Sermon-Fifth Sunday in Easter

By Pastor Bob on 5-9-09
Today’s gospel reading is all about tending grapevines.
Last week 60 Minutes featured family vineyard 800 years old.
I’ve read a lot about grapevines. But my only experience with wild vines.
I’ve been cutting down grape vines & pulling them out of trees for years.
These grapes are bitter & in trees they are ‘widow makers’ for foresters.
Actually I’ve had a lot more experience learning to tend our apple trees.
All our apple trees were in the woods, only planted 1. Forget variety.
The was a man named Jack on synod committee who was a ‘pomologist’.
I discussed our trees with him. He volunteered to come & help me prune.
He came in loaded Jeep with ladders, chain saws, pruning saws, etc.
I had always been gentle with the trees, afraid I would hurt them. He wasn’t.
I was shaken when he took to the trees with the chain saw & other saws.
Jack said, ‘The purpose of an apple tree is the fruit.’
He looked at my favorite little tree, the one that I liked the most.
Jack said, ‘That one should be turned into heat!’
Apple trees’re full of suckers & water spouts. Use energy- produce nothing.
I’ve given the trees a hard pruning again this year. Ended up with big pile.
Now when new apples start to grow from blossoms I’ll need to thin them.
Jack said, ‘The purpose of an apple tree is the fruit.’
Jesus said, 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. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Paraphrasing Jack,The Purpose of the Church & of Christians is to bear fruit
Right now seems many churches in America are going through hard times.
Diocese of Albany is in the midst of closing parishes and schools.
Also Lutherans. In Metro NY, 40 congregations can’t afford a pastor.
In Hudson St.John & Emanuel merging, St.Matthew & St.Mark merging.
Here Christ & Emmanuel moving toward merger, selling Ghent building.
We’re discussing new name, what furniture & equipment to use, important
But the purpose of the Church is not to survive and have a nice building.
The Purpose of the Church & of Christians is to bear fruit.
Jesus said, 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. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
We have the interesting word Abide. Greek: meno. Used 7x in John’s gospel
Dean Lueking noted 17 uses of word abide listed in the Oxford dictionary,
8 of them are obsolete. The word seems to belong to another time.
Abide is about persevering, continuing, lasting, staying with it.
No wonder we rarely use it.
Much of our experience is temporary: relationships, jobs, homes, churches
But Jesus is clear: You want life? Then stay connected to him.
We’ll sing: From him we draw the juice of life.Amid the world’s bleak wilderness. LBW 378
It’s Jesus & his love that drew us in the first place, usually thru a person.
Life doesn’t come thru our connections, knowing the right important people
But by being connected to the ‘lowly One’ Jesus Christ.
We find him here in humble gathering of the lowly ones in humble spaces
We hear him speak through a Book, thru other people, words & gestures.
We meet him in a simple shared banquet of bread and wine.
We don’t exist for ourselves, to simply grow leaves, no matter how pretty.
Growth alone is not our purpose.
Rose bush doesn’t exist for its canes, leaves or thorns but for its roses .
Apple tree doesn’t exist for its branches, twigs or leaves- delicious apples.
Grape vine doesn’t exist for its shoots, leaves, but for its fine grapes.
Church doesn’t exist for its members, buildings, programs but for Mission
Our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love that shows itself in action. 1 Jn 3:18
Our mission is not merely to survive as Lutherans in northern Columbia Cty
But to be a force, an active force where the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
God’s people are engaged in action to confront forces of death in world.
To share ‘the juice of life’ as we work for health, homes for all neighbors.
To announce to our neighbors that Jesus has turned things around.
He brings hope to the hopeless, life to the dying.
Abide [or remain rooted in] Jesus, in his vine the Church.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing....If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. John 15:4-5, doesn’t exist for its 7-8.