Vines and Branches

 

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes* so that it bears more fruit. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. 

(John 15:1-2, 4-5a)

 

Our Lord often speaks of Himself in terms that reveal His relationship with us where we can experience God in Christ as the redeemed and Redeemer, sinner and Savior, sheep and Shepherd, traveler at the Gate, the stranger at the Door, the hungry who eat the Bread of Life, the thirsty drinking Living Water. Perhaps you can think of other examples in the Holy Bible, and there are many more.

 

Here Our Lord says that He is the true vine, we are the branches and Our Heavenly Father is the vine grower. Already we understand that there are true and false vines from which we can draw our sustenance and life. Are you drawing your sustenance from Christ, or from something or someone else? You can know by the fruit you bear.

 

GOOD AND BAD FRUIT

 

A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. (Matthew 7: 17-20)

 

Jesus is Good, True and Beautiful and as long as we remain attached to Him we produce goodness and truth and beauty through our relationship with Christ. In Baptism we were grafted to Christ, that is a horticultural way of saying that we were not His by nature, but by super-nature, by the supernatural dying and being born again as a new creation growing from Christ Himself.  When you cultivate roses you often have to graft one variety onto another. The branch that produces the glorious flower is physically cut and attached to the root stock, the vine, that is disease resistant, hearty, deep-rooted and capable of surviving in difficult seasons.  As that graft matures and strengthens the branch takes on the qualities and character of the vine.  But it begins with a wound.

 

The Puritan preacher and author of The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan compared the maturing graft to Christian Conversion:

 

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think... It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving... Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.

 

WHAT IS YOUR HARVEST?

 

If we produce evil, falsehood and ugliness, then most likely we have fallen off the true vine and have become a wild vine. Most wild things never produce fruit, just a lot of showy foliage.

 

I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine? (Jeremiah 2:21)

 

Let’s examine our life and the fruits we produce. Are we bearing a bumper crop or is the field lying fallow? Do we produce weeds or wheat or anything at all?

 

Holy Spirit of the Living God, give us courage to look within ourselves, at our own faults, before condemning the fruit of others.  Too often it is easier to condemn the defects and sins of others without being able to see one’s own so clearly.  We always hide our faults; we hide them from ourselves. We conceal them by casting a spotlight on the sins of others—those we are often most familiar with because we practice them—so that we can remain hidden in the shadows.  We are loud about others and silent about ourselves.

 

SLOW GROWTH AND DELAYED HARVESTS

 

In my grandmother’s backyard there was a huge fig tree. When I would visit her, I couldn’t give over the amount of fruit on the tree…and on my plate. She would let me go out and pick them.  And they produced every year that I can remember.

 

When I asked Mammy when she planted that tree – she told me it was planted about 10 years ago, and for many years, it bore no fruit.  NONE. Think about that. It took years – lots of patience, perseverance and consistency to produce great, sweet fruit.

 

She would often prune the tree and lovingly take care of it. Every year she would wait. For a couple of years, they may have gotten a handful of figs, but that was about it. Then, suddenly one year, the tree began to flourish and grow.

 

This reminded me about what the disciple John wrote about when Jesus talked about bearing fruit.

 

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

 

It takes time. Sometimes it takes pruning. You may be in the planting process – just the beginning stages of your dream – and you are waiting for it to flourish.  Keep going!

 

Maybe you are going through some pruning. That can be tough – but trust and take heart, God prunes and refines so we learn and grow and bear much fruit.

 

The key is to stay close to God and spend time with Him.

God wants to see us flourish. He wants us to grow and produce great, sweet fruit, just like this beautiful fig tree.

 

Remain on the Vine, Jesus Christ, and receive from Him the life-giving spirit that flows into us at the Eucharist in Holy Communion.  AMEN.