Monday, July 7, 2003
Dan Ulrich
A Well-Connected Church
John 15:1-17

Listen, brothers and sisters! Listen to the parable of the vine and the branches, because Jesus is telling us how to live joyfully and abundantly. We, who are the Church of the Brethren, can be the fruitful vine that Alexander Mack envisioned; but we must start, as Mack did, by listening to the Word.

According to John, on the last night before his death, Jesus gave his disciples a wonderful vision for a well-connected church: “I am the vine, you are the branches,” he said. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” Jesus’ first disciples would certainly have understood that metaphor. Vineyards were an everyday sight on their walks through Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. If you’re like me, however, you might gain new some insights from a field trip to a vineyard, perhaps to one here in the beautiful Napa Valley. Why not take the trip now in your imagination?

Imagine yourself standing in the midst of a well-tended vineyard. The air is fresh and warm, and the leaves on the vine in front of you are rustling in a gentle breeze, radiating green in a dance with the sun. Beneath the leaves on most of the branches you see large clusters of grapes. The grapes are so clear and the skin so delicate that you can see the seeds inside. The life-energy in those luscious grapes is both obvious and awesome.

While you are admiring the grapes, a vinegrower walks over and invites you to have a taste. You have been longing to do just that, so you pick a grape, and bite down. The flavor bursts forth in an explosion of sweetness. The vinegrower returns your smile and asks, “Do you know what makes the grapes so large and sweet?”

“Tell me,” you reply, so the vinegrower continues: “Do you see that large central vine? Its roots go deep in the soil, and it draws up nutrients and water – fifteen, sixteen, seventeen gallons a day. The sap goes through the branches to the leaves, where sunlight, air, and water produce sugar in a miracle called photosynthesis. If I let the branches grow wild, most of the vine’s energy would go into producing stems and leaves. The branches would grow distant from the vine, and some of them would trail on the ground, getting covered with dirt. The branches would not have enough air and light to produce good fruit. That’s why I prune the branches carefully, making sure that each one connects directly to the vine. If a branch is trailing along the ground, I lift it up, wash it off, and tie it to the trellis. Often that’s all a branch needs in order to start producing. With careful pruning, a branch can produce good fruit year after year, but now and then a branch just stops producing. I can see that it’s dying. When that happens, I have to cut off the branch in order to make room for new growth. That’s a sad day for me, but it’s part of caring for the vine so that I get good grapes. I love that vine, every branch of it, just like it was my own child. The branches get their life from the vine; that’s why their fruit is so sweet.”

Then the vinegrower shakes your hand, goes back to work, and lets you to ponder the wisdom that you have heard. (Pause)

The more I study this parable, the more I get excited about Jesus’ vision for a well-connected church. I would like to say a bit about four parts of the vision: the vinegrower, the vine, the branches, and the fruit.

The vinegrower represents God, whose care for the vine is steadfast and loving. God’s care includes pruning, which I interpret to mean discipline, but note that the pruning is God’s responsibility. The branches in the parable do not prune one another.

This vision of God as a vinegrower recalls other parables in scripture, most of which focus on God’s disappointment in a fruitless people. I’m thinking especially of Isaiah 5:1-7:

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes....For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry.

The parable of the vineyard in Matthew 21 also stresses God’s disappointment, but in John 15 there is a crucial difference. Here God is glorified by the fruit that this vineyard produces. The difference is the central role played by Jesus, God’s son.

Jesus is the sturdy, deep-rooted vine, who directly nourishes each of his followers, so that we can bear much fruit. Jesus is the source of our life as God’s people. Just as the vine does not cling to its sap but passes it on to the branches, Jesus sacrificially shares his life with us. He came to earth, died, and rose again so that we might have life and have it abundantly. Because he lives we shall live also.

And in return for abundant life, Jesus expects . . . What? Does Jesus expect us to bear fruit? Yes, but not as a payment for the life that Jesus gives us freely. In the first eleven verses of John 15, Jesus makes only one request of the disciples, but he repeats it so often that even they and we can’t miss it. His request appears for the first time in verse four: “Abide in me as I abide in you.”

So what does it mean for the disciples to abide in Jesus? The answer becomes clearer as we study John’s use of the word “abide” in other contexts. Back in John 1:35-42, Jesus sees two future disciples following him, and asks, “What are you seeking?” It’s a profound question, when you think about it. Andrew and Peter’s answer is sometimes translated, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” but the Greek verb used there is the same as in John 15. It could be translated “Where do you abide?” – another question with a deeper meaning. Jesus replies to both meanings with his gracious invitation: “Come, and you will see.” The disciples will quickly learn where Jesus is staying, but they will spend the next three years learning where Jesus abides. He abides in his disciples.

