Fr. Troy Beecham
Sermon, Easter 5 2021, I am the vine
John 15:1–8
”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide 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. 5I 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. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus is preparing the disciples for the time when he will no longer be physically with them. He has already said. to them, and to us,: “… I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples …” in saying this, Jesus tells us that it is of vital importance that not only must we know that we are his disciples but also must those who are watching us who claim to be his disciples know that we are his disciples, and he gives us the most important criteria: self-emptying love.
Self-emptying love. That doesn’t sound that difficult, right? I mean, I go to church once a month, maybe twice, and I give some money here and there. Hey, I put a dollar in that homeless guy’s cup last week. Oh, and I saw someone from my parish post something on Facebook that was so obviously politically incorrect and I sure gave them a piece of my mind about it and set them straight. I think I’m doing really good with this loving people thing…
How little we seem to hear Jesus, and how much we seem to hear our own inner dialogue when it comes to being part of him, being the fruit on the vine which is his body.
My family formerly owned a vineyard and winery. Much of this Gospel reading rings true for me. I once took some young people from my parish to our vineyard and had our vineyard manager explain how we kept the vines healthy and producing plentiful grapes. And then we read this Gospel passage. You could see the light come on in their eyes, especially around the practice of pruning. Pruning grape vines looks ruthless. Grape vines grow rapidly, and left alone will create an impenetrable snarl of branches and leaves, few of which will bear grapes because all of the energy they soak up from the sun, and all the nutrients they absorb from the soil, goes into wild growth, leaving little for the production of fruit.
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We are much the same when we are left following our own desires, our own ideas about what we should be doing and who we should be. We take all of the energy and nutrients that God gives us, especially in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and we set out to “make the world right” with our own agendas and beliefs as our guide. Rather than producing a bountiful harvest of usable grapes, we seem mostly to get tangled up with each other over differences of politics, differences of belief about the sanctity of human life and when human life begins, and confusion about whether or not we are willing to accept the most basic dogmatic beliefs of Christianity, and any number of other common disagreements of our age of the world and culture.I do not want to give short shrift to these weighty topics, but they are not the focus of this Gospel reading.
This is where God steps in with his pruning shears. If we are faithful, and willing to accept the pruning that God wants to bring into our lives, the experience can be jarring. Pruning, after all, means cutting away all that is useless for the purposes of producing wine grapes. If you’ve ever seen it actually done, you’ll know that means about 95% of the vine growth gets cut off and cast aside to be collected and burned. It is an eye opening experience at just how much of the vine gets cut away. It looks ruthless and leaves you wondering if the root stock or the main vine can even survive. But then, weeks later, it is an amazing thing to see how much fruit can be grown with that 5% of the vine!
I am no one’s judge, least of all of myself. But the Scriptures give us many clear sets of criteria about what it means to abide in Jesus, and what has nothing to do with being part of his Body, the Church. It has little to do with being a nice person, or occasionally showing up for worship, or giving spare change to the Church or to needy strangers. It has even less to do with our partisan politics. It has everything to do with giving up control of our lives to God and living in such a manner that the world looks at our lives in astonishment at the love we share with each other and with all people in the name of Jesus.
Self-emptying love is on full display in the Gospels. We really should have no confusion about what it means, and we should have little confusion about what it does not mean. It comes down to whether or not we accept what Jesus says it means and what he shows us it means. It has to do with whether or not we are going to choose to follow him, take up our cross, and live as he lived. I know the objections…that’s not possible in these modern times, that was only meant for the original disciples, my life and career just first make room for that kind of radical living, surely the clergy fulfill that role for all of us…
None of these are true, dear friends. In every age, in every nation, and this morning around the world, Christians are struggling to hear the plain spoken Gospel reading and imagining how to fashion our lives to fit. If we decide to shape our lives after the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is waiting to empower us, and God is ready with his pruning shears to clear out all the clutter so that we may indeed become fruitful as part of the Body of Jesus, his Church.
The world. is watching, looking for signs of hope, signs of life, signs of a way of being that is different from the confusion, strife, and hatred that we see all around us. God is ready to help us. Are we ready to invite him to bring on the pruning of our lives?
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
