May 10, 2009
The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B)
Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; 1 John 4:7-21;
John 15:1-8
This week I am going to begin my homily with a quote from Mike Murdock about what he calls “metafusion:”
“Jesus taught that we must become like children as small as mustard seeds that grow up and give away all their fruit to the poor until they fit through the eye of a needle so that their father will graciously welcome them home and kill the fatted goat that has been separated from the sheep which the good shepherd went looking for but was unable to find among the lost sheep of Israel so he found a coin which he paid to the innkeeper so there was great rejoicing in heaven for the lawyer who loved God and his neighbor and had faith the size of a camel”
I adored this “metafusion” and think it proves the point of what we sometimes do with scripture that has been handed from one generation to the next. Not only do we no longer know the context of the original story but we confuse it with and interweave it in many other biblical stories, sometimes changing the original intent or point. Further we combine stories that were intended to be metaphors with stories that were meant to relay some sort of factual message. We mix stories that make a social point with agricultural metaphors and –––– it does all become a jumble sometimes!
This all being true, when the compilers of the lectionary, in their common wisdom, throw in an agricultural metaphor for the Sunday lectionary, frankly I am in deep trouble! Agricultural metaphors are worse than Greek to me, and I actually studied Greek at one point in my life. Plants, the workings of plants, the significance of plants, Oh, my!
So in this gospel lesson this morning when Jesus says he is the vine and we are the branches, some of whom need pruning – what about digging up and starting all over? That would be my plan of attack for plants! But no, God prunes, and throws branches into a fire – clearly Jesus lived long before town regulations monitored such things! Better yet, what about having gardeners or hired hands to care for the whole thing and just being the ones who pick the fruit or the flowers and enjoy them? See – this is a difficult metaphor for me!
So what did Jesus mean in using it? From what I can gather he meant all of the branches that bear fruit, fruit worthy to be called fruit by God, which I would take to mean, love, forgiveness, charity, generosity, respectfulness, dignity, integrity, honesty – you could probably name more and so could I – but you get the drift. The fruit of God is not material; it is spiritual and eternal
Such fruit Jesus seems to be saying is in our hands, human hands, ours! God is the vine, but the fruit comes, not from the vine, but from the branches.
Think about this! Realizing I am not a plant expert, but suppose Jesus was saying that God can only be God and can only thrive through us – the fruit of the eternal life, the fruit that God cherishes, the fruit of God’s kingdom. God needs us, for what is a vine without branches? Sterile and empty of fruit, is it not?
I find this rather startling. I can deal far more easily with a story that hires someone to do the work or oversee the work or guarantee the work, but simply placing the work of the
My friends, God needs us. We know of our need for God. But to think that the maker of heaven and earth, the redeemer of the world, needs US is mind boggling!
We know of our need for God. We know our own inadequacies, foibles. We now our own weaknesses and sins and shortcomings. When we are honest with ourselves, we know that our need of God is at the very core of us. And yet, if we are the branches, God needs us just as much as we need God.
This means to me – and remember this is a plant metaphor so I could be missing the point – but it seems to me this means that if any of the things Jesus preached about, taught, or lived, are to come to fruition, to fruit if you will, then the only way they will, is through us. God may throw a few miracles in here and there (though I cannot begin to fathom this in plant terms. This is where a real mix of metaphors would be necessary.) But the real work of bringing about the
And in order to know what to do, how to be, it is not enough to know snippets of scripture and how to mix the metaphors together to form a story of faith, it is not enough to memorize creeds and hymns and prayers, or even say them regularly.
As branches of the vine we need at all times to remember that our very being, our very ability to produce fruit, depends upon our connection to the vine. And that connection needs to be the primary connection of our lives, for without it we will not only be pruned, we will die (even a non-plant person can see that!)
We are coming into the growing season, and it seems to me as I hear of summer plans that many of you have, time with family, time apart from the regular routine of the school year, time away from Acton, time at a favorite beach or ‘lake place,’ a time for recharging, it seems to me that it is also a time for growing our connection to the vine, making up a new routine of prayer perhaps, meditating if we have not before, practicing intercession with the “blue sheet” if we have not before, perhaps asking God three questions a day and then waiting in silence for the answers.
Plants must have some particular way, and likely only one way, to be connected to the vine. But with God and us humans the metaphor breaks down because we can all be connected to the vine in our own way. How I maintain a connection to God and how you, or Sam or Georgia or Henry down the street, maintain your own connection, may be radically different one from the other. But if the connection is there, the fruit will be also.
We may also get critical of each other’s fruit. Well, let’s face it, we do. Just as there are those who love pink roses and those who only want yellow, we may define the fruits of God putting an emphasis on different fruits or colors of fruits. But I believe the fruit bowl of God’s kingdom is alive with color and hues within colors and fruits (maybe even some vegetables) of many shapes and sizes tastes and smells. All are necessary, and each will reflect and make it possible for other branches to become grafted to the vine and grow their own fruit – the more the better.
So we cannot demand that my fruit and yours is the same, or that our fruit here at Good Shepherd is the only true fruit of the vine and/or better than someone else’s fruit, say, at the church down either of our streets! In truth what we are to do is concentrate on the fruit making, that is the growing, tending, creating a healthy environment for our fruit to grow, and then growing our best fruit. Concentrate on that, rather than the end product or comparing it to anyone else’s fruit! That is the way it is when we leave the plant metaphor behind and become disciples of Jesus Christ.
Discipleship: the fruit of our labor is a way of being ones who live and witness to the gospels of Jesus Christ uniquely through our own selves, through our own individuality and humanity. Just as our connections to God will be different for each of us depending upon a whole raft of variables, like personality, upbringing, spiritual guides, location, people we have encountered, age, experiences in life, etc., etc., etc., the fruit we bear, the fruit that attracts others will be different too. None is more right than the other. Each of the disciples was different, Peter, a hapless, enthusiastic one; Thomas, a reflective, questioning one; Paul, a zealot, all of them were different from each other, each bore different fruit, different converts, different segments of the population that could experience Christ through them, but what they all held in common was their connection to Jesus.
That is what holds us together, and that is what allows us to bear the fruit of the
Go, my friends, and bear much fruit in this summer growing season, but remain connected in the “metafusion,” to the vine and to this community of your fellow branches!
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd