Mooroolbark Uniting Church (St. Margaret’s)

Easter 5 – 28 April, 2024

Sermon – Rev’d Howard Wallace

Bible Readings: John 15:1-8;  1 John 3:7-21

Those partial to a drop of red or white wine might find a sense of delight in today’s Gospel reading. One of the more memorable experiences I had teaching in the Theological College was to participate in a seminar for the Goulburn-Murray Presbytery on the theme of ‘The Vineyard’. It was held at Rutherglen and we visited a few vineyards, tasted a little wine, heard from wine makers and I led some studies on wine and vineyards in the Bible. Of course, there is a world of difference between vineyards and wine making in biblical times from today’s industry – in scale, in work, in processes and in markets.

Not least we should remember that wine in biblical times was a staple of life, with the water supply erratic and often undrinkable. For us wine might seem a bit of a luxury, for them it was a source of life. Nevertheless, the metaphor in John’s Gospel of Jesus as the vine and we as the branches still has enough for us to understand something more about Christian discipleship.

The imagery is clear. The vine has its stem and connecting branches where foliage and fruit are gleaned. The vine needs to be pruned to be fruitful. It needs to be trained otherwise it can become a rambling mess and less productive. All this is clear to us and it is clear how this provides an image of our discipleship. But let us note some of the points John’s Gospel highlights in regard to discipleship.

1. The connection of the branch to the vine is the key point of the imagery. John uses the word ‘abide’ to describe this. As Barry noted last week we find it 11 times in 11 verses in this chapter of John. It also occurs in the 1 John reading. The older and basic meaning of ‘abide’ is to dwell or live with someone or somewhere. But there are several later nuances to this. It can also mean to accept or submit to or be guided by something – to abide by a decision or rule. It can also mean to remain faithful or lasting – a memory can abide with us. All of these senses can apply to our discipleship of Jesus – we dwell in him, we are guided by him, we remain faithful to him, we remain with him. It is the language of intimacy, of dependence, of close relationship and it describes what is at the heart of our discipleship – our relation to Jesus.

But this is not a one-way relationship, of us abiding in him. Jesus says: ‘abide in me as I abide in you’. We might often perceive our discipleship as something we commit ourselves to and it is. But it is the closeness of Jesus to us – in us – that draws us to him. Even more than that, it is God’s love for Jesus and Jesus’ love for his disciples that draws them/us to him. Here the image of the vine really comes into its own if we can imagine the sap rising through the stem of the vine, going out into the branches and in time yielding foliage and fruit.

In our discipleship we have a close connection to the life of God – eternal life – that is the source of our life, seeking to work through us as the expression of God’s love for the world. God’s life infuses, abides with us from within through our relationship with Jesus. It is not a power which comes from above, is remote and oppressive, but one which works the way we know love works – enabling the flow of life to the other – to us and those with whom we relate.

In a world where there is a sustained and increasing sense of isolation, alienation and lack of trust:

• In institutions – banks, politicians, government, the media, even faith institutions;
• In relationships – marriage, families;
• Let alone at an international level.

In such a world with, a least in part, its growing sense of ascendency of the individual over the community, the image of discipleship painted in the Gospel, shaped by identity in mutual trust and abiding, is a radical alternative way of life to that which is often experienced.

2. Such an offer of life, based in intimacy and closeness, is not an end in itself. In John’s words, disciples abide in Jesus in order to bear fruit. Being a branch on the vine, being a disciple abiding in God’s love in Jesus, is meant to yield something new, a joy, something of benefit beyond itself. Paul talks about the gifts of the Spirit. John here prefers to talk of branches of the vine bearing fruit. The epistle of John speaks about this in terms of loving one another, ‘not just in word or speech, but in truth and action.’ Even John’s Gospel goes on to speak in similar terms, of how Jesus abides in God’s love so even his disciples should abide in Jesus’ love. Love that is expressed not just to each other in some closed circle but for the whole world which according to John (3:16), is so loved by God.

3. But we can say a little more about discipleship from John’s image of the vine and branches. As I inferred earlier, the image of the vine is taken from life as it is lived day by day. People would have seen vines and worked with them on a daily basis. Many would have had them around their homes. Now we cannot push the image too far but we could say that the life we are called to as disciples is not necessarily some esoteric, ascetic, strident existence. Yes, there have been Christians, in the past and even today, who have lived in desert like places or places of silence to pursue their discipleship. Such may be of benefit to them, personally and in bearing fruit as John would say. But what the image of the vine conveys at its heart is that it is in the ordinary progress of life yielding its benefits, it is in life as created and lived, that we can see a model for discipleship. It is in the vine being a vine as it was created, in doing its vine thing, that we see the eternal life of God infusing the life of disciples with newness and fruitfulness. In other words, our discipleship, at its heart, is to be found in pursuing the life we have been given in all its ordinariness, in whatever form it takes, knowing that the love of God in Jesus, and Jesus’ abiding with us, infuses that life with its divine newness.

Of course, it takes vigilance on our part, but God’s love, and Christ’s abiding within us, comes to us as we are, where we are, and in who we are, touching our earthly life with the life of heaven.

Amen