Wakefield Cathedral
Sunday, 2nd May 2021
John 15:1-8 / 1 John 4:7-end / Acts 8:26-end
I: Garden
I am blessed to have a garden, a space that Marlene and I have transformed into a place we enjoy being in and sharing with others. It is a true engagement with creation.
However, the concept of being a “gardener” is not the same for everyone:
It’s a range of tasks and skills,
Of hopes and failures,
Too much responsibility,
alongside joyful, simple pleasures;
Of course, you could just get someone else in to do the work, and sit back and enjoy the view, or even watch Monty on the telly!
I don’t grow any grapes. However I am aware that the promotion of healthy, productive vines requires a pruning regime that could be considered to be over-zealous! When faced with an apparently bumper crop, the vine dresser must prune out many bunches of developing grapes. This is the only way to ensure that the good fruit flourishes.
I find the act of pruning to be both cathartic and hopeful. From vigorous chopping to gentle trimming…. I know this promotes healthy growth and, in time, will bring forth abundance.
Well, that’s the plan!
However, you know as well as I do, that this passage – one of the seven “I AM” sayings in John’s Gospel – is not really about gardening.
Meaning: Historical
The vine and vineyard motifs are woven throughout the Old Testament, as a metaphor image of Israel. God has planted the vine, God has tended the vine and God is hopeful of an abundant harvest of glorious fruit….
In Psalm 80, we are reminded of how God took the ravaged Vine from out of Egypt and re-established it – a new hope in a new land.
Sadly, as lamented by Isaiah, the crop for which God had great hopes, was of wild, unruly and not-so-tasty fruit!
God wanted the harvest to be of faithfulness, justice and righteousness. Instead there was idolatry, murder, subjugation of the poor, and worse.
God sent prophets….. nothing changed!
Then God sent Jesus who knew that the future hope of Israel rested with Him – the True Israel – the True Vine……
Meaning: Jesus
And now here is Jesus, at the close of his earthly ministry, witness to the failures of contemporary false-shepherds and rubbish gardeners!
He is saying these things as part of His “farewell” discourses, mostly during the last meal Jesus had with His friends.
He washed their feet and explained about being a servant.
He told them of the Holy Spirit to come….
He encouraged them to believe in Him and in the God who sent Him….
He spoke of listening, and following His commandments to love one another…..
After Supper, walking in the deep darkness, across the Kidron Valley to the Garden, Jesus knows that the time for explanations is rapidly diminishing….
There is an urgency for the disciples to hear and understand….
He needs them to know that He acknowledges the transformations they have already experienced – nourished by the Word; but, to grow in faith and build something more, then further change must come – more pruning of the vine – and it does come.
For such is the way to abundant life, and a Harvest for the world; where all the branches of the vine bear fruit.
We: Belong
We are all “grafted” into something, at some time or other….. when we join a new church community, or take on a new role or job, or make the team….
We become a part of something.
Often some degree of change will take place for both parties….
With a hope in flourishing – for the whole and for ourselves.
This image is different though, isn’t it?
Being a part of the True Vine isn’t like joining a club or going to work.
Sure, all the components of our life are a part of us within the vine, but following Jesus, listening to His Word and coming closer, to abide in God….. that’s special…. That’s truth. [That’s Gospel]
Story: Self
I was grafted….. through adoption, into a family that raised me and, within my first year, grafted me again, into the Christian life, through baptism.
Did I flourish? Well, there was much more grafting to come…. Schools, jobs, relationships etc – a narrative we all share – and a fair bit of it seemed to be a bit rubbish, often when I felt separated from God.
God does the pruning…. Often through us, and though those around us; through experience and choice, and often circumstances beyond our knowing or control…..
Did I flourish……? Yes, no, sometimes, a bit, probably, I don’t know…. I think so… what do you think?
The pruning continues…. I know I dwell in God…. The branches are still growing….. and some of the fruit is ok….yes, its mostly ok.
Vine: Together
I have heard it said, as you probably have too, that “you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian”. This statement has some truth, especially for those who have had bad experiences within church communities.
And in this last year – we experienced new ways to stay connected, but didn’t always feel the same in-dwelling with one another, within the Vine.
This was especially so with regard to the Eucharist – that physical act that unites us in the body and blood, and in the bidding, of Jesus.
The connectedness, the rootedness, the in-dwelling…. We might not always sense it, and may even walk away from it….
“Going it alone” – without any form of support, or communion with others in Spirit and prayer, is a hard thing, and cannot lead to fruition.
A branch cut from the tree or plant will give the impression of continued growth, for a while.
It is sadly an illusion for, if it is not re-grafted or planted, or cared for in some way, it will perish.
For our lives are dependent on that intimate bond we have with God, in creation, in prayer, in each other, in Jesus.
Danger: Belonging
Not all pruning is welcome…. Or the metaphor, at least!
This imagery of the vine has been used incorrectly at times. The Christian Church has often usurped the inclusivity of abiding IN as a means of pointing out differences, as a form of exclusivity, instead of celebrating common values.
This made me think of the past differences stressed between Roman Catholic and Anglican, or even within the Anglican Communion – with communities believing that only they have remained true and fully grafted within the vine, and anything else must be pruned away and burned…..
I believe that the Vine we are called to being part of – that in-dwelling with Christ, and the One who sent Him, has many different blooms, and fruits…
OK, I don’t wish to stretch the analogy, but… there is no trophy for Best in Show…..!
Truly, if its not of love its not of God – so we listen to Jesus – HE is the true Vine.
What: Now
How do we remain grafted into Christ, and how will we respond to our lives being pruned even more…?
A response to this is already before us…. In verse 7….
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”.
Prayer: however you come to it, let it be the words of Jesus that echo within you.
Trust in God. Ask in His name in it will be done.
Abide together: some how – in worship, in the Eucharist, and in friendship.
Abide in God: as yourselves, as a family, as a community….. sharing in the pruning, removing anything which stops us growing as Christian disciples….
Gardener: Apprentice
We are forever apprentices in this Christian life….hopefully on our way to being the best disciples we can be.
Always learning, and always watching out for where God is active in our lives. Sometimes the course module, on this apprenticeship, is about Light-Bearing, for those in the darkness; or Guiding the Way for the those who are lost.
At times we are learning the practical tasks of Gardening – ensuring the seeds of the Word are sown and nurtured… or, as here, tending to all that grows within the branches of God, to bring forth an abundant harvest.
Sometimes none of this seems to make any sense…. Trusting in God to shape our lives can be a challenge….. removing the deadwood that we hang on to, though it holds us back, is often painful…. And moving on from where we are, requires so much faith.
There is a togetherness – a belonging – abiding with and in the love of God – within what we do in this place, and in what we take with us to share with all who we journey with…
Keep praying and trusting….. for the pruning is already happening and we will flourish.
For when we abide in God, in the love that is given to us, God abides in us richly – and all things become possible.
Amen.
Burridge, R.A. (1994) Four Gospels, One Jesus, SPCK, London
Cravens, D.T. (2013) Jesus Is the True Vine, Hope Christian Church, PDF
Williams, J. (2003) Lectionary Reflections: Years A, B & C, SPCK, London
Wright, T. (2002) John for Everyone: Part 2, SPCK, London