He is Still With Us

Title: Ascension - He is Still With Us By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:    Luke 24:49-51  49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."  50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.  51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, If you have kids or have been around kids you’ve probably seen the movie Monster, Inc. I love that movie because there is so much theological symbolism in it.  I doubt if they intended it that way, but I guess it is a fortunate accident.  One piece ties into the Ascension.  Sully or Kitty as little girl calls him has to return little Boo to her bedroom and not see her again.  The little girl is sad as “Kitty” goes through the closet door and is gone.  It goes like this: [Video]  I bet the disciples were feeling the same way as Jesus, the beloved teacher, is disappearing into the clouds. But this idea of Jesus disappearing leads to grave misunderstandings about the Ascension.
I.  Even among Christians the ascension of Jesus is terribly misunderstood.
	A.  We think Jesus left. That He’s gone to a better place, and we’re left to get together and read about Him from a book written by some of His friends.
			1.   We think “heaven” is a place “up there” somewhere and that Jesus has left this place to go to that place.
					a.  With Jesus tucked off in heaven somewhere that is not here, we’re free to run things as we please. b. He’s left the show in our hands, so we may as well make the best of it while He’s gone before He comes back to dole out rewards and punishments.
			2.But Jesus hasn’t gone anywhere in ascending to the right hand of the Father, because the right hand of the Father isn’t a place as we understand “place.” Think about it. God is everywhere. Omnipresent. So His right hand is everywhere. So Jesus at the right hand of God is everywhere. And just because you can’t see Him doesn’t mean He isn’t there.
					a. The resurrection appearances of Jesus show that quite nicely. He’s here, He’s there, He’s wherever He wants to be. In the upper room, on the road to Emmaus, on a mountain in Galilee. He seems to appear and disappear at will. And that’s precisely the point. He who fills all things in every way can appear wherever He wants whenever He wills. b. Jesus promised His disciples that He would not leave them as orphans but would be with them always. And so His ascension is not His leaving His church to fend for itself. No, quite the opposite. His ascension means that He is present with His church, in an even greater and more profound way than when He was seen by His disciples.
			3. In ascending, Jesus withdraws His visible presence to establish His greater sacramental presence. Now He is hidden, but hidden to reveal Himself in a safe way.
					a. You see no one may look upon Him in His unmediated glory and live. So He hides Himself. A cloud envelopes Him and takes Him from the disciples’ sight. They stare up into the sky, but Jesus is nowhere to be seen. He cannot be seen. b. And yet He is not gone but He’s with them. Ten days later, at Pentecost, the ascended Lord Jesus would breathe on His church with the fiery wind of the Holy Spirit. c. I like the way one unknown author describes how the Spirit works in a hidden way for Jesus. He uses the analogy of a common source of power, gasoline. He says that the power of gasoline can be experienced in two different ways. It can be unleashed, or it can be harnessed.  Suppose I were to drop a lighted match in a ten gallon barrel of gasoline. What will happen at that point? I would probably die. Ten gallons of gas can produce quite an explosion.  On the other hand, suppose I were to pour that ten gallons of gas into the gas tank of my car.  Then, depending on the fuel efficiency of my car, I might be able to drive hundreds of miles. Dropping a lighted match into a barrel of gasoline might produce a spectacular effect, but a controlled burn will take me a lot further in life.  The Holy Spirit is hidden in means to power us to be all that Christ has called us to be. d. So don’t come away from here thinking that Jesus is not here or anywhere in this world. The Father has put all things under His feet and He fills all things in every way. Most especially, and most importantly, He is hidden in the water of Baptism, in His Word, in the bread and wine of the Supper.
	B.   A second misunderstanding is that Jesus is no longer human after His ascension. That He somehow left His humanity or He locked it up in some closet in His Father’s mansion, like a wedding suit that isn’t needed any more.
			1. We do have this tendency to think that sometimes, that it’s beneath Jesus’ dignity to bear our humanity, or that heaven is some place where bodies aren’t needed any longer.
					a. We talk that way about our loved ones at their funerals, and we talk that way about Jesus in His ascension. b. It’s as though we don’t know quite what to do with His humanity. It seems awkward to think of a man, a flesh and blood human being, reigning over the cosmos at God’s right hand.  We aren’t comfortable with our own humanity. We think we need to rise above it.  But Jesus is quite comfortable with our humanity. He wears it well, without Sin.
