May 10, 2009
(Fifth Sunday of Easter)
Vine and Branches
by The Rev. Joe Behen,
Clergy Assistant
Acts 8:26-40
• Psalm 22:24-30
• 1 John 4:7-21
• John 15:1-8
(From The
Lectionary Page)
In today’s gospel lesson from John, Jesus tells us that human life is about choices. To be alive, to have free will, to be human, is to be connected to others, and to make choices. In the metaphor of the grapevine, we learn that Jesus is the true vine, and that God is the vine grower. These truths are expressed as givens, apart from us or from anyone or anything. They simply are. Our placement in the metaphor, however, seems to be conditional. We choose, on some level, our own role in the growth of what God is doing.
But Jesus also says that we were created for a specific part in this metaphor. We are made to be the connection between the vine and the fruit; between the divine and the coming into existence of divine purpose. Our choice, then, is between fulfilling that role that we were created for, or choosing against it. There are numerous ways in which either of these choices can be lived out, but they all come down to this fundamental distinction. It’s important to note here that not choosing is itself a choice. In the words of Deuteronomy, “This choice is before you – life or death. Choose life.”
I saw a film a number of years ago now, called “Pay It Forward”. Based on a book of the same title, it was about a boy from a broken home named Trevor, who was given this assignment at school: think up a practical way to make the world a better place, and then put it into action. Author Catherine Hide has Trevor describe his plan like this: “You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to pay it forward. To three more people: each. So, nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on a calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?" The story goes on to show the surprising, unexpected, and powerful results of Trevor’s giving of himself for others.
In terms of today’s readings, you might say that Trevor is engaged in fruit production. He has decided to be in this world in a way that connects with others, that even fulfills others. The result is that through him God’s work, God’s love, spreads through the world. He is changed by it, as are those whose lives he touches. When we choose to be vehicles of God’s love in the world simply because God loves us and is with us, we become part of something that is beyond us. It is the Spirit that moves within us and through us for a result not of our own creation, but, that we are a part of. Our drawing life from God allows us to be the channels of God’s work in the world. It is both what we are called to be, and what we are called to do.
Our choice, however, is not whether or not to be a link between God and others. We simply are that. Our connectedness in God’s creation is part of the given nature of the grapevine metaphor. That is not part of the choice. Our choice is whether to receive our life from God and incarnate that love in our lives, or simply to take without giving. The question this raises, I think, is this: can we really draw life from God only to keep it for ourselves, to demand that it be paid back to us? A Princeton University professor once wrote that, “ 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,” he says, “is how it loves. There is no other test that matters for a Christian.” So if our lives are not centered on sharing God’s love, are we really choosing life?
In Pay it Forward, Trevor had his calculator in his hand, trying to calculate the results of his work. This betrays the desire that we all have, to see the effects of our faithful living. But this desire can too easily get in the way of fruit production. When results become our reason, we eventually act only in ways that allow us to see the fruit produced by our cooperation. This creates a significantly smaller field of possibility. God’s imagination becomes limited by our imagination. When the numbers began to work against Trevor, he was forced to let go of his own expectations. In doing so, things became possible that far exceeded his own calculations. And he also learned that it was something much greater than a homework assignment that was at stake. He found himself on a quest to find out if there is good in everyone, good that remains latent, untapped, unlived, until you unlock it. He learned that this good, once you set it free, becomes something of God’s creation that you and I could not imagine.
We are most truly ourselves when our life is drawn from God and not from the myriad of other places that cry out for us to draw meaning. But that meaning comes to us only in its living. It is possible to believe that God is our meaning, but to live otherwise. The word “abide” shows up no less than seven times in this gospel passage from John. We are urged to “live with God.” This suggests possibility for human life that is beyond all my imagining. My living with God is directly related to my loving of my neighbor. All I have to do is care – to care, and to live out that care. My inter-connectedness with God and with others is not a byproduct of this metaphor, but rather it is precisely the point – whatever I choose now, an hour from now, and a week from now, others are affected. Our lives, like branches, “twist and turn and are intertwined with themselves and each other, 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 at all. All the branches run together and are entwined with one another, even as they receive their sustenance from the main vine.”
To require that our good works pay us back, that they let us evaluate them and demand that they produce benefit us, is to attempt to draw the life that we were given back into ourselves. The branch has no place to grow; and as we all know, what is living must grow, or die. To pay that life forward, however, is to be a connection between our world and God himself. Make your choice now – choose to live with God.
