"Vines and Branches"
John 15:1-8
May 10, 2009
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
A newspaper reporter and photographer were sent to a successful entrepreneur to get the story of how he made his millions. The first question out of the reporter's mouth was this one: "How did you do it? How did you make all your money?" The now multi-millionaire said, "It's a great story, really. When my wife and I married, we had the essentials. We had a roof over our heads and a little food in the pantry, but that was it. Between the two of us we had one nickel. So I took that nickel to the grocery store, bought an apple, shined it up nicely, and then sold it for a dime." The reporter asked, "What did you do next?" The man answered, "I went to the grocery store with that dime and bought two more apples. I shined them up and sold them for twenty-five cents."
The reporter was getting excited. She could see the headline of her story, Millionaire Gets His Start Selling Apples. She excitedly asked the man, "Then what?" The man answered, "Then my father-in-law died and left us twenty million dollars." Forget the apples! That man was successful because of his family connection!
Another successfully business executive was asked to give the commencement address at a high school. It is the season for this sort of thing! Like many he decided to talk about how to be successful in life. He had his notes. He was ready. As he entered the auditorium, printed in bold letters on the door was the word Push. The man thought that he would use that in his address. He thought it would be the perfect ending, how we need to push in life to make it. So when he came to the concluding part of his talk, he spoke of the door he had just walked through. He pointed to that door and asked the graduates to look at the word printed there. When he came through the door, printed there was the word push, but on this side of it was printed the word Pull. Two letters changed his message. One of the messages of this world is that it is not always about what you know, but who you know.
The most influential person I know is Jesus. My question for us this morning is simple. Do you know Jesus? I'd like for us to spend a few minutes answering that.
I think that our scripture lesson is perfect for just that. I have always found strength in this passage. It offers a simple truth that just makes sense. Staying connected to Jesus just makes sense to me. God is the vine grower. Jesus is the vine. I am a branch. As long as I stay connected and know that my role is that of a branch, things seem to go better for me.
These words and this image come in what we have come to call Jesus' farewell discourse. Between the thirteenth and seventeenth chapter of John's gospel, Jesus talks about important things and what life will be life once he is gone. It is in these chapters that we get the image and lesson of bread and wine, reminding us that Jesus can be found in these things. It is in these chapters that we get the image and lesson of a towel and water basin, reminding us that being a servant is what life is all about. It is in these chapters that Jesus' voice carries over the centuries, to the memorial service and to any time when we are troubled. I love reading Jesus' lines, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe…"
When the Last Supper was over, Jesus and his disciples walked down the steps toward the Garden of Gethsemane. We all know what will happen in that garden. Like he so often did, Jesus took an ordinary thing, in this case, a vine, and wrapped a lesson around it.
The vine was growing wildly. Vines tend to do that and quickly get out of control if they are not tended to. I believe Jesus lifted the vine up, and directed it towards the sun. Then he gave us words, if you'll pardon the pun, which we are still growing into, "I am the vine, you are the branches."
Now there are some things that we know about the vines of Jesus' day. A vine grower was necessary to keep the vine growing and producing. In order for a vine to do that, the gardener had to cut away the lifeless and unproductive branches, and prune those that were productive. I'll have to be honest with you. I missed before. All of the vines, at one time or another, get cut, even those that are producing fruit.
Why? The Bible tells us that this happens so that the vines will produce more fruit. I read this week that new vines are not allowed to produce fruit for their first ten years. That seems a little extreme to me.
I think I have shared with you before that just outside London there is a royal estate where a vine has been growing for a thousand years. It is the job of twelve gardeners to take care of pruning the vine. I read that one of its vines is more than two hundred feet long and that its root is two feet thick. This vine has been producing grapes for a thousand years. Even today, several tons of grapes come from it. This must be the kind of thing just had in mind for our lives.
Jesus gives us the image of the vine and then he says that we must abide in him. Abide is an old fashioned biblical word that you don't often hear. I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage and the concept of abiding. It just makes more sense to me. He writes, "Live in me. Make your home in me, just as I do in you." Abide in him. Make your home in him. Remain in him. Stand with him. Be Faithful to him. Stand firm in him. Never leave him. This is what abide means.
The notion of making a home, of finding the heart's true home in Jesus brings a settled peace to the turmoil that often characterizes our lives I don't know how many times I have heard it. I don't know how many times I have said it myself. The phrase is usually said in pain, "I just feel so disconnected." What can we do about that?
In my days as a youth minister, one of the things I liked to do on the last night of an away from the church week long retreat was to play a game using a ball of yarn, a big ball of yarn. You may have played this game. I would ask the youth to sit in a large circle and then I would give the instructions. They were to wrap a piece of string around one of their fingers, throw the ball of yarn to someone sitting in the circle, and then to say something positive about them. Usually they spoke of what they meant to each other. I wish we could do that this morning. For sure I wish we could do that before my last Sunday here in June. By the end of the evening powerful and affirming words were offered and visibly in front of us was a web of connection. We could raise our hands and arms and the web would move with us. It was a powerful reminder of our connection!
Jesus said that being connected to him was like that. I am told that the strongest place on a vine is where the vine and the branch come together. That is not the case with a tree. With the tree, the weakest place is where the trunk and branches come together. We know that from wind storms. When they blow through, branches are all over our yard. But not the branches on vines; they stand firm.
Jesus says that if we don't have a connection with him, there's not much we can do in this life. I know what you must be thinking. "That's crazy, preacher. I know plenty of people who have hardly a relationship at all with Jesus who are doing just fine, prospering, some of them. I know that, but what I am saying is that what they are prospering in has no eternal significance. You can't do that without Jesus.
And now our sermon could take a nasty turn here. We could speak of those things in our lives that need pruning, the things that need to be cut off. Things like bad habits and bad words, things we are addicted to, the kinds of jokes we make and the shows we watch, the things that show up on our computer screens, the things that keep us from being fruitful.
I only have a few more Sundays with you, so let me be nice. Instead I'd like to finish up here by talking about the power of staying connected. So, how do we stay connected to Jesus? How do we remain in him? How do we help others?
Let me first say that staying connected means paying attention to your prayer life. How can you stay connected to this Jesus if you don't talk with Him about the things on your heart, your joys and your fears? So pray.
Second, stay connected to your community of faith. It's easy to slip away. One Sunday turns into two and then several more. You are missed when you are not here. We think we can go it alone, but we cannot. We need each other. I am going to talk next week about being a friend to Jesus, but now I want to say that being a friend to someone else means that you offer trust and you bear your soul. You cannot expect someone to share with you if you are not willing to share with them. Hold nothing back and you will never feel disconnected.
Finally, let me say something about our families. It's appropriate to do that on Mother's Day, isn't it? The older I get, the smarter my mother seems. When I was younger, she could offer me no wisdom. I was smarter than her. She makes good sense now. One of the greatest gifts my mother and my father gave me was the church. I'm glad that made me go when I didn't want to go until it so happened that I didn't want to miss. This is the kind of thing I want my girls to know, that God is more important than any other relationship in their lives. And so on this Mother's Day, I say "Thanks Mom and thanks Dad for giving me a strong connection to the Lord." Let us pray.
(Thanks to my mother, Mary Moore Fleming, for doing a great job in raising her children, especially me!)