A sermon preached by the Rev. Deana Frances Dudley

at Christos Metropolitan Community Church, Toronto, Ontario

18 May 2003 – Easter V (Year B)

Jesus taught his disciples: "I am the true vine, and God is the vinegrower. God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit is pruned to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, 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. And God is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. John 15:1-8

Before I can preach on this scripture, I need to tell you a little bit about my Grandma Bessie. My Grandmother was a gardener. She could grow anything. Any flower, any vegetable. And she’d can or freeze what she grew, and live off of the bounty of her summer garden all year round. She’d put up jar after jar of vegetables and pickles and jams and jellies every year, until her little root cellar was full. I used to go down there in the summer and look at all these jars of home-canned goodness on the shelves, and when the sun would peek in the window, it would shine through the jars. Green jars of beans and pickles. Red jars of tomatoes and purple ones of beets. And jams and jellies in every color. A whole rainbow of colors. When I was little, I used to think that they looked like strings of jewels on the shelves. It was beautiful. And they were delicious. And it made my grandmother pretty self-sufficient. I don’t think she ever ate a store-bought green bean in her entire life. She grew her own.

So, my Grandma would have known what to do with a grape vine, and how to get the best grapes from it. And then she would have made grape jelly.

Today’s scripture is about being connected to what gives us life. Has anyone ever told you to "Get a life!" Well, here’s your chance. To follow Jesus is getting a real life, and staying close and connected to the source is keeping a real life. "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." In this, Christ is giving us both a connection and a direction, and in so doing, is calling us to be a reflection of God’s love. A connection, a direction, and a reflection.

What’s this connection like? What does it mean to be connected to Christ and to bring forth fruit? It's not about following rules for good behavior. It's not about accepting a set of church doctrines. It's not about being religious at all! It’s about cultivating a passionate, personal, all-consuming relationship with God. Jesus’ disciples were devoted to a Person, not a cause. It’s about what Jesus terms "abiding" in him, and he uses the metaphor of a branch connected to a vine. As a branch draws its life from the vine, we believers draw our life from Jesus. When we’re connected to Christ, the same resurrected life that flows in Jesus, flows in us. And when the LIFE of Jesus flows into us, we experience a change in our lives.

To abide means we relate to Jesus as a branch relates to a vine. He says: "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-6)

We can do NOTHING. In other words, we are totally dependent on the vine.

We don’t like that. Well, I don’t. I prefer to be self-sufficient. I’m rather stubborn about it, in fact. But Christ tells us, that’s not how it works with vines. You have to keep that connection.

My Grandma knew this. She occasionally would have a little problem with bugs in the garden. She always said she planted enough for them, but she never let them have more than their share. She would go out there and dust with pesticides, usually some kind of powder that she would dust all over everything. Her veggies were good, but they were definitely NOT organic.

Anyhow, one of the bugs that bugged her was a little borer thing, that would get into the cucumber vines. One day the vine would be going great, and the next morning, you’d go out, and a whole section would be wilted and yellow. And when you would trace it back through all the dead leaves, to the main stem, you’d find that some little grub had eaten through that branch, right at the base, breaking that connection. See, the cucumber was DEPENDENT on that main stem for water and nourishment. The life-giving juices flowed through the main stem to the branches, to enable it to make little cucumbers. It’s just not possible to produce fruit without being connected to the stem.

We’re dependent on God for everything we need in our daily life – from food, health, family and friends, to love, forgiveness, hope, comfort and eternal life. Apart from God we’d be like that dead cucumber vine. Cut off from the branch and the roots we’d die. It is like Jesus said, "If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you’ll produce lots of fruit. But you can’t do anything without me." (John 15:5 CEV).

One of the ways we get connected is right here. We’re connected and nourished and strengthened when we come here to worship, and through prayer, and through the scriptures, and at this table. If we don’t eat and drink, we die. It’s just that simple. Likewise as branches of the true vine, Jesus, we’re kept healthy and alive because we’re connected to the source of life.

When I let myself get disconnected from intimacy with God, my life, my power my joy all shrivel up like a broken branch. It’s way too easy to do that. My last semester of seminary was pretty hectic. At one point, after I finished some big papers, I decided to take a break to kind of recharge my emotional and spiritual batteries. For a few days, I resolved to stop thinking about school or church. And I didn’t. But I also stopped reading the bible and praying, which are my lifelines to God. And I quickly found myself obsessed with challenges and deadlines, trying to problem-solve, and utterly ineffective. It was very stressful, because I thought I had to solve everything, and that was a trap.

