Title: Christ the True Vine Sermon Text: John 15:1 8 Lessons: Acts 8:26 40; 1 John 4:1 11; Psalm 150 (v. 6) Hymns:

Transcription

1 The Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2015 Pastor Peter Gregory, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Westminster, Massachusetts Title: Christ the True Vine Sermon Text: John 15:1 8 Lessons: Acts 8:26 40; 1 John 4:1 11; Psalm 150 (v. 6) Hymns: Central Thought: Jesus Christ is the true vine planted by the Father whose branches are pruned and bear much fruit. Goal: That the hearers live as branches of the vine Christ, being cleansed by His word that they might bear much fruit in Him. Sermon Theme: As a branch of Christ the true vine, abide in Him and let God take care of the rest. Jesus Christ Is the True Vine Who Bears Much Fruit in Us God is love, and He has manifested Himself to us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:9, 16). By the ministry of the Gospel, he has given us of his Spirit, so that we also believe and confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. In this way, we abide in him and he in us, and we love one another (1 John 4:2, 7, 13). Such divine love is exemplified in Philip s preaching of the good news about Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch. And when they came to some water, the eunuch was baptized into the very Gospel that Philip had preached (Acts 8:35 38). That Ethiopian was thereby grafted into the true vine, Jesus Christ (John 15:1), just as we are. Already we are clean because of the Word that Christ has spoken to us and by the washing of water with His Word. We now abide in Him by faith in His forgiveness. As He abides in us, both body and soul, with His own body and His blood, He bears much fruit in us (John 15:3 5). Sources: Original Language, Word Study, and Biblical Context Psalm: First: The Ethiopian eunuch is grafted on to the vine, Jesus Christ, through the writing of the prophet Isaiah, explained by Philip, and Holy Baptism. Epistle: Confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, we abide in Him, rather than in the dead and lifeless teachings of false prophets. Love is from God, and so from Him and in Him we come to truly love one another. If we abide in Jesus and in His love, then we, too, will love. Gospel: Vine, vinedresser, branch, pruning, fruit, abide. Related: grapes, wine, harvest, feast. Parallel to I am the Bread of Life for institution of the cup? 15:1 Setting: the Upper Room. Focus: Christological. Vine: Specifically, grapevine. Also referenced at the Last Supper (Mt 26:29, Mk 14:25, Lk 22:18), when Christ said that He wouldn t drink again of the fruit of the vine until it is fulfilled. That is, in the resurrection. Rev 14:18: Another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority

2 over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe. Clearly, the vine is the earth, yet the note of judgment in gathering the clusters isn t far removed from Christ s language of pruning and burning. Also calls to mind Israel as the vine planted by the Lord (Jer 2:21) and the lament of Psalm 80:14: Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that Your right hand planted, and for the son whom You have made strong for Yourself. The resurrection of Christ shows that the vine has not been cut off for good. It (Christ) is trimmed to bear fruit. But it is the vine the Lord planted. On the cross, Jesus looks truly like a dead vine, cut off and unfruitful. True: It means genuine, authentic, real not fake (He s not a plastic vine, nothing fake about Him), because He is the true Son of the Father and God is true. As opposed to unbelieving Israel. Vine-dresser: Farmer, agricultural worker. 2 Tim 2:6: It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Reference to the patience of the farmer in Jas 5:7: Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. I m applying it here to Peter s discussion about the Lord s patience and long-suffering with us. Also, note the connection between farmer (georgos) and earth (ge) in Greek. The earth is the Lord s; He s the farmer. 15:2 Branch: unique to John s Gospel. Cut off: Take away, remove, cut off, even by force and killing. John 19:15 must be kept in mind: Away, away with Him. Present tense He does this now. Prune: Also cause to become clean, make clean, purify; clears, prunes away superfluous branches. Fruit: See John 4: Matt 3:8: Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 15:3 Clean: Note the word play and common root with prune. They are already pruned, cleaned, purified by Jesus word. They are free from sin and moral guilt. They are free to love their neighbors and thus bear good fruit. Tit 1:15: To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. John 13:10 11: And you are clean, but not every one of you. For He knew who was to betray Him; that was why He said, Not all of you are clean. Acts 15:9: And He made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Word: John 6:63: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 15:4 Present General conditional: If a branch doesn t remain in the vine, it is not able to bear fruit; in the same way, if you don t remain in me, neither are you [able to bear fruit]. Abide: John 6:56: Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 14:20: In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 17:23: I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. 1 John 3:6: No one who abides

