John 15:1-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 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. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
In front of our house there is a telephone pole. This pole is not connected to anything, it’s just a pole. It is anchored by a cable attached to the ground. In the summer, a vine wraps itself around the cable, its tendrils striving to reach the pole. Now, vines usually grow out of the base of a tree and wrap themselves around that tree. The tree provides them stability while they are nourished by its root system. The vine in our front yard doesn’t wrap itself around a tree. Observing it, I see the fruitlessness of the vine straining to reach a lifeless pole.
The tension in this text from John is expressed in the metaphor of a vine and its branches. The theme is abiding. Abiding provides strength from Christ, comfort, and safety. Trust is in the vine, Christ and in the vine grower and gardener, God the Father. The fruit that comes from the branches is the work of God in each person, each branch. Just like a gardener prunes bushes, trees, flowers, and plants, God prunes the person to give them space to grow.
We want to abide with Jesus, to be in his presence. But we want to do this in the right way. So, we work at abiding by focusing on being with Jesus rather than following him and allowing him to grow fruit within us. We don’t want to be thrown away like a withering branch or pruned too much by God.
Becoming and being a disciple of Jesus is different from just abiding. This is different yet complementary work.
Note that this is an “insider” illustration. The analogy is meant for those disciples who have already received preparatory training from Jesus’ teaching. They aren’t newbies. Abiding is in process. This teaching is not meant for beginners in following Jesus. It is for those who already have a connection to Jesus, to the vine.
When we think of the concept of abiding, the image that usually comes to mind is that of an individual vine that is attached to the branch, an individual disciple following Jesus. If you look at a vine wrapped around a tree or fence or study a grape vine you will see that there is more than one vine that is intertwined with others. These intertwined vines are difficult to trace back to their origin.
Not long after COVID began, I spent a lot of time at the church cleaning and sorting and working with George on outdoor clean-up. One day we decided to tackle the vine wrapped in and out of the fence at the manse. I thought this would be a quick job; cut the vines at the base of the tree and pull them out. Was I wrong! For a while I would attempt to follow a vine back to its source. That turned out to be a frustrating and fruitless endeavor. So, I resorted to following a vine as far as I could, cutting it there, and working to untangle it from the fence. After what seemed like hours, I hadn’t made a lot of headway. Finally, I cut the vine into short pieces so I could remove it from the fence. I learned that vines are not individual strands but are woven together to make a whole.
In a faith community there are no free-standing individuals. Those who participate in person or online are the members of the community. Each branch, each individual is fruitful when connected to the Jesus, the vine, and as pruned by the gardener, God. No one vine is singled out as more important than the others. Those who choose to be Christians on their own are not part of the community. These can easily become withering branches that bear no fruit, eventually being thrown away.
Community is described in two separate ways in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of a body that highlights the distinctiveness of each member that comes together to form the whole. One body with many members. As he says, everyone can’t be an eye or an ear, and all have a place in the body.
In John’s analogy, the branches are attached to the vine in anonymity. No one branch is given a particular function within the whole. All are equally important. The distinction between individuals is shown by the fruit that grows on each branch.
Think of this in terms of a team approach. In golf, a team is made up of individual golfers who earn a score for the completion of their round. The scores are added together and the team with the lowest score wins the tournament. Each member contributes to the whole team. In football, the team works together to score. Each member has a particular role – quarterback, receiver, lineman, kicker, etc. Each must execute the responsibility of their role so that the team can win. Both teams have the same goal, to win. The approach is different for each. Both approaches are work.
All branches come from the same vine. The same gardener tends all. Community is organic. They abide together, and they change and grow together. The key to being God’s community is that, as the people grow as disciples, the fruit is visible.
A community does more than abide. Simply being connected to the vine and nourished is not enough. Like fruit tree, abiding results in bearing fruit, to do something on Christ’s behalf. The fruit is not meant to make one look good.
I may have told this story before. When I was a kid, we lived in California. My Grandma Alice and Grandpa Ed came for a visit. My Grandma loved to take pictures so, of course, she wanted to take pictures of her grandchildren (all six of us). She had brought us all shirts and dresses from their trip to Hawaii. We put these new clothes on for the picture which she wanted to take in front of the orange tree in our backyard. The problem was that there weren’t any oranges on the tree. Grandma Alice went to the store and bought plastic oranges to put on the tree. With the appropriate backdrop the pictures were taken. Those plastic oranges stayed on the tree for months, but we were never able to enjoy the fruit.
Community is also relational. Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of keeping these commandments. You remember that the two religious leaders crossed to the other side of the road to avoid helping the man who had been beaten and robbed. The Samaritan, a man who belonged to a disparaged nation, was the one who stopped to help the man. This man put the relationship between two men above his personal agenda. A tag line for this parable might be: “Live Love.”
If you have ever been in a serious relationship, you know that maintaining that bond takes work. Both people must be committed to working together to keep the relationship strong. This is never easy work. There will be disagreements, periods of angst, and times of joy, all of which are the result of two different individuals joining together with a common goal – to live in community with one another.
Being disciples takes work. A serious relationship with Jesus recognizes that he is the vine that nourishes and gives life to the branches, to the individual, and to the community. In the community when one is focused only on abiding, the others carry that one forward with them, trusting that they will continue to grow as a disciple of Jesus. Community members pick each other up. Community is a place of accountability and one of strength.
In the passage from 1 John 4 that was the basis for the Call to Worship, the author expands on the idea of doing love. He says that those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters. Abiding – bearing fruit – includes going out to abide with the hurt, the lost, and the abandoned. Not just to meet their needs, but to be with them. To listen, comfort, and even sit in silence with that one. Abiding helps one’s perspective to shift from loss to possibility. To Live Love.
Love is the action of bearing fruit and of using that fruit to do Jesus’ work. It is the process of growing as a disciple of Jesus. This is risky, scary, and uncomfortable work. This work is a calling of Jesus.
Jesus’ calling is the realization that the world is not yet what God desires so there is work to be done. In the community, this work looks like new opportunities for ministry. For us, these new opportunities could be beginning a ministry with senior adults, those with physical and mental disabilities, and with gays, lesbians, transgender people, and similar gender groups. Starting these as well as other opportunities gives new life for us and new life for others.
We are called to be branches attached to the vine, Jesus. We are meant to be a community that is not content to stay put, but one that embraces possibilities, bears fruit by making these possibilities realities, and honors and glorifies God.
Let’s Live Love…together.
Amen.
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