			2. The incarnation didn’t end with Jesus’ ascension. There was no Jesus suit left behind on the mountain when the cloud enveloped Him. Jesus assumed the throne in His humanity, as one of us.
					a. He came down from God in order to bring us to God. He left the royal throne to become Man, and as Man He died, rose, and ascended to bring humanity back to God. When Jesus ascended to glory, humanity ascended to the same glory. b. Unless Jesus is fully human, now at the right hand of God, He cannot be our go between with God. Then He would have no sacrifice to offer, no blood to bring into the heavenly holy of holies. But it is precisely for this purpose, that Jesus became Man, suffered, died, and rose again. C. A third misunderstanding is that Jesus’ reign on earth is something that is going to happen in the future, a future kingdom of God on earth in which Christ will reign for a thousand years. You don’t have to go far on the radio dial to hear that.
				1. But the truth of the ascension is that the reign of Christ is now. Now He reigns over all things. Now is the time of His reign on earth.
					a. The work of redemption is done. “It is finished.” The victory over Sin and Death is won. Death has lost its sting, and Sin has lost its power.  Christ has conquered by His obedience and death. b. Now Christ and His church wait for the final consummation, and the fulfillment of all things in the final resurrection. Then you will see what is now already so.  All the evil we see in the world today is the death throes of Jesus’ enemies.
				2. So don’t continue thinking that Jesus is coming back one day to set up His kingdom and reign on earth.
						a. He already reigns as Lord of all, and you now live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him now. b. And please take it personally. The ascension of Jesus is your ascension too. You are baptized into Him. You’ve been crucified with Him, raised with Him, and as the apostle Paul says, you are seated in the heavenly places in Him.
II. So the Ascension of Jesus gives you great comforts.
	A. Yes, Jesus is ascended into heaven but He took His body with Him.
				1. But that’s a testimony to you that He will raise you from the dead—body and all—and deliver you to heaven, body and all. That’s a great comfort. 2. And because Jesus has ascended into heaven, He now sits at the Father’s right hand and rules all things for your good.  Our Brother and Savior rules – that’s a great comfort.
					a. Martin Luther has a great quote about the Ascension of Jesus, that goes like this:  My Lord Jesus Christ is Lord over death, Satan, sin, righteousness, body, life, foes and friends.  What shall I fear?  For while my enemies stand before my very door and plan to slay me, my faith reasons thus: “Christ is ascended into heaven and become Lord over all creatures, hence my enemies, too, must be subject to Him and thus it is not in their power to do me harm.  I challenge them to raise a finger against me or to injure a hair of my head against the will of my Lord Jesus Christ….  If my Lord so wills that they, mine enemies slay me, blessed am I; I gladly depart.  Thus you will see that He is ascended into heaven, not to remain in indifference, but to exercise dominion; and all for our good, to afford us comfort and joy.”   b. So Jesus is ascended into heaven to rule over all things for your good. That’s a great comfort as you endure the temptations and afflictions of this world.
		B. the same Lord Jesus Christ who is ascended into heaven is also as near to you as His means of grace. This is also a comfort. He is with you—as near as His Word, forgiving your sins and strengthening your faith.
				1. Like in Monster’s Inc. “Kitty” goes through the restored door to visit Boo again.  The implication is that now He can continue to visit again and again. 2.  Jesus does the same for us in Word and Sacrament.  And that’s a great comfort.
CONCLUSION:   Yes, there are misconceptions surrounding the Ascension.  We often think that Jesus is gone, but no, His presence is changed to come hidden in the Word and Sacraments.  We often think Jesus has left His humanity when He ascended.  But no, that’s not true.  He’s always God and man and still working for us, now in an even greater way.  We often think that Jesus’ kingdom is coming in the future.  But no, His Kingdom is now.  He rules now.  It’s the final fulfillment that is in the future.  The truth of the Ascension gives us comfort.  Now we know that since Jesus bodily ascended we will too.  And now our Savior rules for our good.  And we have comfort that Jesus is as near as His Word and Sacrament.  He visits us again and again in a greater way than “Kitty” visited “Boo.”  Amen.
