A New Beginning in Christ John 15:1-5 A Sermon Preached by Ernie Thompson Westminster Presbyterian Church Greensboro, NC January 1, 2017 Our Scripture lesson this morning comes for John s gospel, 15:1-5. We are thinking for these next three weeks about the goal identified for your church this year by our Discernment and Planning team to engage more deeply with Christ, with each other, and with our community and world. Our sermon series for these three weeks is called Jesus Calling, because I think this is Christ s call for our church and Christ s call for each one of us, to engage more deeply with Christ, to engage more deeply with each other, to engage more deeply with our community and world. And so I invite you to listen to our Scripture lesson, and listen for Christ s call to you as we begin this New Year. [Jesus says,] I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been pruned by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
2 1. Our Scripture lesson starts with the image of God pruning his vine so that it will be healthy and strong and produce much fruit. Jesus says, I am the vine and my father is the vine grower. He removes every branch that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. Now that might seem counterintuitive that you remove branches and cut branches back in order to produce growth. But any gardener will tell you that this is the way things work. If you want a healthy plant you have to do some pruning, cutting some things off and cutting some things back to promote healthy growth. This time of year we usually think of things we need to add to our life this time of year like I ll start going to the gym. But our Scripture lesson reminds us that there might be things we need to remove. Are there parts of my life that are not bearing good fruit? Are there things I could remove and make room for more fruitful things? Are there things I need to cut back? Mary Ann Mckibben Dana says that our New Year subtractions may be more important than our New Year additions. When my children were younger we had lots of conversations with our friends about limiting our children s screen time. We were all trying to figure out how much time should we allow them to spend in front of the TV on a computer because time in front of a screen meant they were not playing outside or reading or interacting with friends. Today children also have tablets and cell phones and TVs in cars which all make the conversation even more challenging. To tell you the truth I don t really worry much about my children s screen time any more that s out of my hands but I do worry about myself. I love to see all the family Christmas pictures posted on Facebook. I love to know who is celebrating an anniversary. And my friends often post links to articles that are interesting and helpful. But how much is too much? Between Facebook and a digital subscription to the Washington Post and looking at emails and checking Amazon for any deals - it s easy for an evening to disappear. And I m not sure anything very fruitful has happened. So I may need to do some pruning of my screen time to make room for more fruitful things. I had a good visit with a church visitor this week who is waiting for test results about what could be a very serious illness.
But he has decided to prune worry from his life. He doesn t think worrying about it is very fruitful. He trusts that is life is in God s hands that in life and in death we belong to God. And so he s decided not to spend his time worrying. 3 I talked to another church member who said he s trying to give up negativity for the year. He doesn t think it s a good use of his time. So he s pruning it from his life. So, one question for our New Year might be, what is God trying to prune from our lives? Are there things that are taking our time and energy and attention that are not really bearing much fruit? And how we I cooperate with God in that process of pruning? 2. Jesus then invites us to make a connection to him. Pruning the bad branches is not enough. We also need to stay connected to the vine. Jesus says, Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, neither can you unless you abide in me. This word abide can be translated in different ways. It means to stay close to, or to stick with. Dale Bruner thinks the best translation is make our home with Christ. I read a helpful article this week by Sam Portaro about staying close to Christ by broadening our definition of prayer. He says that prayer is not just a few minutes of quiet at the beginning or the end of a busy day, but rather a way of life. All our daily activities, every conversation, every meeting, every encounter, Potaro says, can be a chance to look for God s presence, and to allow God to speak to us through the words and actions of others. He offers two simple spiritual practices to make our lives more prayerful and to stay close to Christ. First, he says, pay attention. Partaro says that our attention may be our most valuable asset. Advertisers pay big money hoping that in exchange we will pay them with our attention. So he asks, to what or to whom do we pay attention? Where do we invest this precious gift?
