? Scrap everything the other books say.”

Any healthy parent desires to raise a child or children in the best way possible. Yet, there are many opinions and studies on what the best method is, and there is no definitive answer. That doesn’t stop people from publishing their theories, nor does it stop parents from clicking on links to read a new insight. (That new insight is usually a snippet from a newly released book that the publisher hopes will be added to the disheveled bookshelves of parents.)

One of the links I recently clicked took me to an article on NBC’s website (goo.gl/9iPtzv) about a German method of raising children called Selbständigkeit (have fun pronouncing it). The translation is “self-reliance.” The first takeaway of the article is that parents shouldn’t intervene in every dispute between children; by the time children are four-years old, they can possess the vocabulary and the skills to work out their own disagreements. Of course intervention is necessary if violence is erupting, however this philosophy inherently critiques the parental methods of always interceding whenever a child has a dispute with another child.

I’m certain this method expects that a lot of work has already been done in the first three years of the child’s life. Namely, the parent has talked with the child about the benefits of getting along, modeled how to build understanding and consensus, and taught the methods to establish a mutually beneficial ceasefire. Once the child has a grasp of those skills, the parent should allow the child to use them, even if the parent thinks it would be more efficient to intervene. The point is that the parent will not always be present to settle things and force the children to hold hands, so the child needs to develop the skills to resolve their own conflicts.

Discussion Questions

• Does this method of allowing children to settle their own disputes appeal to you? Why or why not?
• Have you had an experience when you had to settle your own dispute?
• Have you had an experience when a dispute needed a third party to settle it?

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10:44-48

1 John 5:1-6

John 15:9-17

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Today’s gospel passage comes from Jesus’ final discourse with his disciples before his crucifixion. This passage is actually the continuation of last week’s teaching that Jesus is the vine and his disciples are the branches. So this passage is the application of that image to the church’s way of life.

If you didn’t keep count, the word love (agape) is used nine times in this passage. Also, the word friends (philoi) is used three times. However, our English word for “friend” does not fully suit what Jesus was saying, because the word philoi also derives from another word meaning love. Although it is not commonly used in English, the word “beloveds” is the best translation of philoi. These are people outside of the family who are loved as much as family. That means Jesus uses our word “love” a total of twelve times in the passage, both to name the act of loving and to name his disciples. This re-emphasizes what he said in verse 9, that he loves his disciples to the same extent that the Father loves him. The love he has for his beloveds is witnessed in his handing himself over to death for us (v13). All of this is an immensely powerful statement, but his point doesn’t end there. There are ramifications to this enormous and infinite love that Jesus has for his disciples.

When we reach verse 17, Jesus says he gives us “these commands so that you may love one another.” What are his commands? He commands that we abide in his love (v9), that we love one another (v12), and bear fruit (v16). Bearing fruit is commonly understood as the love that is generated when a Christian community finds its identity in Jesus alone (the vine) and they live a life of kinship and concord (the branches). So verse 17 can be understood as saying, “I am telling you to love one another so that you may love one another.” That sounds a little weird, but it can be paraphrased; “If you can’t figure out how to love one another, do it.”

Love is hard, and it takes a lot of work. It is not easy to love when we instinctively want things our way and other people want things their way. This happens everywhere in the world, including in the church. Even if you haven’t seen it in your congregation, people there have butted heads in the past, and people there will butt heads again in the future.

What is supposed to make the church different is this: Christ is our source (the vine), and we are to abide in his enormous and infinite love. The vine mysteriously joins us together as one to be his indistinguishable branches who bear the fruit of our communal love. Inasmuch as the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves us, so are we to love one another (v9). In this final discourse before his crucifixion, Jesus was telling his disciples (including us) that he won’t always be physically present to settle our disputes. We are going to have to work things out, and the method to do that is by abiding together in his love.