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We Have Been Chosen

Text: John 15:16  16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.   INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Years ago there was a show on TV called the Wonder Years.  It was about a boy named Kevin growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.  One episode was about choosing a basketball team in Gym class. The teacher chose captains who then picked the rest of their teams. As usual, the poor players were always chosen last which did little to help the self-esteem of those chosen after everyone else. Some of Kevin's friends, who were usually chosen at the bottom of the list, complained to Kevin. Kevin brings their complaint to the teacher, who promptly makes Kevin one of the next captains. He has to choose his team.  Kevin chooses his friend one of the worst players - and he felt good about bolstering his ego. So the next round, he chooses another poor-playing friend. Kevin kept picking the losers - and he felt good about it. How did Kevin's team do?  They were miserable!
I. Like Kevin we have choices to make in our lives.  Yes, life is a series of choices.  Some choices we see as good, don’t always work out so well.
	A. Some are part of everyday life, like: What time to wake up…whether or not to hit the “snooze button”…what clothing to wear…what to eat….  From the time we open our eyes in the morning to the time we close them again at night, life is a series of choices.
		1. Most of these we make without much thought, but some choices demand more of us.
				a. It’s not difficult to choose a box of cereal to open for breakfast, but choosing a spouse can be quite a process.  b. Deciding which television show to watch is no big deal, but deciding what career to pursue can be.
		2. Did you ever stop to consider why we make the choices we do?  Many times we decide matters based upon what we like and don’t like.  We make decisions according to what we enjoy doing.
					a. If you did not enjoy a particular television show, you wouldn’t choose to watch it anyway?  No, you would watch a show you did enjoy.  If you didn’t like spinach, you would eat something else.  b. Sometimes we even make choices with what we think are good motives, but often even then things don’t work out as we hope, again like Kevin.
	B. So what is the final result of a lifetime of choices?  In the end, what do all of our decisions do for us?  We die.  We draw our last breath and we die.  And everything we chose to work so hard for is given to another.  All the choices we make through our entire life come to a final, end in the grave.
		1. Kind of depressing, isn’t it?  We live day after day making decisions according to what we like and what we think is best for us, like Kevin,  but in the end, we can’t take any of it to the grave.
			a. The clothing we enjoyed wearing, the food we liked, the memories of fun vacations will all stay behind when we die.  We have no choice.  We cannot continue to choose living.  b. Because we are sinners, we are unable to choose life over death.  We all must die.  And because we are sinful people, every day we choose the wrong course…the wrong plan of action.  We choose to disobey.  We choose to be selfish.  We choose to be self-serving.
		2. We inherited this from our parents.  And we die because our first parents (Adam and Eve) chose to eat the forbidden fruit, and their choice sealed our fate.  Their decision to disobey God infected us with sin, so that you and I live as sinners who make sinful choices our entire life, and then we die.
II. And now we can only wonder: “Is there any good news for us?”  Yes, there is.  Jesus says in John 15, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you...”  Our hope is not in the choices we make, but in the choices God makes.
	A. Our choices end in death, but Jesus chooses life for us.  Our choices show our sinful disobedience, but Jesus chooses to forgive our sins.  We choose according to what we like and enjoy doing, Jesus’ choices are based on love.
		1. We choose what we think is right.  But our choosing power is corrupted by sin, so in the end we choose death.  2. That’s not Jesus’ way.  He chose love and life for us!
			a. He chose to take our place.  A bit Like this: He chose to suffer in our place.  He chose to be brutally beaten for you.  He chose to bear your sins.  He chose to go to the cross to be punished in your place.  b. Jesus did not choose what was best for Himself, He chose what was best for you and me.  He chose to earn salvation for you and me.