4 Portaro says, Pay attention to the present moment, to the child standing at your knee pulling on your pant leg. Pay it to the person sitting across the room hardly aware of your presence, that other child of God over there, caught up in his own world, overwhelmed by her own distractions. Pay it to the clerk at the grocery checkout who hasn t smiled all day, hasn t smiled in so long because she s so seldom sees a smile across the scanner. And when we start paying attention, he says, we start see God. Portaro says, When I pay attention I don t have to remind myself of God s presence in my life; God is nearly always present and manifest, recognizable in the other, the one in whom and to whom I have paid my attention. The second spiritual practice Portaro recommends is to take care. When we pay attention we are giving. When we take care we are receiving. But receiving can be just as important as giving. Portaro writes, Take the care that God holds out, offers in the hands of those who reach out to help. Take the care offered in those friends God gives us who manifest God s love in the flesh, the companions who are there for us and with us in the inevitable dark nights, those who believe in us, love us even when we find it hard to believe in or love ourselves. Take the care that comes running to the door and leaps into your arms, happy that you are home, whether it s the love of your child or the love of your dog. Take the care that comes your way, receive it as the gift of God that it is, and know that the blessedness of giving extends in equal measure to the blessedness of receiving. These are two small things - they don t add any hours to our day - but they might help us to stay close to Christ. Pay attention, and take care. Jesus says, Abide in me as I abide in you. Jesus invites us to stay close, to stick with him, to make our home in him, as he always stays close to us. 3. Our lesson ends with a promise that when we engage more deeply with Christ, when abide in him, then we will produce fruit in our lives. Our lives will be significant and meaningful and make a difference. Jesus says, Those
5 who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because apart from me, you can do nothing. In one of his daily devotionals this week Richard Rohr says that, We do God s people a great disservice by preaching the Gospel to them but not giving them the tools with which they can obey that Gospel. He says that we can t live out the gospel without the nourishment and strength which come from staying close to Christ. And when we do stay close to Christ, then our lives will begin to produce the fruit of love. Rohr points to our Scripture lesson this morning, the image of the vine and the branches. He says, In and with God, I can love everything and everyone - even my enemies. Alone and by myself, with only my will power and intellect, I won't be able to love in difficult situations or over the long haul. Trying to be compassionate and loving through our own efforts will eventually lead to cynicism and disillusionment. I read recently that of all the people who make New Year s resolutions, only 8% are able to keep their New Year s resolutions. And that s just going to the gym. Loving our enemies and our neighbors and even our family and friends is a bigger challenge. Our intellect and will power are not enough. We need help from some higher power. And so Jesus invites us to stay close to him which will allow us to do what we cannot do on our own. Bryan Taylor has an essay called The Alchemy of Effort and Grace. He says that sometimes God just works without us. God just knocks us off our horse and we don t have much to do with it. And sometimes we try to work without God, to make things happen with planning and execution. But mostly he says the planning and execution model does not work, and it can become the life killing law that the apostle Paul warns about. But the third way, the most fruitful way, consists of what he calls a mysterious interplay of human effort and divine grace. He uses the example of learning to surf off the coast of California. You have to do the work. You have to go to the beach and paddle out into the ocean - you have to be in the right place at the right time and be ready and waiting and watching. But then it s out of your control. You can t create a wave. You just wait for it to come. When the wave comes you paddle and paddle and try to catch it. It doesn t
always work. Sometimes the wave peters out. And sometimes you miss it. But when it works, Taylor says, it is magical, and there is this melding of our efforts and a power that is greater than ourselves. 6 And that s what the Christian life is like. We show up for worship, even if it s New Year s Day. We read and study and ponder Scripture, even when it takes some effort. We give ourselves to others through service, and we commit ourselves to life together in a community. And then we watch and we wait. And sooner or later the Spirit will come. The Spirit comes and our efforts are caught up in something larger than ourselves, and then we can begin to live out the good news that we profess. Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit. That is a wonderful promise. It is the alchemy of effort and grace. I read a Facebook post this week which promised 10 minutes a day will change your life. So I m trying to do 10 minutes of squats and push-ups and planks and sit-ups each morning. I don t think it will really change my life. But it s probably a good thing to do. Our Scripture lesson invites us to a more significant goal for this New Year the same goal that is at the core of our church s new priorities that we all might engage more deeply with Christ, and with this community of faith, and with our larger community and world. That might take more than ten minutes a day - but it s got a better chance of really changing our live, and allowing our lives to bear much fruit by the power of the Spirit.