3 in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. 1 John 3:24: Whoever keeps his commandments abides in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. By itself: 2 Cor 3:5: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. Thus, it s what Christ accomplishes through us that is in view. We cannot keep the Law without Christ s aid.... So, before we keep the Law, our hearts must be born again through faith (Ap V, 194). 15:5 Rom 12:4 5: For as in one body we have many members, and the members don t all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 15:6 Useless vine: See Ezekiel 15:1 8. Matt 3:10: Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. The judgment is in view. 15:7 Word: To the Jews who had believed in Him, John 8:31: If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples. 2 John 9: Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. Ask: John 14:13 14: Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. See also John 15:16; 16:23 24, 26; 1 John 3:22; 5: Note that these passages, in John, come only in the Farewell Discourse. 15:8 Glorify: John 13: Prove: I don t particularly like this translation. Instead: That you bear much fruit and be My disciples. Disciples: John 13:35: By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. Liturgical Context Collect: O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be set where true joys are found; through Jesus Christ... Doctrinal: Small Catechism, Book of Concord, Pieper Other Interpreters: Luther, Church Fathers, Commentaries On the I am statements: The connection with life is also maintained in the seventh, and final, of the I am sayings, where remaining on the vine (= Jesus) is said to sustain the life of the branches (= disciples) and to be the source of their fruitfulness (Jn 15:1 2, 4 5) (Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 397).

4 Across the Mediterranean world, vines dotted fields and hillsides, thriving on dew and the occasional rains that moistened the coarse soil in which they took root. Vineyards were a source of joy for many, who delighted in the way a vine raises itself by its finger-like tendrils and enfolds and embraces the props that hold it up, putting out a bud that ripens slowly amid the foliage that enwraps it, turning aside the more ardent glances of the sun. To nurture the productive branches, the dead wood was cut away in winter and the useless growth was removed in the spring; occasionally the haze of smoke and crackling flames came from the piles of twigs and dry shoots at the edge of the field. The clusters of fruit displayed the quality of the vine and the ability of the vinedresser, who, with the laborers, experienced the proverbial joy of harvest (Koester, Symbolism, 272). Therefore, for the disciples to abide in Jesus means that they abide in his love like branches on a vine, drawing strength from the main stalk and thereby bearing fruit (15:9). With a seamless interplay of thought, readers find that Jesus the vine produces fruit through the love expressed by his disciples and that by showing love the disciples reveal the love they receive from the vine (Ibid.). The words they receive from Jesus issue into the words they speak in prayer to God (15:7) (Ibid., 273). On judgment: God s act of removing the branch [withered on the vine] finalizes the separation that has already occurred (Ibid.). Even the fruitful branches still need to be pruned! Cleansing has to do with sin, and sin is unbelief and the actions that proceed from it. The need for pruning or cleansing assumes that sin remains an issue even for those who belong to Jesus, and God therefore addresses the problem of sin through Jesus word (Ibid., 274). Cleansing by the word means confronting the sin that separates people from Jesus the vine. It involves challenging unbelief and the actions that proceed from it in order to drive people to the divine love that enables them to bear fruit. Pruning or cleansing is God s corrective judgment on sin rather than a final condemnation. Rather than ending a person s relationships with Jesus, the actions is designed to strengthen the relationship by addressing the unbelief that would separate people from him. The promise of love is the basis of the relationship, while the act of pruning is aimed at the sin that impedes the relationship. Together, the vine s gift of love and the vinedresser s pruning back of the sin that interferes with love enable the branches to bear the fruit of love in relationships with other people (Ibid., 274). Graphic elaboration of spiritual fellowship, which Jesus will maintain even after His departure. This fellowship is further explicated and developed in terms of remaining in one another s love. He thus becomes the one who represents or embodies the people (Ridderbos, 515). Israel was a vine. But here the true vine. Now the source of fruitfulness revealed. Notes Maundy Thursday Corporate Confession: For we are all one bread and one body, even as we are all partakers of this one bread and drink from the one cup. For just as the one cup is filled with wine of many grapes and one bread made from countless grains, so also we, being many, are one body in Christ (LSB Altar Book, 508). Kretzmann, There can be no dead wood lying about in the vineyard of God s Church. There are only branches that are being pruned or bearing fruit. Actual good works come from being in Christ. Spiritual life and health come from Him. Sever the connection with Christ by faith through the word and you re in no condition to bear fruit. Let the vineyard be fruitful Lord, and fill to the brim the cup of blessing.