	B. And it’s not just that Jesus chooses what is good for you, He actually chooses YOU.
		1. It was not a stroke of luck that you were baptized in Christ Jesus.  It was because Jesus chose you.  He chose to make you His child in those waters.  He chose to cleanse you there of your sins.  He chose to give you new life—eternal life.
				a. And it wasn’t mere coincidence that you were then raised in the Christian Faith after your baptism.  Because Jesus chose you, He brought you to where His pure Word is preached and taught.  He instructed you through Christian parents, teaching you that God is your dear Father and you are His dear child. b. You are here today not by chance but because God has led you here.  He wants you to hear and believe the message that no matter how many wrong choices you have made in your life, God, forgives you for Jesus’ sake.  And you are forgiven—not because you choose God, but because Jesus chose you in your Baptism. c. Through His Word and Sacraments He chooses to keep you always near to Himself.  Every good decision you make as a Christian is Christ Jesus in you doing it.
		2. If the grace of God was dependent upon our choosing, upon our decision-making through life, we could never be certain of God’s love for us—we could never know for sure that eternal life is ours.
				a. How comforting that Jesus tells us it’s not up to us?  It’s not dependent on how good a choice we make.  On our own we would live a lifetime of sinful choices and then perish in the grave. b. Thankfully it’s about Jesus.  Be comforted, then, with these words of our Lord, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”  You are Jesus’ choice.  No matter how wrong your life has been; no matter how poorly you have followed Him, Jesus forgives you.  Every one of you is forgiven—you have His Word on it.  And in that Word you have His promise to lead you through the grave into eternal life—And the life He gives you is not because you choose Him, but because Jesus chose you.
III. This passage from John reminds us that we've been CHOSEN for a purpose-- TO LOVE as He has loved us.
	A. Jesus’ love comes first. He loves you and He lays down His life for you!
		1. Then He chose you and appointed you to bear fruit --lasting, abiding fruit. Fruit that doesn’t rot, fruit with no expiration date. That fruit is, in one word, LOVE.
					a. Jesus commands His disciples to abide in His love, in order that, they love one another. b. This is the uniqueness of Jesus and of faith in Him. He doesn’t command us to do something, but to remain somewhere, to stick to His love for us, to be on the receiving end of His self-giving love. And the result of that, His love flows through us to others – that’s fruit.   Now we are reflecting His love.
		2. So Love is the fruit of faith. Faith and love are  bound together, yet they are different.
					a. Faith is the relationship, love is the product of that relationship. Faith is trust that clings to the promises of God in Christ, b. When that faith happens then Love happens.
	B. And now Every work of faith is your Savior bearing fruit in and through you.
		1. Every work of faith is God’s love flowing through us to others.  Now God loves the world through us. 2. I need to tell you a story here shared by another pastor.  A lady in his congregation whom we'll call Jessica, had a husband who suffered a terrible accident at work.  He was crushed by a number of heavy pipes.  He worked in an oil field.  He didn't die, but the doctor said it would have been better if he had.  He was in a coma six months and in the hospital for many more months after that. When he came home he wasn't even a shadow of the man he once was.  He could barely speak.  When he did, he told his wife Jessica, over and over again, "Go away; I want you to divorce me."  He loved this woman and pitied her, and he did not want her to be tied down to caring for him, day and night, for the rest of his life.  He wanted her to divorce him and find someone else; someone who could show love to her.  But she didn't.  She committed herself to him.  "In sickness and in health, for better or for worse," she had promised.  And though he could not show love to her, she kept loving him. In spite of that situation, Jessica loved her husband.  God’s love flowed through her to her husband.   And That love flowing from God has the power to change lives–– It changes our love for one another, it changes our love for those in need, it changes our love for Jesus.
CONCLUSION: Yes, Life is full of choices – choices we make for various reasons, like what we like and even because of our selfishness.  But in the end all of our choices are wiped out by death. But Jesus chooses differently.  He chose what was best for us.  He chose to go to the cross for you and me.  Now He chooses us to be His friends.  Now His type of love flows through us to the world.  Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen
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Abide in the Vine

Title: Abide in the Vine By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:    John 15:4-5  4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, everybody knows Tarzan, the ape man.  He was left as a child in the deepest darkest Africa as an orphan.  He was adopted by apes—an unlikely event.  Accordingly he learned from the apes.  One thing he learned was to swing between the trees on vines—a convenient mode of transportation in the jungle.  Notice that as long as he holds onto the vine he’s OK, but when he grabs the snake he falls.  This text makes me think that we have something in common with Tarzan – a bit of a reach but you’ll see… Jesus calls us branches and as long as we are connected to the Vine we are OK.  But a bit like Tarzan when we let go or grab the snake we are in grave danger.
