A way to live a mission for your spiritual health:
Keep following Jesus and his teaching for a way of life that helps us all.
Based on John 15:1-8 (see retelling below)
Life App for the Fifth Sunday of Easter 4/29/18
This reading comes from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, 4/29/18.
[The scene is the Last Supper.] Jesus says he is the true vine, the true Israel. [Israel had been the vine but had not fulfilled its promise as dramatized in the cleansing of the Temple where a place for worship of God had become a place of trade and making money by selling animals for sacrifice.] The Father trims the vine of branches that do not bear fruit [representing the disciples who have fallen away from Jesus and who have an empty life without a purpose and direction that are fulfilling]. Loyal branches of the vine bear fruit [the fruit of living so that you work to make life more loving and more just] and are pruned [tested by adversity] to bear more fruit.
The disciples are already clean by having remained with Jesus. They are to abide in Jesus by remaining loyal to him. The disciples cannot bear fruit unless they abide in him. Any who fall away from Jesus are branches that do not bear fruit and are pruned and burned. All who remain loyal to Jesus, who abide in him, will be given whatever they ask. The Father will be glorified [honored] because the disciples bear much fruit [live out Jesus’ teachings].
A theme: To bear the fruit of making life better for all, remain loyal to Jesus, his teaching and his way with people (loyalty is always seeking to make life more loving and more just regardless of the cost to oneself).