Growing In God’s Love

“Growing in God’s Love” 
Reflection for 5th Sunday after Easter April 28, 2024 
Churchill and Gilford United Churches  
Krista M. Moore Scriptures:  
1 John 4:7-21 Everyone who Loves is Born of God 
John 15:1-8 Jesus is the True Vine  

Introduction to the Scriptures:  
Remember when I was talking a couple weeks ago about the trees  out my window? How they were swaying and leaning each other? And  rooted to the ground? I used this metaphor to explain how we are  stronger in community, Trees that root together stay together. They grow  stronger and grow taller. How we cannot do anything worthwhile alone,  without love.  

Today we’re going to expand on this idea with the First Letter and  the Gospel of John.  

John explains and wants us to believe that God is Love, and that  we know this through the Love of Jesus who came to earth to show us  God’s Love. Without God, without Jesus we can do nothing. 

We need to stay connected to God’s Love through Jesus and  share that love with everyone.  
Let us hear the Scriptures and what the Spirit might be saying  to us today. 

The Scriptures are Read  

REFLECTION STORY: WHY I WAS ATTRACTED TO GOD, LOVING PEOPLE
When I was a kid, I was always attracted to the light.  
To the mysteries of God and creation.  
As a child in kindergarten, I would not be paying attention to what  the teacher was saying or playing quietly with toys, I would be  daydreaming out the window, where the sun was shining and the light  sparkling through the trees onto my little desk. 
Maybe there was something in me that always knew God existed.  I was also told I was joyful from birth, quick to smile and laugh. I was naturally loving and kind towards animals and people,  especially the elderly. I would always sit and listen to their stories. 

Something in me had a deep connection to the Spirit, to the source  of life, which is LOVE. 

Although I liked my time alone, quietly drawing or daydreaming, I  also felt compelled to share that well of light and love with others and  connect to those who were vulnerable, who needed a friend.  

STORY: OF LOVING OTHERS – AUNT EVELYN 
One Christmas, when I was a teenager, we travelled to Kingston to  see my dad’s family. I had an elderly aunt who lived alone, and she was  going deaf in one ear. She had smoked a lot and had also developed  breast cancer. She was always a bit of a hermit, never married, but  always was dressed to the nines, lovely in appearance.  

When we visited her in her apartment, something in me really  connected with her, and insisted that she come to my grandmother’s  house for Christmas dinner. I knew she shouldn’t be alone. She said no at first, but I persisted, and she finally joined us. It made my heart sing! Something in me knew I had to extend that love to her. She wouldn’t do 

it alone. Something in me felt connected to a bigger picture, and wanted  to extend that love to those who needed it.  

Where did that impulse or awareness come from?  

Where did I learn to love?  

John’s letter to his disciples explains this. John says,  

GOD IS LOVE, AND THOSE WHO LOVE ARE CONNECTED  TO GOD AND KNOW GOD. This is comforting.  

He explains Jesus was sent by God to show us God’s Love. And  those who abide in him know God’s Love and share it with others. We  become brothers and sisters in Christ – even among those we don’t  know well – because God’s Love flows through us when we are  connected to his Love. 

Like a tree rooted in the earth, We must be rooted in God’s Love.  But how do we do that?  
          in a world that is full of distractions?  

How do we cling to love like the roots of a tree cling to the earth to  draw up water and minerals, and the leaves on the branches draw down 
the light of the sun which results in photosynthesis, transforming it into  nutrients for the tree to live and thrive. 

LIKE THE PLANTS,  
WE CONNECT TO GOD’S LOVE THROUGH JESUS.  JESUS IS THE TRUE VINE AND WE ARE THE BRANCHES. JESUS SAYS, Abide in me as I abide in you. That anyone who  
abides in him has life and will bear much fruit. But anyone who does  abide in him, in God, does not have love in them and cannot produce  any fruit.  

Jesus is saying, we can’t do anything worthwhile or good or loving  without him, because he CONNECTS us to God’s LOVE. He IS God’s  LOVE Incarnate. 

I believe this is true. Especially when I get disconnected.  

STORY: VACATION – BEING DISCONNECTED FROM THE VINE Who here has been on vacation to a Caribbean resort?  

As you know, Steve and I just had a bit of a break and went to  Barbados. It was lovely!

Now I love the rest and relaxation and needed it and benefited greatly from our vacation.  

But there was also a lot going on. A lot of food and entertainment,  and people. 

Something in my soul always disturbs me when I am surrounded  by too much pleasure and temptation. I get disconnected from the true  vine and I get irritable like a baby without its mother.  

