Jesus: The True Vine
Dr. Jim Wilson, March 2, 2008 At a conference a few years ago, a missionary recently returned from Africa told an interesting story. At his station he had a small generator that supplied electricity for the church and the family’s home. Visitors from an outlying village noticed the electric light hanging from the ceiling of the living room. They watched wide-eyed as the missionary turned the little switch and the bulb began to glow. One of the visitors asked if he could have one of the bulbs. The pastor, thinking the man wanted the bulb for a sort of trinket, gave him an extra bulb. A week or so later, as the missionary was visiting the outlying village, he stopped at the hut of the man who had asked for the bulb. To his surprise, he saw the bulb hanging from an ordinary string. The man pointed to the bulb and said, “No light!” The missionary had to explain that one had to have a power source and electrical connections for the bulb to produce light. This is not just a lesson in the fundamentals of electricity. This is one of those life lessons. In fact, it is a lesson I hear Jesus teaching in our text for this morning. The scene is the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Jesus is bidding farewell to his disciples. Sunday’s excitement and promise have deteriorated into anger and rejection. The shouts of “Hosanna” will soon turn to shouts of “Crucify him!” The disciples are confused and afraid. Beneath the solemn looks is the raging question, “What will happen to us once Jesus is no longer with us?” Seeking to comfort and reassure them, Jesus makes another of his great “I am” pronouncements: “I am the vine, you are the branches…If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for anything you wish, and it will be given to you. As with the other “I am” pronouncements, Jesus once again reveals his identity and speaks of what it means to be his disciple. He is the Son of the vine grower, the heavenly Father. The disciples are the branches whose very lives depend on being connected to the Vine. Using this image, Jesus speaks frankly about the future. He speaks of the Father cutting away the unproductive branches, and pruning those that remain in order that the branches may bear fruit. That is Jesus’ expectation of his disciples---that they bear fruit; that they witness and serve in ways that proclaim the Good News. His listeners would understand for removing unproductive branches and pruning others is how one tends the vineyard. Then Jesus makes the theoretical existential. “I am the vine and you are the branches,” he says again. What a powerful image of the life of discipleship! The life of faith is about being connected---connected to Jesus, as the branches are to the vine. As I thought about these words of Jesus, I was struck by how clearly and concisely they speak of what it means to be Christian. “I am the vine, you are the branches…Abide in me.” Could Jesus have possibly been more clear about what it means to be a Christian? The Christian faith is not a list of great religious ideas or a set of religious principles. Nor is being a disciple of Jesus ultimately about getting your head straight about the doctrine of atonement or how Jesus is really present in the sacrament. The Christian faith is about following Jesus. Jesus does not call us to agree with him, or to having a particular experience or a certain feeling. He calls us to keep connected with him, to take up the habits, to move the moves, to internalize the dispositions and inclinations of trusting him with our very lives. We are to abide in him, as the branches abide in the vine. “Abide,” isn’t that a wonderfully archaic word. It sends us to the dictionary where we discover it means “to remain,” to dwell,” to endure,” “to stay in the home.” Abide is one of John’s favorite words. He uses the word, “abide,” some 40 times in this Gospel. We don’t use the word very often. I doubt that we would read a headline in the sports section of the Tribune that read, “Briggs resigns and will abide with the Bears!” Yet, the point is made. Faithful discipleship is about staying connected to Jesus, about abiding in his gracious love; that love which nourishes and nurtures our faith and our lives. For a number of years I had a potted vine in my study. While I do not have anything that resembles “a green thumb,” this plant was hearty enough to endure even my sporadic care. On more than one occasion this vine became an object lesson for a family grieving the loss of a loved one, or a couple experiencing pain in their marriage, or a person feeling very much up against life. That winding vine with its green branches served as a reminder of the connectedness we have with Christ Jesus, the strength and new possibilities we have as we abide in him, as we trust his gracious love to sustain us and bring us to new life. That same vine also