Gracious God, you are the Source of Love who brings life to all creation and nourishes us, strengthens us, and guides us along life’s journey. May this be so in this time of worship together and in our daily lives, as we remember and celebrate our connection and communion in Christ. Amen.
______________________________________________________________________
Today, we begin our October Stewardship Sermon Series: Rooted in Grace, Growing in Generosity, as we prayerfully consider how we each might contribute our time, talent, and resources to the collective ministry of our church in the coming year. During this time, we will reflect on some of the wonderful agricultural metaphors we find in the teachings of Jesus and Paul of soil, seeds, vines, growth, and harvest.
Many of the biblical texts throughout both the Old and New Testaments are rich with similar kinds of agricultural images – the Garden of Eden in Genesis, the green pastures of Psalm 23, and more.
And Jesus would have been familiar with the Prophet Isaiah’s use of the image of a vineyard for the House of Israel (his people, his nation). And he would have remembered Isaiah’s prophetic warning that the vineyard, in his observation, had been producing rotten grapes. (Isaiah 5)
Jesus’ disciples surely knew this image too. So, it probably would have popped into their minds when he said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit… apart from me you can do nothing.”
The disciples, I’m sure, wanted to be strong, healthy branches that bear good fruit in abundance – fresh grapes that nourish, feed, and strengthen, not rotten ones.
So, Jesus reminds them how to do this: “Abide in me. Abide in my commandments and abide in my love.” Jesus had just given them the commandment to love one another at the Last Supper (only a couple of chapters earlier). This is all part of his long farewell speech in John. Now he reinforces that message with this vine image. And then he reiterates it yet again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
You know, every time I hear this passage, I think of the time it was one of our scripture themes for summer camp. And we had a little cheer: Jesus is the vine! And we are the branches!
It all comes down to love. Love that serves others and builds up the Kingdom of God. Love that is compassionate. Love that is just. Love that is selfless when it needs to be.
You want to bear the fruit of love? Then root yourself in God’s love. And Jesus, the vine, is there to help us all maintain that loving connection to God and to our neighbors. As he is preparing to physically leave this earth and leave his disciples, Jesus reminds them that his love remains and will always remain. To access that love, to be filled by that love, to be animated by that love, they need only remember this connection.
Jesus’ love abides (like the Dude). I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that.
However, without the vine, without being rooted in love, the branches wither. The branches grow ill and weak, dry and depleted. And perhaps withering branches can only produce rotten fruit, as Isaiah contends. Or they cease to produce any fruit at all, as Jesus contends. Either way, they are no longer effective; no longer functioning as the vine-grower hopes they would. Might as well toss them into the fire. Ouch! That’s a scorcher!
This is a harsh image, to be sure. But I don’t think it’s to be taken as condemnation without the possibility of redemption. Instead, it’s a warning. It’s a wakeup call. The wellbeing of the branches depends on connection to the vine. That rooting in love is necessary to produce good fruit. Neglect this rooting in love and we’ve missed the point.
Discipleship and faithfulness to our calling are not always easy. Life is not always easy. If we hope to bear good fruit throughout our lives, especially in more challenging moments, we have to remember and nurture that connection to God’s love, that connection to Jesus. At times, this may include allowing ourselves to be pruned of the problematic stuff. And we can trust that the Divine vine-grower wants each branch and this global vineyard to flourish.
So, what might need to be pruned? What gets in the way of healthy, fruit-bearing branches?
You might have some personal answers to those questions.
And there is plenty to worry about in an uncertain world, especially when life throws us a curve ball. And we can sometimes feel inadequate or powerless in the face of both personal challenges and global struggles; in the face of societal dynamics that seem to be producing so much competition, division, isolation, and even violence (instead of loving community and collaboration). I know I feel inadequate and somewhat powerless at times. Jesus’ first disciples knew that feeling too, I think.
But we’re not powerless. And we can find courage to face our fears and challenges when we remember that truth. Honoring and nurturing our connection to the vine can help us tap into true, just, and loving power.
The life of faith and the call to love, is not solely an individual endeavor (though we each have our roles to play). It never has been. We are many branches working together to bear good fruit; all connected to the one vine of Divine love.
