Chapel Homily: Nov. 11, 2025

"Abide"

We're three weeks away from the start of Advent, that time when we look to the coming of Jesus. Sermons are often based on this seasonal question: "What child is this?" You know the answers—Christ child; savior; redeemer, Prince of Peace. Our text today tells us that this Jesus is the One with whom we should remain.
 
Join me in prayer: Lord, you are the true vine, and it's through you we have life. May these words be acceptable and useful, and may they speak to the hope we have in you. Amen.
 
Opening
 
Spoiler alert: I am on the down escalator of life. I am a decaying vessel. If there's a mountain trail to hike, I left the summit a while ago. And, sadly, there's a list of measurables, visible ones, and the picture ain't pretty—muscle mass, flexibility, range of motion, memory, personal appearance. I recited the list to Janice and she said, quickly, "You forgot to mention hair." She really said that. Sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of coffee. While reading her Bible. "Well, thank you very much. I'm not picking up a 'fruits of the spirit' vibe from you right now." Anyhow, I am no longer someone with potential. 
 
But that's a false view of life as followers of Jesus. Scripture informs us that we can always grow when we walk with Him, that we can be people who bear fruit. Remain close to Jesus. In proximity. Clinging to him, and then, until our last breath, our lives can be fruitful ones. In Jesus, our character and spiritual formation are always in process. With our investment of time, of attention, and practice, we can grow. We can be transformed.
 
So, here's the setting for today's text: It's before Jesus's coming death. They've held the Last Supper. Jesus will be leaving them, and the disciples are going to be on their own. Jesus has washed their feet. He's told them that one of them will betray him and earlier He told another one that he will deny him. Jesus comforts them. He tells them about the promise of the Holy Spirit. He's providing some guidance before his arrest and crucifixion to help them navigate the journey ahead. And he says, this:
 
John 15:4-11
4 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. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
 
This Scripture triggers me a bit. Thirty years ago I was a speaker at Camp Spalding, and I used this with the 5th and 6th graders to open the week. I broke off the branch of a tree, showed what it looked like freshly removed, placed it on the mantle, shared the vine and branches text, and projected what we would see in the coming days. My plan was that with every passing day, those leaves would dry out and wither, making my point that, "Apart from me," Jesus said, "you can do nothing." "See, when we're not connected to Jesus, we've lost our true source of life." 
 
Well, sneaky little 10-year-old Garrett Mandeville got the idea to break off a fresh branch early every morning, matching the one on the mantel, and then when no one was watching, he replaced the old one. Monday through Friday, that's what he did. Over the course of those 5 days, not one leaf on that branch withered. For all I know, there's a group of people in their early 40s today walking about spiritually adrift because the camp speaker couldn't pull off a vine and branches illustration. I'll try to do better today.
 
Not About Obedience
 
This is not a text or a message about obedience. This is about abiding. Beware the phonetic similarity: "obede" and "abide." The words sound similar. But they are so different.
 
Obedience is a good thing. My parents raised obedient kids. We wanted our kids to be obedient. I'm sure you are all obedient people. Do the right thing, follow the rules, obey God's commands. We are called to do those things. But being obedient may not speak at all to the posture of our hearts. We can follow the rules and just do so mechanically. It's possible that whatever changes we see might just be cosmetic, on-the-surface sort of change. The appearance looks good, but that's no guarantee that there's been inner change.
 
Abiding is a way of being, of centering. It's remaining with Jesus. Always.
 
Abiding/Remaining
 
I know some of you in this room are, or have been, competitive runners. Coaches told you to keep the leader of the race in sight. There's just something psychologically beneficial to remain within reach of the lead pack. Keep up. When hiking a mountain trail, don't lose sight of the guide. You might miss a turn and go down the wrong path. Stay close. Don't go off on your own course.
 
