John 15:1-8

Easter 5 - Year B

John 15:1-8

By this is G*D revealed - that good fruits appear through people's lives. There is no doctrine or higher thought that can substitute for direct action. Nothing less than giving evidence of growing will do. This is not something that can await another day or a sufficient guarantee of results.

Here at General Conference there is a sense that we are dealing with an utopian situation, we legislate as though the whole world awaits our decision as an undoubtable revelation of salvation, health and wholeness, for all and for all time. Again the very presence of G*D gets in the way of a reasonable next step in favor of some unattainable ultimate. There is no humility available in deciding by a majority vote. There comes only resolve to not have our time-bound idea be beaten next time around.

It is most difficult to wait for fruit to appear when people are literally dying because of the felt theological pain of those who use the Bible (any revelatory mechanism) as a chain for others, a Procrustean bed with them as the ideal.

Who does not abide within the gift of creation? This is not the kind of abiding that can be legislated. To limit abiding to a particular take is to miss the entire point. There are none that cannot bear more fruit, more G*D, more self.