Abide with Me

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 23^rd 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.