Discussion Questions

• Can you name any beloveds in your life?
• Are you challenged by Christ’s command that we love fellow disciples to the same extent of God’s love for us?
• When we live by this standard, how are disputes within the church different than disputes outside the church?

Activity Suggestion

Divide into groups of three people each (if you must, two people each). Each group will make a line, with the person in the middle holding a hand of each person next to them. Do not let go of hands. Attempt as a group to perform these common tasks:

• Untie and retie the shoes of the people in the group.
• Fold a paper airplane.
• Blow up and tie off a balloon.
• Stacking and unstacking chairs.
• Any other common tasks suitable for your space.

Processing: What was it like to do these common tasks as a group? Did your group have any disputes? Did your physical place in the group (left, center, right) impact your experience? What were the hardest and easiest tasks for you? How is this activity like the image of the vine and the branches? How does this activity connect to Christ’s command to love one another as he loves us?

Closing Prayer

Triune God, you freely share the fullness of your love with your people. Help us to not only be mindful of your infinite love, but to apply that love to our interactions with others. When we have disputes, help us to see others as you see them. Give us a full measure of your compassion and understanding, so that together we may fully abide in your love. Amen.

Tuhina Rasche, San Carlos, CA

Warm-up Question

• Who are the people that connect you to community?
• What are the feelings and emotions that keep you connected to people within a community?

Grow Up and Grow Out

I’ve moved around the United States a few times, but the hardest move of all was the first one. I grew up in the same house and went to elementary, middle, and most of high school with a lot of the same people, many of them my bffs (best friends forever). Then the move happened. It came between my junior and senior years of high school. I moved from a suburb just outside of Denver, Colorado to a place that was completely different: rural South Carolina. I moved to a town called Walhalla, which was covered in a vine called kudzu (Learn more about kudzu in the United States at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu_in_the_United_States). I was the new kid in school my senior year of high school. I repeatedly thought to myself, “My senior year wasn’t supposed to happen this way! I should be with my friends in Denver enjoying all the things we’re supposed to do together: run for student council, go to football games, go to our last dances, talk about what colleges we’re planning to attend, and graduate.”

That last year of high school in rural South Carolina wasn’t a total bust, though. I made new friends who supported me during a really weird and awkward transition. Sure, a lot of the people I met that senior year of high school in South Carolina grew up in the local town. They had their own bffs and cliques they were a part of from elementary school to middle school to high school. They were also looking forward to their last year of high school with similar activities and milestones. I became a part of an unexpected community. It also took risk; I was terrified of being the new kid and making new friends, and those at my new school had to take a chance on getting to know and maybe even befriend the new kid.

I was also grateful for my friends back in Denver. In an age before social media and mobile phones, we did some really ancient practices: we mailed each other letters and we called one another on the phone. Just because I moved across the country didn’t mean my friends back home forgot about me; we reached out to one another across a few thousand miles to support one another in student council elections, writing for the school paper, trying to figure out who would be our dates to the next dance, where we were planning to attend college, and our plans between high school graduation and the beginning of a new adventure.

I’m years out of high school and a lot has changed. So many of my friends have moved away from their childhood homes, and at the same time, I also have friends who don’t have plans to move. I also don’t have the exact same friend group from my last year of high school. While I still have some of the same friends, there have been the realities of time, distance, and broken relationships that have concluded some friendships. With growth comes some change; it’s a lot like pruning a vine.

As I think about my communities of friends, both in Denver, Colorado and rural South Carolina, I’m reminded that even though moving away from home was hard, my friends from home and I were able to support one another. I also made new friends in South Carolina. This reminded me of the nature of vines; they don’t stay in the same place. Vines grow up, but then they grow out. Branches then grow off of the vine. Even though branches grow out into different areas, they are still connected to one another through the vine. This is also the nature of being followers of Christ; we are in community with one another, reminding one another of not just who we are, but whose we are. We are in community to love one another, care for one another, and support one another. In this love, care, and support for one another we are tied together by who we are in our baptisms. The vine is Jesus Christ, who loves us, cares for us, and supports us wherever we go and in whatever we do.

