He Is The Vine We Are To Be The Branches - John 15:1-17
Today we conclude our journey through the “I Am” statements of
Jesus. We have tried to recapture
significance of the impact that these statements would have had on the
listeners, as well as understand what they mean for us today. We recognized that in saying “I Am,” Jesus,
blasphemously in the ears of his contemporaries, was claiming equality with
God…for He was claiming the name God used to refer to himself when Moses
questioned God’s name at the burning bush, with God responding, “I Am that I
Am” and “this will be my name through all generations.” The controversy of Jesus claiming
identity/oneness with God is not controversial for us, because we, on this side
of the resurrection, understand (well “understand” may be a strong word), know
that Jesus, as God the Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit, are all aspects
of our One True God. For us, the
controversy for some, is that the statements that Jesus made about Himself
apply to us, as the church. We cannot
say, “we cannot do that because we are not Jesus,” because as Paul states, we
(as the church) are the Body of Christ, and individual members of it.” We are to be the living presence of Christ in
the world today, so that what was true of Him, may be, or at least may be
becoming, true of us.
So that as Jesus is the Bread of Life…we, like Christ, are to
offer to people, not only food to satisfy their physical hunger, but also to
introduce them to a relationship with Christ that will satisfy their emotional
and spiritual hungers.
Just as Jesus is the Light of the World, we too are supposed to
bring order to the darkness of chaos, reveal sin and intent in order to offer
forgiveness and life, and draw others into the family of God.
We, like Jesus, are the Gate…we are the means by which the world
comes into a relationship with God and finds true abundant, eternal life.
As shepherds reflecting the ultimate Shepherd, we lead folks to
walk in the ways of God, calling them into and through the gate.
Understanding Jesus and the role of the Living Body of Christ as
the Resurrection and the Life, reminds us that we are to look to Jesus for
life, true life, and not in the places of death found in this world…that Jesus
and the Church are supposed to be places that give life, that offer hope and
promise.
When considering “The Way, The Truth, and The Life,” we were
reminded that Jesus came to seek the lost, us and those around us, and as the
Church, we are called to seek the lost and to live our lives in faithful
obedience to God, revealing to the world The Way to True Life. We heard in this Scripture the negation of
the “we’re not Jesus, we can’t be like Jesus” excuse, reading the very words of
Jesus, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the
works that I do and in fact, will do greater works than these….”[i]
All this time, all through the series, we may have been asking
ourselves, “How can this be true? How
can we, as fallen creatures, be expected to be the same as Christ, to be able
to do the same work that God gave to Jesus, to “do the works that [He did] and
in fact…greater works than [those]….”
The answer to those questions is found today, in the last of Jesus’ “I
Am” statements.
Spending time on my grandparent’s farm when I growing up there
were several vines that were predominant and would capture my attention, two of
which first came to mind as I began working on this sermon.
The first was the vine for which my grandparent’s farm was
named—I’m not sure when they gave it this unofficial name, but when they did,
it stuck. I have known it as “Morning
Glory Hill” for as long as I can remember.
Why did they come up with this name?
It was because the most seen plant, other than tobacco, on their farm
was the morning glory vine. It grew
everywhere. It grew all along the edges
of the fields…it grew around the house…it grew around the barns. Everywhere you looked there were morning
glory vines growing and spreading out.
The blue, purple, and pink flowers were truly beautiful—though like all
flowers and myself, were not necessarily good for the allergies. I remember watching the bees fly in and out,
collecting their pollen as they traveled from one flower to the next. I remember picking the flowers, though, as
any of you who have ever picked one will recall, the life of the morning glory
was very short once detached from the vine.
The morning glories even grew amongst the other vine that stood
out by the shed behind my grandparent’s home.
This vine more traditionally ties to our Scripture this morning, and
God’s Word in general. It was the grape
vine that grew on the trellises beside the shed, next to the cherry trees. I remember waiting and watching every summer
for those Concord grapes to ripen so that we could pick them and eat them…those
were the days before the ready convenience of store-bought seedless grapes.
The image of the grape vine is one that is found throughout the
Scriptures, always part of the imagery connecting God and God’s people. Throughout the Old Testament, particularly
among the prophets, the image of a vine, either producing or not producing
fruit, was used to represent Israel. God
had planted and prepared the vine (Israel), He had faithfully tended it, and
now the question is whether the vine would respond to the nurture that God had
provided. As a vine, Israel would be
that which would offer sweet fruit that would glorify the work of the
gardener. It would be the source of a
rich, bountiful existence, not for itself, but in order to offer itself to the
world, that it might draw the world to God.