5 The Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2015 Pastor Peter Gregory, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Westminster, Massachusetts Alleluia! Christ is risen. Christ the True Vine John 15:1 8 Long before Jesus said, I am the True Vine, the Lord was involved in the winery business. He even had His own vineyard. Let me sing for My beloved, Isaiah said, my love song concerning His vineyard (Isaiah 5:1). The Lord s vineyard was 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 middle of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it. He carefully and personally tended this vineyard, even poured Himself into it, and He looked for it to yield grapes a reasonable expectation, right? but it yielded only wild grapes. The fruit of this vine was shriveled, bitter, worthless. So the Lord lamented: What more was there to do for My vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? Do you hear the sorrow and grief in that cry? Despite everything He d done and given, despite His patient labor and cultivation, the vineyard had a corrupt, rebellious will. Though the vines may have looked prosperous and healthy outwardly, their fruit was wicked. But this was no ordinary vineyard. It was the house of Israel and the men of Judah, His pleasant planting, His chosen people. And the wild grapes? The Lord looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress (Isaiah 5:1 2, 4, 7). What does one do with a vineyard like that, I ask you? With infected vines whose fruit is sin and death? With vines whose grapes bear no resemblance to the Owner who planted and tended them? For the Lord s vineyard isn t just a piece of property or a financial investment. It s the work of His hands. He s got sweat equity in it. He puts Himself into His vineyard. Grapes reflect not only the health and history of the vine and the soil in which it s planted; they also reflect the character and nature of their Owner. His reputation is at stake. So wild grapes aren t just a disappointment; they re scandalous and shameful. They betray their Owner, for they taste nothing like the love and mercy that they ve received from Him. And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard.... it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste... and briers and thorns shall grow up in it (Isaiah 5:5 6). That vineyard is abandoned, left to its own devices, given a taste of its own bitter wine. Which raises the question: If He did that to His vineyard back then, what will become of me? If He found only wild grapes hanging from the branches of Israel, what kind of fruit does He get from me? And if the first seed is bad and the vine from which all the others grow goes wild, how could there ever be good grapes? The truth is that this rootstock isn t worth saving. No good can come from that vine, and don t we know it. As branches of the old vine Adam, we were born sinful and unclean, and that sinful nature yields wild grapes. Yes, we ve tasted that bitter fruit and that sour wine, and we ve made it too. So the Lord of the vineyard took a radical approach. He went back to the roots. He gave up on the vine that grew from Eden that one couldn t be saved as it was but He didn t give up on the vineyard He d planned. In that very same soil, He determined to make a fresh start. He would rebuild the vineyard. Isaiah promised, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit (Isaiah 11:1). When the fullness of time came, the Lord planted a new, holy seed right in

6 the middle of the old vines and wild grapes. He established another vine from an uncorrupted stock. God sent forth His Son, born of Mary, and He grew up before [the Lord] like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground (Isaiah 53:2). And He yielded good grapes: a life filled with love of God and love for the neighbor; the fruit of mercy and justice and righteousness, pure and holy. No wonder that Jesus first miracle was changing water into good, perfect wine, like the goodness of creation before the fall into sin. On the night when He was betrayed, Jesus said, I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit (John 15:1 2). He knew what the next day would bring. So the Vine went to the garden, knelt down, and prayed to the Vinedresser, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42). The true Vine would drink the cup of wrath and judgment. The punishment deserved by the other vines, for all their wild grapes, fell on Him. The true Vine was taken away, pruned by whips and mockery, overrun by thorns and spear, until He d was entirely cut down. As if it were a grape-trellis, the true Vine was hung on a cross. Blood streamed down like juice squeezed from grapes in a wine press. From the cross, Jesus said, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished, and He bowed his head and gave up His spirit (John 19:28 30). Yes, He tasted our sour wine. He tasted every sad and bitter grape we ve ever produced. In His suffering, you see the fruit of your sin, and from His suffering, you receive the cup of salvation and forgiveness. All of that the Vinedresser did so that the Vine would bear more fruit. But how does one get fruit from a dead Vine? If it comes back to life, that s how! On the third day in another garden, from the seed that had been planted in the tomb, the true Vine rose again. Alleluia! This Vine has eternal life. It yields its fruit in its season and all that He does prospers (Psalm 1:3). And you, too, dear branch, dead though you were, you have been grafted on to the true Vine. You are baptized into Christ. You have new life in Him. Already you are clean by the Word that I have spoken to you, Jesus said (John 15:3). The Vinedresser won t settle for wild grapes from you. So He prunes, cleanses, and purifies you by Jesus Word. What you need, dear branch, He gives to you: Grafted on. He will not have wild grapes from you. To be the true vine. And you, too, dead vine though you were, have new life in Him. He took the cup and gave it to the disciples and said, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood (Luke If that were it, then woe to us. Great would be our despair. There would be no hope. Sermon Theme: As a branch of Christ the true vine, abide in Him and let God take care of the rest. It s not about analyzing your fruit. It s not about finding a way to produce more or better fruit. No one s here to show off. We ve come because our lives are lacking in fruit. Because we ve found it fruitless.