For three years, Jesus walks with the disciples through ordinary times and extraordinary ones. In the last scene of the Gospel, astonishingly, the risen Jesus cooks breakfast for the disciples. They are rightly his servants, but the relationship that he builds with them is so intimate that he calls them friends. Jesus seeks adult friendships with men like Andrew and Peter and with women like Mary and Martha. And in our text, Jesus asks for the friendships to continue and deepen on a mutual basis. “Abide with me,” he says, “as I abide with you.” Abiding represents a personal relationship, a friendship. It is about spending time together, in a connection as intimate as the branches’ relationship to the vine.

Sometimes in our attempts to be faithful as a church, we may forget that the heart of faithful Christianity is a loving, abiding relationship with the Jesus. In the Church of the Brethren we like to emphasize the values that make us distinct from other denominations. We have a tradition of service; we seek peace and justice in the world; we try to continue the work of Jesus, peacefully, simply, and together. But the real mark of our identity as a church is not our ethics, or even our attempts to be like Jesus. It is our relationship with Jesus. He is the one who calls and empowers us to continue his work, and without him we can do nothing.

Michael Yacconelli, a minister in another denomination, shares this story of a budding friendship with Jesus in his book, Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith. Yacconelli writes:

A friend of mine spent the last year in and out of the hospital; the combination of a failing heart and cancer was almost too much to bear. His courage and determination caused him to bounce back from the edge of death, and he and his wife were able to celebrate Christmas together at home. I suggested that we celebrate Communion in their home on Christmas Day. Just before the appointed time, they called and asked if we could wait another hour because their grandson, his girlfriend, and her two boys from a previous marriage would like to take Communion as well. I walked into their small home to find everyone seated at the dining room table – Grandma and Grandpa filled with anticipation; Grandson, girlfriend, and two boys noticeably nervous.

After placing the bread and wine on the table, I asked if there were any questions before we started. The eleven-year-old boy, Joshua, asked if he could sit in on the Communion.

“Of course,” I said and checked to see if his mother agreed. She did. After the words of institution, I began to pass the bread and wine around the group.

“May I take Communion?” Joshua asked.

“Sure,” I said, “Do you understand what all of this means?”

The grandson interrupted, “Yes, he does. I explained it to him.”

Joshua took the body and blood of Christ, and as I was preparing to say the final prayer, he blurted out, “Sir, how can you hear God speak to you?”

Where this question came from I have no idea. I paused for a minute and said, “Well, Joshua, if you listen very carefully, you will know when God speaks to you. It may not be an audible voice, or it might not happen right away. But if you really listen, you will hear God speak.” The trouble with children is they believe you. Immediately, Joshua squeezed his eyes, scrunched his body into listening mode, and started listening. I had given Joshua the adult answer to his question, never expecting him to put the answer to the test so soon.

“I heard Him!” Joshua yelled. “I heard God speak!”

I honestly don’t think any of us in the room really believed Joshua heard God speak. We were trying to be nice, but we weren’t expecting God to actually show up. “What did He say?” I asked. I was patronizing him, fully expecting some childish response.

Joshua looked straight into my eyes, his own eyes wide with wonder. “He said, ‘Don’t forget Me!’” (end of quote from Michael Yacconelli)

The words of Jesus, spoken through Joshua, are a reminder for us as well. Jesus is saying to this Annual Conference and to the whole Church of the Brethren, “Don’t forget me! Have a living friendship with me! Listen to me! Abide in me! That is your most important task as branches on the vine.

As I think about the branches’ role in this vision of a well-connected church, I am struck with its simplicity. Paul’s famous metaphor of the church as the body of Christ is more complex. There, the members of the body have different functions: some are apostles, some prophets, some teachers, and so on. In John’s gospel, there is no hint of hierarchy. All the branches connect directly to the vine, and the only difference between them is in the amount of fruit they produce.

We do not produce more fruit by pruning ourselves, nor by trying harder to be good. We produce more fruit as God disciplines us, and especially as we allow ourselves to be channels for the life-energy that we receive from Jesus, the vine.

