Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
May 10, 2009
John 15:1-8

Bearing Fruit

The vines in the vineyard curl around each other, creating a morass of vines and branches, stems and leaves. The fruitfulness of each branch depends on its relationship with the vine. Some branches are bare, some with fruit. But without attention, even the bearing branches will grow less and less productive. The gardener enters with knife in hand and cuts out the dead wood, then goes on to prune back the old growth – the secret to bearing fruit. Among vineyard keepers that’s what’s called “canopy management.”

Vineyards have always been an important part of the agricultural economy. In the ancient world, great care was taken to prepare the ground; strong walls and watchtowers were built to protect the vines from people and animals. A productive vineyard was a sign of God’s favor and that the vine-grower was obedient to God’s commands.

Wine imagery is a frequent one in our Bible. Ancient Israel was often called “the vineyard of the Lord” (Isa.5:7). “To bear fruit” was a common Hebrew Bible image of a faithful community. Jesus knows this, of course, when he talks with his disciples about his leaving them. He is the vine; they are the branches. They understand his vine/branch metaphor and the importance of being connected to the vine in order to bear fruit. This is a “no brainer” for them.

One might wonder, however, what was happening in the first century church to prompt the gospel writer John to remember this story and to include it in what is called “the farewell discourses,” as Jesus prepares his followers for his imminent departure. Whether or not they understood what was about to happen, it must have been comforting for the disciples to hear Jesus’ talking about “abiding” in him, about being connected to him in order to bear fruit, that is, in today’s language, to act in love and pursue justice.

There are two key ideas here in the vineyard metaphor that need to be unpacked:

First, in order to bear fruit, there needs to be some cutting involved – and this sounds painful. Vines live out in the open air, subject to the elements, and some branches die. They are in the way, useless. Others may bear fruit but not as well as they might. Pruning a healthy plant – while it may seem cruel – stimulates more growth. Of course it’s hard to do; we hated to prune our geraniums when they had big red flowers and buds this spring – but unless we did so, we knew they would grow woody stalks, get leggy, and begin to die.

Pruning is healthy for a plant – just as cleansing our human lives of burdensome things, meaningless pursuits, and debilitating relationships can give rise to new life in us. The Greek word “prune” also means “cleanse.” If we are being honest, “...we know there are aspects of our lives that need to be cleansed, cut away or redirected.”

Hence, we might understand this text as a way of saying that, through a relationship with Jesus, the connection that brings life, good is nurtured and evil is eliminated. Acting in love on behalf of justice is God-like; acting out of self-interest, brings ruin to the vineyard.

Or another way of saying what this pruning means is this: God looks for results in our lives, bearing the fruit of love in the world, witnessing to the gospel of justice in our lives, and God is willing to prune us to get it!

The second key idea in this passage is that fruitfulness is communal: There are many branches on each vine, all drawing their nourishment from the same vine. All together, the plant produces fruit. One individual branch, one cluster of grapes, doesn’t mean much. Our Western civilization model of individuality – the Lone Ranger mentality – the de-valuing of community lives, works against us here.

“I’m a good person; I don’t need to go to church,” I hear all the time. Of course one can be a loving person, treat others with kindness, work for justice without going to church, but we lose the opportunity to learn from each other, to be reminded continually of our mission, and to be empowered through the experience of weekly worship – that we are held to a higher standard to love God and our neighbor as ourselves, to abide in love.

Yes, through this metaphor, Jesus is the vine, and we the church produce fruit only through our connection to the vine; without the vine of love and justice, the church, too, is powerless and needs to be pruned. So, this text makes the point that the productive vineyard is a community enterprise. We produce more quality fruit when we grow it together!

And speaking of growing fruit:

We have just baptized little Andrew and pledged to help raise him in love – that he will bear fruit in his life. There is a reason why baptism in the United Church of Christ happens in the midst of a congregation and not off to the side after the service. Baptism signals Drew’s acceptance into Christ’s church, makes him a member of the family of God. It’s true: “It takes a village to raise a child,” and we accept the responsibility. Raising our children in the faith is one way of growing fruit.

Today we also celebrate Mother’s Day – or as we say in the UCC, the Festival of the Christian Home. We recognize that the home is the foundation of our society, a place where we are nurtured and raised and sustained so that we may bear good fruit in the larger community.

At the same time, let us think not only of the relationship with our own mothers and our immediate families, but also of the quality of our relationships with friends and co-workers. Not all of our homes may be loving places; they may be branches in the vineyards of life that need cutting away or pruning, and we may have had to create families our of our friendships that are more authentic. We do not need to feel guilty about this. We can make healthy families and healthy communities.

This week I participated in the RI InterFaith Coalition’s conference to fight poverty with faith, with the goal of cutting poverty in half in RI in the next 10 years. Our first event was the Prayer Vigil at the State House where people from various faith traditions called upon our elected officials to make decisions that would help to lift people out of poverty. Merry and Meghan were there.

This week’s conference was the first of many planned to develop partnerships between faith leaders and civic leaders, to identify concrete strategies and steps to make a difference, to engage people in our houses of worship to do something about the crushing problems facing too many people in our neighborhoods.

Based on a pressing need brought by the Poverty Institute at RI College, I will challenge some of you to make two telephone calls, today or tomorrow, to your elected senator and representative. If we do this, we can save more than 3,000 very poor mothers and more than 6,000 children in RI from the risk of hunger and homelessness. Two phone calls or emails to people you already know, who are in the legislature to represent you, five minutes to help a poor mother and her children. After the offering prayer, I’ll give you an opportunity to make this additional action offering and ask for volunteers. I will give you the information you need to make the call.

Jesus said that he is the vine, and the disciples – that means you and me – are the branches, and our task, if we are willing to accept it, is to bear fruit. How do we do that? Not by accumulating wealth and fame and stuff! But only by abiding in Jesus the vine.

I ran across an interesting idea in one of the commentaries on this text, and I quote:

“Churches that move through hardship to increase commitment to the mission have, indeed, been pruned. Those that pull back in concern for their own comfort and security have, indeed, been removed.”1

I suggest to you that Edgewood Congregational Church has suffered its own hardship this year – and that we have been pruned. Our task now is to contribute to the reputation and the success of God’s vineyard by bearing fruit. May it be so!

Amen

1. The Interpreters Bible. Luke/John, p. 26.