It’s easy for Christians to fall into a rut: Church is a thing you do, prayer is a box to check, and faith seems far from “the real world.” This fall we let Jesus himself confront our ruts. “Do you believe this?” he asks (Jn. 11:26).
To believe in Jesus is to experience him. It’s more than logic, argument, and doctrine. It is intimate knowledge of God himself. This fall, let Jesus himself speak to you in his seven “I AM” statements in the gospel of John. How is he changing you? What response is he inspiring in you? To believe in him changes everything.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ponder:
Today, ponder the I AM statement: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Find, or think about, a plant with branches. Consider all the parts: vine or trunk, branches, leaves, fruit, etc. Ponder what it means to abide in Jesus as a branch remains in a vine. Ponder what fruit Christ wants you to bear.
Meditation:
“A Wild Embrace”
by Luci Shaw
How creation dares us into
a wild embrace of what is
too beautiful to ignore. You open
your front door.
Breathe, and all the old dust and confusion
of your life falls behind you.
You are not to obsess about it,
no matter how it calls you.
Instead, bend and examine
closely how the grass has grown
an inch under last night’s rain,
and the peony buds are swelling,
the tips of pink petals already
bursting free like prisoners
wrongly convicted and now
released. There is such generosity
out there, reaching towards you
with hands open, claiming you,
a created being issuing
from the open mouth of God.
Prayer
Jesus, you said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” I am nothing without you. Be my source. Fill me with life so that I may grow and produce fruit that is pleasing to you. Amen.
Benediction
Bless us, O God the Father, who has created us.
Bless us, O God the Son, who has redeemed us.
Bless us, O God the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us.
O blessed Trinity, keep us in body, soul, and spirit unto everlasting life. Amen.