Easter VI: Abiding

Henry Francis Lyte was born in 1793 near Kelso, Scotland.  His father, a Royal Marine, left the family but provided funds for his sons to attend a royal school.  Francis did well and was effectively adopted by the headmaster who provided all the funds necessary for him to complete school.  Then Francis went to Trinity College in Dublin and was ordained a priest in 1815.  He was posted to a congregation in Brexham, England, where he quickly established a reputation as poet and preacher.  The parish had a build a new building to accommodate all the new people coming for worship. 

A devout Anglo-Catholic, Father Lyte was remembered as buoyant, cheerful, and involved in the world around him.  All that while he suffered from COPD, with severe, painful, debilitating bouts of asthma and frequent bouts of bronchitis.  When his condition worsened so much that he could no longer function in a pastoral role, he retired.  Some time later, he wrote the hymn we just sang, "Abide with Me," considered one of the finest pieces of Christian poetry and a wonderful statement.  This hymn became the favourite of King George V and it was sung at His Majesty's funeral.  Since 1927, it has been sung at every Football Association Cup final match in England!

But what does it mean to abide?  The Greek term meno, is a rich word suggesting standing firm and flourishing in a new place to which one has moved because of a relationship.  A new existence in a new realm and time, in which one's individual existence is defined anew, because of relationship to God in Jesus Christ.

Jesus shares with us the benefits of abiding.  First, abiding means that the love of God is present in us, so we can love like Jesus.  Jesus' love is unconditional, nonjudgmental, without expectation of return.  Second, abiding in Jesus creates the byproduct, joy.  When we accept the gift of joy, we can face hard disappointments and setbacks with equanimity.   Last, abiding means that we are anointed to bear fruit that lasts in a community of friends.  In the ancient world there were two classifications of friendship.  First, there was what was called the political, based on the patron-client model (What is in it for me?)  Second, there was the fictive-kinship,which is focussed on the other (What is in it for you?)  That higher form is the nature of Christian friendship, we have each other's back, we bear one another's burdens.  That is the nature of true, Christian community called to abide in Christ's love, embraced by divine joy, commissioned to be Christ in the world.