Abide

Easter 6, Year B
John 15:9-17

How many of you have seen the classic movie, The Big Lebowski? Today’s gospel of course had me thinking about “the Dude.” Also known as Duder, or His Dudeness, or even El Duderino. For The Dude, there was only one way to go through life, and that was to remember a simple rule: The Dude abides. No matter what happened to him, and a lot happened to him, the Dude abides.

I can’t help but think that the Dude had, at some point, heard Jesus talk about abiding in the Gospel of John. But the question that arises is, “Abide in what?” I’m not sure what the Dude was abiding in, but it’s pretty clear, especially in John’s writings, that for us, Christ’s love is the answer. 

Chapters 13-17 in the Gospel of John are often called Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. John dedicates five chapters of his Gospel honing in on Jesus’ final words to his disciples, preparing them for his departure and the message that will need to be carried forward by them, the Good News. And so many of those words focus on love. 

One cannot fathom a greater love than that with God and Jesus. A universe of love that never ends, shared between God and the Son. That is the kind of love that Jesus has for us, he points out. As above, so below, a universal principle. We are to abide, which means to dwell, in that love. Sit with it, let it wash over us and through us. And why? So that our joy may be complete, he says. Dwell in God so that your joy may be complete. To dwell in it means to live in a place, to reside there, take up residence. It’s not a quick visit, it’s being there, being IN a place. To live there. To abide in Christ is more than a trip to church on a Sunday morning. Our weekly worship is a part of it, a very important part as we take God in, replenish ourselves, and go back out into the world. But when we go back out into the world, we aren’t to leave God behind. 

Jesus explains to his disciples that this is being shared with them so their joy will be complete. And immediately following that, he says, “This is my commandment–commandment–that you love one another as I have loved you.” And he loves us as much as the God of the universe loves, which is infinite. So infinite that the scriptures define God–God is Love. I call you friends, Jesus says, not a master over slaves, but friends. This is the way the Christian community was to take shape in order to do the work of the Gospel. This is the way we are to be with one another at St. Christopher’s in order to do the work of the Gospel. We are to love one another, but we do that by abiding in the love of Christ. 

Love is kind. Love doesn’t boast or lord itself over another person, doesn’t take advantage, and doesn’t seek to have its own way. We have all found our way to St. Christopher’s by different paths that led us here. We have different backgrounds, different temperaments, different life experiences. But there is something about this love that Jesus professes–that kind where a friend lays down their life–that leads us to believe there is something far greater than us, something at work in the world that is greater than the chaos we see in front of us. We believe in a power that is at work in this world and has conquered death itself–despite our fears. That power is love. Which is quite the opposite than the love of power–also at work in this world. 

If we are to be a community of people that love God and love Jesus, then we are to love each other. That’s a commandment from the son of God we profess to follow. “Dwell in possibility,” wrote the poet Emily Dickenson. We cannot be a witness in this world to that love if we do not abide, dwell in it ourselves. When in doubt, sit with love. When afraid, sit with love. When we get on each other’s nerves, we still act in love. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Cor. 13: 4-8 ESV)

We here at St. Christopher’s can take this to heart. It is a commandment from Christ himself. We cannot bear any fruit worthy of the Gospel if we do not love one another. Now, there is no way we can all have warm fuzzy feelings for every single person in the church. True love isn’t about that. Love is hard work. 

We bear witness to the Gospel much more by how we treat each other than by our words. Sometimes laying down one’s life for a friend looks like letting go of having your own way. Sometimes loving each other is being humble enough to make amends when we’ve wronged someone. Loving one another is to go much deeper than a feeling. It’s to really see each other, not just the superficial irritations or attractions. How we treat each other here matters. How we speak about each other. And we will hurt each other from time to time, but how we address that and grow from those encounters, matters. It’s how we become a strong community so that we can be Christ to the greater community. So that we can be a witness to this kind of love outside these walls.

Abiding and bearing fruit. The two go hand in hand. We gather our strength and ability to love and bear fruit in the world from the vine that is Christ. This passage is a continuation of the vine and the branches conversation from last week’s Gospel. To abide in that love, we are branches that stay attached to the vine. We cannot bear fruit if we don’t. We cannot be a Christian witness to a world longing for a better path through the wilderness, if we ourselves are not finding ways to stay plugged in to our source of faith and love. 

Abiding in Christ is done through prayer, contemplation, and meditation. It is done through worship and study of the scriptures. It is done in community, fellowship, and hospitality. It is done through rest and caring for yourself, the temple where God resides in you. There are a myriad of ways to pray, there are so many opportunities to connect to God. They will be different for each one of us, but the key is dedication and intention, a daily return to God, a remembrance, sacred pauses throughout the day. Learn the scriptures, hear the Good News, chew on it, and ingest it. Pay attention. God is all around, but sometimes we forget to look. God is with us in times of despair. God is there in the shadow of death. God is there when the night turns to day. God is in the very air we breathe. As we abide in Christ, Christ abides in us. We must dwell there together. 

I love the hymn “Abide With Me” by Henry Francis Lyte. The third verse goes like this:

I need thy presence every passing hour.

What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

Dorothy Day, a tireless worker for the poor in the 20th century, met the struggles, the failures, the exhaustion, and the opposition to her work by never forgetting to take time to pray. Many people asked her how she did it. Her witness to Christ in the world was met with a lot of challenges. Her prayers and her taking time to dwell in Christ prompted her reply–cultivate a spirit of joy. “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete,” Jesus explained. 

My dear friends in Christ, we are appointed by Christ to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. We are commanded to love one another, to cultivate joy. How we do that here at St. Christopher’s will be our witness to our community outside of these walls. It is a command that we must continually work on and may be the hardest thing you do in your life but you will best do that if you abide, if you dwell in the heart of Jesus, the heart of love. Because when it’s all over, the only thing that seems to matter to folks in the end is how much they have been loved, and how much love they gave. Carry that love out with you today into the world in which you live and find ways, every day, to connect and remain in that love. Be like the Dude and abide.