Discussion Questions

• Who has been your friend for the longest amount of time? What keeps you connected to the person you’ve known the longest? Who is your most recent friend? What brought you into a friendship with this person?
• Read the link about kudzu in the United States. Why do you think kudzu grew so well in a place that wasn’t its original home?
• What is the hardest thing about moving from one place to another? What are ways that you can maintain connections from one place and also build connections in a new location?

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 8:26-40

1 John 4:7-21

John 15:1-8

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Images of plant life show up in each of the Gospels.  From seeds to trees to weeds, the imagery of plants in the Gospels is a way to talk about abundant life (or lack thereof). Today’s Gospel talks about not just vines, but also vine growers and branches. We are called into new and abundant life, being in relationship with God and one another, which is illustrated in the intertwined relationship between the vine grower, the vine, the branches, and the fruits of the vine.

Christians are called to be in many relationships, the primary one being with God. That relationship is made known in our baptisms, where we are claimed by God who loves us, marked with the cross of Christ, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Even in times of doubt, God always wants to be in relationship with us. We are also called to be in relationship with one another. Baptisms usually happen in Christian community; we aren’t expected to go alone on our faith journeys. When we’re baptized, the community around us makes promises before God and one another to support us and pray for us. Being Christian means that our lives are tied together with everyone throughout the church, be it our friend, the new kid, or that person that we do not like so much.

The word “abide” appears multiple times in today’s Gospel reading, to the point that it’s confusing. “Abiding” is all about  the importance of  relationships.  God’s desire to be in relationship with us is shown in the person of Jesus walking and talking in the world, and also in God’s presence with each of us in Holy Communion and in our baptisms.

The vine grower is God, the vine is Jesus, and the branches represent how we can be in a relationship with God, Jesus, and fellow siblings in the faith. Some branches directly interact with others, while some branches, connected to the vine, are physically separated from one another. Just like plants, communities and relationships need care to grow and flourish. Sometimes branches need to be pruned for the vine to grow and bear more fruit; sometimes relationships with our siblings in Christ also have life cycles. Some can last for a lifetime, and some can last for just a season. What remains constant is Christ the vine and God the vine grower,  reaching out to us through Holy Communion, Baptism, and the relationships we have with one another.

Discussion Questions

• Abiding appears multiple times in today’s Gospel lesson. What does the word “abiding” mean to you? How do you see abiding lived out in your faith community? Where could you see more abiding taking place in your faith community?
• Being in community is an important part of Christian identity. Being a follower of Christ is dependent upon multiple relationships: God’s relationship with Jesus, God’s relationship with you, your relationship with God, and relationships between siblings in the faith. That is a lot of relationships. Who are the people that keep you connected to your faith community, and what are they ways they keep you connected? How do you connect with others in your community?

Activity Suggestions

• Plant a small garden together, either in an open area of land or in small containers. Consider then how to care for the plants within the garden. Who will water the seedlings? Will you need plant food or fertilizer? If so, who will take on that task? If the plants need a trim, who will do that? Talk about how the plants change and grow. Also talk about how the community is (or isn’t) working together to make sure the garden flourishes.
• How is your faith community connected to the outside world? Is there participation in local, state, national, and international connections? Take an opportunity to reflect on the connectedness of your faith community. Are there gaps where your faith community can participate? If so, how could your faith community further participate in being connected to the greater world?
• Find a pad of green sticky notes. Have each person write a prayer on the sticky note (but no names), and stick the note to the wall. After everyone has written one prayer on one sticky note, look at each note on the wall and pray for one another. Take home a sticky note that is not your own and continue to pray for that person throughout the week.

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, thank you for being the vine to our branches. Thank you for connecting us to one another through your Son, Jesus Christ. In these connections, remind us to reach out to one another as you always reach out to us. Amen.