7 Because there s nowhere else to go. Let the Lord take care of the fruit. He s in that business. He ll do what needs doing. Only you abide in Jesus. The peace that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phil 4:7 John 15:1-8 / Easter 5B / 6 May 2012 / Holy Trinity Hacienda Heights, CA Jesus the Vine, you the branches, the Father the vinedresser. That is today s picture of your union with Christ through faith from the Gospel according to St. John. Joined to Jesus in faith you are alive and fruitful, as living branches joined to a living vine. Apart from Jesus, you are dead and fruitless. The dead branches the Father prunes, and even branches that are fruitful he nips with his Felco pruners in order that they might produce even more fruit. Anyone who keeps fruit trees or grape vines knows the importance of pruning. Dead wood needs to be cut away. Living wood needs to be pruned back in order to produce even more fruitful wood. The Father s pruners are the Law by which He prunes away the old Adam, our sinful self. You may wonder sometimes what God is up to. Why does He permit hardship and misfortune happen to believers? Why do bad things happen to faithful if not good people? The answer is this: He s pruning away the dead branches and trimming the living ones so that we produce even more fruit. Drive out into the central valley, and you will see this parable with your own eyes. The grapevines are pruned back severely, to just a few branches coming off of an old, gnarled trunk. They look as though they ll never produce leaves much less fruit. There are barely any branches. All of last year s growth is pruned away and discarded. But when spring growth gives way to summer fruit, the results are apparent much fruit. If those vines were not pruned back so hard, little fruit. It s the same with fruit trees. We stayed at a place that was surrounded by plum trees. We walked through the orchards one morning and got a chance to look at the fruit trees up close. They weren t a particularly pretty sight. The trees were clearly not pruned for appearance but for fruit. The main branches were topped to limit the height for the pickers. The side branches and shoots were pruned in close to keep the branches from breaking under the weight of the fruit. The branches were tied up with support lines to keep them

8 from sagging. You would not want to do this to any tree in your front yard, I assure you. But that s how you get lots of fruit. On close examination, the life of a Christian, and your life in particular, may not be a very pretty sight. Certainly not the sort that you are going to boast on television about. But fruit trees and grape vines are not pruned for pretty but for fruit. The Master Vinedresser does not prune for pretty so that the world can admire how religious you are; He prunes for fruit. He cuts away the dead branches that have succumbed to Sin; He prunes the living branches too so that they would bear even more fruit. The old Adam, our sinful nature, would rather prefer that we grow wild, like an unpruned vine or tree. I m sure you ve seen what happens when a tree or vine goes untended and is allowed to just grow all over the place. There s lots of green on the outside, lots of dead wood on the inside, and very little, if any fruit. That s how Jesus described the religious types of His day whitewashed tombs. Pure and holy on the outside, dead on the inside. The believer in Christ is exactly the opposite dead on the outside, alive to God on the inside. The operative word in today s Gospel is abide. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. What happens when a branch is broken from a tree? It dies. Not right away, perhaps. It slowly dries up. And it certainly doesn t bear fruit. What happens to the believer when he or she is cut off from the Word, from the Body and the Blood? Same thing. Faith doesn t necessarily die right away. It kind of just dries up and shrivels. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. We take our life in Christ far too much for granted. Whether it s our lackadaisical and lazy church habits or the casual way we approach the Word, the way we nitpick our way through the liturgy, we just more or less assume that we re fine on our own and all we need is a little shot of Jesus now and then to keep us going. That s a great devil s trick, right there. Convince the branch it doesn t need the Vine, or all the branch needs is to be reasonably close. Try laying a dead branch next to a tree and see how well that works. To abide is to dwell, to reside, to have your home and place somewhere. To abide in Christ is to live in Him through faith. It s a baptismal way of speaking. You have been baptized into

