Pentecost year B 09 Sermon
John 15:1 ff
Did you hear what Jesus said?
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 it will be even more fruitful.”
This passage from John fifteen… often gives people the willies… I mean they worry… ‘I wonder if I’m fruitful ….what if I’m a branch of the vine that bears no fruit…
is God gonna chop me off…and toss me on the compost heap
and that bit about pruning ….sounds painful doesn’t it …letting God clip away at us…or maybe we feel anxious… about what’ll be left of us…when all the pruning is done
It may be you come to a sermon on pruning…feeling like you’re going to the dentist. Maybe you can just fall asleep during the sermon…and when you wake up… it’ll be all over …but if you think going to sleep…means God wont get into you… you’ve got it wrong.
The image of the vine Jesus offers us… in John fifteen…would have been quite familiar to his Jewish friends… because it’s an image woven… right through their scriptures… as a symbol of the people of Israel…the nation of Israel.
Remember the Psalmist prays…You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
The prophets reminds the nation…Israel was a spreading vine; God brought forth fruit for himself; In the first three Gospels...Jesus often refers to the vineyard in his stories and parables…and by the time we get to John’s Gospel… the vine… is no longer the people of Israel…the vine is Jesus himself...and his branches will be a new Israel bearing the fruit of Shalom reconciling all creation to God…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 it will be even more fruitful. [pause]
Jesus disciples were as familiar with the grape growing industry… as we are here in Central Otago. They knew… the purpose of pruninga grapevine… is what…to get more...[look up] GRAPES. Exactly … there is only one purpose…
And if you’re any kind of gardener or winegrower…
you’ll know there’s a right time to do the pruning. You don't just wake up one day… smack in the middle of summer … and say… ‘I think I’ll just go out and chop some vines.’ [pause]
And pruning a vine is complicated … a very technical procedure… if you prune at the wrong time or at the wrong angle… or at the wrong distance from the bud…there’ll be no grapes.
This business of pruning is no easy matter.
There the right time for it…and a right way to go about it …and all the time…what the gardener has in mind…is the next season’s production…of grapes… [pause]
So if Jesus is the vine and we are the branches…what’s the point of pruning and getting rid of deadwood for us… as individual believers… or …for us collectively…in our life together as the church… as the the Body of Christ…
What’s the point of pruning us?
[ask congregation] Jesus can only be talking about one purpose… more fruit….more fruitfulness. Pruning makes fruit more likely…
By cutting off deadwood and pruning… the gardener …God…is encouraging the branches…that’s us… of the vine… that’s Jesus…to bear more fruit. Encouraging us…helping us…enabling us…to bear more fruit. To make more followers of Jesus more people on earth committed to peace with justice compassion and mercy…more people capable of loving
So there’s no reason to be afraid of a sermon on pruning… is there…no reason to be afraid of the pruning work of God…
because as every good gardener knows…pruning and dead-wooding … allows more sap to flow to the fruit bearing branches.
In our personal Christian journey…this pruning’s about letting God… deal with all those things… that aren’t helpful…in our relationship with God… and with each other.
What are you aware of in your life… and your relationship with God that needs some trimming and attention.
Last Sunday we talked about one thing that might need attention… our unhelpful images of God…we talk about healing our image of God. Using the vine metaphor…this would mean cutting away all those negative images of God… that don’t square with Jesus revelation.
Another thing we noticed are the unhelpful images we have of ourselves. As unforgivable…or worthless…labels that are lies…. When held up to the light of a loving God…
Cutting away that dead wood allows us to open ourselves to the flowing of God’s love …God’s spirit…allows us to grow leads to new life wouldn’t it.
And all Jesus talk about pruning and dead-wooding points us to the mystery of his death and resurrection doesn’t it …reminds us how Jesus dies… and by the power of God is raised to new life. So we understand…the journey into Jesus is a journey into life… by way of dying.
When we’re baptised we share in that journey down into the deep waters of death and come up the other side… into a new life. And remember what Jesus hears as he comes up out of the water…. ‘You are my beloved child and with you I’m well pleased’
A lot of this pruning is so that the message can get through to us that we too are a beloved child of God. Each morning when we wake up the question can be… where is God calling me to new life…to a fruitful me.
Where is there something bursting out in me…and what do I have to die to…so it can blossom?
So we can help with the pruning… by noticing the things that prevent us from being more fully alive…attitudes that stop from saying yes to God’s invitation to grow ….
And here’s where timing comes in…especially when we think we know… what needs to be pruned… or cut off in someone else’s life. Remember God is the gardener… not us and if we jump the gun we could interfere with the work of the Spirit.
When we care for people…we don’t want them to hurt … we want to help them…sometimes we have to be patient and stay in the place of our own anxiety for them… long enough for the work of God to be completed in them. These are times God is likely to do his best work. And we don’t want to bring it to an end… prematurely.
In fact a tendency to interfere could be exactly what God may be wanting to prune in us…So noticing…paying attention to…
the things that get in the way of our relationships with other people or prevent us from growing in God… is the first part of this process of prunning.
The second part is admitting what needs to be cut off or pruned from our lives…we become entirely ready… to have God remove or trim… this troublesome aspect of our lives… ready to be as available and open as we can be… for God’s Spirit to work in us.
And becoming entirely ready is quite difficult…because we often want to hold on our defects…afraid if the pruning process goes too far…there’ll be nothing left.
But sooner or later the lack of fruit in some area of our lives…begins to bother us enough to do something about it… sooner or later when we become completely ready to give it up to God…then it’s time for the third part of God’s pruning and dead-wooding process…
It’s time to pray…time to humbly ask God to remove all those things that get in the way of our relationship with him and with others…humbly praying that God will cut off what doesn’t bear fruit in us…and trim and prune those parts of us which could O so much more fruitful than they are…
Noticing, becoming entirely ready…and humbly asking God to remove these defects…a three part process that allows the great vinedresser to work on us. [pause]
And what happens when the pruning is over… well…
It’s the future and its fruit…that vindicate the vinedressers in their craft isn’t it? As the proverb says…‘wisdom is vindicated by all her children’
What happens when the pruning is done…well we’re left with the core of this mysterious wonderful journey with Christ…the journey through death…to abundant life…
free… and pruned down to the bare essentials.
And if we’ve got it right… if we’ve listened accurately to God…if we’ve surrendered sufficiently…then we will bear more fruit…as individuals… and as a church… as part of the Body of Christ on earth…
my prayer is that we will allow God to access our most vulnerable parts…so his will may be done in us…for the master gardener knows what they’re doing.
