Is it a Dead Battery? Reflection 5th Sunday of Easter

Readings

A dead battery is not something you want to have.

In your car, your phone, or your remote control.... The moment you discover you have that dead battery your lost.

If we look around in our churches, we can see a lot of dead batteries.

In our car we can get jump start. Our phones we plug them up to the charger. In our remote control, we can just get up and change the channels.

How do we charge our faith?

Just as Paul did, we need to see the risen Christ, plug back into the vine. Be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “A branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”

Jesus spoke in parables understood only by those who were inside a certain circle. But in today’s world I think this is a parable we can understand if we think of Jesus as the charge for our battery.

Today, it is hard to get anything done if your battery is dead. It’s hard to get anything done without transportation. We can’t communicate without that phone. And on the most modern televisions you can’t even change the channels if you have dead batteries in the remote.  

If our battery of faith is not charge in Christ, we can’t get things done in our family, church, or community.. Getting things done in Christ is fruitfulness.

The fruitfulness of the Gospel comes from a connection with Christ. It comes when Christ is in you, and you are in him. The heart of Christian community is the person of Jesus Christ.

Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. Living within the vine, we “will produce abundantly.” It is that relationship of vine and branches that we become fully charged in our faith by Christ.

How do we remain braches on the vine? How do we become fruitful? How are we charged with the power of the Holy Spirit? How do we glorify God?

And his commandment is this: believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

Remaining in him, we stay connected. The Holy Spirit in our lives charges our batteries. We become fruitful glorifying God in what we do.

If we look around in our churches, we can see a lot of dead batteries. We preach Jesus, love, the Holy Spirit, and glorifying God. We strive to live in these - we pray for these. But it is up to each and every one of us to stay connected to the vine.

We come to that place in the church that is built up and walks in fear of the Lord, filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Don’t let the world preach you anything different. It will drain our battery and  we can become lost. That is where we become like a branch that withers, pruned from the vine.

Believe in Jesus and “love one another as he commanded us,” and in these acts of faith and love, “we are at peace before him.” That is a community with a hot battery. That is a community of Christ.

Be good Be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love. Amen.