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Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Real Faith in the Real World, a ministry of Normal First United Methodist Church in Normal, Illinois. Let's listen to hear what Pastor Kathy King Nobles has to say today.

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John 15, verses 1 through 11. I am the true vine and my father's 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, and bide in abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the van the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and 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. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I've said these things to you, so that my joy may be complete, my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. You know, in the Gospel of John, Jesus, there's a lot of I am statements. Jesus says, I am the bread of life, I'm the light of the world. And here we just heard, I am the vine, and God is the vine grower. And all of you, followers of Christ, you are the branches. We are the branches. And from those branches, fruit can grow when the branch is healthy and connected. You know that analogy makes sense. Branches on a healthy tree pop with flowers and beautiful blossoms. Branches on a vine give us beautiful fruit. And you know the opposite is true as well. When the branch is disconnected or when the vine is unhealthy, we won't see any fruit or any flowering flowers. You may have noticed in the scripture a word that kept being repeated, that word abide, to name that healthy connection there between the branches, between the vine and the branch. Now, for us, the word abide generally means to comply with something or to follow a rule. But abide in the scriptures means to remain or to stay. It represents this continuous connection with God, with Jesus, and we find it over a hundred places in the scriptures. Now, today, if we were writing a different translation, or if we were writing a translation of the scripture, we might use the word connected to help us understand that relationship between God and us and that relationship between us and other people, that we remain connected with one another. I was reminded of the power of connection a week or so ago when several of us were at our annual conference meeting over there in Peoria. Annual conference is the gathering of Methodists, mostly most of the state of Illinois. And one of the things that we celebrated at an annual conference is that we learned the goal or the total of our Miracle Sunday offering that we are a part of. Our $13,000 that we have donated was gathered together with money from other United Methodists here in the state of Illinois, equaling almost $200,000. And that $200,000 will be added to the Methodist offering from around the world to help ensure that there are scholarships every year for students, theological students in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe. Connections matter. Connections make a difference, whether they be big or little. You know, I was thinking about children and their need to be connected with their adults. And you know, sometimes children can be out running around playing in the yard, seemingly unaware of their parents' presence with them. But then out of the blue, they'll run over to their parent, give them a hug, and then run back off and play some more. It's as if they just they just need to be filled up or they need to be reminded that they are connected, that they are loved. There's a longing for that in our lives. And Jesus talks about that using that analogy of vine and branches that are connected. We also see that in the scriptures where Jesus talks of, or where Paul talks about the body of Christ and the connection that we share with one another. So I want to look at this idea of connection from a couple of different angles. And I'm gonna, these these angles are kind of different from each other, and yet they share something very much in common. First of all, I want to look at this new book. Actually, the book is about a year old, but it's just recently soared to the top of the book list, book club lists. And the book is titled The Correspondent. Have any of you read that? Okay, a few of you have. It's by author Virginia Evans, and I understand that it is so popular that people who are waiting months to get it through the local library. Now the book is about letters, mostly handwritten letters, but a few emails, I understand. It's a fictional story that follows the life, or the it's that follows Sybil Van Antwerp as she navigates life, loss, and personal relationships as an older adult. So you have to give this author credit. It's this creative way to tell a story through Sybil's letters and then the letters that she receives back. But this isn't the only thing that makes this book so fascinating. In a time when communication happens instantaneously, why is a book about letters so wildly popular? It's not even historical fiction, so it's not as if you're learning the history of the wars or anything. This is a book that is just a fictional book of letters going back and forth between people. This book, a word of mouth bestseller, has grabbed our attention because, as one author wrote, it speaks to the wonder of storytelling and the power of human connection. Both the real life connections of the readers and then that fictional connection with Sybil, the main character. You know, letters keep people connected. We see that in the scriptures when the Apostle Paul sent letters to the faith communities that he had left and he was no longer able to visit with them, he would send them letters of encouragement. We see letters throughout human history, loved ones staying connected with one another. I am certain there were letters that were being sent back and forth during the wartime. And apparently today there's still power in connecting with one another through letter writing. Now it may feel like it may feel less connected because the response time to a letter obviously is stretched out and much slower. But also there may be a feeling of connection with that person because after you send that letter to them, then you're anticipating them receiving the letter, and then you're anticipating that they might return and respond with the letter to you. So there's this kind of connection that you feel with them. Perhaps it's a connection that's even stronger than a quick