Branches and Vines

We can't live without one another, and we can't have abundant life without being connected to Christ. That is the message of tonight's gospel. It comes to us in the middle of a long farewell speech Jesus makes to his disciples at dinner the night before he was to die.

If you knew you were going to die the next day, what would you say to your friends? I imagine whatever you would say would be full of deep meaning and would express to them your deepest longings and hopes. It would summarize all that is most important to you and your relationship with them.

So it is with Jesus. He washes their feet as an example of humility, love, and service. He tells them not to let their hearts be troubled and that he is going to prepare a place for them - and for us. He tells them that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He tells them that he will not leave them orphaned and that we can live forever with him. He promises to send his spirit upon them to sustain them and help them.

He says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled..."

Then he comes to the message we heard tonight. He uses the metaphor of a vine and its branches. He says his father is the vine grower. Jesus himself is the vine and we are the branches.

Why a vine? Surely there are more magnificent plants than a grapevine. The Book of Psalms is full of references to the cedars of Lebanon which is an image of a might and power. There is a stately cedar of Lebanon standing next to Prospect House that you can see for yourself. And those who went on the retreat a couple of weeks ago at Holy Cross Monastery saw an oak tree that is more than 200 years old that is mighty and beautiful. Why a vine and not an ancient oak tree or a cedar of Lebanon?

We might better understand Jesus' use of the grapevine metaphor if our gospel lesson had gone on for another four verses to where Jesus says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Hold that thought.

Now try to visualize a grapevine. The branches twist and turn and are intertwined with themselves and with the main trunk of the vine. When they are fully in leaf, you can't tell one branch apart from another, and it's hard to even see the vine itself. All the branches run together and are entwined with one another, even as they receive their sustenance from the main vine.

Jesus uses this powerful metaphor just before he gives us the commandment to love one another to show that we are not only dependent upon him, but upon one another. This is a hard message for us to hear in a society that prizes individualism and competitiveness. Even the Army's latest ads for recruits plays to the desire to be individualistic by inviting young people to join an "Army of One".

The model of a perfect society we get in John's gospel is one in which we recognize our interdependence upon one another - our social interrelationship - and in which we recognize our corporate accountability to one another. Extending the vine metaphor further, Jesus exhorts us to a fidelity to him and to one another that bears much fruit. And the fruit we bear in this way is the love we have for one another. By living in love with one another - for all people - we show that we are Jesus' disciples, that we are connected to him, the main vine, the source of all life. This Christian community that Jesus envisions in this metaphor is one where selfishness, individual accomplishments, and choices have no place, but where instead there is a corporate, communal accountability to God for one another's well-being.

There is another aspect of the grapevine metaphor that is important to note. As your visualization of a grapevine might suggest, there is not one branch that is more prominent or important than another. No branch seems to have pride of place. No branch has precedence or privilege over the others. This suggests a radical model of the church that is not hierarchical, but rather is flat and democratic. The only quality that gives a branch any importance is whether or not it bears fruit. If it does not, it is cut away and discarded. But all the healthy, fruit-bearing vines are without status or rank. All are the same before God.

Finally, there is the quality of anonymity in the grapevine metaphor. Whereas Paul in 1 Corinthians talks about the body of Christ with a head and hands and feet and other faculties, each with its own individual contribution to the whole, the grapevine metaphor in John eliminates any celebration of individual gifts. This, too, challenges our societal views. If we could live truly and completely into Christ's commandment to love one another as he loves us, then those things that separate us one from another would dissolve and disappear and the Christian community's distinctiveness would emanate only from its relationship to Christ. This vision of what the church is may explain why the church is burgeoning in Africa where the culture prizes community over individuality and why it is declining in developed countries where the culture's priorities are just the opposite.

This business about loving one another as Christ loves us, when you really examine the implications fully, is a completely radical way of living in society. And given the realities of human nature and the way we are socialized in this culture, it is fairly unnatural, and it goes against the grain. It does not come naturally to us to love someone who has hurt us or abused us, to love someone who seems totally selfish and self-absorbed, to love someone who holds views we find abhorrent. Yet, that is Christ's command and call to us - to love everyone as he has loved us. We are called to be interconnected, entwined branches deriving our nourishment and life from the main vine that is Jesus Christ himself.

The sign of the faithful community, of a community fully in communion with Christ, is how it loves. There is no other test that matters for a Christian. And we are not able to live fully into this life of unreserved love without being connected in our hearts to Christ through prayer. We cannot achieve this connection with our brothers and sisters merely by doing good things for them and to them. The connection must be in and through Christ and that is only achievable through prayer. So, as we take communion, that tangible sign of Christ's love for us, let us rededicate ourselves to being fully connected to him by loving one another.

Amen.