I.   Obviously branches are meant to be connected to the vine.
	A. So we need to look at that Vine.  What makes it so special?
		1. Jesus is the Vine. He is watered in the Jordan River as the Spirit of Life descends from above and the Father says, "This is My Beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). 2. The Vine stretches out His arms from the east to the west to take all the sins of the world upon Himself that all your sins may be removed from you as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12).
				a. Jesus the Vine is fastened to the cross beam, dies in that God-forsaken place and is planted in "a rock-hewn tomb, where no one had ever yet been laid" (Luke 23:53).  b. But behold the Vine. Though He died yet He lives and rooted from within that tomb the Vine rises in the midst of a garden from which He will bear much fruit. So the Vine has reached out to save the branches – He reaches out to bring about fruit on those branches..
	B. Then we need to get an idea of the nature of these branches.  In other words we need to look at what we are like.  We branches are naturally cast upon the ground spiritually dead and physically dying. To deny this is to deny the reality of death itself; to say that death is but a myth.
		1. And branches on the ground spiritually dead and physically dying cannot help themselves.  In other words we cannot help ourselves.  Imagine a branch on the ground, totally separated from the vine, completely dead and having no fruit on it. What would you call anyone who comes up to that separated, dead and fruitless branch and says, "I've good news for you. Bear fruit and then you can connect yourself to the vine. Bear fruit and you will then have water, nutrients, and all that you need. Earn the right to the water so you can claim it because of the fruit that you bear. You can do it, right"?  Even a child recognizes that is silly and stupid.  That person needs to be exposed as a nut case. 2. So Branches are always on the receiving end.  They don’t give to the vine, the vine gives to them.  And God has given to you.
					a. In Baptism He joined you to Himself.  He grafted you into Christ, the Vine.  You didn’t pick yourself up off the ground and join yourself to Jesus.  God, in mercy, attached you to your Savior.  And once you were joined to Him through Baptism, you became a living Christian, because you were receiving life from Jesus. b. If you are baptized, Jesus has made you clean.  You are not a dirty, thorny branch.  Jesus has cleansed you.  There is nothing in you that is repulsive to Him, for He has washed you clean.  Everything wrong with you is forgiven.  Your selfishness is forgiven.  Your laziness is forgiven.  Your failure to abide in Christ is forgiven.  And this word of forgiveness which Jesus is giving you is the life-giving sap and nourishment which will keep you abiding in Him.  c. And now branches live by the constant nourishment comes to them from the vine.  Your Christian life and the fruits of faith you produce are the result of the living Word that Jesus gives you, as you hear His Word, and read His Word, and receive His body and blood for you in the Sacrament.  Jesus is no casual acquaintance.
II.  So for the branch that connection is all important.  But you can look at the connection in at least three ways.
	A. Some only look at the branch.  God and the connection to Him is not really considered at all.  Everything centers on the person on the branch.
		1. The Pharisees were like that.  Clean on the outside and dead on the inside, because there is no real connection to God.  2. You can see it like this: A missionary in Africa depended on a small generator to supply current for his small church and home. There was no utility service in the rural area where he served.  One evening some tribesmen came to visit this missionary. They noticed an electric light hanging from the ceiling of his living room. They watched wide-eyed as he turned the little switch and the light went on. One of the visitors asked if he could have a bulb like the one in the light fixture.   The missionary, thinking he wanted it for a sort of trinket, gave the man one of his extra bulbs. Sometime later the missionary stopped at the hut of the man who had asked for the bulb. Imagine his surprise when he saw the bulb hanging in the center of the man’s hut from an ordinary string. Of course there was no light coming from the bulb. The missionary patiently explained to the man who owned the hut that one needed to have electricity and a wire to bring the current to the bulb and to cause it to glow. (2)  No electricity, no light. No vine, no fruit.
