Reading, Sermon and Prayers for the 5th Sunday of Easter

READING John 15 v 1-10

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“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. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

SERMON

This morning I want us to think about grapes, grapevines, and pruning. And has we do so let us look back at this morning’s Gospel reading. In this passage we find Jesus saying that he is the vine and we are the branches. His main point here is that all Christians must stay connected to Christ and submit to spiritual pruning in order to bear spiritual fruit.

But firstly let us look at wild flowers. They can be really beautiful out in the countryside, in the hedges or on the hillside. Even in our own town environment it is brightened up by wild flowers that some people might consider to be weeds, growing up through gaps in the concrete.

Then there is cut flowers, displayed in vases. Lots of people really appreciate the sight of a bunch of fresh flowers in a vase and how they add their beauty and colour to a room.

Now I don’t know much about flowers and floristry. But this I do know, that flowers, once they have been cut, don’t last for very long, even when they are placed in water. They soon shrivel up and die.

We’ve have earlier heard what Jesus said about the vine plant. The vine was a very important and familiar plant to the people of Jesus’ day. It was an important source of nutrition and was grown everywhere. Let’s hear again what he said:-

John 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “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. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

Let’s look at this in another way. Flowers in a vase only last a few days because they are cut off from their roots, unable to get nutrition from the soil. They are only part of the plant. Flowers in pots appear to me to last much longer because they are still whole plants, firmly planted in the soil, with roots digging deep, with sap rising from the roots to all parts of the plant.

Indeed, any part of a plant that is separated by being cut off from the main stem and its roots soon withers and dies as it is separated from its source of life.

Branches that are cut off the main stem become useless, they are unable to grow any grapes and the only thing that they are fit for is fuel for the fire. Branches that are left attached to the main stem, however, still receive the life-giving sap and are able to keep growing, producing precious grapes.

That is how Jesus described the relationship between himself and his disciples, which included those of us who belong to him today equally as much as it did the original group. The relationship is an extremely close one.

I am the vine, you are the branches. I have read and heard this passage many, many times and so I am sure have many of you but it is only when I was preparing for today that it struck me how close a relationship this really describes.

It is obvious really and I don’t know how I managed to miss it all these years, but the branches, are, in fact, part of the plant. They are not something extra that has been added on, but they are an integral part of the plant, just as much as the main stem is. Jesus is describing a situation in which those who believe in him are part of him, so closely connected that it does not make sense to think about them without also thinking about him.

If we are truly branches of the vine that is Christ, everything we say, do, and are, comes from him and the life that he gives. All that we need, all we can accomplish in our spiritual lives comes from the live-giving power that he gives us, not our own resources, as a branch does not have its own resources apart from the main stem. The role of the branches of the vine is to produce fruit, the fruit they produce is grapes.

As branches of the vine we are also in place to produce fruit. Obviously this is not grapes, but spiritual fruit. Spiritual lives and characters that show the resemblance of Jesus. Particularly those attributes described as being the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23:- But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

That is what is expected of us. That is what our lives as disciples of Jesus is to be like. Indeed we are given dire warnings that if we do not produce fruit we will be cut off the vine, as useless branches.

Our lives, if we are joined to Christ must be fruitful lives. All very well in theory, but how on earth can we manage it in the midst of daily life?

There is an old saying, that is still popular, but maybe not quite as popular as it used to be, that goes ’the Lord helps those who help themselves’. But this is not in the Bible, and is contrary to the teaching of Jesus. Jesus said that without him we can do nothing. He did not say that we should try on our own, then he would help us if we saw that we were making a good attempt, but that without him we would be unable to accomplish anything of any value or worth or even to make any reasonable attempt to achieve anything.

Instead, the source of our fruitfulness does not come from us at all, the effort is not ours, but is all his, from the life, the nutrition and the power that comes to us from Christ.

Once the branch is separated from the rest of the plant it is separated from its source of life and is no longer able to produce grapes. Once we separate ourselves from Christ we are separated from our source of spiritual life and are no longer able to produce spiritual fruit, in fact, just like the flowers in the vase, or the cut-off branch of the vine, we wither up and spiritually die.

However, if we do allow him to us to produce fruit, we are given a special promise. Just like in the vine plant the rough, non-productive parts of the branches are gently pruned so that all the energy and life of the branch can go into producing yet more grapes, we are told in verse two that God, our Father, prunes the rough edges of our lives, so that we become even more fruitful. He removes the parts of our lives and characters that are not in conformity with his will and his holiness, and gets rid of them, so that are lives can be more fruitful for him, to his greater glory.

But the branches of the vine are not just in communication with the main stem of the plant, they are also in intimate communication with each other. There is no situation in which one branch can cut itself off from the others but still remain part of the vine.

Just so with us. We cannot cut ourselves off from other Christians and still expect to be joined to Christ. There is no provision in Scripture for lone ranger Christians, we cannot have Christ and not have our brothers and sisters.

So in summary then, if we are truly joined to Christ our lives will be lives that cannot be understood by the world without considering Christ, everything we do, say or are, will be in connection with him, our lives will be fruitful lives for him, reflecting him to the world that does not know him.

But our fruitfulness comes only from him, there is no life in us ourselves.

If we attempt to be fruitful or to grow on our own without him we will fail.

If we do not allow him to give life us by his Spirit and to allow him to make our lives fruitful, we will be useless, only to be cut off and destroyed as rubbish.

If we do allow him to give us life and to give the fruit, showing him to the world, the Father will lavish attention on us, pruning off our rough edges, so that we produce more and more fruit, fruit for his kingdom. Amen

PRAYERS

Let us pray to God, who alone gives to his people the power for good.

Grant that your Church, constant in faith and love, may bring forth good fruit. Give unity to all branches in the strength of Christ, the true vine. Make all her leaders wise in the teaching of Holy Scripture.