HOME

05.10.09

5th Sunday of Easter

HOW TO BE A BRANCH

ISAIAH 5:1-7; JOHN 15:1-8

• Connecting With the Source of Life
• Gardening
• I’m not much of a gardener
• I love to see beautiful flowers and enjoy the fresh produce that’s abundant in the summer, but I don’t enjoy the work involved in growing them
• I know that many of you find your connection with God by working in the garden, but I’m not one of those people
• Put a lawn mower in my hand and I’ll gladly make the lawn look nice, but when it comes to pulling weeds, digging up dandelions, or planting a perfect flower bed, I’m not the person for the job
• I’ll do it, but I won’t enjoy it
• My way of dealing with weeds is using my gas-powered weed trimmer, but it’s difficult to use that in a garden without cutting the plants down as well
• About twenty years ago, while we were living in Kentucky, Janie and I planted a vegetable garden
• A member of one of our churches, who had recently lost her husband, offered us a garden plot on her farm
• Her husband had tilled the ground but did not have the opportunity to plant it before he died
• We were excited about this and went down to her house to begin our planting
• We planted a variety of things including tomatoes, peppers, corn,, green beans, zucchini, and pumpkins, and we were looking forward to a bountiful harvest
• But there was a problem—that problem was “out of sight, out of mind”
• You see, Irene lived five miles from us and we found it difficult to get there on a regular basis to hoe the rows and keep the weeds under control
• As a result, the corn never grew because the birds ate all the seeds
• We picked maybe a half-dozen peppers, and only about a pound of green beans
• Despite the weeds that choked so much of the life out of the garden,  we managed to get enough tomatoes to can about fifteen quarts, and the zucchini and the pumpkins thrived
• We had more zucchini that we could use, and we couldn’t even give them away
• Lessons Learned
• One of the lessons I learned that summer was that a garden requires constant care in order for it to produce fruit
• We were only remotely successful at gardening that summer because we didn’t stay connected to the garden and to the soil, the source of life from which the garden grows
• We allowed weeds to grow and overpower what had been planted
• Had we made the commitment to stay connected to the source of life, that garden would have produced an abundant crop
• Because we lacked that commitment, the crop was small and the fruit that grew wasn’t of the best quality
• The lessons learned from out futile attempt at gardening have applications for our spiritual lives as Christians
• In order to grow in our faith and live an abundant and faithful spiritual life, we must remain connected to the source of life itself
• That source of life is the True Vine, Jesus Christ
• Life That Flows From the Vine
• Maintaining a Connection
• By using the image of the vine, Jesus defines the relationship that exists between God, Jesus, and ourselves
• God is the Gardener, the giver of life who planted Jesus in the world as the vine through which the power of life flows
• We are the branches that are connected to the Vine, and the power of life flows through us as long as we stay connected to Jesus
• In order for our lives to produce the kind of fruit God expects, two things must happen
• First, we must stay connected to Jesus
• Just as a branch that is removed from any kind of plant will wither and die because it’s disconnected from its life source, so too will we wither and die unless we stay connected to Jesus who is the vine through whom the power of life flows
• Secondly, we must allow ourselves to be pruned by God in order that we might produce as much good fruit as possible
• Commitment and Spiritual Disciplines
• What must we do, then, in order to stay connected to Jesus so the power of life might flow through us?
• In other words, what must we do to grow in our spiritual maturity so that we can become as much like Jesus as possible, so that the power of life might flow through us to others?
• In order for that to happen, we must, first of all, have a deep level of commitment to Jesus
• Just saying we believe in Jesus isn’t enough—we must be willing to turn over all of our life to him and allow him to live through us
• That means that the life we live isn’t lived for ourselves; it’s lived for him to do his work and his will in the world through us
• Unless we live with that commitment to God through Jesus Christ, our lives will not produce the kind of fruit that God desires
• This lack of commitment to living life God’s way was the problem God observed in the people of Israel
• The vine was used by the Israelites as a symbol of life and of their connection to God
• The vine adorned the entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem and was emblazoned on their coins, much like the words “In God we trust” is emblazoned on ours
• Isaiah uses the image of the vine as he speaks to the people of Israel, and he talks about the love and care God provided to plant that vineyard so that it could produce good fruit for God
• But instead of producing good fruit, all that God could find was sour grapes
