Fruitful

Today’s reading from John’s Gospel (John 15:1-8) is one of those great “I am” statements that are such a prominent and distinctive part of John’s Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels – from a Greek word meaning “seeing together” – because their accounts of the life of Jesus are very similar. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke we have Jesus telling parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. These begin with the familiar words, “the kingdom of heaven is like….” In these three Gospels, some variation of the phrase “Kingdom of God” or “Kingdom of Heaven” or just “kingdom” appears over 100 times. By contrast, in John’s gospel there are no parables, and the word Kingdom appears only 3 times. Instead of Jesus saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like such and thus” we have the “I am” sayings of Jesus – last week’s “I am the good shepherd”, this week’s “I am the vine”, in other places “I am the bread of life”, and “I am the resurrection and the life”. But whether Jesus is telling parables about the Kingdom, or comparing himself to bread, and vine, he is telling us about God’s activity in the world – not only activity that happened 2,000 years ago, but God’s activity right now, in our midst.

The timing of Jesus’ words is crucial to our understanding of the text. It is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse, after he had shared bread and wine with his disciples, after Judas had gone out to betray him. During those fleeting minutes and hours before the betrayal, Jesus had to prepare his disciples for the horrors that would lie ahead. How would they stand in the time of trial? What word could Jesus give them to sustain them? Jesus’ word for the disciples – and for us – is “abide”. Abide. Abide in me as I abide in you. What does it mean to abide?

There are several shades of meaning. Abide can mean “to dwell” or “to live in a particular place.” When we invite someone into our home, we might say, “welcome to my humble abode” – the humble abode where I abide, or live. The word “abide” also involves a sense of the passage of a significant length of time, a condition that lasts over the long haul – the abiding love that marks healthy relationship is a contrast to the here-today, gone tomorrow infatuation of someone not ready for an abiding relationship. And the word “abide” can also be used in the sense of “to put up with” or “to tolerate.” And it can also mean “to wait for” or “to endure for a long period.” So to “abide” with someone is to live with them over the long haul, warts and all.

So how does Jesus prepare his followers for the difficulty to come? He tells them to abide in him, and he in them – to let his life enter their lives, and to let their lives be part of his life. He tells them to abide – to continue, to endure, to live in Jesus, and to allow Jesus to live in them. And to put up with the hardship that would come with the decision to abide. And Jesus would do the same, would hang in there with them, warts and all.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ metaphor for abiding is the metaphor of the vine – Jesus says “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The branches abide in the vine – draw their sustenance from it – and the vine lives in the branches – the branches fulfill the purpose of the vine by bringing forth fruit. There’s a mutual, indeed, inseparable relationship – how do you tell where the vine stops and the branches start. And this is Jesus’ metaphor for his followers – those with him them, and for us as well. Mutual, inseparable relationship – in our lives, not being able to tell where Jesus leaves off and we pick up, because we and Jesus are so bound up in each other. The “vine and branches” metaphor is familiar, because even if we don’t have a vineyard in our backyard – or even if we don’t have a backyard, for that matter, we know what happens to a branch that’s cut out of a tree, or to lawn clippings that are left on a lawn. They wither. They dry up. You don’t cut a branch off an apple tree and expect it to go on sprouting new apples. You don’t cut the grass and expect the clippings to start growing. Separated from the main plant, an individual branch literally can do nothing. And it’s like that for us. Without being fed by the Word, without drawing strength from worshipping together, without allowing time and space in our lives for the Spirit to speak in us and move in us, our spiritual life eventually dries up, and all our efforts for good come to nothing. But if we allow ourselves to be fed spiritually, there’s no stopping us in our efforts to bear fruit – as Jesus says, fruit that will last.

When we face difficulties, God’s word for us is – abide. Abide. Hang in there. Keep on keeping on. Most of all, keep on keeping on abiding in Christ, so that we don’t become overwhelmed with bitterness and cynicism – don’t find our spirits dried up – but find ourselves sustained by God’s grace even through the worst of bad times.