Readings: Acts 8:26-40; 1John 4: 7-21; John 15: 1-8 What makes life Christian? Is it a set of beliefs about God and the world? Is it more specifically what one believes about Jesus? Is being Christian a matter of right doctrine or theology? Or, is it about what we do, how we behave, a particular kind of ethic put into daily practice? Is being Christian about what we do for the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized or outcast? How many times have you heard someone talk about `the Christian thing to do` in this or that situation, or of some form of behavior not being `very Christian?` What makes life Christian?

The writers of our lessons for the day seem to have different answers to that question. For Luke, the author of Acts, it has to do with believing what the Bible says about Jesus and being baptized. That certainly marked the Ethiopian eunuch`s conversion from Judaism, thereby making him the first Christian on the continent of Africa and the evangelist from which the church first emerged there.

For the Elder writing the first epistle of John, being Christian has to do with behaviour, more specifically – love. He begins today`s lesson encouraging us to love because love is of God, saying `everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.` Our ability to love is the sign that we belong to God. But before getting too euphoric about this criterion, this word of caution – this is a very specific kind of love.

This is not the universal human emotion we call love that emerges out of a reciprocal need for another human being with whom to share our lives, be that the sexual longing of mates for one another, or the loving affinity of friends because of their shared likes and dislikes, interests and common attachments. This is a form of love so unique and particular that it is not only unknown, but beyond human capacity until you and I first experience it. It is a love given out of abundance rather than need, life-giving rather than life-taking, and offered on behalf of us simply for our sake, with no expectation of receiving something in return. This is what the Bible means when it speaks of God`s love for us, and exhorts us to love as we have been loved. But the criterion of that kind of love quickly turns to anxious questions about what happens when you and I don`t, or can`t love that way. For John continues, `Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.` Is one only Christian when exercising John the elder`s ethic of love?

Then we have Jesus` words as recorded by the evangelist John which make it clear that more than anything else – whether right belief or right practice – the real issue is the nature of our relationship with Jesus, which he describes by the verb `abide in me.` So, right belief, right practice, right personal relationship, which is it?

What if I told you that there is no contradiction or conflict between the three – that right practice, right belief and right relationship are all part of the same reality we call being Christian? Further, that each of these three emerges out of God`s gift of God`s self to us in his son Jesus Christ.
In all things having to do with God, it always begins with God. God always takes the initiative, God always acts first. We love, writes John the elder, because God first loved us. John continues, `Whoever loves [with this love] is born of God.

Whoever does not love [in this way] does not know God; for God is love.` In other words, God is not a static philosophic concept, as the Greeks and other philosophers would describe God – intelligence, durability or ultimate power. God is a vital, dynamic presence that interacts with creation. To know this God rightly is to be so infused with God`s love that you and I are able to share it as well. `So we know and believe the love God has for us,` writes John.

`God is love, and [whoever] abides in love abides in God, and God abides in [them].` As mentioned earlier this morning, we often read these words at the beginning of a Christian wedding, and I am sure many of the people witnessing the wedding wonder if the bride and groom have any idea of the challenge behind these words, and what is being asked of them.

How does one love in this way; can one love in this way? Yes, but only by living in and out of God. You`ll notice that in both passages today, the word `abide` appears repeatedly – six times in the epistle, eight in the gospel. The repetition helps signal us of the importance of the concept.

The word `abide` here is from the Greek word meno, which means literally, `to stay at home.` It has the sense of `lasting` or `remaining` – not stirring from where one is settled. So when Jesus and John speak of `abiding,` we can think of them as speaking about `remaining at home.` If we go back through the passages and substitute this phrase where we see the word `abide,` we get a clearer picture of what these passages are about.

In First John we would read, `By this we know that we remain at home in Christ and Christ in us, because he has given us of his spirit,` and `God is love, and those who remain at home in love remain at home in God, and God remains at home in them.` In the gospel, we would hear Jesus saying, `Remain at home in me as I remain at home in you . . . those who remain at home in me and I in them bear much fruit.`

To abide in someone – to let someone abide in you – these acts suggest intimate relationships – family relationships. You can think of this image – when you have company over, or you visit someone at their house, sometimes you are just that – company. But other times, someone will say to you, `please, make yourself at home.` When they say this, what they mean is, `be yourself here. Act here as you would act at your own home. My home is your home.`

What does it mean to make God at home in us? God grows us, shapes us, prunes us. So the message from the scriptures today is clear: God tells us repeatedly that we are meant to feel at home in God`s heart. We`re meant to be ourselves. To be welcome family. To be able to kick our shoes off and act like we`re not just visiting, but ready to settle in and stay awhile. And what God wants in return is the same welcome from us. God wants to be welcomed into our lives, our homes, our hearts too. God wants not to be an occasional visitor, but someone always there, remaining, always, within us.

We abide in God and God abides in us. What a great arrangement, right? If the deal is so nice – God living us and us living in God and all – why don`t more of us seem to take God up on the invitation? Why do we seem so reluctant to make God at home in our lives? Well, it turns out that God has some very specific ideas about what it means to be at home in our lives.

If we turn back to our gospel lesson, we read Jesus reminding us that God is the vinedresser. When we welcome God into our homes – our hearts – God isn`t content just to lounge around the house. God, it seems, does a little housework. We read, `God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.` If we are the branches to Christ`s vine, then it sounds very much like God wants to come in and change us. God wants to come into our homes, our hearts, and rearrange all the furniture, redecorate. God wants to clean out and throw away when we`d rather be pack rats. Suddenly, we`re not sure if we want God as a guest after all. Are we willing to invite someone into our homes, and let them change everything? Can we invite God in, and then allow God to be the one in control? The thought of giving up control might make us a bit afraid of what God might do to the parts of our lives we`d rather not have `pruned,` as Jesus so nicely puts us. But God promises that even if it feels like we`re being torn out, actually, we`re being built up, into stronger, healthier branches, branches that bear good fruit.

With God dwelling within us, John promises that love is perfected in us, and that we, perfected by God`s love, find boldness. As that happens, you and I are Christian – sisters and brothers in the Body of Christ, and God sends us into this world to share what we have been given. Amen.