9 Christ. Your live is hidden with Christ in God. You have been grafted into the true and living Vine. By the Holy Spirit, you ve been given the gift of faith, that graft that joins you to Christ the Vine and receives all that He has to give you His forgiveness, His life, His love. Christ is your life. There is no life apart from Him. There is only the outward trappings of life, the visible stuff that looks like life but in the end is death. To abide is not a sporadic thing, something that happens once a week for an hour or so and we can t even wait for the benediction to get out of here. That s not abiding. It s not a Gee, I d really like to but we were out late last night and I ve tickets to the ball game and I think my left sinus is a bit achy this morning so we ll skip church today. That s not abiding. Abiding is not sticking one foot in the water, it s diving in the deep end. It s an organic union, a living graft, a fruitful communion where Christ feeds us and makes us fruitful. The reason Christians in general, and we in particular, are not more fruitful in fruit that abides is that we cut ourselves off from the Source of our life. Don t blame God for the lack of faith and love in your life. Blame yourself. Blame that old Adam of yours. Blame Sin at work in your members. But don t blame God. And don t gripe and complain when He applies the pruning sheers to your life and cuts away some of the idols that get in the way of your abiding in Jesus. Every loss in our life is just another dead branch being pruned away, another idol be kicked over, another distraction being eliminated. We want to be happy; God wants us to be fruitful. We want to be comfortable; God wants us to be comforted. We want to be pruned for pretty; God prunes for fruit. What is this fruit that a disciple joined by faith to Jesus produces? Well, in Galatians that would be the big nine of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, Paul says, there is no law. And no law can produce them. They come from the Spirit who flows like living water from the Vine to the branch making it fruitful. Paul then immediately reminds us that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We need to be pruned if we are to bear the Spirit s fruit. You can hone that list of nine down to one little word: Love. Love is the fruit of faith. We re not talking here about love the feeling. Those go by the names philos and eros. We re talking here about love the action, love that lays down its life for friend and even for enemy,

10 love that gives with no regard for receiving. Self-sacrificing love to the loveless. Love as in God sending His Son into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Love as in God is love. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, the payment for our sins. God is love. We are not love. In order for us to love, we must be joined to God in Christ. We must be as branched to the true and living Vine. And being joined to Christ we in turn love one another as God in Christ has loved us. And again, it s not a feeling. We re never commanded to like each other. We are commanded to put up with each other. But we are commanded and we are given to love one another. This can only be done in God. Here is where the Vine and Branches analogy works so beautifully. Love flows from the Father through the Son by the Spirit to the branches who are alive in Christ. It flows from the wounded side of Jesus, the water and the blood, from the font and the Supper, from the words that flow into your ears, that love of God for the sinner in Christ flows to you. And it doesn t just stop with you. Nice green leaves are a sign of a healthy branch. But fruit is how the branch is known. By their fruit you will know them. That love of God in Christ that flows through you produces fruit thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold for those around you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and be my disciples. Not prove to be as the text in front of you says, just be. Abiding is not about proving, but about being. The branch shows itself for what it is by the fruit it produces. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected, brought to its goal and accomplished, in us. You can t see the sap that runs from the vine to the branches. You can only see the fruit. You can t see Christ or faith. You can only see the fruit of love. As God in Christ has loved you, love. It s not your love at work, but Christ s. He is the Vine, you are the branches. In the name of Jesus, Amen A Blade for Life Text: John 15:1-8 (Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:1-11)

11 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia! Jesus told us today: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. What s the difference between taking away branches or cutting them off, and pruning? Jesus mentions both in the verses I just read. But how can you tell one from the other? Both involve a plant, both involve branches, and both involve cutting. But there are two entirely different results. Well perhaps, we might say, the difference is one of purpose, or sincerity - what it is that you intend to do. But that doesn t work. Because there are times when I sincerely intend to prune a plant, and make it better and stronger, but what I wind up doing is cutting off the branches and killing it. And the opposite is true as well. There are times when I sincerely try to take away a plant and cut off its branches, only to have it come back and grow stronger than ever! Perhaps the same kinds of things have happened to you. So intent, or sincerity, isn t the key. No, what makes the difference between taking away and pruning is the eye and skill of the one with the blade. Branches that I think are dead and fruitless and should be cut off, the skillful eye of the pruner will leave. And then I ve watched knowledgeable pruners at work, and I see all the stuff they re cutting off and I think their killing the plant! But in a little while, their expertise - and my ignorance! - begins to show, as the plant roars back to life, better and more fruitful than ever. That s why it s good to have people who know what their doing. And that s why it s good that Jesus said to us today that when it comes to our lives as Christians, we have someone who knows what He s doing. Someone who knows which branches are dead and which are not. Someone who knows how to prune and make us more fruitful. Someone not just with good intentions and sincerity, but the One who created us, and so knows how to best care for us. I am the true vine, Jesus said, and my Father is the vinedresser. So, dear Christians, you re in good hands! But we need to consider that a bit today, because knowing that and believing that is a matter of faith. Of faith believing and trusting that when the blade is coming down on you, and it feels as if you re being cut off, or punished, or thrown away, that your Father is - in goodness and love - doing what needs to be done not to hurt you, but to help you. His careful eye and skillful hand pruning you, that you bear much fruit, more fruit. Now,