And there is great power in that love. Throughout history some people have equated domination with power. But that is not the kind of true power Jesus demonstrated for us. Jesus showed us the power of love that is meant to be shared – shared generously, widely, extravagantly, inclusively, and joyfully – an abundant harvest of good fruit to feed a hungry world.
From the very beginning, the Way of Jesus, the true Christian path, has been one of sharing. It has been a communal project. Jesus started a movement that was rooted in sharing and taught his disciples to do the same. Early Christians shared things in common with one another including communal meals and opening up their homes for the group to gather. And when some of them didn’t share well, people like the Apostle Paul called them on it and helped them regroup (we have his letters to them).
Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long in Christian history for some people to seek more individual power (especially once Christians had gained more social and political power within the Roman Empire). And often that power came at the expense of other people.
But what’s interesting and deeply inspiring to me is that all along the way, throughout that same history, there were other people, other voices, who said, “No. This is not what Jesus intended.” They spoke the truth of the shared power of love to those in positions of political and social power who wanted to keep it all for themselves. And they demonstrated an alternative way to live in faith, rooted in love, rooted in sharing, generosity, and community.
Early on, the Desert Fathers and Mothers formed communal societies that totally rejected the hierarchical religious and political institutions of their day. In the Middle Ages, St. Francis renounced his family wealth and convinced others (including St. Claire and her group of women) to take a vow of poverty with him.
Celtic Christian communities encouraged people to remember their sacred connection with the earth and actively resisted the imperialism of their day that wanted to amass more territory and use up the land. Protestant reformers like Martin Luther and Catholic reformers like St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila challenged questionable and abusive practices of the church in their day and called for a return to the heart of faith.
And more recently, in 20th century America, Dorothy Day opened up homes for the poor and stood up for the most marginalized among us. Martin Luther King Jr. and other members of the Civil Rights movement nonviolently resisted unjust laws and abusive practices by those in power and claimed the God-given dignity of all people. Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, and others advocated for safe working conditions and fair contracts for farm laborers (and yes, they were literally concerned about grapes and those who produced and harvested them).
I’m sure you can think of more. And, of course, people of faith are still continuing in this same kind of work to this day all over the world and right here.
These are all the stories of people who remembered and honored their roots in the love of God, in the teachings and love of Jesus the vine, and did their best to be the kind of branches that bear good fruit into the world. None of these people did this work in isolation from others. This was communal work, community-building work. This is the work of the church. And it is still going.
When institutions within our world dish out some of the rotten grapes Isaiah warned us about of injustice, greed, hate, violence… it’s part of our calling as people rooted in the love and grace of God, to provide an alternative menu. Good grapes, sweet and nourishing grapes, grown by love.
Right now, we can advocate for an economic system that cares for those in need and works for the wellbeing of ordinary people. And, until we have such a system, we can literally feed and help people in our community and in our world. There is as much need now as ever.
Right now, we can celebrate the beautiful diversity of the people that make up our local communities, nation, and world. Any other ideology that privileges certain people and demeans and mistreats others is antithetical to the gospel. Love calls us to denounce such ideology when we encounter it, to proclaim the extravagant and inclusive love of God for all people, and to work for more just ways of being together in this world.
Right now, we can honor our interdependence with the earth and advocate for the care and health of all creation. We are not here to just use up earth’s resources and ignore our collective impact on our planet. We are called to be stewards and caretakers.
Right now, we can be peacemakers in whatever ways are possible. I know this can feel overwhelming and out of our hands sometimes, but a commitment to peace and nonviolence begins with each of us. Loving our neighbors (including our enemies) was part of Jesus’ call from the beginning. We can support the work of just and fair peacemaking processes. And we can work to build up communities of care that can help counter some of the fear, isolation, and rage that drives people to acts of violence.
Right now, we can offer compassionate support and care to those in our communities who are going through a tough time, whether it be an illness or health challenge, grief, doing the hard work of caregiving, or something else.
Yes, there is always plenty to do. But we do the work together, not alone, as a church and a Body of Christ in the world rooted in God’s love, connected to one another through Jesus, and continuing to grow and tend to our branches so we can produce some really good grapes for a hungry world.
And every time we gather as a church community for worship, service, spiritual growth, and fellowship, we have an opportunity once again to soak up the goodness and grace of God, to honor our connection in Christ, and to be nourished for the work of this day and for what lies ahead.
Amen.