1st John 4.7-21; John 15.1-8
“Abide in me as I abide in you,” Jesus says in today’s gospel. “Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them,” says our second reading from 1st John. ‘Abiding’ is one of the great themes of John and his letters. The word appears 40 times in the gospel, 27 times in three short letters. Compare that to other gospels where ‘abide’ shows up a mere seven times in Luke, just three in Matthew, and only twice in Mark. But in today’s second reading, in the space of three verses, John mentions ‘abiding’ six times; more than Matthew and Mark combined. Now ‘abide’ is, I admit, is a slightly old-fashioned word. Except for scripture and hymns like “Abide with Me,” it’s not really part of our everyday vocabulary. Yet it’s a beautiful word depicting life in Jesus, making him our dwelling place, sticking with him long enough to have his life affect our life. “Abide in me as I abide in you.”
The life of Christ abiding and dwelling in us, and our life made fruitful by his life, is what Jesus describes in the gospel when he says, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Now Jesus uses ‘I am’ statements elsewhere to tell us about who he is: “I am the Light of the world; I am the Good Shepherd; I am Resurrection and the Life.” But the vine/branch image is unique. It describes the intimate, close bond that Jesus has with his followers. Jesus is not simply an inspiring teacher we listen to. He is that, of course; but a life of faith is more than students in a classroom. He’s not merely a moral example to follow. He is that, too; the letter of 1st Peter says Christ left us an example so that we should follow in his steps. But Jesus is more than a teacher or example. Charles Williams, a friend of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, believed the central idea of Christianity, next only to the resurrection and more important than any other Christian doctrine, was participation in the life of God—the Son of God taking on our life so that we can have a share in God’s life, the intimacy and closeness of Christ dwelling in us and us in him—abiding. “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Christ is the source of our life and we have a share in his life. We receive life from him the way a branch receives life from a vine. Abiding.
This life-giving connection between Christ and his followers then moves us forward in our gospel reading to the next theme; the mutual indwelling of Christ in us and us in him leads to another image in today’s gospel. As we abide in Christ like branches to a vine, we are cared for by the vinegrower—the Divine Gardener and Chief Pruner—God the Father. “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” One of the most surprising things for people just learning to garden is how much pruning needs to be done. And it’s not only dead branches that need cutting away or flower buds past their prime that need deadheading. Green growth needs cutting back, too. Volunteers who work the Growing Together gardens here get a master class each year on pruning tomatoes from Jack Wood. Words like main stem, flower cluster, canopy, growing tip, and axil all become part of your vocabulary pretty quickly. And I’m always surprised at how much green growth—new growth—gets pruned back. Left to themselves, tomato plants get in their own way. They sprawl all over and you end up with weak stems and small blooms. If you’re a gardener, you know this. Pruning directs energy back to the fruit in order to get better fruit, the very thing Jesus describes in the gospel. Of the Divine Gardener and Chief Pruner Jesus says, “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”
Apply that to our life of faith and we see how God, as Divine Gardener and Chief Pruner, is always working for our good, making sure we don’t get in our own way. To keep us from being scraggly, God directs the energy of our life toward our true purpose: bearing fruit for the kingdom. Now a regular gardener may love her tomato plants just as they are, but a good gardener won’t let those plants stay that way. A good gardener tends and prunes the plants so that they bear fruit. How much more in life of faith?! Jesus may come to us as we are. But grace doesn’t leave us where we are. The Spirit works in us so that we bear fruit for the kingdom—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Our life in Christ, the mutual indwelling of Christ in us and us in him like a branch to the vine, includes God pruning away things that get in the way of our fruitfulness to shape us for a life that bears fruit through love and praise of God in word and deed.
The disciples certainly felt the pruner’s knife throughout the gospel story. When James and John come to Jesus looking for places of power on his right and left, he reminds them that self-giving service is a fruit of the Kingdom; their sprawling ambition is pruned away. When Peter asks how often he should forgive, “As many as seven times?” Jesus tells him forgiveness can’t be tallied but is limitless; the desire for getting back and getting even is pruned back so that Peter bears the fruit of forgiveness in his life. And for us? Anyone who listens to Jesus and has a sense of Christ’s life taking root and growing in them will, at times, also have the sense of being cut to the core, of being changed. Words like, “You shall not bear false witness,” prune back our temptation to gossip and murmur and redirects our energy to something else the New Testament says, “Let your speech be always gracious.” When Jesus says, “Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions,” he prunes away our greed and redirects us to be satisfied with what we have and to be fruitful in generosity. And today’s second reading prunes back the idea we can somehow say that we love God without acting in loving ways to the people God has placed in our lives. “Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.” Rooted in Christ, tended by the Divine Gardener and Chief Pruner, we bear the fruit of the Spirit. To ‘abide’ is to receive life in Christ and be directed to fruitfulness as God’s people in the world.
There’s a line from poet and pastor Jaroslav Vajda that depicts the mutual indwelling of Christ in us and us in Christ, and the act of God’s pruning in our lives so that we might be fruitful in a life of faith. “We are his branches, chosen, dear, and though we feel the dresser’s knife, we are the objects of his care.” We do feel the pruning knife of Jesus’ words when he describes a life of self-giving service, of forgiveness, of gentle speech, generosity and more. Yet even then we belong to Christ like branches to a vine. “God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God,” today’s second reading says. As we abide and dwell in Christ, God directs our energy back to our true goal—trimming away all that keeps us from our Spirit-directed purpose of life in Christ. And even when our faith goes through times of drought, as it will, when dry spells seem as unpromising and lifeless as a bare bud on a twig, the long view is always in mind. That long view is the joy that comes from our participation in the life of Christ. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”
Today Jesus is not passively awaiting our move before he makes a move toward us to give us a share in his life. He has already made his move when he was born for us, when he became flesh and dwelt among us. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent the Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” He abides with us now and we abide in him. How? We abide in Jesus, and he in us, through prayer. We abide in Jesus, and he is us, through scripture where, a classic Anglican prayer says, we ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ the word—the word of God abiding in us and changing our lives. Abiding happens within the community of the faithful where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name because he promises to be with us. We abide in Jesus through works of mercy for the hungry, sick, poor, and needy. “Beloved, let us love one another.” And here at the table of the Lord, in the sacrament of his Body and Blood we abide in Jesus and he in us. At another place in the gospel of John Jesus makes this very pledge to us when he says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” What could be better today than being where Christ has promised to be present, fruitful in praise and love of God and with a heart of love toward others—our life made fruitful by the life he gives us. “Abide in me as I abide in you.”
Write a comment: