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Jesus says, I'm the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Welcome to Pillar's Abide in Me podcast, a weekly opportunity to abide in Christ through weekly pillar sermon and worship reflections. I'm Trish.

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And I'm Christian. Hear these words from the book we love. Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and the disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, Who are you looking for? They answered, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus replied, I am He. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am he, they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, Whom are you looking for? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these people go. This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken. I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me? So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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The world is complicated, and the trouble we face in it is also complicated. We like to simplify things, make it her fault, his fault, their fault, never my fault. And it's not just personal, it's systemic. It's complicated. In the world, you face trouble. The word world is not only the stuff of existence, it's also the cultures we create, the systems, the invisible forces that we sort of make to organize ourselves. But then, they sort of manage us, control us, they work back on us. Peter Berger, a sociologist, calls it a sacred canopy. We create these invisible structures that then dictate the terms of our lives. The world. In the world, you face trouble. The word world, on a darker note, can mean the ruler of the power of the air, the principalities and the powers. John means evil, darkness, that which has been at war with God's purposes from the beginning when the serpent slipped up behind the first man and the first woman and duped them into eating the fruit they were told not to touch. The same one that had already decided Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, would betray Jesus. The world. Simon Peter, on that garden night, draws his sword, strikes the slave of the high priest. Simon Peter, who in an hour or two would deny him, now draws the sword to fight, in both cases expressing some inner instinct that runs contrary to God's kingdom. Jesus says, Put your sword back in its sheath. In the world, you face trouble. Jesus was crucified by those protecting a way, a religious way. The ones who were trying to hold space for those anticipating the Messiah didn't recognize the Messiah when he was right in front of them. There was a political way, too. More than that, but not other than that. The systems of laws and rules of order to keep the peace were now being used to kill the Prince of Peace. Pilate and Caiaphas hold hands. This is why Jesus would say, My kingdom is not of this world. In the world you face trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

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For our part as a pillar community, we'd love to be praying for you. So feel free to reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com and if you're willing, receive this blessing. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.