John 15: 1-8
Jesus said, ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
So, do you prefer cane pruning or spur pruning? Cane pruners, do you like the Guyot or Guyot Double? Spur pruners, the Cordon Simple, the Cordon Double, or the Goblet? When Jesus first said, “I am the true vine” the people he was talking with would all have had first hand experience with viticulture. Either they would have owned a vineyard or they would have worked in a vineyard during pruning and harvest time. That knowledge of viticulture isn’t as universal here in the Berkshires in 2024!
So, if we’re going to get something out of this Gospel lesson, we’re going to need to learn a little about growing wine grapes! The first thing to know is that left to their own devices, grapes will grow very long vines and make lots of leaves leaving little to no energy left for fruit. So, in a vineyard, grapes are RADICALLY pruned so the plant if forced to put a lot more energy into fruit production than it would on it’s own. But we also need to know that with too much fruit, you’ll damage the health of the vine. The skillful pruner will shape the vine, while it’s dormant in the winter, so that in the summer there’s a healthy balance between foliage and high quality fruit.
To get that right, a shocking amount has to be pruned. 90% of the previous year’s growth is cut away! The first time you prune grapes it feels TERRIBLE and because of that the biggest mistake people make is that they are tempted to keep too much from the past. “It was so good last year! I don’t want to get rid of what was SO good!” BUT, here’s the truth about grapes... GOOD FRUIT DOES NOT GROW ON LAST YEAR’S BRANCHES.
The vine grower prunes 90% of last year’s branches away because the Vine Grower KNOWS that healthy fruit only develops on new growth. So after the pruning there are only a couple of two inch long branches on each side of the vine and on each one of these stubby branches there are only a couple of buds left. It is from just those couple of branches, each with a couple of buds that come all of the coming year’s foliage and fruit.
Jesus is the vine. You and I are those stubby, two inch long branches. And still, we want to be the ones telling the Vine Grower how it should be done, aren’t we? We’re tempted to hang on to what was.. After all, what we had was WONDERFUL! It grew AMAZING fruit! It was so SWEET. It was SO PLENTIFUL and so, even though our IQ as two inch long branches isn’t in the same league as that of the Vine Grower, we often try ANYTHING to keep what was from being pruned away.
Jesus didn’t randomly pick GRAPES to illustrate his points. Jesus picked GRAPES on purpose, because Jesus knew that we, like grapes, grow wild on our own. Jesus knew that we, like grapes, when we hold onto the parts of us that grew good fruit in the past, we too would become unbalanced, unhealthy and less productive going forward. This lesson then implores us to trust the Vine Grower EVEN when that means 90% of what happened before gets cut back to just a little branch with a couple of tiny buds!
This lesson also teaches us that after our pruning, our job as two inch little branches is not to grow vines or leaves or even fruit. Our job, as branches… in fact OUR ONLY job, is to ABIDE. Our job, as individuals and as a congregation, is to live deeply connected, both to the vine… to Jesus… and to the other branches… one another… and to the world around us. Here at the church end we’re fed and nourished. Here on this end we take in all the love, compassion, grace, and generosity that God in Christ gives us. THEN as a congregation, we turn right around in the length of our short two inch branchyness and send it all out into the new-this-year shoots where the fruits of God’s sweetness will counter the bitterness and sourness of our world. Jesus said, “I am the True Vine” and you and I… we’re the branches. The stubby, two inch long branches. We’re not in charge of rooting, shooting, or fruiting! Our job is abiding, we’re the highway that moves God's love, compassion, and hope out into the world. We’re the vehicle baby!… the rest is for the Vine Grower to worry about.
I don’t know about you but I need help remembering that. That’s one of the many reasons we gather here each week… to support one another in our mutual struggle to genuinely trust the Vine Grower and the True Vine. That’s hard! We’re being asked to trust the Vine Grower with the pruning shears! Let them take all the dead wood they see fit to take. It’s hard with all that chopping and changing going on around us to simply abide. To trust and embrace… to be still and know that our collective job is abiding intimately and fully with one another in the True Vine. It’s hard… which is why we really do need each other giving each other constant reminders that the Vine Grower really does know their business better than we ever could. We need each other so that we won’t forget that the Vine Grower will, in the right time, make THROUGH us, an abundant and memorable, beautiful and glorious harvest of fruit, sweet enough to balance our all too often bitter and sour world and then, as Julian of Norwich said,… “all will be well and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.” Amen.
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