Every Church Needs a Little Pruning and a Lot of Abiding John 15:1-8 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh May 3, 2015

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Amy Carpenter
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1 Every Church Needs a Little Pruning and a Lot of Abiding John 15:1-8 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh May 3, 2015 The first time I was asked to do some serious pruning in our yard in Richmond, I was worried that we were cutting things back too far. I should have known better than to argue with my beloved who can get anything to grow just about anywhere. But I worried that if we cut back those crepe myrtles that far, we might kill them. I learned soon enough. The pruning stirred life and the crepes were magnificent! So it goes with pruning if you do it at the right time of year and know what you are doing. You trim in order to stir growth and sometimes the more you cut back, the more vigorously the bush or shrub grows. We have some knockout roses that I have done my best to kill but they just won t die. We trim them back, way back. We have even moved them twice, the last time when the fire department came to put in a new fire hydrant. But the more we trim and the more we move them, the more they grow! Any real gardener knows that pruning stirs life. Jesus uses this reality as an image for the church. In a simple yet profound metaphor he says that God is the vinegrower, he is the vine and we are the branches. In order for the vine to produce fruit, the branches have to be pruned from time to time. Every branch that bears fruit God prunes so that it will bear more fruit. And those that do not bear fruit are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. This latter part sounds harsh, but leaving room for interpretation, the body can only be healthy if some pruning is done. Every church needs a little pruning from time to time. And before anyone becomes anxious about being named as dead wood for the fire, let me be quick to say that this is an image for the church as a whole, and even as it applies to individuals, we benefit from thinking about parts of our lives that could use some pruning to help us grow as opposed to thinking about people who need to be cut out. We are probably all dead wood at some point, but only God has the authority to do that kind of pruning. 1

2 So, what does pruning look like for a church? A big part of what it means is cutting back structures and programs that no longer serve their original purpose so as to make room for new approaches. Sometimes the purpose no longer exists or isn t as important as other goals and sometimes the purpose can be addressed better in another way. But the church has limited time and resources. It is neither wise nor practical to keep adding new things without cutting back on some old things. For example, in the realm of structure, we recently disbanded the recreation committee because its goals were being met by individuals or could be addressed by the social committee. It makes no sense to have the nominating committee fill leadership roles that are not needed. On a program level, we used to have a fall picnic but began to struggle with participation. So, the social committee decided not to have a fall picnic last year but rather had a block party. We cut back the old to make room for the new. And the concept of a block party not only builds community within the church, it also helps us build community with our neighbors. Pruning creates room for growth. Of course, the fact that we cut something back doesn t mean it won t prove useful again. This church had Salt Shakers years ago and through them deepened relationships in the church. After a time, they were phased out, probably because the same people kept coming. But we brought back Salt Shakers a couple of years ago, with Dianne Ellis help, and they have stirred life again. In like manner, churches like ours stopped having regular Sunday night worship years ago because of diminishing interest. I am not suggesting we return to the old pattern. I used to preach three times a week Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. Someone asked me how you prepare three new sermons a week. The answer is not very well! I would have one good sermon, one passable homily and one painfully tolerable message each week. I do not want to go back to the old pattern. It would not make sense in today s world. But an occasional Sunday evening service like last week's baptism service can be very meaningful. Cutting back doesn t always mean forever. The key is intentionality, being clear about what matters most and then designing structures and programs to address these things. 2

3 This suggests one other set of strategies related to church pruning. We may do a number of things people still want to do but which take up precious time and energy that need to be redirected. I don t have specific programs in mind. But as we consider new initiatives that come from the visioning work groups, we may like something a group proposes, but wonder if we have time to add it to our plate. If it helps us pursue a critical goal, we may need to consider cutting back something. But pruning is needed not only by the church as a whole but by individual members as well. Some of this pruning involves cutting out things we don t need in our lives, destructive things, things which prevent us from being our best and bearing fruit in God s vineyard. We know what these things are - various obsessions and addictions, habits and attitudes toward certain groups or individuals, things we know are destructive. How many great leaders can we think of who would have accomplished so much more if they had dealt with their demons? But while we may have issues like this in our lives, most of the pruning we need is connected to our busyness. We are busy people, so much so that we have come to equate busyness with worth. Our children have to begin building their resumes in kindergarten so as to impress colleges vis a vis admissions and scholarship possibilities. The amount of stuff you have to have on paper requires a level of busyness that is simply not healthy for growing children and adolescents. It doesn t even produce more knowledgeable and accomplished adults. But you have to have it, so you have to be busy, and once the pattern is set, there is no turning back. But all of this busyness comes at a cost the cost of matters which feed the soul, beginning with God and church. Someone said of a reorganization process in another setting, We want to work smarter, not harder. This word appealed to busy people, but what it meant was, We are not going to give more time to church; in fact, we may give less. The reality was people there needed to give more. They were not invested enough to know each other, much less accomplish much. If we are to grow spiritually as a church, which must come before any other kind of growth, we must grow as individuals. To do that, we 3

