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Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Welcome to the Abide in Me podcast. This summer, we will be hearing from different voices, each bringing you reflections, songs, and liturgy to help us stay connected to the vine. This week we are joined by our warehouse campus pastor, Anna Anderson.

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Grace to you all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. It's that last sentence of Ephesians, a blessing for us. The word undying here means incorruptible, uncorrupted, immortal, a love that does not die. I'm reminded of this promise from Ephesians 1. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. The promised future for all those who are in Christ is a bodily resurrection one day when we'll be completely restored and live with God in the new heavens and the new earth forever. That's the redemption of those who are in God's possession. That will be the ultimate expression of our undying love for God, when we're raised up on that day of resurrection, never to die again. I was discussing this passage with my mentor from seminary, Dr. Todd Billings. He wrote a book called The End of the Christian Life, which is a theology of death and dying for the church. While researching for this book, I read another great book by Atul Gawande called Being Mortal. And just last week, Dr. Billings sent me this book in the mail, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. I think I was complaining to him about how I couldn't fit into my life everything I needed to do. And he said, Anna, you're gonna die. All these books point out the reality that we live in a death-denying culture. We're all gonna die. But we live in a culture that hesitates to talk about death. We use Botox to get rid of wrinkles. We we dye our gray hairs right away. We've started calling funerals celebrations of life. We're hesitant to say someone died, we'll say they passed. We no longer walk past cemeteries on the way into church like worshipers would have for most of Christian history. The elderly used to die at home, something children would experience as a normal part of life in the parlor of their house. But now it's usually at a hospital or a care center. We've made death something strange, something far away. Our culture is one that denies death until it becomes close to you, someone you love, something you experience up close. And even then it's awkward to talk about and hard to bring up. We're all going to die. And yet the encouragement of this last glimmering sentence of Ephesians is that we love Jesus with a love that never dies, an undying love. So how do we hold all of that together? What keeps our love from ceasing, from not dying, even though we'll die? The promise of resurrection and the seal of the Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus' resurrection and our future resurrection, anything done out of love for God is something that will last. You'll die, but one day you'll be resurrected, which means that no prayer is wasted, no act of love is in vain, and nothing done in love for Jesus will be forgotten. He's gonna live forever and you will too, together, when the dead are raised and it's all made new. It's that paradox at the center of being human. You are so small and you're going to die. But God has loved you in Jesus Christ so deeply that he has made a way for eternal life and has made a way for the love you have for Jesus to truly be an undying one, a forever kind of love. And it's precisely because God loved you with his own death that you can love God back with an undying love. It's only the dying love of God that invites our response of undying love. God did this for us and for our salvation in Jesus. I love this quote from a sermon by Frederick Bauerschmitt. The love that is God is crucified love. We know the depth of the mystery of love because God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. The cross of Jesus shows us that the love that gives itself for our life is love that ceaselessly, relentlessly, scandalously pours itself out. And it is precisely in not holding itself back, not hesitating to give itself up, that this love is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. That is, it is the life-giving mystery that we call God, because there is no greater love than this. The dying love of God, of Jesus on the cross, makes a way for you to love God with an undying love. The undyingly generous love of God makes a way for you to love him with an undying love. God's relentless giving of himself for you invites you to respond with the kind of love that never dies. Your love will waver. And it will be met with grace time and time again, this side of the resurrection. And then your love will truly be undying when we see him face to face. That's how much of a gift this all is. That your love for God will be able to be undying because he died, because of grace, because he gave it all for you.

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Thanks for joining us. If you have any questions, comments, or would like prayer, we would love to hear from you. Reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com. And for now, if you're willing, receive this blessing. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always.