An unusual thing is happening this weekend. I’m not preaching. I know that that is not that unusual. Is that too many thats? And it’s not Pastor Chris, my associate pastor who is the one preaching tomorrow. That would different, but not unusual.
No, we began some time ago by looking at some Stewardship Campaign materials. While we didn’t use the materials we read, we stole one idea. It was suggested that maybe folks need to hear a different voice call them to be good stewards. So, I asked some of the leadership whether they thought a guest preacher would be a good idea. They jumped at it. A little too eagerly, to be brutally honest. But I’m not wounded by it, honest. Much.
Anyway the next question was did they have any suggestions as to who we might ask to be that guest speaker? They didn’t hesitate a second before someone said “Let’s ask Brian.” There was general agreement and enthusiasm for that idea. So I asked and he said yes. So a guest speaker tomorrow and who knows what he will say?
Brian, for those who might not know, is the Rev. Dr. Brian J. Witwer, the previous Lead Pastor here at Aldersgate. So, you could wonder whether he qualifies as a “guest” speaker, but I’m not splitting hairs. I know the congregation that he led for 23 years will enjoy hearing him again.
So, I asked him to speak on stewardship, in anticipation of our pledge Sunday next week. And I let him choose his text. And this is what he chose.
John 15:1-11 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Not your usual “widow’s mite” or “Sell all you have and give to the poor.” Not the prophetic “bring the full tithe into the storehouse ... and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down an overflowing blessing.”
Instead we get a vine and branches, we get pruning and withering, we get abiding and fruit producing. And we get joy. Keep my commands, Jesus tells us, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. Now that we could use, eh? Who couldn’t embrace a little more joy? Who would pass up an attempt to be complete? And what is complete joy anyway?
I don’t know. Not for sure. Oh, there are moments when I think that maybe I’m close to it. When you feel so filled up, when laughter bubbles up from who knows where, when contentment just comes and sits in your soul and you know that all is right, for the moment if not longer. But a moment is pretty good. Something to celebrate. Complete joy, maybe it is sitting in the presence of someone with whom words don’t matter all that much. Sitting in silence isn’t awkward, but instead is full of life and love and hope. Complete joy.
You can’t buy it. Despite advertisers tell you that you can. Despite the empty promise that this item or that practice or the other vacation spot will give you complete joy. Because they don’t. We’ve tried, haven’t we? Over and over we’ve tried. Maybe this time, we fool ourselves into thinking. But it doesn’t, and we aren’t surprised really. But we just don’t know what will give us that sense of complete joy.
Jesus does. He knows, and he tells us. Stay connected. You can’t bear fruit, he says, unless you stay connected. Just like a branch can’t produce anything if it is lying on the ground, so you can’t produce fruit all on your own. You need the resourcing, you need the empowering, you need the support and vision and compassion and the love of the one who helps you produce fruit. So, that’s how it’s done. Stay connected.
“Wait a minute, you pulled a fast one on us there,” you are thinking. “You were talking about complete joy and then did a little sleight of hand and started talking about producing fruit. Now those aren’t the same thing. Everyone knows that!” Are they? Well of course not. No, producing fruit is about effort, about service, about touching lives and making a difference, producing fruit is about living a life that matters and not just for you but for those around you, producing fruit is about making the world a better place, more light, more salt, more hope. Whereas complete joy is ... about ... all those things too. Don’t you think?
A phrase like that, like complete joy, sometimes sounds internal, like a state of mind or condition of heart. It sounds like it doesn’t have anything to do with doing, its all about being. Except our being is defined by doing. Our sense of self and our inner contentment can rarely be defined in isolation from the community that shapes us and the interactions that occur between us.
So yeah, producing fruit and complete joy are of the same essence, partners, dance partners let’s say. When we are connected to the vine that is our Lord, then we dance, with service and with hope, with action and with joy. We dance with one another and with the One who brought us and bought us, the one who loves us and rejoices in us and with us. Dance partners, producing fruit and complete joy.
But what about stewardship? What does all this have to do with stewardship? Well, I don’t know for sure. I’m anxious to hear what Brian does with it. But I do know this when we live in right relationship with our Lord, then we are in right relationship with everything in our lives. The people, certainly, but also the stuff, the resources and the goods. None of it is about keeping, but about sharing. None of it is about me, it is about us. It is about investing not just in our future, but the future of those who aren’t even born yet and will stand where we now stand and worship as we now worship. It is about legacy and loving.
Stewardship is about tending to what we’ve been given. About giving back. About building up the body, the body of Christ, the community of faith. It is about saying thanks for what we’ve been blessed to receive by giving to the church that helps us grow. Which means that it is about joy. Always about joy. We give to our joys because of our joy and we give joyfully. Complete joy.
He tells us these things in order that his joy - His joy - might help make our joy complete. May the joy of Christ dwell in you. Completely.
Shalom,
Derek
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