Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. – John 15:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 22, 2017): John 15

Mother Teresa admitted that “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” It is the reality that we probably have all come to know well. The problems of this planet, are too big for any one of us. But we can create ripples.

I have to admit that I am bothered by the idea of a solitary Christian. It seems that then Christianity is reduced to a set of teachings, or a simple belief in a deity – in this case, Jesus, and usually combined with some sort of a Trinitarian understanding that adds the Father and Holy Spirit – but that does not change the way that we live our lives. I understand why we want to be solitary Christians. I often want to live that way, especially on Monday Mornings after a weekend of criticism and of being forced to witness the enormous capability of people to find themselves in conflict. We don’t play well in our sandbox together. But the problem is that when I am alone in my sandbox, I am not creating ripples that will impact someone else’s life. And I am not part of a movement where my ripples are combined with the ripples of other believers resulting in a tidal wave of change. This is the reality in every area of life. Politically we will get nowhere unless others are drawn to our ripples, socially there will be no change without our ripples, and spiritually we will have no impact on this world if our ripples only extend out to the edge of our personal echo chambers. If we are to be change agents in our world, this can only be if we are able to remain together.

So Jesus issues this command to his disciples – “Remain in me.” He talks about a vine with all of its branches and about this idea of bearing fruit – making a change in the world. I have to admit that I have often read this as a command to evangelize the nations or to make more Christians, but as I grow older, I am not convinced that that is true. I think Jesus’s idea of bearing fruit is much closer to Paul’s. We are to be a people who make ripples of “love, joy, peace, forbearance (or patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). But we can only do that if we exist in community.

Of course, I think the idea of “remaining in Christ” is actually a command for community. After all, the small c Christian church is his physical body in the world. Remain in him. Put all of your differences aside and learn to play in the sandbox together. Go out and create ripples that together become tidal waves of change. That is what we have been created since the beginning of time to do.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 16