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People of the Vine
Reverend Dr. Benton J. Trawick Grace Presbyterian Church
May 6, 2018
John 15: 1-12
It’s hard to say just what I expected to see when I first
visited a vineyard. I guess I expected to see tall arbors
with vines racing up trellises to form a great green canopy,
arching everywhere and heavy with fruit. In comparison to
my expectations, the vines in the vineyard looked—well, a
little bit stunted or stumpy.
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Just some stout trunks with closely trimmed branches so
that each individual vine looked a bit like a miniature tree.
I suppose my imagination of what a vineyard might look
like had been fueled by the gnarled tangles of woodland
vines I’d encountered in my long-ago backpacking days,
but the vines in the vineyard were a lot less unruly—and a
lot more fruitful. A brief bit of research into the growing of
grapes reveals why.
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It turns out that only certain wood within the vine is suited
for bearing fruit. Grapevines produce fruit exclusively on
one-year old wood, not younger and not older.
When a bud sprouts in springtime and grows into a new
shoot within the larger vine, the shoot turns from green to
brown by the end of the growing season. It is now
considered one-year old wood. The next spring, some of
the buds on that one-year-old wood will grow flowers
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(which develop into fruit). Buds on older wood, meanwhile,
produce only leaves or shoots—which are necessary for
photosynthesis, but not fruitful.
The goal of pruning is to keep as much one-year old wood
as possible without encouraging the plant to produce so
many grape clusters that it lacks the energy and nutrients
to fully ripen them. It’s a balancing act that requires
constant care and cultivation.
Unpruned and left to its own devices, a grapevine grows to
a dense mass of mostly older wood with relatively little
“fruiting wood” each year. More and more energy goes to
vine growth and less and less goes to fruit production. The
dense growth leads to poor air circulation, which
encourages fungal diseases. Effective pruning removes 70
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to 90 percent of the previous year’s growth each winter,
keeping the vine healthy, vibrant, and abundant.1
Now that may be more than you ever wanted to know
about how grapes are grown, but the basics of what I just
described would have been widely known in Jesus’ day—
namely that in order to bear healthy fruit, a grapevine must
be continually monitored and trimmed and tended, so that
its energy is directed toward bearing fruit instead of just
growing for growth’s sake.
As he often did, Jesus takes an idea or image that is
common knowledge and uses it to teach his disciples an
1 This information is quoted/paraphrased from a 2016 article by Brian Barth in Modern Farmer: https://modernfarmer.com/2016/02/pruning-grapevines/
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object lesson about their proper relationship with God and
with each other.
But the occasion of this teaching makes it all the more
worthy of our attention, as it takes place during what is
referred to as the farewell discourse, Jesus’ final
instruction to his disciples in chapters 14-17 of John’s
gospel, on the night before his crucifixion. It is among the
last words of instruction Jesus offers to his closest
followers, and last words are important words.
I am the vine, Jesus says—I am the source of your life,
your energy, I am the very source of your ability to bear
fruit. And my Father, Jesus continues, is the vine grower.
He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every
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branch that bears fruit, he prunes to make it bear more
fruit.
The vine is under the constant examination and cultivation
of the vine grower. And every single branch in the vine
receives attention—they are either removed or they are
trimmed to facilitate health and growth.
You have already been cleansed by the word I have
spoken to you, Jesus goes on to say, and the same Greek
root word refers to cleansing and to pruning, so what
Jesus means is that his disciples have already been
pruned to bear fruit through what he has taught them. You
already know what you are called to do, he is saying to
them. You are already rooted in me and prepared to bear
much fruit.
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Abide in me, live in me, remain in me, Jesus goes on to
say. I am the vine and you are the branches. Apart from
me you cannot bear fruit.
If you want to discover the central theme this passage it is
captured in the word abide. The word is repeated eleven
times in the first twelve verses of the chapter.
You must remain, you must stay connected, you must stay
focused, you must root yourself in me, in my teachings
and in my love. If you do not do so, you will be unable to
bear fruit.
Lindsay Armstrong writes, “On this final night, Jesus is
preparing his disciples for the time when he will no longer
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be physically with them. Abide, he counsels. Remain with
me, as I remain with you. Continue with me as I continue
with you. Dwell with me as I dwell with you. Endure with
me as I endure with you. Be present with me as I am
present with you.”2
If you keep my commandments you will abide in MY love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide
in His love. This is my commandment: that you love one
another as I have loved you. The fruit that Jesus’
followers are to bear, in other words, is love.
So, to take that whole message and boil it down, Jesus is
saying as his final instruction to his disciples: I have
2 Cynthia Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson, eds., Feasting on the Gospels, John Volume 2. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015, p 172 (Pastoral Perspective).
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rooted myself in God’s love, and you, my disciples, are
engrafted into my love. Your calling, your single purpose,
is to bear the fruit of love—the vine grower, God, will
cultivate you for that purpose. Remain in me, abide in me,
and God will continually do the work of trimming away
those parts of your life that do not bear the fruit of love.
Now the fruit of love—that’s a sort of a general, vague,
slightly mushy description. What does the fruit of love look
like? Well, elsewhere in the New Testament we get a few
hints or hallmarks to tell us how the fruit of love is
identified.
In first Corinthians chapter 13 Paul writes, “Love is patient.
Love is kind. Love is not envious, or boastful, or arrogant,
or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable
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or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices
in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things
hopes all things endures all things. Love never ends.” In
other words, love abides.
Elsewhere, in Galatians 5, Paul speaks of the fruit of the
Spirit: love, and then these other fruits that sound like
synonyms or manifestations of love: joy, peace,
forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control.
Those passages give us a sense of what the fruit of love
might look like.
Now I’ve heard an old joke and you’ve heard it too, I
imagine, that someone once asked a sculptor how he
created a magnificent sculpture of an elephant. And the
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sculptor replied, “Well, you start with a great big stone and
you chip away everything that doesn’t look like an
elephant.”
Similarly, I suppose, if we root ourselves in Christ and we
permit God’s cultivating work in our lives, God is
continually at work to prune away every branch that does
not bear fruit, or every branch that does not look like love
or joy or peace or forbearance or kindness or gentleness
or self-control.
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The key, it turns out, is in the abiding—abiding in Christ is
a full-time job. Abiding is not done casually, or
accidentally, or once-in-a-while, or when it’s convenient. It
isn’t done twice a month, it isn’t use-as-necessary. We
cultivate our connection to the vine—and God cultivates
us to bear fruit.
Think of the sacrament of communion as being a part of
the vine tender’s constant, gracious care. As we partake,
we are reminded that we are forgiven, we are invited to lay
aside attitudes, concerns, or behaviors that don’t glorify
God, we are nourished and empowered for the work of
discipleship, we remember, we recommit, we rededicate,
we remain—we abide.
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As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in
my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in
my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and abide in his love. I have said these things that my joy
may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is
my commandment—that you love one another as I have
loved you. I am the vine. And you—are the people of the
vine. Amen.