"Life is like a Vineyard" **sermon for 5 Easter, 27 April 2024**

 

Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you.  Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me.  I am the vine, and you are the branches.  If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit.

John 15:4-5a (CEV)

 

            Now, I am not much of a gardener.  I am just not good with plants or growing things.  My guess is that I lack the patience and time it takes to properly tend to and nurture plants.  So, I either forget to cut back dead blooms or I over water.  Neither is very good for the plant.  I do appreciate a beautiful daffodil or a tomato fresh off the vine, however.

            Jesus uses the imagery of a vine to describe the life of His followers.  No doubt Jesus has a grape vine in mind as He speaks.  Grapes, just like these, are common in the Middle East.  That is true now just as it was then.  The ancient prophets also used the image of grapes and vines.  Frequently those prophets likened God’s people to a vine or a vineyard.

Grapes are highly prolific plants that grow on a vine.  Each vine has numerous branches.  In fact, there can be so many branches that it is difficult to tell where one branch ends and another one begins.  The branches all run together as a whole, what we call a cluster.  In some places, the vines are trained to a trellis while in other places the vines sprawl along the ground.

Jesus says that His followers should have the same interconnectedness of grape vines.  The message translation talks about following Jesus as an intimate, organic relationship.  Such a relationship is marked by an interdependence and mutuality, both with the vine (Jesus) and the other branches (our sisters and brothers).

What happens when the branches fail to remain connected to the vine?  That’s right.  Over time the branch will whither and die.  The branch will no longer bear fruit.  Only when the branches stay connected to their source, the vine, can they bear fruit.  Jesus says the faith journey of His followers is the same.

We see the connectedness to Jesus bear fruit in the Acts reading.  Philip is travelling and overhears an Ethiopian Eunuch reading out loud to himself.  The Eunuch is reading from Isaiah about God’s suffering Servant.  Philip asks if the Eunuch understands what he has read.  That question starts a dialogue between Philip and the Eunuch.

Now here is someone who is clearly not Jewish.  In fact, Deuteronomy 23:1 prevents Eunuchs from becoming part of the Jewish people.  The Ethiopian, however, has some relationship with God.  He is returning home from worshipping in Jerusalem at the Temple.  The Eunuch is brought into the vine and is baptized.

The Eunuch is in the perfect place to be an influencer.  As he returns to the Candace, the experience of encountering God’s gracious, radical, and inclusive love goes with him.  I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to say that Ethiopia hears the Good News as a result of the Eunuch.  A whole new group of people hear of God’s great love as a result.

            Of course, sharing our faith is not the only way to bear fruit.  As one scholar I read indicates “to bear fruit- that is, do works of love- is the tangible sign of discipleship.”  Our words also need actions to back them up.  I know I have talked a lot about calls to those who might be lonely or picking up groceries for a neighbor.  Those are  wonderful “works of love” that show our connection to the vine.

            A word about being cut off and being pruned.  Cutting us off is not God’s choice for us.  God wants us to stay connected to Him through Jesus.  Staying connected includes weekly worship and daily Bible reading.  But if we fail to grow and produce fruit, then because of free will, we have cut ourselves off from God, the Author and Source of life.

            God wants us to stay connected and to bear fruit.  So sometimes God will use challenges and difficult situations to prune us.  Pruning is a careful cutting back so that we are positioned for fruitfulness.  So that God’s love will shine through us and work through us, thereby helping to connect others into God’s vine.