“Stay at Home” with Jesus–And Be Fruitful

 
In this familiar passage, we are used to hearing the Greek word menein translated as “abide,” i.e. “Abide with me as I abide with you.” But since abide or abode are rarely used in normal speech, Dale Bruner in his commentary on John’s gospel brings it into everyday conversation as “make your home with.”
 
German theologian Rudolf Bultmann says it well:

“[the] loyalty that is demanded is not primarily a continued being for, but a being from; it is not the holding of a position, but allowing oneself to be held, corresponding to the relationship of the branch to the vine.” (my emphasis)

This is what I need to hear and deeply absorb!  My role is simply “allow myself to be held” or, even better, “stay at home.”  God’s initiative always precedes my response.  I can fulfill the command to “abide,” because Jesus is already abiding with me.

John 15 offers several wonderful blessings when we “stay at home” with Jesus.  Today we consider the first one: we live fruitful lives.
 
“Stay at Home” Fruitfulness
 

“I, I am the Root of the Matter; you disciples are the branches.  The individual making a home with me (as I am with him or her)–there is the person bearing much fruit! For the fact of the matter is this: apart from me you can do absolutely nothing.” (John 15:5, Bruner translation

Theologians debate what “fruit” Jesus has in mind.  Some think it is primarily evangelistic impact, the “harvest” Jesus speaks about in several parables.  Others take the wider view of basic Christian character, i.e. fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22).
 
I think both are possible; we don’t need to choose between them. What I particularly think is true, however, is that this fruit is not measured by human standards. 

I love Bruner’s comment:

“We long to be fruitful and, if possible, even abundantly fruitful.  We don’t want, however, to be caught up in the world’s successist or quantitative definitions of abundance or fruitfulness.  Fidelity to an aging or needy parent (or spouse or child or friend or neighbor or co-worker or client or customer or student) is the equivalent, in Jesus’ eyes, of a stadium full of converts. 
 
The quantity and quality of each one’s fruit will be determined, definitely, only at the Judgment, where, we sense, we will be very surprised by evaluations.

Quiet “Stay at Home” Gifts
 
One of the often-ignored ways disciples of Jesus bear fruit is through using their spiritual gifts.  
 
^“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” the apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 12, where in detail he clearly teaches that every Christian has supernaturally empowered gifts to serve others.
 
Bruner reflects:

“Much fruit (if we think with Paul for a minute) may not be any specific reality–it may be simply the overflow of what kind of tree the Orchardist Father made each of us to be.

In the church world, we gravitate toward the public spiritual gifts.  Since our church lives revolve around public gatherings, we (consciously or not) recognize and admire gifts that shine in large groups–exhortation, teaching, etc. 
 
In fact, after a career encouraging Christians to use their spiritual gifts, I’m convinced that large majorities in most congregations do not believe they even have spiritual gifts!  Why?  They only see the public gifts being used, and think, “I could never do that! Therefore, I must not have a spiritual gift.”
 
We forget there are many “quieter” spiritual gifts than public ones, for example: mercy, service, wisdom, knowledge, giving, administration, faith, pastoring or shepherding. I’ve just named more than twice as many quiet gifts of the Spirit as those gifts seen and honored in large groups.  Yet none of these quiet spiritual gifts draw attention to themselves.  
 
With public gatherings temporarily suspended,  these quiet gifts might finally be more recognized.  In these days of the pandemic, we need quietly gifted people to be role models for the rest of us:

• These days, we recognize we all need to be more conscious of serving our neighbors–those gifted as servants can be our role models.
• These days, we recognize we all need to be listening better and aware of how other people are doing–those gifted with mercy (empathy) can be our role models.
• These days, we recognize we all need to renew our faith in God’s sovereignty and provision–those gifted with faith can be our role models.

A Thought Experiment 
 
Many of us leave our large public gatherings chatting with each other about the gifts of the people upfront preaching the sermon, singing, leading worship, playing instruments, etc.  What if we instead imagine that quiet, behind the scenes fruitfulness captured our attention and admiration in the same way:

• Wow! Did you see how they gave up working in their own yard last Saturday to rake leaves for their elderly neighbor? [servant]
• Amazing!  I can’t believe how she quietly focused her attention on that hurting person and helped him feel better just by the way she deeply listened to him!  [mercy]
• I’m impressed with the way that he checks in so regularly with his small group members, insuring that everyone is doing OK. [pastoring or shepherding. 

How can you and I use these “stay at home” days to give a shout out to our quietly gifted but very fruitful fellow Christians?
 

I want to do so to a family in Chicago where I served their congregation as Interim Pastor for two years.  I won’t give their name.  They wondered how they could serve the many homebound, and probably lonely, elderly folks in their church family.  Both daughters are accomplished musicians, so they hit on the idea of offering daily “live” concerts. 
 
Along with their Mom, these young women dedicated three hours a day (10:00am to 2:00pm, with a lunch break), offering six 30-minute time slots for Facetime calls. More than just music, each call with an older single person or couple included a well-rounded agenda: 1) Share a bible verse; 2) sharing/conversation time; 3) musical performance; 4) prayer.    
 
I say:  Wow!  Amazing!  Great job! 
 
When we “stay at home” with Jesus, each of us can be fruitful, perhaps in ways we never imagined.  How can you make this “stay at home” season in our society a time of greater fruitfulness?