May 6, 2012
Easter 5B, Joint Service
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GOSPEL LESSON: John 15:1–8 1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. |
FIRST LESSON: Acts 8:26-40 26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. |
In the kid’s message, we talked about being connected to Jesus. Since we are not farmers and do not know much about grapevines and branches, we talked about how God is like an electric plug-in. And just like an appliance, in order to work, must remain connected to the electric power, so we must also remain connected to God. We have to be connected to the source of power in order to have fruit in our lives. We also talked how evangelism and mission is like using a long extension cord to go to far away places to bring the Gospel of Jesus and his love to others, so that they too can have salvation. There is only one place to ultimately plug into, because there is only one road to heaven, only one source of salvation. That is the cross of Jesus. Using nails, Jesus was connected to the cross, therefore the cross has power to save. He was killed. His energy left him. But in the resurrection, he has the power of life, eternal life. How do we plug into Jesus? It is when we believe in Jesus as our savior. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to believe and the power to live the life of a Christian. The fruit or work of the appliance comes from the energy. Our good deeds or our love for others come from the Holy Spirit. Or in other words, we are not saved by our good deeds, but we do good deeds because we are saved.
So the important thing is to be connected to God. The important thing is to have the right connection. This is important for many things. For example, when we want to understand a problem or something, we must understand how things are related to each other. Last week was Earth Day. When we start to understand ecology we realize that everything is connected, and ultimately connected to God the Creator of heaven and earth. When we want to get to know someone, we ask about the connections that they have with other people, like their family or job or friends or church. The same is true when we want to understand the Bible.
In Acts Chapter Eight, there is the story of an Ethiopian court official who was reading the Bible while seated in his chariot on the long ride home from Jerusalem. He believed in God but was having trouble understanding the words of Isaiah because he could not see the proper connection. And so he asked Philip if the words were connected to the prophet himself or to someone else. And then Philip told him how this passage was connected to Jesus Christ.
And then the Ethiopian understood that God wanted to be connected to him in a personal way. He had faith in Jesus, he believed the good news, and he wanted to be connected to Jesus.
He went on his way rejoicing. According to the tradition of the church in Ethiopia, he was the first missionary to Africa to take the Gospel message to that end of the world. He went on his way rejoicing. This is the life connected to Jesus. This is our life. Let’s go on our way rejoicing!
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church