And what I realized was that I had cut myself off from my source of life. I realized I can't take a vacation from intimacy with God, anymore than I can take a vacation from breathing. I need that life flowing into me constantly, or I’ll dry up like that broken branch on my grandmother’s cucumber vine.

My point is this: Abiding daily in Christ is a necessity for believers, if we want to have the abundant life God promises. God wants us to do more than survive in this world. Too often, I think we have a mindset of "If I can just get through this next meeting, this semester, this financial crisis, this relationship problem, this business deal. If I can just hang in there! If I can just survive!"

Friends.... we’re meant to do more than just survive. See what it says here? Jesus says "I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete." Jesus offers us life... like a vine gives life to a branch... connecting us with an inexhaustible, supply of resurrection power!! This is the power from the Vine that can be ours... power to cope, to overcome, to endure, to bear fruit... if we choose to abide in Jesus.

So that’s why we need our connection. What’s the direction we take from that? "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last," Abiding in Christ is a discipline. There’s some uncomfortable language in there about "pruning" the branches that don’t bear fruit. Even the fruit-bearing branches get pruned, to bear better fruit. What’s all that about?

The pruning has a goal in mind. It’s pruning with a purpose. It’s not necessarily judgmental, and it’s not malicious. But it is DIRECTIVE. It’s for a purpose, and that purpose is for community as well as individual lives.

My grandmother knew that pruning actually improves the vine. She showed me this with raspberry canes, actually. You prune to increase production. The plant puts out "suckers," branches that are quite vigorous, but which will never bear fruit. They just waste all their energy on making leaves and more branches, so if you want berries, or grapes, you need to cut them out. In ancient Israel, and indeed in the modern middle east, grapes aren’t grown like we’re used to seeing, trained up on wires or trellises. They’re allowed to grow as a low bush, on the ground, and when the vines begin to bear fruit, you place stones under them to keep the grapes up off of the ground. And once the grapes start to appear, the unproductive branches are pruned to allow more of the strength of the vine to go into fruit.

And to get a good crop, the pruning’s rather severe. You have to cut perfectly healthy branches too, if they don’t grow fruit. You don’t want a lot of energy going into branch growing, you want it to go into grapes. It’s a radical cutting so that the remaining vine has the strength to grow fruit, as opposed to leaves and more branches. This is hard, but it’s an image of hope.... because then there’s the potential for fruit bearing.... But if it’s to work at all, the branches that are left have to be well-connected.

OK, that’s a connection and a direction. But what about reflection? I think what Jesus is saying here is that to remain in the vine, we as believers must DO something. Jesus uses the term "bear fruit." I like that. What kind of fruit are we to bear?

You have a little cartoon in your bulletin, by a guy named James Wetzstein, who does some fabulous cartoons based on scripture.  You can check him out at www.AgnusDay.com   Here's one he's done for today's passage, John 15. 

That's ONE way of bearing fruit!!!  I have another way.  I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I have a little tattoo of a bunch of grapes -- never mind WHERE! -- which is my constant reminder to myself that I am to bear fruit for God.  But what does it REALLY mean to bear fruit?  In a parable in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said "each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush...." So, fig trees produce figs, thorn bushes produce more thorns, and grape vines produce little grapes.

And a body of loving, committed followers of Christ will produce other loving, committed, followers of Christ. That’s bearing fruit. Isn’t that the growth we want? Then we need to bear those fruits of love and commitment and discipleship in our lives.

And we’re to bear fruit within, as well. Elsewhere in Scripture, in Galatians, we hear the fruit of the Spirit described: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control." (Galatians 5:22)

These qualities of life are the alternative to a life that’s mere survival, merely getting by. They come as the fruit of practicing the discipline of abiding in Jesus. They come as the fruit of pruning from our lives the things that interfere with that relationship. The things that sap our time and energy for prayer and worship, and service to God.

God’s primary agenda for us is not to make us happy, and it’s not to make life easier. God’s agenda is to do whatever is necessary – to prune – to bring us into such a personal vital relationship with God that we begin to bear the fruit of the character of Christ -- so much so, that we become like Jesus. We become a reflection of the love of Christ for the world.

A connection, a direction, and a reflection. Stay connected to the Vine. Prune our lives so that while we’re pursuing important things, we don’t miss the most important thing of all... our connection to God. And bear fruit. My prayer for Christos is that every one of us will be so close, so connected to the Vine, that people will see that fruit in our lives.... and be drawn to God’s irresistible love.