Wednesday 10 May 2023

Today is Wednesday the 10th of May, in the fifth week of Easter.

Salt of the Sound sings, ‘Abide With Me’. As you listen, you might like to reflect on this sense of ‘abiding’ as we begin prayer today…


Abide with me: fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, O abide with me
(Abide with me)
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away
Change and decay in all around I see
O thou who changest not, abide with me
(Abide with me, abide with me)
I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me
(Abide with me)
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee
In life, in death, abide with me

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John.


John 15:1-8

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Jesus continues intense instruction to his disciples in their final hours together before his death.


Today’s passage is familiar to many. Could you hear it in a new way today?

The vine is a familiar image in warm climates. We could consider a tree, its branches stretching out, offshoots, twigs, all connected to the trunk, deeply rooted in the earth. Where are you in that image? You might feel like you’re just a twig!


But vitally, you’re connected up, and because of that connection, you can spread out and grow. Stay with that sense of growth that happens in deep-rooted connection.

“Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” Have you had a sense of ‘bearing fruit’ in your life? Have you had a sense of ‘being pruned’? Think back. What happened? Did more fruit appear? You might not have been aware, but let God show you. It might have involved a painful experience from which you learned much.


As you hear the passage again, notice a word or phrase that catches your ear. Linger with it.


Speak to God in these closing moments about the imagery of the vine. Let God respond in God’s loving way.


Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.