text message or conversation that happens quickly and ends quickly. In an interview with the author, Virginia Evans, she said that she heard that there's been a resurgence of letter writing as a result of many people reading this book. And she said, who knows? Maybe the book will save the post office. So we have this marvelous tool of letter writing. And another way to think about connections is something that happens in a somewhat different way than letter writing. Author Deanna Thompson describes it in her book titled The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World. Deanna opens her book with her skepticism about the possibility of authentic connections online until in 2008 she was diagnosed with stage four incurable cancer. Thrown into the shock of it all, family members set up this Caring Bridge website, which I imagine you're familiar with, so that Deanna could stay connected with family and friends and keep them updated on her life. And for her, the body of Christ began to be lived out through the internet, through Caring Bridge, through emails, and this virtual connection comprised of different people, including her current community of friends, those from her past, and those folks that she really didn't even know but were connected to her through mutual friends, began to offer her support. And as treatment progressed and the fog began to clear from the shock of the diagnosis, Deanna began to reflect on this virtual body of Christ. It didn't really make sense to her that the church could be embodied online. Now, again, this is 2008, so we've come a long way. We've kind of stretched our imagination. But even still today, sometimes it's hard for me to kind of see the body of Christ lived out online because I'm so used to seeing it in person. Isn't the body of Christ something tangible that we can see and be together in the same room? Isn't that what that means? Isn't it something that we have to be present with one another? But could it actually be lived out online? Were the questions that she began to reflect on. Now, of course, online stuff can go awry, it can be used poorly, but it can also be used in a way that is helpful and impactful for people. And so here's one story of how she began to understand this virtual body of Christ that really supported her through her cancer treatments. She said family and friends wanted to help out, but it was often unclear what they could do to help her after they had received this diagnosis that kind of radically altered their life. And the future seemed very uncertain. She said, A close friend of mine was one of the many who brought food to our home. And after the weeks of the diagnosis, she began to ask, What else can I do for you? What do you need? And she wasn't able to answer her question, but her friend began to pray for guidance. And then one day she later told me that a clear message came to her that she should make a quilt for our family. And she, Deanna said, This is a friend who pays attention to these messages. And so she used this Caring Bridge website to develop her own virtual network of emails, explaining in her messages that she was on a mission to make a quilt for our family and inviting anybody who wanted to participate to join in. And so this friend began to send quilt squares through the mail to people who requested them. She began to meet people clandestinely in coffee shops and drop off quilt squares. And at night, people would drop by her house to pick up quilt squares on her front porch. All the while, this friend was deepening connections with people she had known for a while and with people she had just met as a result of this connection. So that fall, the family was invited, was told this tale to invite us to come over to this friend's house. We were ushered into the house to find our extended family, friends, neighbors, coworkers waiting to surprise us. And in the middle of the room on a wooden frame was an exquisite quilt flanked by family and friends. And there in the kitchen were a bunch of people preparing the feast for the day. We were shocked. We were baffled of all the assembly of all of these people, people that we knew, and yet how did they know one another? And they had gathered together in this home. It took our friends' explanation and all afternoon of conversations for us to begin to understand what had been happening over these past several months. She wrote, Our strong ties of family and friends, we slowly came to realize, had been making not just a phenomenal quilt of comfort during this traumatic time in our lives, but they had been forming new strong connections with one another. And the gift and the conversations were all made possible by the virtual network created in the wake of my illness. I met the author, Deanna, last summer at a conference. So she was diagnosed in 2008 with incurable cancer. I met her in 2025. I understand she just retired a month ago. I heard her speak about her journey, and I have to believe that part of her healing and part of her ability to live with this incurable cancer has come from both the in-person and the virtual body of Christ. She still lives with incurable cancer, but her life continues to be a witness to God's healing and the strength of the body of Christ, connected to one another in all of the ways that we come together. You see, staying connected matters. It is because of our connection with God and Christ, and with our connection with one another, that we can bear fruit. And we can bear fruit that changes lives. Let's pray. Oh God, we are thankful for the ways that you invite us into relationship with you. And you bring us into relationships with one another. Oh God, may our connection with you and with one another empower us, strengthen us, and fill us for the work that you've called us to do. Amen.

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Thanks for joining us for this episode of Real Faith in the Real World. We hope that this message helps you grow in your understanding and sparks new insight on your journey of faith. If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to subscribe and share. And as always, if you have questions and want to dive deeper into today's topic, please feel free to reach out to us by going to normalfumc.org, click about normal first, and click contact to leave us a message. We would love to hear from you. And until next time, keep seeking, keep questioning, and keep growing.