Abiding for Fruitfulness

Last spring, when we had a lot of rain, I cut back on watering my lawn. But then, during the long hot, dry summer, I forgot to reset the sprinkler to the normal setting. By the time I finally looked out and noticed, the few bare patches behind the tree and under the swing had multiplied, consuming more and more territory, it was too late to save any but the heartiest areas of grass. So, guess what I did on my recent ‘vacation’ after Easter Sunday? Yep, I sodded much of my front lawn; and it’s growing well – so far.

We know that plants don’t grow well, if at all, if the right care is not given. Too hot, too cold; not enough or too much sunlight; too much or too little rain; bad soil, wrong type of soil – all will affect whether plants thrive, barely survive, or perish. It’s the same with us. Both plants and creatures require an environment well suited to their integral needs in order to flourish.

In the gospel, John utilizes various common metaphors to describe a new environment that God provides for us as a result of what Jesus Christ accomplishes. As my grass needs an apt combination of sunlight, water, and nutrients, so we also must have various essentials in order to live and grow. That is especially true if we seek to mature as followers of Jesus Christ. Those essentials begin with new relationships; new relationships with God, with Jesus Christ, with each other, and with the world.

In other words, much of our lives will change when our most vital relationships are revived. When we go off to school, get married, or start a new job, it often involves moving to a new place where we start to build new relationships with classmates, colleagues, or friends. They can reveal to us a whole new way of seeing the world, challenging our long-held assumptions about ourselves and just about everything else in life. Sure, such moves can be unsettling; yet they provide opportunities to open ourselves to fascinating people and a variety of experiences we didn’t know were possible. It just makes for a much richer life.

Similarly, John doesn’t offer a mere ‘survivor’s guide’ where we are left to our own devices to figure out life and get along. He provides a revelation about thriving in the abundant new life that Christ makes possible for us. In fact, John arranges such snippets of truth into what is known as the “I AM sayings” of Jesus: “I am the bread of life,” “I am the good shepherd,” and so on, including the final one, which is in our reading today: “I am the true vine.” These I AM statements reveal several important things: first, something about who J is; second, something about who God is; then, they reveal something about the relationship between the two, as God is the one who sent Jesus into the world in the first place; and finally, they reveal something about their relationship with us, and with the world.

You may recall that ‘I AM’ is the name God gives to Moses when God speaks to him from the burning bush in the wilderness. God tells Moses to go to Pharoah to bring God’s enslaved people out of Egypt. “Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is God’s name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM…Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14) “I AM who I AM,” is also translated, “I will be who I will be.”

Now remember, names in the Bible are usually quite significant. They often reveal something important about the person or place. That is why God changes many peoples’ names when making a covenant with them: like Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah, or Jacob to Israel.

With that in mind, consider this: the name I AM is essentially the verb ‘to be,’ to exist. The God who is life and who brings all life into being, goes by the name of being, of being alive, of livingness, if you will. It is the origin of the holy name of God, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, now you realize that the name God uses to describe God’s very own self, the divine being, is also the exact name that Jesus uses for himself in John’s gospel.

I’ve given a strong hint about what Jesus’ use of the name “I AM” reveals. It is also why, in Chapter 10 of John’s gospel, the Jewish leaders of that day were so riled up and offended by Jesus’ use of that name that they even try to kill him. Accusing him of blasphemy, they said, “we are going to stone you…for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” (John 10:33) And that is precisely the point John is making throughout the gospel, including with all the I AM statements. He is claiming that Jesus is God, God in the flesh, as the Son of God.

John even opens his gospel making the same point: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2) John also states the same idea, using the language of unity: Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him.” (Jn 14:10) It is a way to express just how personal, how intimate is Jesus’ distinctive relationship with God. They are so close as to be one, sharing the same divine essence; or as biblical scholar, Mark Matson, writes, “Jesus is the unique Son of God, participating in the actual nature of God.” The idea is somewhat captured in the marriage ceremony where the two betrothed become one, without losing their individual identities and personhood.

As the loving parent, God has sent the Son on a divine mission into the world. The goal is to reveal who God truly is by demonstrating the extent of God’s love for the world God created. Since the Son knows the Father intimately, he can speak authentically, truthfully about God, drawing on his own experience and love from and for God. That’s what Jesus has been doing throughout the entire gospel: saying the words God gives him to speak, like the I AM statements and various teachings; and doing the mighty signs that God empowers him to do, like healing the blind, calming storms, and feeding thousands with a morsel of food.

