Vine and Branches

(Sermon preached on 5th Sunday of Easter, 2009 by The Rev Ted Cobden)

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit. (John 15:5 NRSV)

I want to explore that image of the vine and the branches with you this morning. See in your imagination a grape vine. See the main stem and the branches coming out from it. See it in May as it leafs out and buds. Then imagine that it is getting to be fall and picture the clusters of grapes hanging from the branches.

The image of the vine and the branches is powerful to us Christians for three reasons. First it shapes the way we understand our fundamental relationship with the risen Christ. Second, the image suggests how we understand our life’s purpose -- how our lives can be fruitful. And third it gives us a graphic perspective of our relationship with each other as Church.

To begin: when the risen Jesus says to us, “I am the vine and you are the branches,” he wants us to appreciate how we are connected to him -- how we abide in him. The Easter message tells us that being bound into the Risen Christ is the promise of eternal life -- life which overcomes death and those forces which challenge the energy of life. Jesus is the vine which keeps bringing newness of life to those who are open to engagement with him -- those who are open to those renewing energies in body, mind and spirit.

For thousands of years philosophers have proposed that human beings are wired in a way so that we are capable of connecting with the eternal one. They suggested that we have an innate capacity for God. For thousands of years theologians have affirmed that we are made in the image of God. We have an affinity for the divine as a wax seal bears an imprint of the divine stamp. God and human kind are made for each other.

Now, in recent decades, the neuroscientists -- those who study the human brain -- are discovering just how truly wired we are to perceive the transcendent. This next Wednesday the St. James book group will be discussing “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.” The author Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor was a specialist in the anatomy of the brain and was teaching at Harvard med school when she had a stroke which affected the left side of her brain. It took her 8 years to recover her faculties. She is now able to put together her scientific knowledge and her personal experience to describe the amazing capacity of our human brain. She describes how our neurological circuitry can enable us to connect to a universal source of peace and joy and compassion. She says some folks may choose to ignore this connection. Some may be unaware of the potential of this connection. But each of us has the mental capability of connecting to this inexhaustible well of peace and joy and good will.

The relationship we have with Christ -- this abiding in the Living One -- enables us to connect with the unending source of energy and hope. Each day is filled with challenges. Bad things happen. We make mistakes. We hurt others. We try to climb mountains and stumble and fail. Discouragement lies close by. We can become impatient, frustrated, fearful, exhausted. If we did not have the ability to open ourselves to the sustenance of Christ, we would lose hope. But being grafted into Christ, we can take into us the newness of life which refreshes our spirit, renews our centeredness and peace, and resets our vision to see what’s right with the world instead of only what’s wrong.

I invite you to envision on a daily basis your connectedness with Christ. Take time to be still and sense your breathing. Sense your breathing in as a taking in of the spirit of the living Christ and the breathing out of the stuff you want to let go.

A second implication of the image of the vine and the branches is the promise that as we are connected to Christ we will be very productive. Jesus promises that we will bear much fruit.

Each of us is unique and special, but the fruit we bear derives from a common vine which has the life force in it of love, peace, wisdom, justice -- all those virtues you think of when you think of God. So the manifold fruits each of us produces are discrete aspects of this common energy. So some of us having this energy of joy and celebration have special gifts of music and sing in the choir and help us all to worship more effectively. Others with this life energy and love have the ability to nurture and teach children. Others having this energy for the common good have the calling for organizing and managing economic enterprises for the well being of people and our society. Others use God’s energy within them to bring healing to others and others to bring peace and justice to our community.

I invite you to think of the work you do and see how it is connected to the Christ within you. Consider even the small things you do -- the little acts -- the phone calls you make to check on a family member or friend. Might this be Christ reaching out in concern for another through you? Being aware of the Christ within us helps us to see that we have renewable resources within us. This will help us from thinking we rely solely on our own energy. Some of our feelings of exhaustion may be due to that. Instead allow yourself to be replenished by the energy of Christ within.

The third aspect of this image of the vine and the branches that I would have you consider very briefly is the way we are connected to each other as Church.

Paul uses the image of the body of Christ to describe the church. Christ is the head and we are the various other members of the body: the hands, the feet the mouth. We each have different functions, but we coordinate as one body.

As an organizational image it’s clear. But how about the vine and the branches as an organizational chart? Everyone is intertwined. How are we going to know where everyone fits in?

I smiled to myself when I considered that Jesus used this image of the vine and the branches 2000 years before we started to envision and --use with increasing rewards-- the world wide web. How about that as an organizational chart?

What might the implications of this understanding of our organizational structure be for our congregation? From the perspective of the vine and the branches: How do we connect with each other, rely on each other, care for each other?

What might the implications of this image of the vine and the branches be for the Episcopal church as it relates to other members of the Anglican Communion in our diversity?

What are the implications of this structure of the vine and the branches as we relate to other congregations: in the way we may worship together or work together to bring compassion to our community?

Jesus’ image of the vine and branches tells us how blessed we are to be vitally connected to the source of all life. Second how we bear fruit. Third how we are interconnected with other branches of the vine as Church.