I get a little cranky if I don’t have some quiet time with God.  I’m like a tree without water; or a rose without the perfect mix of  sun and shade. I need GOD to thrive. To feel whole. To feel better. If I get too carried away with external things that give temporary  pleasure, like in an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean, I lose myself a  little. I’m not sure Steve would agree with me, because he loves it! That  is his idea of heaven.  

But I become very listless when I get disconnected from God, like  the true vine that Jesus talks about. I wither and die if I disconnect from  the vine. Which feeds my soul and gives me LOVE. 
So what did I do? 

I sat under the palm trees and prayed and listened to the water.  When I do this, I remember God, and feel God’s LOVE, and that I am  here to LOVE, and then, all my irritation and restlessness goes away.  But I HAVE TO CONNECT BACK TO THE VINE, to JESUS! 

Jesus fills me up, like sunlight, and my roots go deep down and  find living water, the source of LIFE.  

When I am connected, I can be kind to the stranger next to me who  is grieving her mother and needs a kind word;  

I can go into a crowd and meet new people and share in a song or laugh and dance.  

I can have more patience in the airport or on the plane which was  delayed; and use the time to meditate, breathe, pray for people, or read a  book (a fiction book, and not the Bible for a change!) 

But I couldn’t do any of this without God. Without Jesus.  
GOD IS LOVE, John says.  
And JESUS IS TRUE VINE, and we are the branches. We must  stay connected to God’s Love. 

Jesus draws down GOD’S LOVE from on high and gives it to us  and shares it through us, through the branches.  

He dwells in us, mystically, by the Spirit.  

We ABIDE in him, as he ABIDEs in us.  

That is why we feel compelled to love others,

why we can feel peace in the midst of chaos,  

why we feel calm and drawn to the light 

and want to share that light with others. 

BUT WHAT HAPPENS IF WE DON’T STAY CONNECTED TO GOD  OR KNOW JESUS? 

No vine can grow without its root, and no branch can survive  without being connected to the vine or tree. 

If you uproot the vine, it will die. And if you cut off a branch, the  branch will die, but the vine will continue to regrow. 

Any gardener or farmer understands this parable. 

We cannot live without God, and we cannot live without LOVE.  Jesus is the true vine who connects us and gives us the energy, the joy,  the purpose, the meaning, the LIGHT, the LOVE that we need to live  more fully and share God’s Love with others.  

What gives life to the vine?  

Jesus says God the Father is the vinegrower. The CREATOR. The source of all life. The trees need each other, but they cannot stand  without the LIFE given to them by God. 

And neither can we.  

The vinegrower or Creator makes sure the soil is fertile, the  climate is right, the vine or tree is planted correctly, and has sun and  water and is tended regularly, given all it needs to thrive.  

God planted Jesus among us, the true vine, who is the Son of God,  and we are the branches, the children of God – and we grow out from  the vine, spreading God’s Love with the world.  

So, How do we know God’s Love and share God’s Love?

Krista’s Three Things 
1. Pray to Jesus and ask him to fill you back up with love.

2. Unplug from distractions like TV and phones and sit and  meditate on God’s love. It will come, like nutrients in the soil,  and sunshine on the leaves and branches.  

3. Grow in God’s Love by sharing it with someone you don’t  know. Follow the inner nudge to smile or listen or say a kind  word to someone.  

We can only do this by the mystery of how God loved us first, and  lived with us through Christ, and continues to dwell in us by the Spirit.  We cannot do it alone.

We need Jesus. 

And He needs us.  

GOD IS LOVE.  

Jesus is GOD’s LOVE incarnate. The true vine which gives life to  the branches. That’s us. 

CLOSING: 
When I spoke of the trees standing together in my backyard, that  was good. Community is wonderful. But without being connected to  their source of energy, GOD, they would not live. They must be rooted  in the earth, and connected to the source of light, the sun.  

For us, that Son is Jesus. For us, that rooting or grounding is in  God’s Love.  

GOD IS LOVE.  

Let us take a moment to connect to God, to Jesus, the True Vine, who abides in us and fills us up through the Spirit. Who gives us LOVE.

MEDITATION – Jesus’ words 
I love you with a Father’s Love.  
I extend my Father’s Love to you, though you are not aware of me.  I give you Love.  
Abide in me and feel God’s Love.  
Dwell in my heart, as I abide in your heart.  
I will give you all that you need.  
You are Love. 
Share God’s Love.  
Be in God’s Love.  
Know that God is Love.  
I am God’s Love  
Grow in my Love.  
Extend God’s Love to everyone and everything.  And Be God’s Love in the world.  
Amen.