And yet, beyond words and even miraculous acts, it is ultimately in laying down his life for the world that Jesus demonstrates the limitless scope of the love God – and Jesus – have for us. That is the divine love that saves the world. It is the love that gives us new life filled with new loving relationships, along with an eternal purpose. The defining character of that new life is the new relationship we get to enjoy with God and one another because of everything Jesus has told us, shown us, and done for us. God can now be our heavenly parent, as well as Jesus’. In John’s gospel, that is what salvation means: a new loving relationship with God.

Jesus proclaims, “I AM the true vine and my Father is the vinegrower.” The I AM is God’s holy name that Jesus expands by use of a horticultural metaphor. Through it, we learn something more about God, about Jesus, about ourselves, and the world. We learn that God is the vinegrower: God owns, plants, cares for, and tends the vine. Jesus is the true, the authentic vine. We learn that true disciples of Jesus, those who obey his commandments, those who love as he loves, are branches connected to the vine. Other branches that fall away from the vine, that wither and die, represent the world which turns away from Jesus, refusing to believe in him and receive the new life.

Most importantly, we see something of the intricate, intimate relationship not only between God and Jesus, but with us as well. As the great I AM, the Giver of life, God gives to the Son all power on earth. It is through Jesus that abundant life from the heavenly parent flows to you and me. But we have to remain connected to Jesus to receive and enjoy all the benefits of that new life.

It’s like when we return home for Thanksgiving dinner, we get to enjoy all the blessings being physically present with family and friends. It’s just not as satisfying to make a phone call. Likewise, we can worship online, and I’m grateful we have that technology, but it’s just not like being in person with others in the presence of the Life-Giver. A virtual hug is a lot less satisfying than a flesh and bones greeting.

And here is why I say that: sure, Jesus was the flesh and bones presence of God to those first disciples. For us, today, Jesus’ own Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, makes Jesus truly, really, present to us. Yet, we in the church now comprise the body of Christ on earth until he returns. Jesus’ presence with us is no less real; he is simply mediated to us through his Holy Spirit for now. The truth is, until Christ returns in the flesh, you and I are to be the flesh and bones presence of Christ’s love to one another through his Spirit. If we are not here to live with and love one another in the flesh, it becomes a lot more difficult for some of us to believe in Jesus’ love in the first place. We just have to show up for each other; that’s what love does.

It is in Jesus Christ, John says, that God gives life to all who will receive it, for those who remain, who abide in Christ. The purpose of the vine, then, is to produce branches which, in turn, produce fruit. Grapevines thrive when they produce a lot of healthy grapes, for instance. Vinegrowers aren’t looking for lots of branches and green leaves that produce no fruit. The fruit is the goal of all the care, pruning, watering, tending, fertilizing. We grow as disciples of Christ when we stay attached to Jesus Christ the only vine that can share God’s life with us. We produce fruit, when, through the Holy Spirit, we share with others the love of God and the good news of abundant life in Jesus Christ.

You know, its striking: I have never once walked by any kind of fruit-bearing vine, bush, or tree & heard it grunting or groaning or seen it struggling somehow to produce fruit. When the branch is fully connected to the vine, receiving all the nutrients it needs from that source of life, it is able to do what it is created to do – without any problem at all; it just happens naturally. Glorious fruit results!

That’s also what happens to us when we abide in Christ. We are abiding for fruitfulness because that is what we are created to do in Jesus Christ. We don’t have to grunt and struggle to tell a neighbor about how we enjoy God’s love for us; we don’t have to sweat and fret to share what Jesus shows us about loving our family and friends more fully. We can just do it, because it should come naturally to us – if we are living in Christ, dwelling in love, abiding for fruitfulness.

Before going to the cross, Jesus prays for his disciples: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:21-23) As God is in Christ and Christ is in God, so also God is in us, as Christ is in us, and we are in Christ.

We are fruit-producing branches connected to the genuine vine, which is planted and tended by the divine vinegrower. So, let’s show up for one another and help each other remain in the vine that we may do what comes naturally as followers of the great I AM who is the true vine: living fully alive and bearing much fruit. What do you say?

John 15:1-8
Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. G removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit G prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 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.