As we remember Jesus in a renewed spirit of worship, praise, and prayer, we will find over time that our connection with him is strengthened. We will be better attuned to the voice of Jesus, guiding our decisions. We will know better what to ask in prayer. Most of all, we will pray for the power to love more fully, something that God is eager to give. We will be more open to the spirit of Jesus, energizing our work and our worship. The love that we find in Jesus will fill us with joy, and that love and joy will be contagious. Instead of worrying about numbers, we will celebrate acts of faithfulness. Instead of focusing on disagreements, we focus on the grace and truth that we share in Jesus Christ.

I’m not saying that we should ignore our disagreements, but that we should keep them in perspective. The only crucial difference between branches is whether or not they are connected to the central vine. The Gospel of John as a whole is very clear that our salvation does not depend on anything except our relationship with Jesus. If we abide in Jesus and he in us, then we are part of God’s people, and we will receive all we need to bear the fruit that God wants.

So, what is this fruit that God wants us to bear? At least two interpretations seem reasonable to me. “Fruit” may be a reference to the results of evangelism: more people coming to faith in Jesus. In John 4, when the people of Samaria come to believe in Jesus, he celebrates the gathering of fruit for eternal life. Another possibility is suggested by the emphasis on “love” later in John 15. The “fruit” be a symbol for agape, self-giving love. In that case, John’s interpretation would be like Paul’s, where love appears first and foremost among the fruits of the Spirit. I want to suggest that these interpretations belong together, because love is the key to evangelism.

Please think for a moment about your own process of coming to have faith in Jesus. If loving relationships with other Christians played a crucial role in your coming to faith, please raise your hand. I stand in awe when I imagine all the ways that Christ’s love has been revealed in and through the people gathered here. God alone knows how much fruit you have produced.

Let me share one example as reported by Mark Craddock, a Church of the Brethren pastor. It is a very sweet grape. About ten years ago, Mark began volunteering as a Christian visitor at the Prodigal’s Community, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for hard-core offenders. Shortly after he began visiting there, the Community’s director asked if Mark’s church would consider doing a feetwashing service and allowing the residents to participate. The church jumped at the chance to share feetwashing with people who had not experienced it. Before the service began, the director invited anyone who was uncomfortable having their feet washed to just slide his or her chair back and not participate. As the residents heard an explanation of what would happen, one by one they slide back, wanting no part of the ceremony. Mark and a deacon from his congregation washed one another’s feet, and then went to each of the men, asking with tears for the privilege of serving them, but none of the men in the program participated. His impression was that it had been a waste of time.

On the way home that night, Mark’s wife Elaine reported that a couple of the women had participated, but not all of them. When Mark complained about the men’s lack of participation, Elaine replied, “You never know what seeds were planted.”

A couple of years later, Mark attended the Prodigal’s Community’s fifth anniversary party. Some graduates of the rehabilitation program shared testimonies at that celebration. One young woman told of her experience in the program, recalling how she had been beaten down and felt she had no reason to live. She had been ready to quit, to leave the program, and return to the streets. But one night, she said, a group of Brethren came over and shared a feetwashing ceremony. She told how strange it felt to sit next to “church people” who loved her unconditionally and to have her feet washed by them. She said it was the most meaningful thing that had ever happened to her. She said she new then that God loved her and would help her get through the program. She stayed in the program and became the first woman to graduate from it. As Mark listened to her testimony, he sat there with tears streaming down his face. He had thought that the feetwashing experience was a failure, but he was wrong. God used that expression of love to turn someone’s life around.

Sisters and brothers, I confess that I sometimes share Mark’s earlier sense of discouragement when I think about the future of the Church of the Brethren. I am all too aware of our chronic decline in membership, our shortage of leadership, and our unresolved conflicts. I grieve about this things, because the Church of the Brethren has shown me God’s love since the day I was born. Sometimes, I get so busy working for the church that my relationship with Jesus suffers, and that is when am most vulnerable to discouragement. But when I listen to Jesus talk about the vine and the branches, I get a different perspective. Like Joshua, I hear Jesus saying, “Don’t forget me.” That’s when I understand that the future of the Church of the Brethren does not depend on you or me. It depends on Jesus Christ, the risen, life-giving Son of God.

The Church of the Brethren can thrive, not because our demographics are favorable (they aren’t), or because we always agree (we don’t), or because we are more faithful Christians than those in other denominations (that’s for God to judge). The Church of the Brethren can thrive by abiding in Jesus Christ, the true vine. As well-connected branches, we will pray in keeping with Christ’s will, and we will ask for something that he is eager to give: the power to love more abundantly. Christ’s love will flow through us, and we will share that love with others perhaps not even realizing it. The love Christ gives will fill us and others with contagious joy.

Do you want to be a well-connected church? Are you willing to start now?