12 to our untrained and disbelieving eyes, it may not look or seem that way. We feel what s happening to ourselves and see what s happening to others, and think the worst. But while our minds may think the worst, faith believes the best, and trusts the merciful and compassionate hand of our Father in heaven. His hand which connects us to Jesus and keeps us in Jesus. That work began for you and me at the font. For the water of Holy Baptism is where we were connected to Jesus and given life. We were cleansed and forgiven and given the new life of faith in the Spirit. Some of us came to those waters as infants, some as children, some as adults. No matter. It was the same hand of God taking us and joining us to Jesus, that we grow in Him and He in us. He the vine and we the branches. We heard about a baptism today: the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, and how God worked to bring Him to the water of Baptism and life. It sounded all simple and easy, but it probably wasn t always so. For what had the eunuch been through? What hardships and struggles? What brought him to this point?... Was his an extraordinary story? Yes, in some ways. But no more extraordinary than yours, and how your Father has worked in your life, through His Word, through His servants, through the water, to connect you to, and keep you in, Jesus. It s not always easy, but in the end, we too will go our way rejoicing. But the work of the font doesn t end at the font. We are not begun in this Christian life and then left on our own, as some false prophets would teach - left to make the best of it; left to reach our potential; left to see if we will make it to the finish line of heaven, where God is waiting for us. No, the hand of our Father-Vinedresser continues to work, in your life, in your heart, to keep you in the life He has given you. To keep you in Christ. Because it is a life we often wander from, isn t it? Drinking in the wisdom of the world instead of the wisdom of Christ and His Word. Growing into the ways of the world instead of the ways of Christ. Branching off in directions contrary to Christ and His life. Wild branches, we might call ourselves. Uncontrolled branches, maybe. Branches that the blade ought come down on, no? But which blade? To give up on us, cut us off, and take us away? Or to lovingly prune us, with a skillful eye, at just the right time, and in just the right way, that we grow right again? And how do we know? How can we tell the difference? Well we can know by looking to the cross. For there we see that Jesus became for us the one cut off in our place. By taking all our sin, all our wildness, all our uncontrollability, all our rebellion, all our unfruitfulness uponhimself, and receiving the death blade of the Father in our place. What we deserve, He received. My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Cut off. I thirst. Cut off from the life and juice of the vine. It is finished. Dead.Cast away. Ready to be burned. Except He is not burned, but this tree roars back to life in resurrection! The fires of hell cannot consume Him - He is victorious over them. The bonds of the grave cannot keep

13 Him - He bursts them. The penalty of sin cannot enslave Him - it has been paid in full. And so the Tree of Life lives again! The true and new Tree of Life, once barred because of sin, is available again! And gives life to you. For He is the vine, the tree, you have been grafted onto. And so His life is now your life. A new life, a true life, that is yours to live now, and to live forever. And so the death and resurrection of Jesus shows us that the blade we often feel in our lives in no blade of death, but a blade of life. For those connected to Christ, death is done and life now reigns. Our merciful and compassionate Father prunes us only to discipline us, to correct us, to get us to grow straight, to get us to produce more and better fruit - to keep us in Christ. And so He is working. He calls us back to the font in repentance, calling us to Christ, to wash again in His absolution - His forgiveness - and be once again raised with Christ to a new life. He calls us back to the altar, to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ - the fruits of the cross, the fruits of the new Tree of Life - to be nourished and fed, forgiven, and raised with Christ to a new life. He calls us back to the Gospel, that we abide in Christ and Christ in us, and so produce much fruit. The fruits of faith. Not our own fruits, but the fruits of Christ and His Spirit, which come from Him and flow through us branches. Apart from Him, we can do nothing, because apart from Him, we are dead. Dead, lifeless, dried up branches. But abiding in Him, we not only have life, but His promise: that we will produce fruit. For notice that there were no commands to produce fruit in these verses - only the promise of fruit. The command is to abide in Christ. As we do so, He will work in you and through you, producing the fruit of lips that confess His name, and the fruit of love that loves as He has loved us. And so the key is not anything in us or what we do, but in Christ and what He has done. And connected to Him, His love becomes our love, His compassion our compassion, His life our life.a life to live, a life to lay down for others, a life that will never end. And if you feel like that pruning blade has been at work on you overtime, well thanks be to God for such attention, love, and care. Thanks be to God that your life and love matter that much to Him. Thanks be to God thatchrist is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] And that His life now lives in you. In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER AND FROM OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. The text is Jn 15:1-5 [Jesus said] 1] I AM THE TRUE VINE, AND MY FATHER IS THE FARMER. 2] EVERY BRANCH IN ME THAT S FRUITLESS, HE CUTS AWAY. AND EVERY ONE THAT BEARS FRUIT, HE CLEANS, SO

