May 6, 2012
Meditation shared By Rev. Donald Ng at the Sojourners Retreat, May 4-6, 2012 at Redwood Glen.
Jesus tells us that in our relationship with him, he is the vine and we are the branches. God who is the vinedresser prunes off branches so that we can bear much fruit. As branches, we are to abide in Jesus so that we can bear much fruit. If we are not connected with the vine, we cannot bear fruit by ourselves.
So the image we have is this: Jesus is the vine. We are branches that grow from the vine. And on the branches, there are much fruit when we are pruned. God the vinedresser or vine grower is ready to do the pruning.
Abiding
We do a pretty good job abiding in Jesus. “Abide in me as I abide in you.” When you think about it, that’s mostly what we do in the church. Church is where we learn to abide in Christ. Here in church, we study scripture. We come to church to develop habits and practices to stay connected with the living Christ. We come on retreats to abide in him since we are more keenly aware of God’s natural beauty.
Sometimes people say, “I come to church to touch base with what is important in life, to connect with what endures, to catch up with church news and to hear prayer concerns.” This is a very stable, secure picture of the Christian life—we proudly share about our red brick church home that has been standing in Chinatown since 1908 or Shepherd Lodge here at Redwood Glen that was named after Charles Shepherd who started Chung Mei Home. We have many years of abiding.
The Christian life is not so much about our busyness or good activities as much as it is trusting and confident in abiding in Christ.
Pruning
But today’s text, Jesus moves beyond the command to abide to a more challenging, even sort of violent image. Picking up on the image of the vinedresser, Jesus mentions “pruning.” A good vinedresser works the vines with a knife. The vinedresser knows that there must be a ruthless, yearly pruning of the vines if they are to produce in the future.
I confess that I am not much of a gardener. I don’t start my vegetable plants from seeds but I buy seedlings from Home Depot. So when I have already spent $3 on this little plant, I tend to let the plant do whatever it wants. But the little plastic name tag advises me to thin the plants after a couple of weeks. Are you kidding? I’m not going to waste plants that have grown taller. This is the reason why I often don’t have a very good yield. One branch competes with another branch for nourishment and sunlight and the results are predictably meager.
I love growing tomatoes especially that year when Willis Chiang gave many of us heirloom tomato plants. With that harvest, I thought I had a green thumb. But I now know that it was more Willis than me. He gave us strong and high-yielding plants in the first place. But last week, I bought some chicken manure because Willis said chickens were his good friends! This year, I plan to remove the “suckers” from the tomato plants. These are the tiny branches that grow up between more sturdy branches and suck the life out of the plant. I’ll let you know what kind of yield I get this year.
Much Fruit
While we love to abide with Christ—to hang out with him like the way we hung out together this weekend and that we know that there are times when we need to be pruned or re-prioritized our lives, we are also expected to produce.
The stress in this passage is what the Lord expects from the branches. With Jesus, we are not merely to settle down with him and receive the benefits of his friendship, we are with Jesus in order that we should bear fruit, in order that the world might see the results of Jesus’ power in us. Too often we in the church have stressed loving Christ but have not put an equal stress on obeying Christ, in bearing fruit for Christ.
Pruning is rather a troubling image of God for many of us when we are thinking about it. There are sharp edges, metal tools, wasted green branches, and open wounds created in the plants.
Pruning is clearly a warning. Jesus says that every branch that does not bear much fruit is going to be ruthlessly pruned. The Lord of the harvest is determined to have fruits, and there can’t be good productivity in fruit if there is not also some pruning.
Notice that we are not wondering if the fruit tastes good or not. The passage implies that the fruit is good because “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you” (v.3). The point is that for some branches, there is simply little fruit or no fruit at all!
This weekend, we focused on caring for self and self-renewal. Some of the most conscientious Christians I know are Christians who need to do some pruning of their Christian service. They are so eager, running in so many different directions at once, doing good on so many different fronts, that they are often frustrated by the results of their labors. They find themselves exhausted by the multiple demands on their time and energy that they need to do some pruning.
Sometimes we must let go of some activities in order to better focus ourselves, in order to better utilize the specific gifts that God has given us in order to be more fruitful. As you know, I let go of a couple of assignments in order to take on the responsibility of serving as an officer in the denomination. I wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t refocus.
What do you need to prune away in order to better focus yourself on self-care? How might you help yourself to become renewed? Share with someone next to you on what you might be planning to do on self-care after this retreat.
Helping Others
Just like our retreat schedule suggests, the caring for ourselves is not the final goal. We don’t simply abide or hang out with Christ and that’s all that is expected of us. As branches connected to Christ the vine, it’s God, the vinedresser who prunes us to bear much fruit.
The “pruning” is something that God does. God as the loving and wise Vinedresser comes with a knife and periodically prunes away old, established growth on the vine so that new growth might come forth. That which is dead and unproductive must be pruned away, cut back, so that new life and new growth can come forward. Even the succulent plants that seemingly require little pruning still require it to grow and flower.
When we bear much fruit, what might that be? With our fruitfulness, new growth, productivity, how might we help others with the love of Christ? Again, share with someone next to you, who will you help after this weekend.
Jesus not only loves us, but loves us enough to see that we are “pruned,” that we are given what we need to bear much fruit for him in the world.
Let us pray.
Almighty and loving God, we thank you that you not only loved us but you also came to us.
That you not only came to us but you also revealed your way to us.
That you not only revealed your way to us but you also forgave us.
That you not only forgave us but you also rose and returned to us.
That you not only returned to us but you also promised to abide with us.
That you not only abide with us but you also give us what we need to be fruitful to you.
Amen.
The Lord’s Supper
Grapevines produce grapes. Grapes are wonderful. You can eat grapes. You can make jelly. You can squeeze them for juice. The grape juice can be used to make wine. You can lay the grapes out under glass and make raisins. You can put the grapes in the freezer to save for hot days.
There are many wonderful ways to enjoy the fruit of the grapevine—but there one other nutritious product the vine produces which is often overlooked.
Grape leaves! Grape leaves are edible and nutritious. Whether or not it’s a good year for grapes—and all who have grown grapes know that sometimes, despite your best efforts, your backyard vines produce nothing—you can still pick some large grape leaves, wash them, fill them with meat or vegetables or rice (or all three), roll the leaves around the filling and then in a little olive oil, and bake!
But grapes also reminds us of the blood of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and the bread represents his body that he gave up so that we may have eternal life.