Wednesday, July 3, 2024

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.  You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!  When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” (John 15: 1 -8, New Living Translation)

            After 46-plus years of marriage, my wife, Susan, can still surprise me and bemuse me.

Take this week. I commented that I really needed to prune some tree branches which are rubbing noisily on the sunroom roof. She coyly smiled and told me she had just ordered on-line a small, battery-powered chainsaw. After 46 years, apparently our minds are telepathic. The thing arrived in its own little case - an 8 inch, miniature chainsaw, complete with work gloves, goggles and all that you need for pruning branches up to 5 inches in diameter.

So, while I was preparing supper, out she went, goggled and gloved, to tackle some of the unwanted foliage in the front yard. This maven of mayhem took out a quarter of our lilac bush which was starting to take over the front sidewalk. She toppled two saplings which were growing too close to the house. By the end, she had produced two large litter bags of debris. I do believe that she enjoyed it!

Our text from John’s Gospel is about pruning. Most of it is very positive and encouraging. But there are also a couple of verses that may leave us feeling a little uncomfortable:  the words about being thrown away, withering and burned.

Most of us have an image of Jesus as someone who is tender-hearted, compassionate, tolerant, loving, benevolent, a healer, a life giver and the like. Jesus with a chainsaw doesn’t quite fit my idea of my personal Lord and Saviour. But it is hard to wiggle out of these verses about what happens to the follower who doesn’t bear fruit. John the Baptist thought the Messiah would come with a pruning hook and although Jesus didn’t live up exactly to John’s idea, there is evidence that Jesus expected growth, blossoming and fruitfulness i.e. good works.

Thus, we have a parable about seeds which are trodden under foot, eaten by birds, wither in the hot sun. In other words, the seeds of the Good News fail to produce and are lost permanently. Only the good soil produces a rich harvest. He told a parable about a fig tree which wasn’t producing and when the farmer went to cut it down, the fig tree was given another chance to bear fruit, but if not, it would be cut down then. Jesus even curded a fig tree which hadn’t produced fruit for he and the disciples to eat.

It's not the stuff of fire and brimstone, but these verses are a clear reminder that our task as Jesus’ followers is to bear fruit. “When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”  Even the pruning is only a process which is meant to increase our fruitlessness. 

Think of it in St. Paul’s terms, “And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.” (Colossians 3: 5 -8, The Message Bible)

God can help us in pruning that which denies our being in Christ, tied to the Living Vine. These unfruitful characteristics need to be discarded and destroyed. Just as our lilac bush will grown back better than ever with new shoots and new blooms next spring, so too, when we get rid of the negative and the bad things that impede out Christian  growth and character, we can bloom better and better and be fruitful: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.” (Galatians 5: 22 -24)

Now, let me at that chainsaw!

 

Dale