August 30, 2018  Chapter 37: An Uprising of Partnership

I have to admit that I struggled with this chapter a bit. I liked the "placing ourselves in the scene" in the first part of the chapter when McLaren spoke about the growth of the early "ecclesia." But then I struggled with how that tied into the story of the disciples in prison. And then it hit me.
      The growth of the Church was because of the witness of the disciples. Paul and the disciples simply witnessed to the faith by not fleeing the jail. They witness to the faith by not letting the jailer harm himself. They witnessed to the faith by staying put when they could have fled. They stayed put precisely because they knew that in staying put they could witness to the faith. It was almost as if they were saying, it doesn't matter if there are chains or not, we will stay here because this is where God put us.
     I've been asking myself lately the question of how well do I witness to my faith. Can people see in me something different? Is my witness real and is my faith authentic enough to attract non-believers or people who have walked away from their faith?
     This weekend's Gospel is the vine and the branches story (John 15:1-8). At our mission a couple of weeks ago David Wells told how a grapevine is one of the few plants that you can cut off a piece of the vine that is dying in one area and graft it into another piece of the vine somewhere else and it will thrive in this new location. Much like we do medically with a skin graft. That thought made John 15 come alive for me. Our job as a a church is to help people graft into Jesus. And it is in that grafting that we find life again.