• Instead of acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, the people of Israel practiced injustice against the poor and needy, and they were merciless toward those who needed love and care
• Instead of living life God’s way, they lived it their own way, and because of their unfaithfulness, because they weren’t producing the kind of fruit God expected, God cut them off
• Secondly, in order to stay connected to Jesus we must do our part to develop an intimate relationship with him so that we might become as much like him as possible
• This means that we must practice the spiritual disciplines that enable our faith to grow
• We must commune with him in prayer, talking with him as friend to friend, so that we might get to know him better and understand what he wants us to do with our life
• We must engage in regular and disciplined study of the Scriptures so that we might know what he stands for and see how he lived
• We must come together for worship so that we might offer our praises to God with sisters and brothers of the faith and find help and encouragement for our life through the experiences of others
• We must apply all that we learn from our prayers, our study of Scripture, and our worship to our daily living so that, through our living, the love and grace of God can flow through the channel of our life into the lives of others
• Pruning
• The second part of being a branch is allowing ourselves to be pruned by God so that we might produce as much fruit as possible
• What I have learned through my study this week is that it takes a great deal of work to grow good grapes
• The branches of a grape vine intertwine themselves as they grow and they grow very quickly
• It’s difficult to remove the dead branches because they are so intertwined, yet that must be done so that the dead branches don’t drain life from the living ones
• I also learned that, because grape vines grow so quickly, they produce a large amount of foliage
• That foliage often limits the sunlight from ripening the grapes, and too much foliage inhibits the growth of grapes, so it’s necessary to radically prune a grape vine so that it can be as fruitful as possible
• God gives us life for the purpose of producing fruit—fruit that will last and fruit that will bring honor and glory to God
• In order for that to occur, it’s necessary that God prune away anything that inhibits the power of life flowing through our souls
• So God will work to remove from us those habits that prevent growth from occurring, those secret (and not-so-secret) sins that rob us of spiritual power, and those actions and attitudes within us that do not demonstrate the love and grace of God to others
• Anything within us that might stunt our growth or puts us at risk of being separated from the vine must be removed so that we might grow as close to God as possible and become as much like Jesus as possible
• One of the means God uses to prune us is through the difficulties and troubles we are called to endure
• Oftentimes, these difficulties and troubles are intended to bring us to a deeper level of maturity in our faith
• There is always a lesson to be learned as we struggle through various trials, lessons that can be applied to future circumstances we might face—if we are perceptive enough and trusting enough to learn them
• In James 1:2-4, the writer of James calls us to consider our various trials as a joyful experience
• “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” (vs.2)
• Then he goes on to tell us why it is we must face those trials and what the purpose of suffering is: “because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (vs. 3-4)
• During those times of trial, God is working to prune us, to bring us from where we are to the place God wants us to be so that our life might produce the kind of fruit that is pleasing to God
• And we can be joyful during those times of trial and testing because we know that this is the work of God in our life, that God wants only the best for us, and that God is with us during those times so that the fruit God wants us to produce will grow
• The Benefits of Being a Branch
• Being a branch on the vine of Jesus Christ is difficult work, but it is work that is not without reward
• The reward for our diligence in remaining connected to Jesus is a deeper and more intimate relationship with him
• The reward for remaining connected to Jesus is living a life that is pleasing to God
• The reward of remaining connected to Jesus is that through us the love and grace of God will flow into the lives of others
• There is one other reward that Jesus specifically names in this passage of Scripture
• That reward is answered prayer
• Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask what you wish, and it will be given you.” (vs.7)
• This promise will be true because remaining in Jesus—being a branch on the vine of life—changes us
• We learn that the life and the love of God flows through us to others as we stay connected to the vine; therefore what we ask God for will never be selfish
• What we ask God for will always be in accordance with God’s will, and what we ask for that’s in the will of God, God will always give