The Fifth Sunday of Easter - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

 Fifth Sunday of Easter – John 15:1-8 

I don’t know much about wine except that I enjoy both red and white. I read that if you’re going to start a vineyard, in order to ensure that all the grapes are the same you don’t start the vineyard from seed because you don’t know what kind of grape a seed will produce. You start it with vines that are propagated from another vine – a vine where you already know the type of grapes it produces. You take a cutting from that vine and put it in the ground. That shoot develops roots and begins to grow.   

For a vintner, there needs to be patience. They don’t start making wine their first year of planting their vineyard. At the end of the first growing season, the vintner cuts back the vines – he prunes them. At the end of the second growing season, the vintner prunes the vines again. It’s not until the third year that viable clusters of grapes grow. After the grapes are harvested, the vine is cut back, pruned, again.  

Today, in our Gospel we read from Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. It’s three chapters in John where we hear Jesus’ final words to his disciples before his arrest. He is preparing the disciples for his departure and his return to the Father and teaching them the importance of abiding in him. He says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. I am the vine; you are the branches.” Branches that don’t bear fruit get pruned. Branches that are not attached to the vine die. He says that we need to bear a lot of fruit to glorify his father.  

Thinking about those vintners, pruning back their vines the first and second years of growth, and hearing Jesus’ words about being pruned, can make us wonder what does it mean to be pruned? What is the benefit of pruning? Rev Melanie and I talk about our Wednesday healing service quite a bit in our homilies because it’s at that service where we take time to discuss the Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday. This week I asked everyone what it meant to them to be pruned. For one person, pruning was a change in health but then peace in accepting the change. For another, pruning took place through a terrible car accident when that person was young. Surviving the accident taught this person to appreciate and enjoy life and to know that because they survived, God has a plan for them. One commented that pruning means they need to focus on God more. And someone else said that pruning is God telling them to “shape up!”  

The word “grafted” came up in our Wednesday discussion too. Grafting is joining two plants together to become one. When you graft, the lower portion of the plant becomes the root system and the trunk. The upper part grows out and becomes branches. Jesus said, “I am the vine, and you are the branch.” Before we can flourish from being pruned, we have to be connected, or in Jesus’s words, we have to abide – believe, endure, dwell, be present, remain, stick with – to abide is to have a deeply connected relationship. When we abide, we remain connected with Jesus. He becomes the trunk, the vine, and we are the branches.  

All of us here are connected to Jesus. As his disciples, we aren’t called to sit here dormant, producing small amounts of fruit. God wants us to grow in faith and in love. Sometimes to do this, it takes some pruning. Maybe it’s giving up something you love to do in order to spend more time volunteering. Last week, Rev Melanie talked about connections and learning more about the people in our faith community who are new to us. Maybe it’s taking a leap and joining a new group here at St. Thomas. It’s sometimes getting out of our comfort zones and stopping doing the same thing over and over again.  

In order for us to bear more and more fruit, we have to be pruned as well. Pruning shapes a plant. While it may seem that it is hurting the plant, in the end, it stimulates new growth. We are shaped by hardships, by trials, and by joys in our lives. In all of those times, we are being pruned in some way. Through abiding – having a deep connected relationship with Jesus, the pruning, whether joyful or painful, whether you’re being pruned by choice or through an unexpected circumstance in your life, pruning eventually spurs new growth, producing something better from the process. If you take notice of the situation, and abide in Jesus, you will bear more fruit. (Example) 

Here's the thing about the fruit we bear. Branches of a vine or branches of a tree don’t live off their own fruit. They live off the nourishment of the vine. The fruit is for someone else. The flowers on a plant do nothing for the plant itself. But they can bring beauty and joy to those who see it and they can bring nourishment to animals. The fruit on an apple tree does nothing to help the tree. The fruit can be eaten by humans or animals. The fruit can fall to the ground and it’s seeds can produce more trees. For the tree, it does nothing. Paul calls the fruit we bear, “Fruit of the Spirit” – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We need to bear fruit. We need to bear fruit to feed others.  

If we continue to live as we are right now, here today, while we may be producing fruit, we can grow stagnant in our faith. If we can withstand a little pruning, change things up every once in a while, look back at turmoil in our lives and see where we have grown, see where God walked with us through those changes and difficulties, we will be doing the will of God and producing more fruit. We are here to bear fruit and we can flourish through pruning. That is how we reach our full potential as Christians.  

I’d like to you think about these questions this week. What looks good in your life but does nothing to bear fruit? What one thing can you commit to this week to prune in order to be more fruitful? Could you think of a time you were pruned and determine if or how it helped you to bear more fruit? 

Elton Trueblood, a Quaker theologian wrote in his book A Place to Stand, that we are a “cut-flower civilization”, we look good for a while but without roots, we soon wither and die. We don’t grow in our faith because we think we know it all already. We stand on the sidelines not wanting to get involved and aid those in the margins. We check off the box…I went to church – check.  

Rooted in and connected to Christ, we do not wither and die, we are given eternal life. Rooted and connected in Christ, we are empowered to bear more and more fruit. Through our pruning and our growth, we can be fruitful bearers of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Amen