The setting of today’s Gospel Reading is in the upper room during Holy Week. Jesus had shared a meal with his disciples, had washed their feet, given them the command to love one another, and had revealed to them that he was returning to his Father. He had told them that he was going to prepare a place for them but had also said to them: ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ This is one of the last times that Jesus addressed his disciples before his death on the Cross.
The disciples were troubled at the thought of their dear friend and teacher departing and confused about what that meant. Perhaps some thoughts going through their mind were: “What does Jesus mean?” “What would become of them without Jesus?” “What were they supposed to do without Jesus?” “What could they do without Jesus?”
They are not to do anything without Jesus. Through the analogy of the vine and the branches, Jesus teaches them that they cannot do anything without him. Jesus is giving a picture of the church. He is the true vine, the source and Lord of his church, and they are the branches of it. A branch of any plant not connected to the trunk and roots is dead. If the branches of a vine are not connected to the vine’s trunk, they won’t receive the nutrients the trunk draws from the root system to distribute to the branches. Jesus is saying that he is their source of righteousness and life.
The Vinedresser (or gardener) is the Father. He prunes the vine’s branches. Branches on vines and fruit trees that are pruned become more fruitful. Even the fruitful branches are pruned. In the first instance this is not an action of judgment but blessing to facilitate God’s growth of his church. Like any good vine grower, the Father tends the vine with care, pruning where necessary so that it bears as much fruit as possible. In the text the original Greek word for prune can also mean to clean. Pruning diseased wood from fruit trees protects the tree from further infection, to ensure its survival and fruit production into the future. How does the Father’s pruning of his church take place? Through the living and active word of God which is sharper than any double-edged sword, as it pierces right through to judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Jesus presents this image to his disciples at this point in his journey to the Cross, because it is an image that conveys profound dependence. The one thing the disciples are to make sure of is that they remain in Jesus. Seven times Jesus uses the word for remain/abide. They are to remain in him, for they will be able to do nothing without him, but if they do abide in him, they shall bear much fruit. Jesus’ disciples are to remain in him, by his words remaining in them.
It was an incredible privilege to be the camp pastor at the NOVO youth camp over the last weekend, with the theme: “The Lord will provide”. My role was to preach on each of the four days, and sometimes that was as long, if not longer, than sermons here. They were followed with reflection on the message and bible study groups to delve deeper into the theme over the week.
Assistant Bishop for Local Mission in the District, Stephen Schultz attended, and shared some fascinating insights from a recent meeting of Mission Directors in the LCANZ. At that meeting, the team had a strong sense of calling to reflect on Mark 6, where Jesus had miraculously fed the crowd of 5000 with a few loaves and fish, before Jesus sent his disciples to travel a short and simple distance to the next town, Bethsaida, by boat, while he went up a mountainside to pray. Later that night, a wild storm blew up, and Jesus sees them from the mountainside where he is praying, straining at the oars in the darkness of night. By the time early morning comes, they are hopelessly off course, in the middle of the lake, straining at the oars. In their meeting, the mission directors found that their focus kept drifting back to this verse and the vision of the disciples straining at the oars. The theology is that when we try to pilot the boat (the church) instead of Jesus, our straining at the oars avails little in the storms of life, and, if anything, we go dangerously off course.
Stephen shared some data from a survey about what Lutherans value and prioritise in the church (the yellow bar in the graph). The overwhelming majority was receiving Holy Communion, followed by preaching and teaching, traditional style of worship, and contemporary style of worship. At the lower end of the scale were things like reaching those who do not attend church, openness to social or cultural diversity, ministry to children and youth. The participants in the survey were then asked to respond with what they thought Jesus’ priorities for the LCA would be (the blue bar in the graph). The overwhelming response was preaching and teaching and reaching those who do not attend church. It seems that there is a big difference between what the church prioritises, and what it thinks Jesus’ priorities are. The youth at NOVO were then asked to respond with what they thought Jesus would want to prioritise in the church (green bar in the graph). Reaching those who do not attend church was the highest, only marginally ahead of preaching and teaching and HC.
To me this says that many of the youth of the church are hungry to hear and learn God’s word and for others to know it too. They want solid preaching and teaching more often than some might give them credit for. It also says that unless we know God’s word for our future, we aren’t going to be going where Jesus is leading. In one of the small group study times, the youth reflected on these survey results and the image of straining at the oars. One of the girls noted how Martha was distracted from listening to Jesus by her busyness in serving, while Jesus commended Mary for sitting at his feet to listen to him; the better option (Luke 10:38-42). She noted that even our role of service in the church, and even our focus on worship can be a distraction from being with Jesus to follow his leading through his word. I thought her insight was amazing and links in with what Jesus says to us today: “Remain in me, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Unless we abide in Jesus’ word as the first thing we do, we go hopelessly off course, individually, and as a church. In the imagery of the Gospel reading, we are like a fruitless branch, detached from the vine.
It is not our responsibility to make the church more fruitful, but God the Father’s. So often we in the church are eager to handle the secateurs, deciding who is in and who is not, who serves, and who doesn’t, which pathways to open up, and which ones to close. But our Heavenly Father is the one who is to do the pruning. Our job is simply to remain in Christ, by abiding in his word.
The promise is that whoever abides in Jesus and he in them, they will bear much fruit. If God’s pruning of his church, through his word, is to produce fruit, what does the fruit represent in Jesus’ parable? Some commentators believe that ‘fruit’ represents new converts, much like Jesus’ earlier image in John’s Gospel of a kernel of wheat falling to the ground and dying to produce many seeds (John 12:24). Or is it righteousness, even as John the Baptist would challenge the Jewish religious leaders to “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8)? Others believe it means the fruit of the Spirit as in Galatians 5:22-23, including love. I think the fruit can include all of these things, but it is no coincidence that one of the readings paired with John 15 today is text from 1 John 4, where John says:
“… if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
…God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:12 & 16b)
When Jesus first gave his vine and branches illustration, it was to encourage the disciples. His words focus on the future. From a human standpoint, the church has never been in such a vulnerable, fragile state as in that first Holy Week. For them to remain in Jesus meant that they were already connected with him. Jesus teaches them that the future of his church is not up to them. His Father will continue shaping his church and continue to bring forth fruit. The death of Christ would not mean the church would lose its head, but the very way the church would continue. And all through the future, despite being faced with persecutions, hardships and suffering, they would endure, and even grow, by abiding in Christ.
We need the same encouragement as the disciples. These words of Jesus are the same hope for us. We must depend on Christ and abide in him and his word, for apart from him, we can do nothing, whether it is for our rostered duties here at St Paul’s, or whether it strategizing for the future of the LCANZ.
For Jesus is the true vine who has produced the fruit of righteousness for the world. He is the one who suffered the fate of the detached, fruitless vine in our place, thrown away and burned, as it were, when he was crucified on the Cross. “Remain in me” Jesus says to his disciples. To remain in Jesus means that you are already in him, and he in you. You are grafted into Christ by virtue of your baptism, made a new creation, clothed with his righteousness, and united to his own death and resurrection. Christ has already made you clean through the word he has spoken to you: “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”; “I forgive you all your sins…peace be with you”; “Take and eat, this is my body given for you. Take and drink this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”
You are among the new fruit of God’s growing church since the time of the disciples in Holy Week. Jesus the vine brings sustenance to you the branches, through bread and wine, giving you his precious body and blood to drink, by which he shares his own life with you. In the previous chapter in John, Jesus said: “If anyone loves me, they will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23). Attached to the vine, the Father continues to prune us through his word, shaping our heart to be more like that of his, to reach out to others with his love which he perfects in us.
As we have heard during Holy Week, this love is not a sentimental ideology like the world has of love. This is action; God’s action: “love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Love does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). May God continue to abide in us, and we in his word. As God goes to work through it, shaping our hearts to live by the truth and love like him, may the world come to know that Easter is not just a story, but a daily reality of the risen, living Christ among us. Amen.