	B.. Then we can look at our connection as something we need consider only occasionally.
			1. But Jesus doesn’t say, “Check in with me every now and then.”  Branches don’t “check in with the vine” every now and then.  Jesus says, “Abide in Me.” People have said that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian, but that’s not what Jesus says.  That’s not far from grabbing the snake. Soon we will fall, it’s only a matter of time  2. But Jesus wants to change all that, like this: One pastor tells about a man who approached him at a conference. The man asked, “Do you understand John 15?” “Not completely,” the pastor answered. “Why?”     The man said, “I own a large vineyard in northern California, and I think I have it figured out.” The pastor says he offered to buy the man a cup of coffee on the spot.       As they sat across the restaurant table from each other, the man began to talk about his life as a grower the long hours spent walking the vineyards, tending the grapes, watching the fruit develop, waiting for the perfect day to begin the harvest.      “New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground,” this vineyard owner explained. “But they don’t bear fruit down there. When branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust. When it rains, they get muddy and mildewed. The branch becomes sick and useless.”      “What do you do?” the pastor asked. “Cut it off and throw it away?”      “Oh, no!” the man exclaimed. “The branch is much too valuable for that. We go through the vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches [growing along the ground]. We lift them up and wash them off . . . Then we wrap them around the trellis or tie them up. Pretty soon they’re thriving.” (1)     This is what Jesus is talking about. He is the vine, we are the branches. But sometimes we are like those low lying branches trailing along the ground. Our leaves are coated with dirt. When it rains we get coated with mud and mildew. At such times we are incapable of bearing fruit. What does the owner of the vineyard do with us? Does he cut us off and throw us in the fire? No, we are too valuable to him for that. Instead, he tenderly washes us off and lifts us up with his gentle, nail-scarred hands and places us up higher where we can thrive again. God does not love you any less if you have been failing to abide in Christ faithfully.  Every branch of His, whether it is faithfully abiding in the Vine, or whether it has become separated from the Vine—every branch is the object of His grace and mercy.
	C. …and the third way to look at the connection is to want it to be vibrant.
			1. And here the Vine and Branches analogy works so beautifully. Love flows from the Father through the Son by the Spirit to the branches who are alive in Christ. It flows from the wounded side of Jesus, the water and the blood, from the font and the Supper, from the words that flow into your ears, that love of God for the sinner in Christ flows to you. And it doesn’t just stop with you. Nice green leaves are a sign of a healthy branch. But fruit is how the branch is known. “By their fruit you will know them.” That love of God in Christ that flows through you produces fruit – thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold for those around you. 2. And the fruit from this connection may look like this: A man on a busy street polished his customers' shoes with great enthusiasm. It was evident that he enjoyed his work turning a pair of scruffy leather shoes into a shining work of art. He also enjoyed talking with the men whose shoes he polished; he even enjoyed polishing the shoes of men who buried their noses in the morning newspaper. There was one regular customer who was a professor from the old Soviet Union. The professor noticed how happy the shoeshine man was. He watched the man shining his shoes so cheerfully and enthusiastically, and he couldn't figure out what made him so happy in such a miserable world. One day the professor could no longer hold his curiosity, and asked the shoeshine man, "Why are you always so happy?" This surprised the shoeshine man. He paused for a moment, scratched his head thoughtfully, and then said, "Jesus. He loves me. He died so God could forgive my badness. He makes me happy." This wasn't an answer that the professor had expected to hear, and he went back to his newspaper without another word. But it was those few simple words spoken by the shoeshine man that eventually brought the professor to Jesus Christ.  When our connection to Christ is vibrant we will naturally bear fruit " like the man shining shoes.  Our strength comes from our connection to Christ. Our purpose is to bear fruit.
CONCLUSION: Yes, maybe you can see our situation to be a little like Tarzan, swinging on the Vine, as long as you see Jesus as the Vine and see that He keeps us connected.  He doesn’t want us to ignore our connections and fall.  And He doesn’t want us to only occasionally consider it.  That connection He gives is all important.  His gifts flow through that connections from Him to us then from us to others.  That flow gives fruit that lasts forever.  Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen
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