Connected

"I am the true vine… Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me."

- Jesus, John 15:1 & 4

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

- John Muir

Years ago, when our kids were little, we spent one Palm Sunday in Hawaii. As we wandered into the 11am Catholic Mass… (‘cause we overslept and it was the closest church to our condo)... this young priest picked up a huge Palm branch, dipped it in a bucket of water and started spraying the entire congregation! It was like getting hosed with a Holy SuperSoaker. As people started ducking, and shouting, and laughing… using their worship folders as umbrellas… this smiling priest stood up and declared this to his drenched congregation:

"My prayer for you today is that you wouldn't be satisfied with just a little sprinkling of God's Presence, but that you'd hunger for a Downpour… a Drenching… a Soaking of the Presence of God!"

In John 15, when Jesus declares that He is the True Vine, He rocked Jerusalem. Up to that time, throughout the Old Testament, Israel was the true vine. But whenever Israel is called the vine, it was always followed by a negative declaration that the nation was not bearing fruit and as a result God was threatening to judge the nation.

So, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He is declaring that He will be for God the Father what Israel was not… a Savior for all people!

Jesus is stepping under the great umbrella of Israel's failures and declaring,

"Don't worry… I got this!"

"I will be who you could not be for God!"

"I will do what you could not do for God!"

Jesus is saying, "You have not borne fruit that pleases God. You are a disappointment. But… I will handle that for you!" It feels like Guilt but it's actually Grace. It feels like a slap in the face but it's actually a pat on the back.

Jesus rode into Holy Week to connect you and I to the True Vine! Israel discovered… if you lose your connection, you lose everything! It's the process of connecting that allows the blessings of God to flow into our lives. The Christian life is not a moment when you said,"Yes," to Jesus. No… it's a lifetime of wrestling with doubt, discouragement, disappointment, death; and in the midst of relational ups and downs… it’s staying connected to Jesus in a real personal way, so His love and His grace and His joy and His peace and His strength and His forgiveness and His hope keep flowing into our lives.

You remember the story of when Moses climbed up Mt. Sinai and he met with God, and he talked with God, and he heard from God… and then he came down from the mountain, and with a glowing face, told the people about God? When I read that I found myself thinking, "Gee whiz… why can't I experience God like that?" Why can't I climb up that mountain myself and meet with Almighty God and talk with Him and hear from Him? Why should I have to settle for hearing from God through the likes of Moses?

Well, here's the Good News: you don't have to settle for hearing about God through Moses or through Pastor Jared or through Pastor Ken or through Pastor Harry. The Good News is you can be connected, yourself, with God in a personal, real, and truly authentic way!

Want a fresh Connection? Ride with Jesus into Holy Week… see Jesus on that cross for you… see Jesus die for you… see Jesus rise from the dead for you… and invite Him to live with you.

Pastor Harry

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