This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along  with a headline from world news:

RAW MEMORIES OF BEREAVED BOSNIANS 

Romans 15:1-9

15We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2Each of us must please our neighbour for the good purpose of building up the neighbour. 3For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.’ 4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. 5May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 8For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

‘Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,

and sing praises to your name’

Paul’s thorough grasp of the meaning of Jesus is shown in the way he relates very ordinary matters of behaviour to the fundamentals of faith. He’s dealing with the sense of exasperation which can sometimes overtake robust believers faced with the timid scruples of those who are not so strong. Paul cautions against the arrogance that says, “Let’s move on without them if they can’t keep up.” Jesus could have moved on without any of us, Paul says, but he chose to move at the pace of the slowest and to take upon himself the insults directed to weak and sinful people.

Indeed, Paul advises his gentiles, Jesus made himself a slave to his own people in order that God’s goodness should be proclaimed to the gentiles. So don’t get up your high horse and start criticising your weaker brothers or sisters. You owe your whole faith to the humility of Christ.

I can’t read this passage without acknowledging my own faults in this matter over the years.

I have great admiration for some of the works of John Calvin who is remembered in the Episcopal churches on this day; but I consider his whole witness as a Christian invalidated by his part in the killing of Michael Servetus for denying the doctrine of the Trinity. The arrogance that allows the taking of human life in God’s name is an absolute offence to the creator and redeemer of life; and is related to the killing rage which has animated so many crimes against humanity, not least the (Christian) Serbs’ murder of Bosnian Moslems of which we have been reminded by the arrest of Ratko Mladic.

John 15:1-11

Jesus the True Vine

15‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

painful...

This is a glorious description of the life which human beings can share with God and each other.

1. It is life shared with Jesus Christ: it bears his name because it bears his history.
2. This life involves growth and fruitfulness. Refusal to grow is a refusal of this life
3. Nevertheless the growth and fruitfulness cannot be willed but happens naturally in those who remain in the shared life of Christ. Those who don’t remain dry up and die.
4. The source of this life is the love of the Father, which is shared by all who obey Jesus as Jesus has obeyed the Father.
5. The purpose of this shared life is shared joy.

A small detail, it may seem, is the description of how God prunes the branches to make them more fruitful. This seems true to me. Much that I thought was growth in my own life has had to be pruned back, sometimes savagely, as it was either premature or excessive. I can’t say that the pruning wasn’t painful or that I didn’t resent it at the time. I can say that in some cases at least I’ve seen that what I thought was deprivation has led to real growth.