The whole point when following Christ is to keep trying to catch up—to get close enough to be able to be with him, and stay with him and abide with Him. It's easy to get caught up in doing things for Jesus, or doing things we think He would like. But this text urges us to abide. It's authored by John, the same person who wrote, "The word became flesh and dwelt with us." Jesus is offering us the chance to dwell with him.
 
Chapter after chapter, John keeps after that "remain in Him" theme.
 
In the very first chapter, Peter and John follow after Jesus, at which point Jesus turns around and asks them, "What are you looking for?" They asked him where he was staying, and he replied, "Come and see." And, then the text says, they remained with him.
 
In John 6, where Jesus reveals himself as the true bread from heaven, he says, "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them."
 
In chapter 14 Jesus says, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."
 
Three different, warm and inviting translations of the same word—Remain, abide, make a home. That repetition by John is telling us to pay attention to the word "abide"!
 
This has always been God's desire—to dwell with his people and to be at home with them. It's to make Him our base of operations in the world. It's to return to him over and over, just as you return home every night.
 
Fruitfulness
And, we are told, abiding-type people, close-to-the-vine people, are fruitful. I've been dwelling on people I know who remain attached to the vine. These are people who, when I'm with them, I am moved by the blessing they are to others.
 
This friend, when you stand before them, you're very aware that you are all they care about in that moment. They are with you, present, undistracted.
 
That person who responds with such grace and kindness when they've been on the receiving end of something uncharitable. So hard to do, but I've watched them do it over and over again.
 
That friend who has a genuine sense of resting in God's comfort and sovereignty. 
 
That person dear to me who radiates Christ in how they go about their day and in their interactions with everyone.
 
I observe these kinds of fruitful people every single day in this community. People like you, bearing the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We are a better community when we are those ways for one another.
 
Staying close to the vine means growth and fruit. Jesus is saying that He's the key to that. And so it's worth asking how we might all become less selfish, more courageous, become more settled. Faith in Jesus doesn't offer a technique, a methodology, not some aisle in a bookstore on self-help, but a vital connection to our Redeemer. Draw on His life as a branch draws on a vine. 
 
The closer we are to Jesus, the more fruitful we can be.
 
Pruning
 
Commercial break: Well, I skipped the first three verses of the chapter, and they are no fun. They're verses about pruning. I hate being pruned. I'm betting you do, too. I see what Janice's rosebushes look like after they've been pruned in early October. "You killed them!" But the master gardener sometimes does some pruning. And it smarts. The fact is, pruning stimulates growth and makes for a far more beautiful flower. We are often most fruitful in those areas of our lives where we have been pruned and pinched.
 
Anne Snyder wrote about pruning: "The formation of character, to prepare you for the long lives ahead of you, often goes through struggle. Persevering when the going gets tough, overcoming disappointment, taking in what failure can teach, enduring pain, learning to receive and grant forgiveness for even the worst things done strengthen our sinew for a wise life. No one is suggesting that stuff is fun. But for growth, yes, tough times and working through them, will shape you. Struggle will stretch you. It will deepen your empathy for others."
 
Did I mention that I loathe getting pruned.
 
Close
So, here're my encouragement to you: Remain connected to the true vine. Give over your entire self to the master gardener. You can grow and change through your proximity to Jesus. The branches, all of us, have access to the soil and water and nutrients only through the vine. When we remain connected, we are fed and our natures are transformed.
 
It takes deliberate steps to remain in contact with God. So, consider how you might arrange your life, make time for prayer, set aside time for silence. Make sure there's not a day you give yourself a chance to forget Jesus. Stay with Him. More than obeying. Abide. Make your home with Jesus, the true vine.

As Lauren Taylor shared two weeks ago: "The point of following Jesus is not to know the destination but to cling to the one who leads you there." Amen.
 
Benediction
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Let's not be branches that decide to "go it alone," to try living life apart from the vine. Stay close to the life-giving vine of Jesus. Abide in him. Remain in Him, as He remains in you. 
 
To Him who is able to do far exceedingly beyond all that we can ask or think, according to His power that is already in work in you, to Him be the glory. Amen.