Rev David Diller’s Mother’s Day sermon was “Staying Connected” from John 15:1-8.  We learn some valuable lessons at home & most of the time our mother is the teacher.   Jesus is our teacher as well.  Our relationship to him is being branches on the living vine.  We are connected with God, Jesus, & one another in the Church.  Like Paul’s image of the Body of Christ, the vine image is organic & speaks of a living relationship.   So long as we continue in the Vine, this relationship will bear fruit for God – a good disposition & attitude which will in turn produce words & deeds of loving kindness.  Two things are needed to have that right disposition & attitude.  First, we need to be pruned or cleansed by the Word. We need to be remade on the inside to be like Jesus, which is to say, we need a new birth, a new Spirit from God.  Second, we must maintain that new life in prayer.  Prayer is staying connected with God.