Prospect
The Rev'd Robert Warren John 15:1-8
Easter 5 - Year B
Back
in the day my father nicked the branch of a grapevine with a scythe.
Though it was early in the season, with no grapes and only the earliest
indication of leaves, the vine wept copiously for weeks even though he
tried to bind the wound with a tight dressing. Off-season grape vines
look like little more than dry sticks and yet the vine sends vital
nourishment out to those buds with tremendous intention. Appearances
are deceiving. The nourishment goes on subtly and quietly but the
leaves and the fruit do take form. They provide a harvest for the
vintner and shade for his family in the heat of the day.
Jesus
tells his disciples that he is the true vine and that they are
branches. His father is the cultivator, the one who keeps the branches
pruned back and effective. They can do nothing apart from the vine.
Life will not be fruitful and ministry ineffective. There will be no
joy - not for Jesus and not for the disciples - unless they remain
connected to the source of their life.
Finding
a secret source of strength might be enticing. You could write a book
about it. People might buy it. There's gold in those hills. There's
pirate treasure in the bay. There's oil underneath Jed Clampett's land -
black gold, Texas Tea, resources and power. Our devices will work if
we plug them in - if (as per the French verb) we are branché - connected and plugged in.
But
to what end do we seek to be so plugged in? Is this mostly about us?
Is it our well-being which is the subject at hand? After all, resources
can be sucked up, used up, squandered, rejoiced in and they could in
theory end with us. No - Jesus' words make references to the
fruitfulness of branches, hanging heavy with fruit because the disciples
are to become lovers of others, conduits for God's grace to the world
around them. That's what the subject heading is for this whole long
discourse running from John 13 to the end of chapter 17: "...even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
Jesus takes it for granted that the disciples desire is to remain
connected with the work of the Kingdom, to feed the world around them
and to extend God's friendship into it.
Are
our vines weeping? Did they get nicked when we drew a circle around
our resources even if we did this for what seemed like the best of all
reasons - care of self and care of our loved ones? We are survivors -
no question. Are we disciples? If so then we are necessarily connected to a world - a world which groans for our fellowship and which has been promised the harvest from our branches.
"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and prove to be my disciples."
