“BRANCHES OF THE VINE”
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 3, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
John 15:4 (ESV)
The observation has been made by people a lot smarter and more observant than I am that our world is one in which people can often find themselves to be lonely even in the midst of a crowd. What these people mean by that is that somewhere--somehow--we have lost our sense of community in the world that we live in. We see people all the time, everywhere that we go, but we don’t really see ourselves as having anything to do with these people, or they with us. We live in the United States, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in Allegheny County, in Shaler or Hampton or McCandless or Ross or Pine or whatever Township, but whenever we speak about any of these entities, we refer to them as “them” rather than “us.” We see our elected officials as people who “they”--not “we”--have elected. When a law is passed it’s “their” law--not ours. And, of course, any problems that may arise in the community are “their” problems--not ours.
I think it’s especially sad that this kind of thinking has also invaded the Christian Church. This was impressed upon me quite a number of years ago when I was having a telephone conversation with a relative of mine from another state. He was telling me about a new building project that his church was undertaking. Throughout the conversation he kept saying things like, “I don’t know where they think that they’re going to get the money” and “I don’t think that they’ve really thought this thing through” and “I sure hope that they know what they’re doing.” Obviously this person had no sense of ownership in his congregation’s future plans for ministry. He lacked a sense of belonging--of being a part of what is going on in his own family of faith. The words of Jesus that serve as our sermon text for this morning are ones in which the Lord uses the image of a vine with branches to impress upon us the fact that as His disciples we are not just a bunch of individuals but rather a family--a community of people who belong to one another and ultimately to Him.
First of all, we can’t be just a bunch of individuals because we have no real life in and of ourselves. Oh, sure, we can destroy life (and that ought to be obvious if you only pay attention to the news every day!) but we can’t create life--not even our own life. Neither can we sustain life--not even our own. The best that we can do is to do all of the right things and avoid all of the wrong things and hope for the best. What Jesus is saying here when He tells us that He is the Vine and that we are the branches is that our very life is dependent on Him. He’s telling us that for us to assert our independence and to try to do everything on our own would be about as successful as a branch trying to separate itself from the vine from which it draws its life and still expecting to survive. It simply cannot be done. It was tried, you will remember, by our first parents in the garden of Eden--with devastating results.
When we apply this to our spiritual life it becomes even more challenging, because in this area we have yet another problem to contend with as a result of that first attempt in Eden, and that is the fact that we are sinners. Our sin makes us incapable of living in harmony with God’s will. If we need help to survive in the physical world, we certainly need it all the more in our spiritual life. How could we possibly live independently as the people of God when everyday we reject the authority of God in our lives as we pursue our own selfish interests? The truth of the matter is that we need to be rooted in Jesus--our Vine. We need the grace of Christ just to be acceptable in the sight of God, to say nothing of being His representatives in the world as we bear the fruit of faith in our lives.
God’s Good News for us this morning is that in our Savior Jesus Christ we are a part of something far greater than ourselves. Together we are the people of God in Jesus Christ, of whom the Word of God says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Together we have a strength that none of us could possibly have as individuals, because as the Church of Jesus Christ we have been entrusted with the Gospel of Christ as it is given to us in the means of grace: the Word and the Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit creates saving faith in the hearts of sinners and nurtures that faith so that we might bear the fruit of good works in our lives. This power is ours not because of how good we are and not even because of how numerous we are, but solely because the power of Jesus Christ, revealed in His life, in His suffering and death, and in His resurrection from the dead, has been given to us as a free gift of God’s grace.
Above all, it is our union with Christ that gives us the power for living the New Life in Christ that is ours in our Baptism. When we were baptized into Christ, we were made one with Him in His death and in His resurrection. This makes it possible for us to die to sin and rise to live the New Life in Christ each and every day. Because we are one with Him, everything that He accomplished for us is given to us and made real for us. It truly becomes ours. In Him we are forgiven of our sins and are given the motivation and the power to forgive others as we ourselves have been forgiven. In Him we have been called and empowered to share His redeeming love with others, both in the words that we speak and in the lives that we live. There is a strength that we have in Him that we don’t have individually or even as a group, because He alone is the One who has overcome every evil for us and has not only cleared the way for our victory over sin and death, but has guaranteed it.
This world can be a lonely place in which to live--and it certainly will be just that for anyone who chooses to be a “lone ranger,” so to speak. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As a baptized Christian you are part of a larger and stronger community called the Church. What’s more, you are one with your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in His life, death, and resurrection has demonstrated His power over Satan, temptation, sin, death, and all the forces of evil. His promise is that we who remain in fellowship with Him have that power at our disposal as we engage each day in spiritual warfare, resisting the influences of Satan and sin and bearing witness to the love and power of Christ by living always as branches of the Vine, who gives us life and sustains it as He prepares us for the everlasting life that He has attained for us and will surely give us.
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.