EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 1/2 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on May 2, the fifth Sunday in Easter. This was the fifth in-person/livestreamed service in more than a year after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic. The first in-person/livestreamed service was on Good Friday, but there was no sermon.
This week's preaching text: John 15:1-8
Jesus the True Vine
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 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. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
Message:
How many of you have ever visited a vineyard, whether it be one of the small mom-and-pop vineyards here that we have in Minnesota, or maybe something more exotic in California, the wine growing region? Or maybe even in Europe where vineyards have lasted for hundreds of years?
They really are fascinating places: Row upon row of meticulous planning; each grapevine perfectly cared for; shaped and molded from a young age so that each plant will grow into the vine that the vineyard master is aiming for. Just the right branches that are preserved; all of the others pruned away to allow for the desired growth. This is no easy work, of course, sometimes the care taking place for these vines over years before the vine grower sees the results that they're looking for.
We hear a lot of talk about vineyards and wine in our gospels because these are stories that so many people living in that first century Middle East would have responded to. They would have related to wine making because it was big business for the upper class of this place and this time. And it was laborious work; it required many, many hands even to harvest the smallest of grape crops. So basically, during this time period, a great many people would have been familiar with the theme of this gospel today. They would have understood the analogy that Jesus is drawing for his disciple.
In addition, when we start talking about that place and time, we have to remember that there weren't a great many people that were literate at that time. Reading was for those that had the luxury of time, those that had the luxury of money to buy written materials which was a very small percentage of people in the Middle East in the first century. Written documents were expensive to produce, and few people read anyway.
The original writers of the gospels had to tell God's message through stories that the people would have easily understood by just listening to them being told. Hence we get so many stories about vineyards and wine making in our gospels. ... God, the vineyard grower. Jesus, the meticulously shaped vine. And we, the faithful, the branches. Some bearing more fruit than others. Some being pruned away to make room for others. These are basic facts about vineyards a first century people would have grasped very readily.
So how about this particular time in the story arc of the Gospel of John? why now does Jesus draw out this parable of the vine and its branches that are pruned or meticulously cared for? Why here in this place? Why does Jesus take the time here on the night of his arrest, of all times, to share a familiar story that his disciples would have known from their daily lives? ... Faith Family, I think the answer is pretty simple: Because this part of the text, where Jesus is speaking to his disciples, is known as part of Jesus' "Farewell Discourse."
Up to this point in the Gospel of John, Jesus has been trying to ready his disciples for the inevitable. This point here in Jesus' story, where he's trying mightily to prepare his disciples for what he knows is to come, but time after time in this "Farewell Discourse," even after story after story, the disciples still seem to not understand that Jesus is trying to prepare them for a time he will no longer be around.
But the still don't seem to know what's coming, despite Jesus' best efforts to enlighten them. The disciples just aren't getting these stories, and so I think in this parable, Jesus attempts to explain this very important fact that soon Jesus will be arrested and crucified and go to the cross to his disciples one more time. He's using an easily graspable story for them, a story that they would have been familiar, with God being the vineyard grower, God the root of all things. ... And in Jesus being the vine that is shaped and molded over time, sometimes years . ... And finally in us being those branches.
Jesus is hammering this point home to his disciples. He's trying his hardest to impress upon the disciples that he is going away. After all, we call this the "Farewell Discourse" for a reason: Jesus is going away, and the disciples are going to have to trust in that invisible God who is that root of the vine.
And, I think that the disciples would have grasped this story. They would have know that even if something catastrophic happens to the vine -- say a storm, a drought, maybe even fire -- they would have known that as long as the vine's root is safe all is not lost.
In today's world, not many of us here in the sanctuary, or listening online today, are involved in the vineyard business. But we do have many among us, and maybe even listening online today, that are involved in growing something. ... Something in a garden or agriculturally. So I think our congregation is in a good place to instinctively get Jesus' message of God being the root, and as long as you've got God a strong root, all else that comes your way is bearable.
We can trust in the fact that if we trust in that root, if we trust in that vineyard grower who is going to do their best at shaping us and molding us to follow that trellis, maybe we can trust that there is always hope.
Faith Family, our beloved Louie, who is not with us today but was here in this very church yesterday in the basement celebrating, said it best. I got a chance to watch a video when he spoke to his crowd, and he said: "God has been good to me. He's let me live to this old age. I talk and pray to God every night and in the morning. I want you all to turn to God, pray. God likes to hear your prayers. I want you to belong to God."
Louis gets it. ... Louie understands the story about that strong root. And maybe I should have asked Louie to give the sermon today because he summed up in approximately five sentences what is taking me 12 minutes.
Faith Family, Jesus' story in the gospel today is as deeply relational as we get. Jesus is trying to get his disciples, and therefore us, to understand that without that trust in the root, without that relationship with God, nothing flourishes. ... Without that trust in the root nothing becomes of the vine, and without anything becoming of the vine, nothing becomes of the branches which is us.
But, Faith Family, with the care of this master grower, this vineyard grower that has mastered this art over years, over centuries, over an infinity, we know that in his care each of us can bear beautiful and bountiful fruits as the branches to Jesus' vine and God's root. ... We have an absolute dependence on the promise and the love that God has shared with us in his gospels, for as Jesus tells us today, we cannot flourish apart from the root.
And that is the Good News for this Sunday morning, May 2, the fifth Sunday of Easter. ... Amen.
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