Today’s gospel presents us with a vision for the church. Jesus has just told his disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (15:1ff). Now he describes the relationship between his disciples and himself. It is not merely a gathering of friends, or like-minded individuals.

I was watching a special program on the Weather Channel the other evening. It was a look-back over the past year, when we had a more-than-usual number of tornadoes across the country. A commentator referred to those devastating weather events as “Acts of God.” In effect God was blamed, once again, for killing innocent people and destroying millions of dollars of property!

What it means to be rooted in Jesus

Gospel: John 15: 1–8
Remain in me, as I remain in you

In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes seven statements beginning with the words I am. Each of these “I am” proclamations furthers our understanding of Jesus’ ministry in the world. They also link Jesus to the Old Testament revelation of God.

This passage is from the farewell discourse of Jesus, which in John, is long. It covers John 13:3—John 17:26. (In John, the final discourse takes up almost one quarter of the entire gospel.)