Fifth Sunday in Easter
Acts 8: 26-40
I John 4: 7-21
John 15: 1-8
ABIDE
WITH ME
Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our
Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Many
of us can’t sing the hymn, “Abide with Me,” without a tear in our eye as we
think of loved ones for whom the words had deep meaning.
One
of my favorite Greek words is MENEO. It
is often translated into English as “to remain” or “to dwell.” But my preferred translation is the word “abide.” I like it because it’s a word we hardly ever
use anymore, except when we read something from the scriptures attributed to John. Even then most modern translations do their
hardest to avoid using the word “abide.”
I believe that old-fashioned, church word is still the best for
capturing the true meaning of MENEO.
Our
readings for today preserve the word “abide.”
Search for it in the Gospel lesson from John and you’ll find it eight
times; in the epistle lesson from I John, six times. It was a favorite word for the writings of
John because, I believe, it was a favorite word of Jesus.
The
power of the word “abide” is illustrated by Jesus in the image of the vine and
the branches. Jesus identifies himself
as Yahweh, (I AM) the vine, and we are the branches. As the branches abide in the vine and as we
abide in Jesus, so is good fruit produced.
So the word has to convey some sense of connectedness, of
interdependence. Life blood flows
through that connectedness. When branches
no longer abide in the vine, they wither and die. We have old, dying trees on the parsonage property. With every wind storm, branches, no longer
connected to the life blood of the tree, no longer producing leaves, wither, break
off and fall to the ground. A natural
pruning takes place. So abiding in Jesus
is crucial for our life, for our survival; for our worth and for our value; for
apart from Him we can do nothing.
I
don’t think it escaped the intention of Jesus or the notice of the disciples
that the fruit of the vine was being identified with the life blood of Jesus;
the connection made real for us in the meal of Holy Communion.
In
the epistle of I John, our second lesson, the word “abide” is intimately
connected with the Greek word AGAPE, divine love. Those who abide in love, abide in God and God
abides in them. For the apostle, love is
the greatest of all gifts, the greatest fruit of the Spirit. “They will know we are Christians by our
love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we
belong to Christ by our love.” So
abiding has something to do with the deep intimacy of love. Wow, that is an important word!
Perhaps
it would help to define MENEO by what it is not. MENEO does not mean “to visit.” It is not to drop in on someone, invited or
not, expecting to share and enjoyable time together, but not expecting to stay. Visiting comes with an ending and an
automatic out. MENEO does not.
MENEO
does not mean moving in together. That
has lost so much meaning over the past years.
Moving in together has become a matter of convenience and
experimentation rather than any sense of commitment or permanence.
MENEO
does not even mean “to dwell.” Last
month Christa and I toured the impressive cliff dwellings of the Synagua Native
Americans in Arizona. Built into the
sides of mountains, like at Solomon’s Castle, or surrounding a lake of water,
like at Montezuma Well, the structures remain but the people do not. With each location comes the mystery of why
they disappeared. Cliff dwellings housed people for over 500 years, and then
the people were gone. That’s not the
meaning of MENEO.
But
still we have only scratched the surface of this powerful word. Let’s explore other times when Jesus uses
this word, “abide.”
We
can go to the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus. In the Gospel of John, the very first
invitation Jesus gives as he calls disciples is not “Follow me,” but rather “Come
and see.” The would-be disciples go and
they ABIDE with Jesus. Abiding with
Jesus was the source of their calling to be disciples. It was their connectedness to Jesus. They could not bear the fruits of
discipleship until they had abided in the presence of Jesus.
Then,
at the very end of his ministry as Jesus spoke with his disciples in
anticipation of and in preparation for his death, he promises them the comfort
of knowing that “in my father’s house are many abiding places.” God’s love will surround Jesus and so also us
when we draw our last human breath. And
death will not be a pruning of the branches, because we will still be abiding
with Jesus.
Now,
here’s the thing. As important and as powerful
as this word MENEO, “abiding,” obviously is, we have to remember that Jesus
didn’t speak Greek. Believing, as I do,
that John is thinking in Hebrew and translating into Greek, I have to ask the
question, “What is the Hebrew word that Jesus is speaking and that John is
thinking?” If rooms in God’s heavenly
mansion are called “abiding places,” or “dwelling places,” then I can’t help
but think of the ending of the 23rd Psalm: “And I will DWELL in the
house of the Lord forever.” That Hebrew
word for “dwell’ is SHABBAT. How
interesting! And I will Sabbath in the
house of the Lord forever. I will find
rest for my soul. I will worship God in
eternal glory. Abiding in God’s
presence, I will dwell in peace.
The
writer of the Prologue of the Gospel of John, most of the first chapter, also
wants to convey the power of this concept.
The writer wants to emphasize that abiding is less about what we must do
and more about what God has done for us.
Abiding is not a work; abiding is a gift from God. So it is written that the word became flesh
and dwelt among us. Only the word used
for dwelling was not MENEO, but rather ESKENE.
ESKENE is a Greek word based upon the Hebrew concept of building a
tabernacle, of God pitching a tent in the midst of our campground of life, of
God revealing total glory in human presence in the person of Jesus.
So
the fact that God abides with us is a pure gift. It is a statement of God’s grace. God wants to Sabbath with us. God wants to give us rest. God wants to fill us with peace. God wants us to worship in the very presence
of divine glory. To refuse to abide with
Jesus, to forget to Sabbath with Jesus, to reject his skene, the presence of
his glory, is a fate worse than death.
It means living worthless lives and having a purposeless existence.
But
those who abide in Jesus, or rather and better yet, know that Jesus abides with
them, they know the true meaning of love in their lives and they bear the good fruit
of faith in their words and deeds. I’ll
never forget when Lydia Frick, the matron saint of the Emanuel congregation,
told me that “Abide with Me” was her favorite hymn.
I
wasn’t at all surprised.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto eternal life. AMEN.
