I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.”

Jesus likes to teach us using pictures.  Some pictures are easier to understand than others.  Almost all of them have a surface meaning which is important and a much deeper meaning which is the heart of his teaching.

Today’s Gospel lesson is one of these picture stories.  Our surface story is about how God cares for us.  We are all part of God’s vineyard.  Jesus is the central vine and we are all of his offshoots.  Our nutrients all come through Jesus and God makes sure that the vine is growing properly so that we all get fed.

Another way to look at this picture would be as a tree.  As long as the branches are attached to the tree they continue to grow and bear fruit.  If they get cut off from the tree they wither and die.

It is the same with our lives.  God loves us and cares for us in his garden.  As long as we remain connected to God through our devotion to Jesus, we are nourished by God’s food and we bear fruit.  When we get separated from Jesus, we also become separated from God.  What happens then?  Our lives become dull and fruitless.  We cut ourselves off of the tree.

Is it possible to come back to the tree once we’ve cut ourselves off?  Yes.  Just as a living branch can be grafted onto a tree, we can be joined back into Christ’s body as long as there is some life in us.

So the surface meaning of our Gospel is that as long as we truly live as Jesus teaches us to live, our lives will be fruitful.  And when we stray, as long as we feel that spark calling us back, we can be joined back in to the body of Christ.  This is an important message.  A message that needs to be heard and lived by, but it is a message that Jesus has told us over and over again in many stories.

So what makes this story special?  What makes it different from all the rest?

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Let every one who loves me, love one another.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

This is the chorus from a hymn in our hymnbook.  “Apart from me, you can do nothing?”  It seems to me that lots of people who do not believe in God get lots of stuff done.  But this line comes directly from our Gospel.  “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”  So if our Gospel is truth, if it is good news for us, there must be some deeper meaning. 

I think Jesus is trying to teach us what it means to bear fruit in his name.  It seems obvious to me that this is not about money.  Do you remember what Jesus said about being rich?  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  So Jesus message is not supposed to bring us financial wealth.  So let’s look at the word “fruit.”

Matthew and Luke talk about bearing good fruit and bad fruit.  They talk about a tree being known by its fruit.  They relate this good and bad fruit to good and evil deeds.  Other than our Gospel today, John talks very little about fruit.  When he does talk about fruit, he is talking about those things that are worth doing.  Anything not worth doing is not fruitful. 

Jesus is trying to teach us that there is much more to life that money.  Or maybe that money and wealth are not the same thing.  When we live our lives intentionally, when everything we do is because of Jesus’ call, our lives will be much more fulfilling.  We will be wealthy beyond measure.  We will know God’s presence in our lives and we will always have enough to do what we are called to do.

So what does that mean for us today in this community?

“Let every one who loves me, love one another.”

Our community has just been hit with a couple of big blows.  With the cutbacks at the park, there are fewer jobs and those who have jobs will have fewer hours.  On top of this, the prices for lobster and crab are very low this year.  This means that there will be less money brought into our community by fishing.  Our fishermen and women will be hurting this year.  We need to live up to the promise we made when we blessed the fleet.  We need to extend our support to these people.  We need to let them know that we will do what we can to help, no matter how small that help might be.  We need to do the same for those who are employed by the park.  If we truly live in Christ, we can do no less.

In fact, because there will be less money in the community this year because of these issues and because of rising prices, we need to support each other.  We must offer help when we see a need and we must ask for help when we are in need.  This is what it means to be part of the Body of Christ.  This is also what it means to bear good fruit.  “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.”

We are called in to share in the food that Christ provides, to be nourished by the Gospel.  We are sent out to bear good fruit and to share in the abundance of God’s gifts to us.

Thanks be to God.