All scriptures are from The Message Version
One of the urges we all feel as people of faith is to be good and do good things. But it can be a frustrating calling as the practice of our faith runs up against our human nature and many times a a question about just what is the right thing to do in any given situation. Today’s Lectionary scripture addresses that frustration.
This post is intended to help the reader personalize the words and thoughts in the scriptures. It works well if shared between two or more people as a topic of discussion but there is much to be gained by considering the questions yourself. Commentaries for these scriptures can be found on Textweek through this link http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/jn15a.htm
Today’s scripture is from John 15 which is part of Jesus’ “Final Discourse” with his disciples as he prepares them for the time after his crucifixion, a time when he will not be physically present with them. He tells them that they will do even greater things than he and in today’s scripture describes the source of energy that powers the engine that drives the train. The analogy he uses is tending of grapevines which may be somewhat vague for most of us for whom knowledge of grapes is limited to fruit salad and wine. But the point is that without vine trimming abundant new fruit is impossible and it is impossible for the branches to produce fruit detached from the main vine. So read on and let’s look at some questions that come to mind.
1-3 “1 am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.
4"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
· To set the stage just who is the vine and who are the branches? What is the desired result here, is it kudzu like growth or something else? Can you think of other plants that need trimming in order to be abundant producers?
· So what happens to the branches that are not producing fruit? Can you move from an analogy to real life, how are we cut off if we do not produce (think employment)? How do you treat people who do not bring good things to us through their relationship I am not a good golfer so therefore I have cut out golf courses – I am sure we could go on.
· From a spiritual standpoint what does it mean to bear fruit? This differs from what we receive and focuses on what we do and how we act because of our faith. In what specific ways have you responded to the sermons, bible study lessons, and prayers that have been part of your faith journey?
· Does the idea of being shorn off the vine when not being fruitful make sense to you? How have you seen it play out, have you ever had a sense of being cut off from a sense of spirituality in your life? Has it ever happened when trying to solve a problem, make a decision, or begin a project? What were the circumstances?
· Jesus speaks of living in him, that like branches we cannot make good things happen without being connected to the vine of spiritual sustinance. What does the vine bring to the branches? What does a vibrant spiritual life bring to us and how does it spark our being fruitful/faithful in all things?
· Let’s try it from the opposite direction, say you are trying to solve a big problem in your life or make some worthy project happen, what would be the opposite of being connected to our faith roots? What would we connect ourselves to as an alternative? Where would the things come from that we would rely upon to make it happen? Does being connected to our faith roots mean that we entirely let go of these things?
Let’s look at the rest of the scripture:5-8"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
This is in some ways an reiteration but how is the relationship described, what words are used? When have you felt this way about your faith life, what was going on?
· How is the harvest guaranteed to come in? Have you been in circumstances when the presence of the Spirit was obvious and you felt good things were happening and God’s work going on? I have found it in many ways including a relationship with the staff of a not for profit whose good work in the community sprang from their individual and collective spirituality.
· So how do we go about making, maintaining and strengthening the roots of our faith? As one old joke goes; “A person visitor in New York City seeking direction asks how do you get to Carnegie Hall, the answer: practice, practice, practice.” What motivates a person to devote themselves to practicing the essentials of something (again I think of my golfing friends) in order to improve their performance? What do they get out of it? Why does something take on this degree of importance? Do other things take a back seat to some degree to make room for the practice?
· So how about our spiritual lives; what would be some good things to practice if we are to be fruitful, make a difference for someone else, make decisions that spring from our spiritual roots, become energize by a sense of the Spirit’s presence with us? What do we practice, practice, practice?
· The writer of Ephesians adds some Miracle-Gro to the equation in Chapter 2:
God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
· It seems that our faith is a transformational experience, that practicing our faith both leads us where we need to be and prepares us to respond. Ever happen to you? Would you like it to happen more often? Practice, practice, practice.
Closing Meditation
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Ephesians 12:1-2
Next Week’s Lectionary Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13), Psalm 138, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11