14 THAT IT LL BEAR EVEN MORE. 3] YOU RE ALREADY CLEAN THROUGH THE WORD I VE SPOKEN TO YOU. 4] STAY IN ME AND I IN YOU. JUST AS A BRANCH CAN T BEAR FRUIT ON ITS OWN, IF IT DOESN T STAY IN THE VINE, IT S THE SAME WITH YOU, UNLESS YOU STAY IN ME. 5] I AM THE VINE; YOU ARE THE BRANCHES. WHOEVER STAYS IN ME AND I IN HIM BEARS PLENTIFUL FRUIT, BECAUSE WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING. A thousand years ago when I was confirmed even though our family wasn t Lutheran, but that s another story of amazing grace anyway, they used to give each kid a confirmation verse: when Pastor laid hands on you and said, Receive the Holy Spirit, he also gave each kid one particular Bible Verse. That was your verse. I think I ll start doing that again. Anyway, my verse was Jn 15:5 WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING. Which seemed a little insulting. I mean, everybody else got, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, or, BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. I got, WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING. Much later I realized that Pastor wasn t insulting me, but that he was comforting me in fact, that Jesus was comforting me. I mean, that He knew that any fruitfulness in me was always going to have to come from Him. So that, in this passage, Christ was not saying, If you re fruitful I ll keep you. No. He said, I know that WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING. I mean, I could do nothing. I mean sin and self and the coiling and coiling in on me, like a vacuum. Jesus knew that without Him, I could do a lot of nothing, but certainly nothing that could please God. Look at St. Paul without Jesus: Clean-cut, religious, terminally moral, and faithless, and loveless, and dead toward God. Jesus says, YOUR FRUIT COMES FROM ME. So, the Law in this passage is not You better be fruitful! That s elsewhere. The Law in this passage if it is Law at all is in V. 4: Jesus says, STAY IN ME. And we ll get there. But first, Jesus says, V. 1] I AM THE TRUE VINE AND MY FATHER IS THE FARMER. So, picture a grapevine, like in a vineyard. Then picture a fellow in his work clothes tending the grapevine, branch by branch. Jesus says, That grapevine is Me and that fellow who tends Me is MY FATHER. What s His Father doing? He s raising grapes. And what are the grapes He s raising? Well, He said through Isaiah, I LOOKED FOR JUSTICE. I LOOKED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Or as St. John says, for FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF IN LOVE. That s the FRUIT. The BRANCHES are people who re IN CHRIST. THE FARMER is helping them grow, to be the way real people were really made to be, and I mean trusting God which is actually what s normal for humans and then, as they trust God, loving other people that s actually what s normal for people, too. That s what God wanted to see in ancient Israel. He called them, My VINEYARD ON A FERTILE HILL, but then, He says, He LOOKED FOR JUSTICE AND BEHOLD, OPPRESSION! He LOOKED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, and He heard victims crying. It came to nothing. It always has come to nothing until Jesus. Long before God ever planted Israel in Canaan, God planted Adam in Eden. And Adam trusted God and Adam loved Eve. Adam was the CHOICEST VINE. But then and God says, WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE DONE? Adam BORE WILD GRAPES. Don t think of our Concord grapes gone wild around here. No, the WILD GRAPES God s talking about are tiny and bitter; they re as tiny and bitter as Adam s selfish heart and his nasty suspicions out of nowhere. Instead of FAITH, EXPRESSING ITSELF IN LOVE, God got suspicion, expressing itself in selfishness. And every cutting from that VINE is the same mutant strain.