When the vine failed to produce fruit, the scripture often used either
the barrenness of the vines, or actually vines being trampled, or bound up and
tossed aside, as the consequences of not responding to the care of the
Gardener.
Jesus picks up this powerful Old Testament image, much in the same
way He did with the bread, the light, and the shepherd, and transforms it. God the Father, remains the Gardner, but
Jesus Himself becomes the vine. Jesus is
not suggesting that He is replacing Israel, but He is fulfilling the role that
Israel was to play. He is that through
which the nourishing presence of God will flow into the world. The people of God, whether it be Israelite or
Gentile Christians, would be understood as the branches connected to the
vine. The branches, connected to the
vine, were expected to bear the fruit of God.
There is such power in this final image of Christ.
First we have the importance of connection. People long for connection…that desire for
connection explains the extensive front porches and block parties of days gone
by and, despite the continued push of individualism and isolation in our
society, the popularity of networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and
Foursquare. There is in each of us a
longing to be connected to someone, something.
In our passage today, Jesus, understanding our natural desire to
be connected, reminds us that we are connected to Him. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the
branches.” Notice Jesus didn’t invite us
to be the branches, He didn’t invite us to be connected to Himself. Jesus simply states that we are connected to
Him. God Himself, through the moving of
the Holy Spirit, even before we were aware of His presence, connected us to
Christ. In that sense, all of creation
is, through the power of God, connected to Christ. Christ’s invitation is not to become
connected, but to remain connected.
While there is nothing we can do to earn the grace to connect
ourselves to Jesus, our free will gives us the option of remaining connected or
being pruned from the branch. The
invitation to remain connected is in Jesus’ words, “Abide in me as I abide in
you.” Remain connected to me. Why is it important to stay connected to
Jesus as a branch is to the vine? The
vine is the means by which the branches receive the nutrients from the soil and
the water drawn in by the roots. What
happens if a branch disconnects itself from the vine, or is broken away from
the vine, and is laid on the ground by itself?
It withers and dies.
For those branches that remain connected to the vine, all those
rich nutrients, the life-giving water, passes through the vine and into the
branches…what is in the vine, is in the branches. In many ways as the branches remain connected
to the vine, they grow and thicken, and many cases it becomes difficult to see
where the vine stops and the branch starts.
The same Spirit which empowered and strengthened Christ in His ministry
flows from Christ into His followers and as we continue to abide in Christ, we
become indistinguishable from Him.
How do we abide in Christ?
By spending time with Him. By
reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word. By spending time in prayerful conversation
with God. By worshipping with other
believers every opportunity we can. By
receiving the waters of Baptism, and then taking eagerly receiving communion
and taking into ourselves the body and blood of Christ. By spending time in Christian conversation,
fellowship, and service with other believers.
By participating in what John Wesley would call the Means of Grace. The more we abide in Christ, the more
Christlike we become.
How do we know if we are abiding in Christ? How do we know if we are truly
connected? What do our lives look
like? Do they reflect Christ? We look to see if we, as branches connected
to the vine, are bearing fruit. Paul
tells us that the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[ii] When we look at our lives, truly examine our
lives, are these things evident. If we
come across as cynical, mean, selfish, half-hearted, impatient, argumentative,
and out-of-control, then we are not bearing the fruit of the Spirit and it is
evident that we have disconnected from the vine. The fruit that Christ lifts above all of
these is love. Are our lives marked by
love? Loving God and loving those around
us…I am not just talking about saying we love, but actually showing that we
love. Can folks see faithfulness and
compassion shining forth out of our lives?
Do we give our lives to God simply because they belong to Him, and not
to see if we can get something from God?
Do we reach out and touch the lives of other, not because of what they
can do for us, but simply for the sake of loving them? If not, we are not connected, we are not
abiding!
However, if we abide in Christ, if we remain connected to Him, and
let Him flow into us, then the love that will flow out of us will provide a
sweet taste of God to the World. It is
in being connected to God and remaining connected, letting His grace fill our
lives, that we will find that we will do the works of Christ, even greater
works than Him, because it will be God working through us. It is through abiding in Christ, that we will
be “Bread of Life,” “the Light of the World,” “the Gate,” “the Good Shepherd,”
“the Resurrection and the Life,” and “The Way the Truth and the Life.” He is the Vine, We are the Branches…if we
abide in Him, He will abide in us, and live through us, continuing to be God’s
very presence in the world…as the Word of God made flesh and dwelling amongst
us.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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