The Vine: Feb. 5, 2024
“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing”
This is a weekly reflection on the previous week’s sermon text. Each week there will be a devotional related to the scripture for the week, along with questions for reflection/discussion, as well as prayer. Feel free to make this a part of your individual spiritual growth throughout the week or utilize in small group settings (growth groups, Sunday school, etc.)
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’ Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.”
We are about to enter the season of Lent in the church. Lent is forty days, not counting Sundays, and begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. The word “lent” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means “spring”. The season is a preparation for Easter and the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection.
Ash Wednesday is a special service in which we are reminded that we are mortal human beings completely dependent on God. It’s a strange thing to attend an Ash Wednesday service and have someone place the sign of the cross on our foreheads with the words, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
This year Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. What an odd combination – Valentine’s Day and “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” That’s not exactly what most people have in mind for date night! However, it’s a nice reminder that love is so much more than a romantic concept. Love is sacrificial and Christ set the example for all of us by ultimately giving his life for us.
In our text today James wrote, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” It’s a reminder that tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us and that today is the most important of all. It is another opportunity for all of us to make a positive difference in someone else’s life.
We get a glimpse of this reality in what Frederick Buechner wrote about grandchildren. Whether we have grandchildren or not, I think what he said about the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild speaks volumes about our lives having a lasting impact.
Buechner wrote: “To have grandchildren is not only to be given something but to be given back something. You are given back something of your children’s childhood all those years ago. You are given back something of what it was like to be a young parent. You are given back something of your own childhood even, as on creaking knees you get down on the floor to play tiddlywinks, or sing about Old MacDonald and his farm, or watch Saturday morning cartoons until you are cross-eyes.”
“It is not simply your own genes that are part of your grandchildren but the genes of all sorts of people they never knew but who, through them, will play some part in times and places they never dreamed of. And of course along with your genes, they will also carry their memories of you into those times and places too – the afternoon you lay in the hammock with them watching the breezes blow, the face you made when one of them stuck out a tongue dyed Popsicle blue at you, the time you got a splinter out for one of them with the tweezers of your Swiss army knife. One some distant day they will hold grandchildren of their own with the same hands you once held them by as you searched the beach at low tide for gold.”
“In the meantime, they are the freshest and fairest you have. And after you’re gone, it is mainly because of them that the earth will not be as if you never walked on it.”
Questions for Reflection
James asked the question, “What is your life?” How would you answer that question? What defines you? For whom do you live?
James warned against “boasting in our arrogance” regarding planning out our lives for ourselves. Earlier in chapter 4 he wrote, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” How do you define humility? What is humility teaching you today?
What will be your legacy?
Prayer:
Gracious God, we give you thanks for this day and all that it represents. We express our gratitude for those who have helped shape us, and it is our prayer that we will be faithful in shaping others in your grace. We do not know what tomorrow holds but we know you will be there with us – whatever it may bring. Thank you for loving us and help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.
Have a great week!
In Christ,
Brad
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