Handshake

At our church we have a “handshake chorus” to welcome one another to the church service.  We discontinued the chorus during Covid but have started it back with one stipulation: shake hands only if you want to.  No pressure.  You can fist-bump, elbow tap, or just smile at a distance if you would rather.  We have a gallon pump hand sanitizer placed conspicuously on the handrail in the back, and most people circle by to use it on their way back to their seats.  Hey, whatever you feel comfortable with.  Handshakes are interesting.  Some folk grab your hand like it’s an arm-wrestling contest, but some folk just don’t really shake your hand.  They let you shake their hand.  They hold out their hand like a dead fish for you to grab.  Hey, for a healthy handshake, it takes two people.  Jesus said in John 15:4, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”  Just as a good handshake needs two people, we must work with Jesus to bring forth fruit for the Kingdom of God.  He produces the fruit in us, but we must abide in Him to get it done.  Like a healthy handshake, we both must get involved.  No “power grab” but no “dead fish” either.  If we depend on Jesus and He works with us, together, as He said in verse 5, we will bear “much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.”