Growing in grace.

Cherry orchards and Mt. Adams


 from today's sermon: bearing fruit

Our Gospel reading for this week confirms something I have suspected all along with this Bible, there are parts of this good Word that I can only barely understand. Last week we talked all about sheep and heard the imagery of the good shepherd and the herding of sheep – and this may come as a surprise to you, but I know nothing about sheep! This week we hear about the vines and branches, about pruning and bearing fruit – and judging from the garden plot I tried to create last week in the backyard of the parsonage, this is also not my area of expertise. For the past three years I have been sitting in a library studying this theology stuff, yet the Bible is written by faithful people who have worked with their hands more than their heads – they held, tasted, touched and experienced the work and presence of God in their lives. So they write what they know and now we have a bible that is filled with vivid, living, 3D kind of material. This week belongs to the gardeners, the orchardists, the farmers, those among us that dare to get their hands dirty and dig in God's fruitful creation. This is the word of God that is for you, the promise of God's presence and miracles of creation that you have seen season after season in ways I can only admire from a safe distance.

[John 15:1-18]

Jesus says, “ I am the vine, you are the branches.” This image of vine and branches and being connected to such a life source as God, the life giver is a beautiful and hope filled image. Jesus quickly moves from places us on that vine of life, to talking about what it means to be a branch on the vine, and not just a branch, but a branch that bears fruit. Jesus has work for us to do while we grow out of the vine – so, what does that mean for us? When we start talking about how exactly the branch grows and bears fruit, the image starts to turn. Because in order for the vine to grow Jesus clearly lays out the necessity for pruning. Now, I am sure all of the gardeners and orchard workers can testify to the need for pruning, the trimming and cutting off of branches so that the tree or vine can be even more fruitful and healthier. However, who likes pruning? Its seems like an awfully violent act to do to a tree, to completely cut off a limb or branch from the tree, to lob off a part of itself. It is painful, harsh this pruning. Of course we know that the image of vine and branch illustrates who we are in God's garden, so we cannot exactly talk about pruning without letting it get a little personal...so the image turns, to us, the branch on God's vine. When we think about pruning let us not be too quick to think about the pruning of the world, governments, churches, our neighbors...let us wonder, honestly and painfully, what in us needs this pruning.

When we endure suffering of any variety, there can be a desire to what some good to come out of suffering. And, because God is good and gracious to us, there is often, good that comes out of suffering. Yet, I want to be clear that not all suffering is pruning, we cannot simply look at all the pains of the world and give it the blanket label of “pruning”. Because this leads us down the dangerous path to say that someone is suffering because they needed pruning, and that kind of judgment is never, ever ours to name. God is certainly able and willing to take all moments of sorrow and bless and heal us. However, not all suffering and sorrow is pruning.

I have experienced deep and painful season of pruning. With the help of perspective I can look back at seasons of life that have offered pruning that did bring life and fruit – fruit that is from and of God. I have a life long bad habit, I have always struggled with overextending myself. I love to be involved, to try new things, to be around people – so, when I got to college it was like stepping up to an abundant buffet of involvement, new opportunities and great collaboration with amazing people. However, my junior year, at the first semester ended, I came down with a bad case of mono. Lack of sleep, lack of priorities, lack of self care all brought me to this pitiful state. I traveled home for Christmas and barely left the couch for weeks on end. I was too tired to learn much from this experience so Christmas break neared its end I started to pack up to head back to campus and did not have any plans on changing anything about my life. My father, however, had other plans. He sat down this stubborn and independent young woman and said that before I headed back to school I needed to print out my academic schedule. I did. He sat down with it and took his English teacher red pen to the schedule and started slashing – pruning, we could say. By the time I did actually get back to campus I had dropped a class, and a music ensemble and a music lesson. It felt painful, only with great reluctance did I admit that I was overwhelmed. I missed the things that were pruned from my life that semester very much. Yet, the pruning was for my own well being, and not just that, but the pruning was necessary so that what I could have my life restored, quit literally, and live life abundantly from there on out– bearing great fruit.

For most of our lives, we are unable to see what, in us, needs pruning. This is why it is always easier to look at who else or what else needs pruning, but never ourselves. God knows our nature, and this is why we are on a vine that grows only by the grace of God and is connected to Jesus. This is why we are called a branch among so many branches. This is why we have each other. We are growing branches that need the help of the gardener to see the places that have grown too wild, or the places that no longer bear fruit. God gifts us with pruning tools like the Bible, prayer and each other to acknowledge what has been choking our fruit bearing ability. It is not an easy discipline, this pruning business, there is a violent, harshness to it. And how can we separate out the pruning from the suffering? Because the pruning of God is always, always for the sake of fruit bearing – and the fruit of God is life and love for all. As I said before, I have endured many pruning seasons, seasons of my life that I can now look back on to say yes, there was life and love brought to me through that season of pruning and I am thankful. The fruit of God is always life and love for all people – so, where do you need pruning so that you may bear this fruit? What has been growing out of control, what branches do you cling to that hold no fruit? These are deeply personal and challenging questions – yet I do not know how we can encounter these words of Jesus and not be moved to ask them.

Another way to approach pruning is to start with the fruit itself. What areas of your life do you know bear fruit of life and love for all people? Beginning with the fruit that we do bear, we can identity the patterns and habits that got us into those places. Where do you experience love and life? Where do you bring love and life? What seasons of life do you now look back on and say “YES” there was some God fruit growing at that time?

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The good news in all of this is that we are on the vine at all. When we run into a season of pruning we can trust that the God of life is still helping us to grow, still offering life after death, still pushing us into the light of the Sun so that we can thrive and continue on.

And when we bear fruit – we do something so outrageous as to love someone else or offer a gesture of love and life to another, we know that we do this because we know God and God knows us. That is good news for us, a branch among branches. Jesus says, “I am the vine and you the branches” we are connected to a Savior who plants us, teaches us to grown an then stays with us throughout all our lives so that will bear fruit – and not just a little – Jesus stays with us, offering pruning and grace so that we will bear A LOT of fruit.

Church, you have been planted, watch for pruning, feel the death of whatever hurts you and God's garden and know that you will grow and you will be loved and you will bear much fruit of life and love in Jesus' name. Amen.