“Abiding Love, Bearing Much Fruit”
Will you pray with me…..
This part of the gospel of John is pretty familiar to most of us. We’ve heard it before. The question is…what does it mean to us in our personal lives, and how to we apply the lesson here at Dennis Union Church?
In the Hebrew Bible, vineyards were the sign of a people able to settle down, and settle in. A well-managed vineyard was a source of fruit, possible income, and the joy of wine for celebrations. In this gospel, John characterizes Jesus as the one who gives sustenance and encouragement to the Christian community facing persecution. “I am the Vine and you are the branches,” but both rely upon God who is the vine dresser or grower.
Why is this important in the New Testament? Because Jesus in the Incarnation is God’s connection from creation in Genesis through the Hebrew Bible and the prophets, to the present time. In Isaiah Chapter 5 the thought was, without God, wild grapes would grow, thorns would choke the vine, and the vineyard would be destroyed.
Jesus calls for a new community. He calls for members of the community to “act justly and hear cries of distress.” To do this we need to recognize our need for one another. He invited the community to “to make your home in me as I make mine in you (John 15
This wonderful metaphor points to all the other self-images of Jesus’ teachings – those being…bread, light, shepherd, life, way, truth and now, vine. They all point to relationships with God, with Jesus, and now with each other. Let’s unpack this metaphor just a bit more.
Vines can grow into tangled mess if not managed, pruned, and maybe reduced to the single center vine. The paradox is that the vine grower needs to cut back all or most of the branches each season to allow for new growth. Jesus takes the metaphor even deeper.
Jesus uses the phrase…abide in me. The Greek root for abide is meno. It can mean….staying in place, enduring, holding out, all terms that imply strength and trust in God’s Presence in us and in our community. God’s care is constant, and whatever pain or suffering results from God’s pruning is redemptive rather than arbitrary. As Jesus says, “[God] removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” We recognize these branches as our own dark sides – selfishness, isolation, temptations and obsessions of all kinds. We all know what they are. As someone said, ““GOD WANTS SPIRITUAL FRUIT…NOT RELIGIOUS NUTS.”
Another mystery of the pruning action is that the pruned vine looks dead and useless. But God knows better. God sees a vine with hidden potential, ready for new growth. What’s important here is the metaphor of God as the grower. When God is the grower, no living thing escapes God’s care and attention, no matter how worthless it may seem to others.
Just as the vine grower knows the vines in his care, God knows each of us from start to finish. We go way back with God, to our very first connection long before our natural birth. On this Mother’s Day we celebrate the role of our mother in our lives, giving thanks to them for their care of us, much like God as the vine grower. Author Linda Rooney writes of her 90-year-old mother’s decline with Alzheimer’s disease.
“She lives with me now, something neither of us ever wanted, before this. I can manage the physical decline and her requirements. It is the emotional death I grieve the most….the loss of connectedness to the person, this woman who has been a mainstay in my life.”
Rooney continues, “My mother has forgotten me, and every time I look at her my heart weeps. If my mother forgot me….will God? What does this 21st century version of a mother’s forgetfulness say to me of an ever-remembering God? Is there any comfort left in contemplating God’s mother-love? I think yes,” concludes Rooney.
While I can’t prove it, I agree with Linda Rooney, and I believe God’s memory is not brain-based, subject to electrical blips and failings. The God who is the vine grower, our God has a memory based in God’s heart. God’s memory is able to see and embrace all the nuances of who we are as human beings, and stores away, as only our Creator’s memory can, each and every cell and twitch of our existence. The wonder of God’s Love is so beyond us, we can touch it only by visualizing it in our minds, and sensing it in our hearts.
I see God’s bundling of the past, present and the future as one move by God. Our whole life in faith, from our early fumbling to know God, is equally alive with our present hope of God’s complete Love, and the future that awaits each of us. God’s memory of each of us is unfailing, starting even before we were made alive in our mother’s womb.
In the close of her writing, Linda Rooney says, “I have an odd consolation as I gaze at my unresponsive mother. Perhaps, physical co-creator of my being that she is, she too stores somewhere within her the unconditional love she always gave me, a memory of me so blessed that it need not be spoken to be known. She may not be able to tell me that I am her daughter, but that does not mean she does not remember the child of her womb,” says Rooney. On this day when we celebrate our Mother’s Love, I sort of want to snuggle in with that image of our mother’s inseparable connection to us, much like God the vine grower.
Just Friday, Betsy and I joined folks at UCC Norwell in the memorial service for a kind, gentle, remarkable man, husband, father, and great-grandfather. Len Marsden was an authentic Christian and one of the first people to literally welcome me with open arms, some 25 years ago at UCC Norwell. Len was a
Here at DUC last Sunday, the memorial service for Beth Goulding was equally beautiful and touching. The five grandsons of Beth spoke from their hearts, as did Ann, her brother Bob, and his wife Linda. What a story of simple, tangible love and connection. Each of those offering their remembrances of Beth Goulding, whether her child or grandchild, spoke of Beth’s natural inclination to welcome them closer to her – to abide in her presence. These two events lead me to a key point.
Both Len and Beth lived deeply and humbly in their faith while they were alive. They made it plain to family and friends how much they loved them. It wasn’t through grand gestures – it was through simple faith. It was clear to all who new them – they abided in Jesus, and He in them.
I am thrilled to be in ministry here at Dennis Union Church. I want to be a minster to all, and to be a preacher of the Word of God, made alive in Jesus Christ. I want to help us stay focused and directed, with God as our vineyard keeper and Jesus as the vine. Without that, we are a great community of nice folks. That’s important, too, but it’s not why we’re here, and you all know that. I don’t want to wait until we have a memorial service to preach and talk about our call to abide in Jesus. We never know how much time we have, so now is the time to continue living and working deeply in the vineyard of Jesus. Part of the way we do this to keep working with these scriptures. I look forward to doing it together.
When John says that fear and obsession is driven out by God’s pure Love, he points to a love that can come only from God, a Divine Love. Jesus doesn’t speak of human affection, psychological compatibility, and mutual attraction or deep interpersonal feelings. All of that has value and beauty, but the perfect love that John speaks about transcends all feelings, emotions, and passions. The perfect love that drives out all fear is the divine love in which we are invited to share with Jesus. All that is asked of us is to “abide in Jesus, and we will bear fruit.”
Will you pray with me?
Loving God, you have given us gift upon gift in our lives. You are the source of all our blessings and sprit. We thank you for Jesus, your son and our brother. In Him, you have shown us Your way, Your truth, and Your love. May we abide in Jesus, as He abides in us. AMEN