4 must invest more in the life of the church, and because we are so busy, that will require cutting back something. It is not an easy task because we choose involvements that matter to us. No one said pruning is easy. But if we really want to grow, we will cut back somewhere. But what Jesus is saying here concerns more than pruning. It also involves abiding. And this word is even more important to the vine and the church. Abide in me as I abide in you, Jesus says, Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. It is again a simple yet profound word. Cut off a vine from its roots and it withers and dies. We have done this with ivy in our yard. We still have to deal with dead ivy that clings to trees, but once we cut it off from its source of nourishment, it cannot grow. Grape branches cannot produce grapes unless they are connected to the vine which is rooted in the soil. In like manner, we cannot produce fruit in God s reign unless we are vitally connected to Christ. The question is how do we do that? How do we abide in Jesus? We tend to think of habits of devotion and these are helpful. Daily habits of prayer, no matter when and how we pursue them, can help us remain connected to God and Christ. Shared acts of worship and study, fellowship and service, help too. Simply gathering with fellow believers keeps us connected to God. It s not just an obligation. It s a means of holding on to our faith. But as important as anything we do may be, the reality is God is holding on to us all the time, even when we are tempted to let go. God is with us always, present and at work in our lives, not just out there somewhere. So, our calling is to recognize this reality and make sure we don t do anything to cut ourselves off from God. A Sufi proverb says, God is as near to you as your carotid artery. It takes the notion of the psalmist, the idea that there is nowhere we can go that God s Spirit is not (Psalm 139), and puts it in very specific terms. God is not just out there. God is right here with us. There are things we can and should do to maintain this connection, to abide in God and Christ, but the most important thing we do is allow God to do what God does, work in and through our lives. 4

5 If we are to love one another, it will be by allowing God to love through us. If we are to help people in need, it will be by allowing Christ s compassion to work through us. If we are to forgive those who hurt us, it will be by allowing God s Spirit to flow through us. Abiding in God is a natural state of being, not something we manufacture. But biblical scholar Annette Bourland Huizenga offers another helpful insight. She notes that in the Greek when Jesus says, You must abide in me, he is referring to the plural you, as in you all or y all. Y all must abide in me, he says and Huizenga suggests that perhaps our efforts ought to be plural, as in communal. I have hinted at this possibility with the idea that shared experiences of worship and service help us remain connected to God. But Huizenga argues that abiding is by nature more communal than we might think. It s not just that our efforts to connect with God are enhanced when they are shared with others. The way God connects with us is intrinsically communal. She illustrates this reality in a fascinating way. There is a large colony of quaking aspens in Utah which are actually one incredible organism. An ancient male sent up thousands of new shoots, each with identical DNA. As with all quaking aspens, the new trees share the intertwining parental roots. They have the same branching structure and even change color at the same time. They provide a botanical illustration of Jesus as the life-giving source for the whole community of God s people (Lectionary Homiletics, April/May, 2015, p. 34). It is a wonderful image of the interconnectedness of the body of Christ. We are not just connected above ground, in ways we can observe like worship and study, fellowship and service. We are connected below the ground, at the root level, our common spiritual DNA in Christ. As we abide in Christ and Christ in us, we also abide in one another. We are interconnected at the deepest level imaginable. Every church needs a little pruning from time to time, but we need a lot of abiding in Christ from whom we get our life s energy. The good news is it is a natural thing to do, especially if we do it together. 5

Interwoven Branches, Abiding in Love

1 Interwoven Branches, Abiding in Love Sermon by Pastor Patrick Fish John 15:1-8 April 28-29, 2018 Easter 5 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears