Clergy Notes — Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, July 14, 2024
Last week, the Anglican Church celebrated the feast of St. Benedict; the Gospel reading for that day is John 15:12-17, which occurs just after Jesus proclaims, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”
In this metaphor, the branches have one goal in common: to stay rooted in Jesus and bear fruit. And Jesus makes it quite clear in this passage what that is: to love one another. The branches can neither live without the vine, nor can they function independently. Their/our only goal is a common one: to bear the fruit which is God’s love. No one branch can do this on its own; no one branch is better than another, nor more favoured.
This description of the community is particularly apt for the feast of St. Benedict because it very accurately describes the kind of community he envisions. When any member decides to join the community, they voluntarily give up any rank or title or distinguishing feature that their secular life affords them, and – literally and figuratively – put on a new identity in the shared community of the monastic life. The tasks and work required by the community to function are shared out equally, and even artisans and craftspeople are only allowed to exercise their gifts for the collective good.
Quite starkly in contrast to our secular way of living, in a Jesus-believing community described by the vine metaphor, the goal of the individual isn’t personal gain, or accolades, or success, or esteem. Our goal is collective: to bear fruit; fruit that will last. And Jesus is clear about what that is; so clear that in these five short verses he repeats it twice:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
“I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
We have one job and one alone: to love one another. It is simple but not easy. It means that in a world that celebrates individual accomplishment and individuality we must give up our ‘right’ to personal accolades. In a world that tempts us to gauge our worth by what we do and how much we can achieve, or how close to the top we can rise, Jesus tells us that our worth resides in abiding in God. In a world that teaches us we must compete with one other for everything, Jesus tells us we belong to one another.
As always, Jesus’ teaching is simple but not easy. It is as counter-cultural now as it was 2000 years ago. Maybe more so. It will perhaps always be a struggle, even for the best of us.
Yet, as the continuation of the Church and the many Benedictine communities worldwide can attest to, this vision of a communal life rooted in Christ, and the love of God it proclaims is more than worth the struggle.
Mother Amanda
Download the Liturgy at Home booklet for Sunday, July 14, 2024.
