Guest Preacher: Kristy Messler
As Trinity’s Parish Administrator, I am accustomed to wearing many different hats. Sometimes all at the same time! Today is the first time I am putting on my preacher’s hat. It is a gift for me to be here, sharing some Gospel fruit with you.
I have a print based on today’s Gospel text hanging in my office. It reads, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Remain in me.” It is a reminder for me that as long as I remain connected to my source, abundant life – as I have experienced it – will continue to flow through me and enable me to have an impact on the lives of those around me.
So what is this “abundant life”?
In today’s Gospel reading, abundant life seems to have a lot to do with abiding and with bearing fruit.
The Greek word for abide – men-o – might also be translated as remain, stay, continue to exist, or persist. It occurs 40 times throughout John’s Gospel.
What is interesting in today’s text, is that it is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse to his disciples. He’s anticipating the troubling times ahead – as their life together is about to be disrupted. In this context he is offering words of reassurance that their mutual abiding will continue even after he becomes physically absent. Abiding, abundant life happens in community – with God and with one another – but it is no longer limited to physical time and place. As long as we remain connected to the vine we are never alone. We are all one giant plant in God’s vineyard.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” This sounds like the promise of abundance to me!
The vine and the branch imagery also depicts a relationship of interdependent mutuality. It’s not easily discernible where the vine ends and the branch begins. Both the vine and the branches are necessary for bearing fruit – one can’t do so without the other. We need each other.
And now – here in 2024 – that Jesus is long gone (but still abiding, persisting, remaining, continuing to exist with us) we, ourselves, have an important role in bearing fruit. It’s how God is revealed to the world. It’s how we help make possible that ever-widening embrace that seeks to welcome all into abundant life. Doing so glorifies God. Which I think just means: brings God great joy!
When we abide in the vine, we are rooted in that abundance. God’s love poured out for us through Christ is now feeding each of our own lives - our branches. We become stewards of the fruits of our time, talents, and treasures – our works, our wealth, and our wisdom.
Bearing fruit – making God’s love known to others – is one of the ways in which we ourselves experience that very same love. Giving and receiving become one and the same when we belong to one another in Beloved Community. What is nurturing to the health of your branch, is nurturing to mine, as we are all grafted on to the same True vine.
And then we have God as the vinegrower at work lovingly cultivating the plant so that it continues to flourish and bear more fruit.
There is talk about pruning – but it is solely for life-giving purposes.
God is carefully working to prune away the dead parts to give space for the life waiting to burst forth. So that we might continue to bear more fruit.
This isn’t a threatening “fire & brimstone” text: any branches being tossed into the fire are already withered and dead. That’s just what you do with withered and dead branches.
I am not a green thumb by any means, but as I witness those who are, I notice a kind of beautiful, intimate devotion and attentiveness to the plant’s well-being. And I am completely mystified by how they always know exactly what the plant needs in order to flourish:
This plant needs more water.
This one’s getting too much water.
This soil needs more nitrogen.
This soil has too much clay.
And what about deadheading? And pruning? How do you know how much to cut, and when?
God as the vinegrower is a great Master Gardener who has been faithfully cultivating this universal plant in which all people – all creation – are united through One True Vine. And it still flourishes after 2,000+ years. I can’t even keep a basil plant from Trader Joe’s alive for much more than a week!
This abiding, persisting, unapologetic love is the kind of transformative love that changes us. It is unabashedly inclusive. And our own souls are directly nourished in the process as we are called to share our fruits with one another and with the world.
Abundant life is simply the kind of life God intended for us all along.
So in that sense:
It’s really just regular life - reinterpreted through the lens of the unapologetic love of a God who SO LOVED the world.
Amen.
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