Sunday: 5th Sunday of Easter
Reading: Acts 8:26-50; John 15:1-8
Preacher: Dent Davidson

Every three years the General Convention of The Episcopal Church meets together to worship, share ideas, dialog about concerns, and to maintain the governance of the church and its pattern of ministry and mission.
In just over 8 weeks this body will assemble in close proximity to Disneyland, although this will be no Mickey Mouse affair. The theme of this Ten-Day extravaganza is Ubuntu, an African term which is difficult to translate into English. Its meaning tends toward ideas of unity and interdependence. Ubuntu is perhaps best expressed simply by acknowledging that, ‘because you are, I am.' In a church filled with such diversity, and yet on certain issues still so terribly divided, I think Ubuntu is a respectful and fruitful means by which the global and local church can learn to BE together, in order for us to be able to get on with our Gospel work. "I in you, and you in me."

To better accomplish their work, all bishops and deputies to convention are being asked to engage in a leadership tool known as Public Narrative. This tool basically calls upon the principles of Ubuntu, encouraging all participants to identify 3 things:

The Story of Self - getting in touch with those things that really make us perc, that give us life, and fill us with energy, passion and motivation.

The Story of Us - striving to identify who we are as a community? What are our core values? How will we do our work together?

The Story of Now - it's the story of what is urgent in this moment, not at some later time. It presents the immediate challenge, and choices to be made, and it expresses the hope for a better future in such a way as to motivate others to take action - sometimes risky action. The Story of Now tells us why this action matters, and the outcomes we hope to achieve.

President Obama leaps to mind as a person who has a very well-defined Public Narrative. And that's especially good at this time for the General Convention. Those bishops and deputies, and really all of us, have this relevant and timely example for live out our callings. Each of us must claim our identity, our passion; then learn how to BE together before we DO together. Claim, then BE, then DO.
Has anyone seen that life philosophy t-shirt?

"To be is to do"--Socrates.
"To do is to be"-- Sartre.
and "Do be do be do"-- Sinatra.

Perhaps it was Jesus who wrote the book on Public Narrative. Over and over again we hear him speak of his own nature, his invitation for us to follow, and finally to realize that the Kingdom of God is a reality now, and that we have a part in it.

Today's gospel story is a good example. He knows he is about to leave his friends; that his earthly life would be finished in a matter of hours. And what does he do? As he has done so many times before, he talks about himself: "I am the Vine..." Then he talks about the way they can be in relationship to him and one another: "...you are the branches. Abide in me. Make yourself so at home in me, and I in you, that you will always be nourished, and you will never be cut off." He tells them (and us!) how to BE the church.

Then he goes on to motivate us all to greater works. "Abide in me and I in you, and bear much fruit." Doing the work God has given each of us to do produces an abundance of juicy, ripe fruit. He's using words that are intimate and organic, packed with meaning. When we bear good fruit, we reveal the living Christ to the world, and to one another.

And we're talking about a wide variety of fruit...a veritable Farmer's Market! You might be a Godly Play story-teller, a musician, a visitor to the sick & needy, you might brave sub-zero temperatures bearing witness to social injustice, or write prayers for our worship each week; maybe your juiciness is found in the art of welcome and hospitality, heck your fruit might even be in tasks of organization and filing. (that one's not my fruit...definitely)

All of these gifts and so many more combine to make SPR a vibrant catalyst for life-change in the world around us.

It's difficult to be Christians in a vacuum. If we lack community we may produce some small fruit: Sour grapes - bitter melon - or poison apples! Worse yet, we may even find ourselves cut-off, dried up and withered.
How much better it is to abide! It's not a word we use often nowadays. Our young people might say hangin' with the Vine" or "crashin' with the Savior" But it's all the same. When we abide in him, he is in us. And for those first disciples, this was an especially important teaching - because they had no idea what was coming. They could never have imagined that, having become community, they were about to turn the known world upside-down, following the example Jesus had set. That's the whole story of the Book of Acts. The church is moved out to the ends of the earth. All the rules have changed, and we find that God's grace is wildly inclusive, even unpredictable! The Holy Spirit moves and inspires; and those who listen to her are able to do things greater than they can ever ask or imagine.

Like the story of Philip the Deacon in our first lesson. Attentive to the promptings of the Spirit, Philip went out to a wilderness road, only to encounter this Ethiopian eunuch. Now the eunuch was probably fairly learned; he served as a financier to the Ethiopian Queen, and he was reading from a Hebrew Scripture scroll. But he was a gentile, an outcast in Hebrew society. And I think the Spirit was prompting him as well! He was obviously thirsty to know the deeper meaning of the text.

So Philip, being a good Deacon, sidled right up and started reading along with him, helping the eunuch to interpret the meaning of this passage.

And what happens next? The eunuch is so caught up in the whole thing that he leaps at the chance to be baptized at the first sight of water! Can you just imagine the double joy as those two men splashed down into the water on that hot desert day? What if Philip had been a curmudgeonly Deacon instead of a good Deacon? "Oh no, you are an outcast - a Gentile. You cannot be baptized until after you've been instructed in doctrine. Wait until you've thoroughly learned all the important little details of the Temple, and the secret handshake, of course! Or what if the eunuch had not been inquisitive enough to ask Philip for help in understanding the scripture passage? I think both of them listened to the prompting of the Spirit, and bore good fruit, and the result was this wonderful story of conversion and inclusion. God's grace is for ALL. Here is Ubuntu at work again.

Then there's that strange bit about Philip just vanishing into thin air - being snatched up by the Spirit - says the bible. And he all of a sudden finds himself in a completely new geographical location. That little Twilight Zone topic is for another sermon...preached by someone else!

What better day to have a baptism?

We've heard this wonderful story of the Ethiopian eunuch's baptism, conversion and inclusion in the larger life of Christ.

It's Mother's Day - we give thanks for and celebrate the ones who gave us birth.

We meet at the Font, our place of new birth. Also known as the Womb of the Church... (which in Latin is Matrix - which is related to Mater - Mother.

From this Font, we send forth our sister Donna, as she takes her next steps in ministry, bearing much fruit as she goes...knowing that, even though we may be separated by distance, we all remain connected to the One Vine.

And in this Font, we will baptize Jacob, who will rise from the waters a freshly minted Christian, newly grafted into the Christ the True Vine. How will his branch take shape? What kind of fruit will he bear over the years? Only God knows for sure, but we are branches in his family here at SPR, so perhaps many of us will play a part in that.

What we can be sure of is this: He won't need to go it alone - neither will Donna, nor will all our mothers...nor any of us! Just abide - remain one with each other in the Vine - expecting ripe fruit, full of juiciness.
Just as it took untold numbers of passionate, energetic people to envision a better future for this nation, [our president being but one of millions of branches that dared to believe in hope,] so we are called to discover our own Public Narrative - our Ubuntu: to engage our passions and imaginations in each moment, then to love and serve God in one another, in the Church, and in the world.

As we abide in Christ the Vine, and bear fruit, I wonder what God might be calling us to turn upside down?