5th Sunday of Easter – “Abide In Me”
On this 5th Sunday of Easter, we greet each of you with the joy of Jesus Christ,
Abide in Me! Abiding in the presence of Christ is our call this week. How do we abide and how do we encourage abiding behavior in the worshiping congregation and our every day life? And perhaps most important, what does abide mean?
Abide as define by Merriam Webster:
to bear patiently : TOLERATE
to endure without yielding : WITHSTAND
to wait for : AWAIT
to accept without objection
What does it mean for us to abide in Jesus as branches in the vine? (John 15:5) I believe three things are implied: connection, dependence, and continuance. Don’t think of these as three successive steps, but as three interwoven aspects of abiding.
Connection with Jesus – Abiding in Jesus first of all means having a life-giving connection to him.
Dependence on Jesus – The branch is dependent on the vine, but the vine is not dependent on the branch.
Continuance with Jesus – To abide is to reside. To abide is to continue, to stay, to remain.
To put it simply, abiding in Jesus means keeping the words of Jesus in our hearts and minds, so that they are renewing and reviving us, shaping and sanctifying us, filling and forming us. And it means keeping ourselves in his infinite, enduring, sin-bearing, heart-conquering, life-giving love.
In the full joy of Jesus,
Pastor Clarissa
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Bulletin – 5th Sunday of Easter – 2 May 2021
Sermon – Abide in the Vine – 2 May 2021
Devotionals 2 May – 8 May 2021
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Rev. Clarissa Martinelli
Pastor, Fifth Avenue UMC
323 South Fifth Avenue
West Bend, WI
262.334.2059 
847.721.1826 (M)
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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. I am a child of God.” marianne williamison
