The Rev. Doctor Susan Briehl, occasional visiting professor at Wartburg Theological Seminary, once shared the following reflection: several years ago, someone at Wartburg Theological Seminary decided that their seminary needed a vineyard on a portion of it. There was a fence that was built along the edge of the parking lot on a hill below the seminary, and so the seminary placed a few simple grape vines to grow along that fence. A few years later, as one naturally does, someone decided that the grapes that were produced should be turned into wine. Keep in mind, Wartburg Seminary is in Dubuque, Iowa along the Mississippi River. Not exactly prime wine country. Dr. Briehl continues, not long after Wartburg Seminary began to produce its own wine, they began to serve that wine almost exclusively as the wine used in the rite of Holy Communion. And the wine – when drunk for communion tastes strangely sweet and almost a little bitter. In fact, it is downright awful wine. But for the community of Wartburg Seminary, when they receive the sweet, bitter, awful wine in communion, they know that they are indeed home. The taste of the wine is a reminder that they are where God has called them to be, and always will be a reminder of the community that they are a part of.
For the community of Wartburg Seminary, the wine is intimately connected to the sense of belonging that they have. And in much the same way, our scripture readings also connect to this idea of belonging. Because as Jesus, the true vine, points out, to bear fruit, you must first belong to the vine. In other words, we must belong to Christ. And this is a word of hope for us, because we are given assurance through the waters of baptism that we do indeed belong to Christ. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we know that we have received the promise of salvation given to all who are claimed by God. So, done and done, right? Sermon over – and in record time?
Sorry, we don’t get off that easily. Because to be branches of the True Vine who then bear much fruit, we need to have a sense of what that fruit looks like – because not all fruit that are borne by us is automatically good. So we need to dig into this a little deeper – what does it mean for us to be the branches of Christ the True Vine, and what does bearing good fruit really look like? Because in his parable today, Jesus reminds us it isn’t as easy as it might look at first glance. Those branches that don’t bear fruit are pruned, and in fact do not truly belong to the True Vine. And even those that do bear fruit will be pruned along the way – which means we too will be pruned. We will be changed so that we are able to produce better fruit for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as much as this is good news, it also can be challenging news.
Shortly after we moved into our house in Ahwatukee seven years ago, my wife and I began to look at adding a couple of citrus trees to our back yard. Now, many of you know that I grew up in the Midwest and because of that I don’t have much experience growing citrus of any kind. And with all love and respect to my wife, she openly admits to having a black thumb. So for a couple of years, we didn’t do much except give them plenty of water to help them get established. But for the past couple of years, we’ve begun to take a more active hand in their care – to the best of our ability. So a couple months ago, as winter began to turn to Spring, my wife asked me to prune back some of the branches on our more verdant tangerine tree. We were hoping to help it grow a little taller and also make more room for the fruit to form as well. Now, one of the things I’m really good at is a Google search. So I searched for best ways to prune a citrus tree, and it was pointed out that fruit grows best when branches don’t cross each other. So as I was examining the tree, I recognized that there was a large branch that crossed two branches that were going vertical. Because we were hoping to allow the tree to grow taller anyway, I chose to prune this cross branch, which I’m still pretty sure was the right thing to do. But it had – let’s just say – a bit more obvious an impact than I had anticipated.
After cutting that branch, I discovered that removing the branch left a not insignificant hole in the canopy of the citrus tree. Needless to say, my wife noticed it instantly, and still gives me grief about how I “made the tree ugly.”
Remember, as followers of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, we are transformed daily by his love. For the past several weeks, we’ve been hearing all about this love in our reading from the first letter of John. And this transforming love doesn’t sound bad, does it? In fact, it sounds downright pleasant. Kind of sounds like a nice gentle hug. But sometimes Jesus’ transforming love in practice is less comfortable than the cozy hug that it sounds like. Sometimes to be transformed and to grow in the way that God really wants us to grow means we are called to more difficult things. Sometimes to truly live as one who has grown from the vine of Jesus Christ means there will be pruning that happens to us, and we might not look quite as well maintained as we would like along the way. Because true transforming love can also mean we need to be willing to let go of certain conceptions of who we are in the world. True transforming love means we live out our lives in bold confidence of the grace God has given us. And that means we set aside our fear and our doubt – which is easy to say, but less easy to do.
Because one of the things about being a branch of the true vine – there are days where we might feel like we’re isolated from the whole. There are days where even when we’re doing our best to live into the perfect love we’ve experienced from God in Christ Jesus, where we might feel as if maybe that feeling of divine love we’ve received through the power of the Gospel is only our imagination. Some days, we might feel as if we’ve been cut off and are withering away. It’s hard to live with perfect love casting out fear when that love seems distant. But the good news is the fact that as children of God, we will always remain connected to Jesus, the True Vine. It is in Jesus, this True Vine, where anything good is possible. For this reason, I believe we know that the love we share testifies to who we are – children of God, connected to this True Vine. And our testimony is not our own – it is truly God at work in us, revealing through the fruit we bear the good news of love and life found in Christ our Lord, who takes our imperfections and molds us into His holy branches, reaching out for the sake of the whole world.