The Master Gardener

I am the bread of life in chapter 6. I am the light of the world in chapter 8. I am the door of the sheep in Chapter 10. I am the resurrection and the life in chapter 11. And in this morning's reading from chapter 15, I am the vine.

Certainly, that is imagery that people from that time and that place would've well understood. They grew grapes; they made wine. They understood how important pruning was to the process of growing the fruit that could be made into wine. Remember that when this conversation took place between Jesus and his apostles, they had just finished the last supper and were walking out of Jerusalem on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane. They would've passed by the temple and seen the vines carved into the door. As they left the city itself, they would've passed through its gates with vines carved into them. It was the spring of the year and it’s not hard to imagine Jesus grasping a blooming vine to make his point.

But in this self-portrayal, Jesus takes it one step farther. Not only does he address who he is to the world and to us, as he had done in the previous metaphors, but he also addresses who we are to him. I am the vine, you are the branches. What Jesus is describing, of course, is a relationship. Not only his relationship to us but also our relationship to him.

We've all had plenty of experience with relationships: those between employer and employee, between teacher and student and, perhaps most familiar of all, marital and family relationships. And there's one thing I bet we can all agree on. A relationship works only when everyone involved, participates! If a wife is the only one who works on a marriage and the husband only sometimes or not at all, what's likely to happen to that marriage? It'll fall apart before long.

Of course, the same is true for our relationship with Christ. If we don't tend it with prayer, study and devotion, it too will disintegrate. But why should we? I mean, is it really that important? Let's go back to our analogy. Jesus says, I am the vine you are the branches. Can a branch live on if it is disconnected from the vine? Of course not. It withers and dies. Jesus makes this point when he utters what may be the most significant words in our gospel reading, “apart from me, you can do nothing.”

The vine, Christ, is the source of life and nourishment to the branch, us. But this is not the first time in scripture that the metaphor of a Vine is used. In Psalm 80, Israel is depicted as a vine that God took out of Egypt and planted. It prospered until Israel's disobedience. And so our merciful God has given us another chance, another vine, Jesus Christ. He is the vine, we are the branches and God is the vine-grower.

Now, let's look at the part each of these 3 elements plays in this relationship. Christ, the vine, is the source of life and nourishment for us, the branches. After all, it is the job of the branch to bare the fruit. It is the fruit that brings glory to God and that is our ultimate job, to glorify God by the fruit we bare in this life. So, how hard is this fruit-bearing, anyway? Actually, it’s not hard at all. Ever seen grapes appear on a vine-branch? It just happens. The branch doesn't have to struggle at all. Not if it’s truly connected to the vine. The vine makes it possible for the branch to bear fruit.

I think I told you before that when I finally acknowledged Christ and realized that I needed to turn my life over to Him, my first concern was “oh great, now what am I going to have to do?” But when Sunday rolled around, my one day off that I felt entitled to enjoy, I was surprised to find myself getting up and going to church. It was the vine making it possible to bear fruit.

I felt drawn to be where Christ was believed in and talked about and prayed to. That was the first of such incidents and there have been many since including the Lay Ministry Institute, which is why I'm talking to you this morning.

The vine is making it possible to bear fruit. Not a lot, perhaps. But that too can change. God Himself, the vine-grower, will enter the process when necessary to clear away obstacles that may prevent a branch from bearing optimal fruit. Verse 2 “Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. “

When I was a kid, we had an Apple tree in the back yard from which mom made wonderful pies and applesauce. But its fruit production seemed to be falling off. So dad, engineer that he was, researched proper pruning methods. Then, one weekend, he got up there with his saw and cut off parts of several branches. It was a big tree and, as I recall, there was enough work to take him most of a Saturday and a Sunday. Not much happened that year. But the following year, wow! That tree yielded more apples than it ever had before. And that's how God works in our lives.

He sends us challenges like job loss, marital breakups, and bereavement. He's cleaning out the dead wood in our lives to make room for new growth. Like that old apple tree, we can be pruned to be better than ever. But how do we know that we are bearing fruit? What should we look for in our lives to verify it?

Paul answers that question in his letter to the Galatians. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we are carefully maintaining our connection as branches to the vine, Jesus, we will begin to see evidence of those fruits in our lives. Ok, Lou, but just how does one maintain that connection? In our Gospel reading, Jesus says six times, abide in me. Verse 4, Abide in Me as I abide in you. Just as the branch can-not bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

To abide, of course, is to dwell. We dwell in Jesus when we are constantly aware of our connection to Him. When we run everything by Him, even if it’s just in a quick little prayer.

How many times have you as a parent said one of those just before you took up something awkward or difficult with one of your kids? When you do that, you're drawing your life and strength from the Vine, as God intended. Consider that Christ gave this teaching to his apostles just before the crucifixion. Very soon, He would no longer be with them, at least, not in the way he had been. He needed them to know that even though they would no longer have his physical presence with them, His work would continue through them and their lives. They needed to know how to produce the kind of fruit in their lives that would glorify God. Some 2000 years later, the same is true for us.

This relationship between Christ, the Vine, and us, the branches, is without question, the most vital and essential relationship we will have in our lives. Even more so than our spousal relationships. And that's saying something. It is so worth the time and effort it takes to maintain it. But even if we do that, we're only doing half the job.

A couple of weeks ago, Ray Huff spoke eloquently about our newly adopted mission statement, To know Christ, and to make Christ known. Making Christ known is some of the fruit we are expected to bear. We can be the instruments by which new branches are grafted on to the vine of Christ. You may find that to be a daunting prospect. But prepare to be surprised. Sometimes just the calm assurance you get from knowing and trusting Christ is a more powerful witness to others than anything you can say.

As long as you're a solid branch, that's firmly connected to the Vine that is Christ, God will use you in the way He knows to be best.

If there is something you lack that is needed for you to bear His intended fruit, He will prune. But never wantonly. Always to make us more fruitful.

He is, after all, the first, and still, the Master Gardener.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.