I am the true Vine

 

Sunday 2^nd May – Easter 5

Acts 8:26-40. Luke had already stated (1 verse 8) that Jesus promised that the disciples would be witnesses to him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and “the ends of the earth”. The Ethiopian eunuch is exotic enough to represent the ends of the earth to Luke’s readers. Here we also have Isaiah 53 quoted and applied to Jesus and the baptism and gift of the Spirit is affirmed.  The “Ethiopian” was on his way to Jerusalem to worship and was reading Isaiah so was he Jewish or at least a God-fearer? We’ll never know and the fact that he is a eunuch, so not acceptable to Jews in religious worship is made nothing of in this story which may be another sign of Christianity breaking through Jewish cultic barriers.

1John 4:7-21. This is a sublime and liberating doctrine equating God with love and provides a theological underpinning of Paul’s hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13. There exists a gritty subtext of course that this love was not due to those who had split away from the main church this letter is addressed to. Those who had “gone out” from the community in chapter 2: 19. Notwithstanding this contextual point, it remains an inspiring piece of writing.

John 15: 1-8. Another of the “I am” sayings of Jesus in John’s gospel that emphasises our reliance on God and which simultaneously presents Jesus as the image of God. So far so good and comforting, but there is a sterner side to this parable. Vines grow slowly, typically taking three years to bear fruit and in the meantime careful tending and pruning were needed.  Jesus himself was subject to the same process he says so we are not above it. Happily, in Greek the word for pruning also means cleansing, so instead of being simply lopped off and thrown into the fire, that leaves open the path of cleansing by baptism and then repentance and ultimate forgiveness.

 

In John’s first letter we have a sublime piece of writing that equates God with Love. In the Acts reading we have someone wanting to be baptised into that Love.

And in the gospel reading we have a story about people growing in that love to better reflect God’s light and love.

So it is a story of being inspired by and attracted to God.

Then Demonstrating that we want to be incorporated into that love signified by Baptism.

And then instruction on how to live and grow in the faith into which we have been baptised.

I will assume that everyone is here of their own free will so you are attracted by God. I will also assume that almost everyone has been baptised, so the real lesson today is about how to grow in our faith.

In the “I am the true vine” saying we have that lovely conflation of Jesus as God incarnate so the words, while being the words of Jesus are actually also the words of the Father. This is made clear in John 17 when Jesus says that “I and the Father are one”.

We can stay close to the Father by staying close to the son. We drink from the well of the Spirit that proceeds from the Father that keeps us close to the Son.

We keep close through Private and public prayer, good works, engaging with the Spirit through study of scripture, and communing with God in the public act of Holy Communion.

Through those practices you are abiding in Christ and through those practices you will bear fruit.

I’ve said before that was a point of difference with my training vicar many years ago when he said to me that all you are asked to do by Christ is remain faithful. But I always maintained that keeping the faith wasn’t the desired end product. You are expected to bear fruit. That is the goal of the Christian life.

And in case we need a prompt, Paul kindly lists some fruit of the Spirit in Galatians and they are,

²² By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

These are how Jesus recognises his followers because as Jesus said “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16) not by their appearance or their claims but by their fruit.

Admittedly that can also be a bit scary as well because so many of us are prone to introspection and are quite self-depreciating so we’ll often beat ourselves up by telling ourselves that I am not growing in love or joy or self-control or whatever but if we are asking the question of ourselves we are at least acknowledging the demands of Christ and their authority and if we can recognise where we are found wanting, we fall back on the repentance and forgiveness of God which is plentiful.

We worship and commune often with a great and good God who wills our salvation.

He will never give up on us so let’s not give up on ourselves.  Trust in God’s prior acceptance of you through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and stand on that firm rock. Then keep as close as possible through prayer and worship and good deeds and you will grow into the person you were created to be.