05/31/2026
Sermon News for Sunday, May 31: The Holy Trinity
“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.” (John 15:5)
Like many of the images of God, this description is deeply relational. It connects God and the believer like branches are connected to a vine, a tree; and it declares the fruit of that tree to be the product of both God and the believer in their interconnectedness. As believers, our main task is to let the light, love, fire, and word of God flow through us and dwell in us so that they might bear good fruit in the world. Not to disturb the flow of God’s spirit in our bodies and minds is a more difficult task than it might seem. After all, we are used to taking things into our own hands, to pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, to competing with each other, and to celebrating our successes as individual achievements.
But, as Eugenia Gamble writes (the author of Tending the Wild Garden, which we will read together this fall):
“We do not acquire the fruit of the Spirit like a trophy at a soccer match.” [1]
Tending to the Spirit within us is much more like making room for it than capturing it and wielding it like a tool or a weapon. How does that work?
Come this Sunday to Our Savior Lutheran Church in Issaquah, WA, or on YouTube, and find out!
- Pr. Kristin-Luana
[1] Eugenia Gamble Tending the Wild Garden, Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 20024, 2.
Image Credit: eflon (Alex from Ithaca, NY), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
