Pastor Gale Watkins has been serving at Westminster Presbyterian Church for the past twenty-eight years. He also teaches part-time in the College of Theology at nearby Grand Canyon University. Pastor Watkins especially enjoys helping others, both in the church and in the college classroom, discovering the riches of God's grace in the Bible.
"We can benefit from the story of Bartimaeus. Consider those three moves he makes. He cries out to Jesus and approaches him. He receives help from Jesus. Then he follows Jesus down the road of life." (Extracted from one of Pastor Gale's sermon)
As the pastor's wife, Laurie Watkins is an active and integral part of Westminster Presbyterian Church. She is a talented singer who adds to the beauty of the Westminster choir. Her co-management of the coffee hour is appreciated every Sunday. She also participates in the World Vision marathon as a one-half marathon walker. Here is what Laurie says about walking for World Vision: "This is what motivates me. I am thinking of children as I walk. I'm also thinking of their mothers. In one of the videos, a mother who now has clean water says, 'You have lifted a burden from me. All I could do was carry water every day.' Children now can go to school."
Scripture and sermon excerpt from April 28, 2024:
John 15:1-8 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 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. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples.
He says something that is true but very disturbing, that one can go wrong, terribly wrong, in spiritual life!
Jesus provides a vivid picture.
We’ve all seen how a branch, even a large one, can be detached from a tree in a storm. Over time, the downed branch becomes dry and brittle.
It no longer can produce new growth or bear fruit.
It may be good to burn, but that’s about it.
This is a disturbing image that Jesus is giving us.
It’s a disturbing picture because it’s portraying something that isn’t limited to the plant kingdom.
Human beings can also be cut off from needed resources.
Especially since COVID-19 showed up four years ago, and impacted all of our lives, we’re keenly aware of the what happens when we are isolated.
The results can be devastating.
We have new language to describe what is happening today.
I keep hearing about the increase of deaths of despair, closely associated with the destruction wrought by the use of opioids in our land.
The Surgeon General of the United States has been talking about our loneliness epidemic as an urgent public health issue.
We’ve found out the hard way that trying to go it alone leads to trouble.
Jesus would add that it’s not good for a disciple of Jesus to be detached from the Lord who is the source of life.
Cut off from the Lord, we cannot fulfill our God-given purpose of bearing good fruit.
So Jesus tells us the truth, even when it’s greatly disturbing.
But the truth he is imparting at this tense time also includes great news.
There is hope because Jesus tells us something important about himself.
He says that he is the vine, and we are the branches.
This mean that, as the vine is the source of life for every branch, Jesus is the source of life for his disciples.
That is, Jesus is the source of life for every branch that is attached to the vine.
What makes the difference between life and death is something that Jesus calls abiding.
I went on a search for contemporary equivalents to that old word abide.
Dean Lueking says, “To abide” has to do with persevering, continuing, lasting, staying with it.
Dale Bruner observes that the Greek word for abide that we find in the Gospel of John has the sense of continue with, or to stick with. With that in mind, he offers the translation Make your home with me as I am with you.
The most helpful observation I found comes from another Presbyterian pastor, Austin Shelley in Pittsburgh. She says, “In biblical Greek, the word is active rather than passive. It reflects not merely existing alongside another as a static entity but rather sharing a common fellowship and mission; to maintain a life-giving, ongoing bond that will sustain a shared mission and purpose.”
We’re different from the downed branch of a tree because, for us, abide is an active word. We want to stay connected. We want to make our home with the Lord.
It’s important to want what the Lord Jesus wants.
He wants to abide with us, and we want to abide with him.
But how is that done? How can we abide?
N.T. Wright keeps it simple and clear.
How do we “remain” in him? We must remain in the community that knows and loves him and celebrates him as its Lord. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. We can’t “go it alone.” But we must also remain as people of prayer and worship in our own intimate, private lives. We must make sure to be in touch, in tune, with Jesus, knowing him and being known by him.
We can abide the Lord in two ways, by staying in contact with the church and by staying in direct contact with the Lord himself.
We stay in contact with the community that knows and loves the Lord.
We listen to the Lord.
We have a life of prayer.
So we abide in the Lord.
But when we pay close attention to what Jesus is saying, we find that abiding is a two-way street.
We abide in the Lord, and the Lord abides with us.
The Lord wants to stay in touch with us.
I’ve said that abide is an old-fashioned word, perhaps bordering on obsolete.
It’s fitting that there is an old song that uses that word over and over, “Abide with Me.”
It’s built on the notion that we aren’t the only party that abides.
The Lord abides with us.
A Scottish Anglican priest, Henry Francis Lyte, facing the reality of death, wrote this hymn to express proper Christian confidence even when our last enemy is looming large.
He had the sense that when we’re dealing with death, what we need is abiding, not only our abiding with the Lord, but the Lord abiding with us.
So it’s a prayer, a passionate prayer even in the face of death which threatens to tear our union with Christ asunder.
The song faces the challenge and speaks to it directly.
No! Death does not break the connection that we enjoy with the Lord.
Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches.
So we make this our prayer: Abide with me!
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