15 Sinful FLESH GIVES BIRTH TO sinful FLESH, distrusting and selfish. As Jesus says, Sinful FLESH IS NO USE. Or as He puts it in this passage, it s just FRUITLESS. Which means, O God, if You want to see FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF IN LOVE, You need a new VINE. If You want to see good FRUIT in this world, You need a VINE that trusts You and lives in love. You need a whole new Adam; You need some human nature that s right and well; You need the real thing; You need the true strain. You need a brand new VINE... born of a Virgin pure and fresh. And that s exactly what Jesus means when He says, I AM THE TRUE VINE. He means, I m what humans are supposed to be. I m the original strain. I am what God made you to be. And IN HIM, humans are BORN AGAIN as they re joined to Him by FAITH. It s FAITH in His love, not ours. But when believe His love, when we take in His love, His life comes in with it. And, by God, there s FRUIT. When you have life, you live; when you have love, you love, all from His roots, and His roots reach to Heaven, because that perfect Human Being is also God the Son. The One we need to trust has come down, and thus says the Lord, Can you trust Me here? He said, V. 5] I AM THE VINE; YOU ARE THE BRANCHES. And a grapevine, except for the root, it s all BRANCHES and it s all the VINE, so tell me: Is it the BRANCH or THE VINE that s alive? Yes. Is it the FRUIT of the VINE or the FRUIT of the BRANCH? Yes. He said, V. 4] You IN ME, and I IN YOU. As I said, the Law in this passage if it is Law is, STAY IN ME. Which means, don t stop taking! Believe! WE LIVE BY FAITH and BY FAITH, WE LIVE, and did He ever give us a more tender command than this, when He said: Don t die! Don t die! STAY! That s what s behind V. 2] EVERY BRANCH IN ME THAT S FRUITLESS, My Father CUTS AWAY. It s not because it didn t produce. No. It didn t produce because it was dead. And how did it die? It died the only way any branch dies, namely, when, for whatever reason, the branch stops taking in the sap it lives on. He says, V. 4] A BRANCH never could BEAR FRUIT ON ITS OWN. And the only way a soul ever dies is when it stops taking from Jesus through His Word and Sacrament, when it stops believing Him, when a BRANCH starts distrusting the VINE. Jesus FATHER never yet CUT AWAY any BRANCH ever that was alive at all. He never yet CUT AWAY any soul ever that, however faintly, was still saying, Jesus! However feebly, WHOEVER BELIEVES IN Him SHALL NEVER PERISH, but live and even, Jesus said, DO WHAT I DO. I know if we think about being FRUITFUL, doing what s good in the world really loving people usually, we picture ourselves facing the Lord Jesus and whatever it is, offering it to Him, doing it for Him. And that s real. But this passage isn t about what we do for Christ; it s about what we do from Him. This passage is not about facing Jesus, so much as leaning back on Him, like St. John at the Last Supper. It s about leaning your back against His chest I in You, Lord; You in me into the VINE, for Him to grow it all. Which, for me, sounds so presumptuous. Because I know He loves me, but He s so not like me. And I know what He said, but still, to dare to be that intimate with Him your back against His chest? It s not that we re deadwood. We re alive: we believe. But there s also this distrust of Him that keeps growing back and growing back. And it s not like you re FRUIT-LESS. I see you loving each other and taking care of each other, but, still, there s all that selfishness that also keeps growing out of you all that nothing that you do. So how can it be Us in Him and Him in us the way we are? But He told His disciples, V. 3] YOU RE ALREADY CLEAN. What does He mean? Well, He d just said, V. 2] EVERY branch THAT BEARS FRUIT, My Father CLEANS, SO THAT IT LL BEAR EVEN MORE. What does He mean?

16 Well, if you re working in the garden and some plant s looking shabby, with withered flowers or suckers * all over or a brown leaf here or there, you deadhead it and pick off the suckers and the dead leaves and it looks pretty good again. And when Christ s FATHER CLEANS you, you look pretty good to Him, too. And not only good, but ready to grow. Let me tell you something sweet: that word CLEAN there? YOU RE CLEAN THROUGH THE WORD I VE SPOKEN and MY FATHER CLEANS EVERY BRANCH? It s a pun. The word means to clean but if you re talking about gardening, the same word means, to prune. So Jesus told His disciples, YOU RE ALREADY PRUNED. And He tells us all, MY FATHER PRUNES EVERY FRUITFUL BRANCH, faithfully, faithfully. All the distrust of Jesus that just chokes your life, and all the selfishness that just wastes your strength on all the nothing you can do without Him whatever form it takes, Jesus says, MY FATHER trims it off. MY FATHER takes it away. MY FATHER makes it gone, since I already paid for it. So we pray, FATHER of Jesus, forgive my unbelief! FATHER of Jesus, forgive my selfish sin! And He says, O Child, before you ask! and He trims off the sick growth to let the true strain come through from the VINE while we re pruned again and again, clear again and again, cleaned-up, trimmed and ready. Like we ve been showered and shaved. Or getting a hair-cut, especially if it s a real barber who shaves the back of your neck. You feel lighter. You feel the air. I don t know what the parallel is for women. But any of us, man or woman, when any of us realize that that s what being forgiven is that that s what forgiving sins is to the Eternal FATHER, who gave His Son so that He could tend us BRANCH by BRANCH, so that we can be fruitful in this world, and MORE FRUITFUL, human again, the way we were made to be, as our faith clears and the love comes in and out. YOU IN ME; I IN YOU. Jesus promised: I AM THE TRUE VINE; YOU ARE THE BRANCHES. AND MY FATHER IS THE FARMER. EVERY FRUITFUL BRANCH, HE CLEANS SO THAT IT LL BEAR EVEN MORE. WHOEVER STAYS IN ME AND I IN them BEARS PLENTIFUL FRUIT. WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING. And that, as He would say, is why I m here. Amen.