nudges us to ask ourselves, “To what or whom is my life connected? Where am I seeking nourishment and nurture for my life?” Jesus reminds us that without being connected to him, we can do nothing. A failure to remain connected with connected with him, leaves us powerless, wordless, prayerless, and hopeless. A story is told about woman who more than anything else wanted a Rainbow Vacuum for Christmas. She had seen a model at a local store and was excited about its power and ease of use So her husband decided to buy it for her and he and the rest of he family enjoyed watching her great excitement as she opened the gift. As soon as all the gifts were opened, Mary eagerly plugged the vacuum in for a test drive across the family room floor. The vacuum purred quietly as she pushed it. All were amazed at its power and the immediate difference it made in the carpet. It really worked. And suddenly it didn’t. The vacuum just stopped. Mary flipped the switch a few times and it started up again, but only for a few moments and promptly it stopped. Mary was quite upset. “What kind of defective vacuum did he buy me she thought to herself, as she gave up and went looking for her husband. When she found him, she told him, “That vacuum is defective. The crazy thing goes off and on, off and on. Her husband went in and tried to find out what the problem was. He couldn’t. So they decided to unplug it and repack it t take it back the next day. That’s when they discovered that in her excitement, Mary had plugged the vacuum cord into the Christmas tree blinker light outlet. There was no steady supply of power. The story begs the question, “What about you and me? Where are we plugged in? Are we connected to the proper power source?” Jesus calls us to abide in him, to connect with his gracious love and know that steady source of power that allows us to be faithful disciples. Faithful discipleship is about following Jesus, about staying connected with him who is the vine, and other disciples, who are other branches on the vine. In a world that encourages isolation, that promotes the privatized life to the exclusion of community, this is a counter cultural notion---to live in relationship, to celebrate community. This leads to that second aspect of faithful discipleship. The purpose of the relationship of the vine and the branches is to bear fruit. Jesus makes that clear when he says, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” Faithful disciples are involved in fruit-producing lives. Jesus does not get specific about what fruit is. However, I think it is safe to assume he means lives that witness to God’s transforming love, lives that make a difference in lives of others, lives that serve in ways that make real the Good News---in acts of forgiveness and experiences reconciliation, in work that liberates and brings life, in actions that love and comfort, in efforts that promote peace and justice. That is what faithful disciples do---they bear fruit. The point is that we do this not on our own, or by our own power, but because we are connected to the power source. Often someone will say to me, “I do not have that kind of faith” or “My faith is just not that strong.” I usually respond with a question. If you saw two persons working with wood, driving nails, measuring and sawing boards and asked “Are you a carpenter?” what would you expect them to answer. “Yes,” both would answer “yes” to your question. It does not make any difference if one is an apprentice just learning the trade and the other is a master carpenter. They both are carpenters, one just happens to be a bit farther along the path of learning and bearing fruit So it is for disciples. Whether we are just beginning the journey or have traveled many miles, we are disciples. The fruit we produce may be different, but we both still produce fruit. Faith does not mean arrival. It means we are on the way. Faith is not about a destination. It is about the journey. When someone asks a colleague of mine, “Are you a Christian?” he responds, “I sure am. I just keep on stumbling along behind Jesus.” I think there is a good deal of truth in that statement. To be a faithful disciple is to abide in Jesus, to follow along behind him as he continues to give us life. And it is in that connectedness that we are empowered to bear fruit---according to our place on the journey. So, this morning we pause on our Lenten journey and gather at the Table. Here we are nourished and refreshed as we eat the bread which gives life and drink the cup which renews us in joy. But more importantly we affirm our faith in Him who is the vine and ourselves as branches, knowing that it is from the Vine that we receive the very gift of life and the power to bear fruit that witnesses to the transforming love of God. Come and eat and drink and celebrate our connectedness to him who is the Vine. Thanks be to God! Amen! |
