The Fifth Sunday of Easter ----- 29 April 2018

(I preached this sermon at both Trinity Anglican Church and St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, both of Aylmer, ON. I 'ad-libbed' a few things regarding the recent tragedy in Toronto and the newest information from the Koreas. I can't remember what I said, so...)

John 15:1-8

 (Jesus said) "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.  He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

·       I have a “brown thumb.” By that, I mean the opposite of the proverbial “green thumb.” People with a green thumb seem to be able to make anything grow and flourish. In contrast, brown thumb people can turn a lovely green plant into compost with hardly any effort. I… have a brown thumb. Please don’t trust me with your beloved flowers. So much for what I know about plants and gardening. I’ve actually had to have people tell me the names of some of the plants growing around us, the farm crops in particular. It was and often is one of the many things I don’t know much about.

·       Jesus lived in a farming culture in his time. People knew and saw plants, crops, vine and branches daily. He used the very familiar vine-and-branches example to teach about how his disciples are attached to him and what it takes for them to grow and flourish. To flourish as a branch attached to the vine… or as Jesus would put it, “abiding in” the vine… means to bear fruit, not just grow bigger. Things can grow all for themselves without bearing fruit for the future… or for the planter.

·       Jesus also speaks of ‘abiding.’ Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. “Abide” has come to mean accept or tolerate, but it means first and foremost to live. To abide means to live somewhere.

·       In this passage, Jesus says Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. When we live in Christ and when Christ lives in us, then there will be growth and there will be fruit. How much fruit and what sort of fruit is immaterial; there will be fruit no matter what form it may take.

·       Bearing fruit and abiding. One seems active and the other appears to be less so. To abide can mean to remain, something that sounds to our ears to be static and maybe inactive. To bear fruit sounds so much more active and lively. The two ideas sound very much like opposites. How could they both apply to the live of a disciple?

·       In the grace of God, they can. To live the life of a Christian disciple, we must be rooted in Jesus. To live the life of a Christian disciple in this world, we are called to bear fruit. Faith in this sense is both receiving and giving. We are to abide and stay rooted in Jesus and grow out and actively bear fruit at the same time.

·       It may appear contradictory as we see it at first. We live and “walk” by faith and that faith-defined life is expressed in the fruit we bear in our life in Christ. Our lives of believing and of doing must be rooted in Christ. Then the branches joined to (“abiding in”) the vine will bear fruit for the proclamation of the Good News and for salvation. At Matthew’s Gospel puts it Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Mt. 7:16-20)

·       The reference to pruning and the removal of fruit-less branches may sound frightening. Those of you who are gardeners and/or farmers know the necessity of pruning for the health of the entire plant. Whether we take this as the stripping away of unhealthy or un-fruitful parts of ourselves or similar influences within the Church, the pruning will be done for the sake of the whole and it will be done by none other than the Jesus calls the vinegrower - the Father.

·       So do we mourn for that has been pruned away? Do we grow angry with ourselves because we don’t have a green thumb when to come to bearing fruit in God’s grace? Do we struggle over believing and doing? It is God who gives the growth and it is God who brings out the fruit. It is the grace of God that plants and grows faith in us. Remaining connected to the “Jesus vine” is the vital thing for us… and this is done in grace and by grace-filled attention to the Word of God as it comes to us in many ways and by attention to the world around us that so needs the fruit we may bear for the life of Christ within us.

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. …My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.