John 15 – Vine & Branches
/Lectionary Readings for October 17, 2021 21st Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
Job 38:1-7, 34-41 v4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c v1 Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are!
Hebrews 5:1-10 v7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.
Mark 10:35-45 v43-44 Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else.
But this week we continue our series exploring the book of John, now with Chapter 15.
Weekly Meditative Exercise
Christianity includes a long and rich tradition of embracing meditative practices as a way of keeping us connected with God, ourselves, and each other. I encourage you to spend some time each week (ideally 10-30 minutes) trying each weekly exercise. You will naturally find some more appealing and effective than others. You’ll like some but not others, and after 6-12 months you’ll better understand what’s available and what helps you.
This week’s exercise focuses on Visio Divina (Divine Vision) (pages 46-48)
From Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. InterVarsity Press, 2005.
Desire: to appreciate and worship God through the beauty of created things.
Definition: intentionally seeking God by praying with images, icons, created media, and creation itself.
Scripture: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands...” (Psalm 19)
As you engage with this exercise, I encourage you to pause during your days to discover God through nature, through art, and through your own creative spirit. Let God help you interpret what you hear, see, smell, taste, and feel.
Don’t just see – gaze. Don’t just hear – absorb.
Don’t just taste – savor. Don’t just feel – embrace.
Peace through Leadership Quotes
“Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.” ~ Henri Matisse
“You cannot eat a cluster of grapes at once, but it is very easy if you eat them one by one.” ~ Jacques Roumain
For certain personalities, sometimes our instinct is to fight for peace. It is much easier to yell or attack than it is to say, “Can I buy you lunch? I’d like to better understand your perspective of this issue and find a way we can work together.” From personal experience, I can say the latter approach is often as exhausting as it is rewarding and helpful.
The second quote speaks of incremental progress. If we hope to create peace between nations, political parties, races, or genders, we must work to create that peace one person, one action, one conversation at a time.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading
For the third week in a row, we overhear a private conversation between Jesus and his 11 or so closest disciples just hours before Jesus will be betrayed and arrested.
As we heard last week, Jesus offered these words to give his followers peace, comfort, and encouragement. More than once, he uses exaggeration to make His point(s) jump out and grab your attention.
As you listen to today’s verses, notice that Jesus opens with “I am” which, once again, positions Him as speaking not just on God’s behalf, but AS God – the great I AM of the Torah.
In the second verse, notice that ALL branches get pruned – some are trimmed a little, others are cut off entirely. He goes on to use some pretty dramatic language like “thrown away” and “burned.” Remember the overall intent and style of His monologue: Jesus is using exaggeration to get their attention and wants them to be at peace and encouraged. So please, do not fall into the modern trap of literal interpretation which, historically, has often led to Christians excluding people from church life. God does the trimming – not us – and God trims so that we can have new growth, new life.
As one person pointed out in our Tuesday night Bible Study, many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day “worked to EXclude people who did not meet their standards, in contrast to what Jesus did which was continually trying to INclude people in the faith community.”
Finally, Jesus uses the word “remain” 10 times in the space of seven verses today – repetition for emphasis. Other translations use words like abide, continue, dwell, or endure... all of which convey the idea that Jesus really wants us to be intimately present with Him.
Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts so that we can become intimately present with today’s Scripture.
Read John 15:1-17 and the rest of chapter 15 this week.
If any of you have every pruned fruit trees or rose bushes, you know that some degree of skill is required for the plant to attain the desired shape and maximize its production of fruit or flowers. The skill is knowing what to cut, why it should be cut, where to cut it, when to cut it, and how to cut it. The more important the plant, the more cautious you are about who is holding the pruning shears! My mother can tell you the story of how, at the age of 2, I “pruned” a rose bush with a golf club. Hold that thought a minute.
It is so easy to hear these verses – out of context – and walk away questioning our own worth, wondering if we’re a lifeless branch that God is going to cut off and throw away into a burning trash pile. I’ve heard that message preached from more than one pulpit. And that interpretation is completely the opposite of what Jesus intended.
In the Methodist tradition, we interpret individual verses in light of ALL of Scripture. Let’s start with what we call the Old Testament. No matter how many times the Israelite nation or specific people (like Moses or David) messed up, made mistakes, ignored God, did horrible things... no matter how many times that happened, God always bent over backwards to reestablish relationship with them. God never “threw them away.”
You might recall the ancient story from Daniel 3 where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three faithful Israelites, were thrown into a fiery furnace as punishment by a pagan king for remaining firm in their faith. As the story goes, they not only survived the fire unscathed, God’s Spirit met them IN the fire.
A few thousand years later, God decided humanity needed a face-to-face, flesh-to-flesh meeting, so the Creator of the Universe became human in the person of Jesus. Why? So we could better experience and understand God’s love, mercy, and grace – all of which God offers freely and endlessly.
Twice in today’s reading Jesus says very clearly, “Love each other like I have loved you.” That’s the core, the essential message of Jesus’ life and ministry. And how did He love his followers? He embraced them as they were, He built relationships with them, and He nurtured them so they could become more of who God created them to be: mature people able to love others more than they could image was possible.
“Love each other...” Where does that living water of love come from? It naturally flows as the result of us “remaining in Jesus” – being intimately connected with God, however that connection works best for you (i.e. through God the Father, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit). Whenever I become short-tempered, snippy, or even hostile, I realize that I’ve probably become disconnected from the source of Divine Love. It’s time for me to take a break, to DISconnect from my situation (but not my feelings), and to REconnect with God (so God and I can process and learn from my feelings).
As we remain intimately connected with God, today’s verses tell us that God will expertly prune ALL of us (no one is exempt) so that we can produces even more fruit than ever before. What kind of fruit you ask? Galatians 5:22-23 tells us “the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
These verses can help us see God’s presence in our lives. They can also serve as a guide for our own prayers. For example, “Lord, I’m not feeling much joy these days. Help me see joy around me. Help me feel joy within me. Help me share joy with others.” You could use that same prayer for any aspect of Holy Spirit fruit. In fact, you could pray for one type of spiritual fruit each day, for example: “Lord, thank you for giving me patient friends. Help me be more patient with myself and with others.”
As for the pruning, Jesus reminds us that, while unpleasant in the moment, pruning is good and helps us grow. And who better to prune us than our Creator who knows us far better than we know ourselves. God knows exactly what to cut, where to cut, how to cut, and when to cut – even if we don’t understand why something appears to be being cut from our lives.
Remember the image of a 2-year-old me “pruning” a rose bush with a golf club? That wasn’t pruning, it was bludgeoning. It was brutal and lacked any degree of concern for the rose bush’s health or future. God does not bludgeon us. God does not want us to suffer. God expertly prunes to separate us from whatever is holding us back and to make room for new growth.
When we remain intimately connected with God and open ourselves up to this Divine surgery, each and every one of us can better love ourselves and love others. How many of us have heard testimonies from people who are living richer lives after letting God help them prune away addictions from alcohol, drugs, pride, greed, anger, attention, affection, fame, fortune and so many others unhealthy pursuits. What might each of us be holding onto that may be holding us back?
Opening ourselves to new growth is how the Kingdom of God naturally expands within us and through us. This is one way we continually become new creations through our faith. This is how we, and our community, are transformed from who and what we are into the potential God has placed within each of us. May we all embrace and celebrate our pruning.
Amen? Amen!