One Method for Staying Connected
One Method for Staying Connected
The increased conversation around vaccinations is making for relational divides at work, in churches, families, businesses, schools and communities.
Relationally, this is a difficult time and practically, it is too. Rescheduled events, moving deadlines and altered plans can leave a person feeling unstable. While these relational and practical challenges can be frustrating, our shifting world is causing many to look more intentionally to connect to something or someone lasting, trustworthy and unchanging. What an incredible time for believers to present the unchanging hope of our friend Jesus to our world. According to an article in the Telegraph Global, “The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a 50 per cent surge in online searches for prayer as people turn to religion to cope with feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, new research has found.” People everywhere are feeling the squeeze and searching for something stable and certain.
Growing up, I had my own tree house. There was a staircase of twigs, each fasted to the tree trunk with two little nails. High in the sky, the tree held a wooden platform with strong branches framing and sustaining my home. From the tree house I had an elevated view and being there made me feel like I could fly. No matter what was happening in the world below, when I was cozied up in my treehouse, I felt strong and powerful. My connection to that tree made me come alive. In the Bible, Jesus also uses branch imagery to remind us how to stay connected to His heart, in the midst of life’s chaos.
In John chapter 15, Jesus calls Himself a vine, and us, branches. Branches will die without a vital connection to the vine. In the passage, Jesus says there is one method for staying connected to Him. Love one another. Jesus said, “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends… I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (13-15 NIV). Throughout the passage, Jesus repeats the instruction to remain in His love. He was speaking to people who had been living in a religious system composed of rules, rituals and duties they needed to abide by in order to be cleansed from their sins. Jesus came to present a brand new Spiritual pathway to experience freedom from sin and a restored connection to God.
Remain in His love.
This is the only way.
How do we do it?
By loving one another.
In Matthew chapter 22, we read more about Jesus’ new pathway. Jesus was asked by a religious leader, “What is the greatest commandment?” At that time, the religious leaders had distinguished over 600 commandments that needed to be followed in their Jewish religious system. The Pharisee was asking His question hoping to stump Jesus by causing him to deem one more important than the others. Instead, Jesus simplified them all. He said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” and he calls the second one, “equally important”, to ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV). Jesus took 600 rules and regulations and replaced them with one mandate, love God and love others .
Loving others doesn’t mean we agree with them.
It doesn’t mean we support every choice they make.
It doesn’t mean we believe what they believe.
So what does it mean?
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV
What does it look like, practically, to love one another?
To be kind?
To be humble?
To honour one another?
To seek the good of one another?
To forgive?
To protect?
To trust?
To hope?
To persevere?
It looks like Jesus.
These action words are meant to define Jesus’ Church.
These words, lived out, reflect who Jesus is, so our world can see him in the midst of chaos. And we know that now, more than ever, people are searching the world and the web, for answers to spiritual questions.
Jesus is the answer.
And there is one method for staying connected.
Love One Another to Remain In His love.
