John 15:1-8 Easter 5 May 2 nd /3 rd, Grace and peace to you all from God our Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Transcription

1 John 15:1-8 Easter 5 May 2 nd /3 rd, 2015 Grace and peace to you all from God our Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Last week we heard about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd he guides, comforts, protects, and saves. We talked about how the Lord speaks to us through his word, through preaching, through the means of the grace the Sacraments to let us know what he is ours and we are his. Two weeks ago we heard about the importance of Scripture, how our minds and hearts need to not only be open and receptive to what the Spirit of God wants to say to us, but actually in the Word of God so that the Holy Spirit can speak to us. This week we hear about Jesus calling himself the vine the very source of life for the Church, for the believer, for the Christian that follows Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed. We are the fruit of his work and power. In John 12:24 we heard this promise: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus Christ, our grain of wheat, our vine, the very source of our life, laid down his life for you, died for you, rose from the dead for you, and through faith in his name you have become his fruit. Our reading for today picks up that imagery of being in Christ, being the very fruit that has sprouted up in God s vineyard because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The image of Jesus being the vine, the Father being the vinedresser, and us his disciples being the fruit of the vine is very pardon the pun ripe for preaching. Jesus the vine and the Father as the Vinedresser gets at two crucial aspects of the Christian life. (1) Our faith life needs to be nourished by God s Word, by the Sacrament, through prayer, through the life and ministries of the church. The way God s fruit people like you can grow is through all those means. (2) Our faith life needs to be purged of unsightly and ungodly influences lest we lose our salvation. Jesus quite clearly says that fruit can wither and when it withers, will be thrown into the fire. 1

2 During this time of year there was one thing I despised growing up. Helping the old man in the garden. Like many kids, I was you might say allergic to doing things around the house. Once the snow melted, the ground thawed, the sun began shining and turning the grass from yellow to green, I knew that it was time to help till the garden. The garden was, and still is, a pride and joy for my dad. He grew onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, multiple sorts of hot peppers, eggplants, and green beans; lots of produce and lots of herbs for seasoning. The craziness would be sometime in February or March when dad would start growing things under the UV lights in the basement. When the time came to till the garden, out came the shovels. It was hard work at least for a teenager it seemed like hard work. But all those hours of shoveling taught me something: Growing a garden is hard work; it s rewarding work, but it s hard work. This week s passage also got me thinking about Jack and Ella. We all know that kids grow up so fast. In many ways children are a pretty good reflection of who their parents were. That s not always the case of course, a kind and gracious mother and father could very well raise ungrateful children. But generally, the old adage applies the apple doesn t fall too far from the tree. Children give off some pretty good indicators of what their parents are like good, bad, and indifferent. Like a garden, if children are raised right, are taught to fear and love God, are taught how to live a godly life, are taught about why and how Jesus loves them, and where to read about that divine love of God the Holy Bible that child will grow up just fine. It doesn t mean they won t have struggles and failures, but they will know who to trust in and who to rely on the Lord God himself. We read in Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Children, like a garden, when fed and nourished will bear the fruit of righteousness by being a part of a godly and God-fearing family. 2

3 The same sort of logic applies to our life of faith, to our relationship with God. The Lord has provided for us many means by which our life of faith can be strengthened and nourished. Without the Lord s life coming to us through these things the Word of God, the Sacraments, conversation with our heavenly Father in prayer, being tied into the life of the church our faith life can easily wither and decay. Something else can happen without proper nourishment as well: Nothing at all. No growth, no fruit, nothing at all can happen. We are saved by God s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ; but if that life of faith isn t nourished, and if nothing is happening in our lives of faith, chances are that something isn t right. And I ll tell you what: it isn t God who s sluffing off, it s us. In our reading from John we heard both a promise and a warning. The promise is that by being connected to Jesus through His Word, through the proclamation of who he is and what he has done, through the believing community of the church the other branches that we are connected with we have life. Eternal life comes through those channels from God s heart, Jesus Christ to us through the Word, the Sacraments, the Gospel, the church, our life of faith is fed and nourished. The promise is you are connected to Jesus Christ already through baptism and the Father wants you to stay connected, but he can t force you, he can t force anyone to stay connected to the church, to his son Jesus Christ. That s why there s the warning: All those who do not abide in Jesus any longer will be cut off. If this sounds judgmental, it is. But it s important to remember that when the Father cuts off someone from the life of his Son, it s because of willful refusal on the part of the one who is cut off. The Father doesn t want to do it, but has to. It s like going through the garden and uprooting the plants you have been caring for all summer but having produced nothing, they must but cleared away so that they don t take life away from the other plants, or they must be cleared away because they 3

4 have withered and died and are no longer taking in nourishment no matter how much fertilizer, sun, and water they have received. So people of the Lord, if the Lord is to be fruitful in your life, you must let him do a fair amount of pruning and weeding in your heart and mind, be ready to receive some divine disciplining in your lives. To follow Jesus Christ in this day and age, just like in any other day and age, means sacrifice what are you willing to give up for the sake of Jesus Christ? If you re not willing to give anything up or change for the sake of Him who lived, died, and rose from the dead for you, you can rest assured that your life of faith is either withering away or not growing at all and so in danger of being unfruitful. Just like a garden full of weeds is guaranteed to be stagnate an unproductive, just like a child who is not protected from ungodly influences or is just flat out ignored by their parents will grow up without growing up and I think you know what I mean by that so too if we don t allow our Heavenly Father purge out of us by the fire of his Holy Spirit all that is in our way that blocks us from a truly life giving relationship with God, we will not grow in our faith or worse; our faith will fail and die because we have not let the life of Jesus Christ stream into our hearts, minds, and lives through his holy Word, through the Sacraments, through the Gospel, through the believing community of the church. But you all are here today to be connected to stay connected to Jesus Christ, the true vine and that s a great thing, a holy thing, a very important thing. You are here because you want to feel the risen life of Jesus Christ coursing through your veins. You are here because you want a transfusion from the Lord himself. You are here to receive God s life that he has promised to give to you. And so, here it is. Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, has laid down his life for you. 4

5 Jesus Christ, the true vine, has wrapped you up in his tangle of love that he calls the church. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, cleanses you by His word the very word you are hearing now. Continue to repent, be pruned, and receive the forgiveness of your sins. He has chosen you as his own for a reason, for a purpose. Bear fruit, believe, beloved be loved by the Lord and let his life come to you this day and always. Amen. HOD: ELW # 658 O Jesus, Joy of Loving Hearts 5