Easter 6B – John 15:1-6

How did you hear the text I just read:  did it comfort or disturb you?  Did you feel it had a singular message or many?  Preachers often tend to focus on a primary message, but maybe that’s a mistake.  Maybe we need to look at ALL the possibilities because what draws me in might not impact you at all.  So I’d like us to journey together and see what this text might reveal — to each of us.

As you already know, I approach the “I AM sayings” of John with reservations.  Beyond that, the first detail that drew MY attention related to gardening.  I’m a gardener, a rather avid one at that, so I’m familiar with pruning.  But as I explored this text with my colleagues, I became increasingly intrigued by the incredibly diverse understandings they held — some disturbing, others refreshing.  Is it possible that personal perspectives correlate to a PARTICULAR role within the text?  Said another way, are you the vine, the pruned branch or the branch that remains?

Our perspectives and perceptions shape and mold our interpretation of this or ANY story.  So let’s consider some of the possibilities.

As a gardener, I’m well aware that shrubs and vines need to be pruned; even my tomato plants need to have “suckers” removed.  Within the past few weeks, I pruned my French lilac and azalea bushes, both of which must be pruned shortly after blooming so as to not interfere with next year’s blooms.  And early in the spring, I radically pruned my Knock-out and miniature roses so that they would be more vigorous.  It hurts me to prune shrubs back vigorously, so I talk to the bushes as I’m pruning them, assuring them that I’m really well-intentioned.  Whether the pile of branches that accumulates as I snip understands that is something to which I can’t attest.

When I first read this story, the primary message I “heard” was that the grower removes all branches that don’t bear fruit and eventually burns them.  When I posed a question to my colleagues concerning my discomfort with that scenario,[1] the exchange resulted in 77 email posts, a rather healthy list of responses.  Here are a few of the responses that I found disturbing:

If we reject Jesus, we cut ourselves off – and we probably won’t really care one way or another what that might mean eternally.[2]

You can bemoan how the pruned branches are thrown away… wasted, useless.  Or you can decide that God wastes nothing, and they can become part of the mulch pile and one day be more useful.[3]

The branches being pruned from the vine – the people who had been part of the church/body/vine – were already sick or dead.  In other words, they had fallen away from the source of life = Jesus, to either deny him [already dead] or preach heresies [sick and likely to sicken others].  This is not about common or garden-variety doubt… This is about removing those who are either self-separated from the church or attacking it – the troublemakers with malicious intent.[4]

I was disturbed by these responses because they seemed to impose more onto the text than what was readily apparent.  But then I realized I may have been sensitive because the responses “struck a chord” within me.  There have been times in my life that I haven’t “borne much fruit” but it wasn’t that I “didn’t care” what it might mean for me eternally.  One can’t “assume” to know why people don’t bear fruit; maybe they’re too overwhelmed with problems to yield much of anything.  And maybe it’s OUR job to help them overcome those difficulties.  There’s also no mention of a mulch pile; the branches are burned; we shouldn’t try to “redeem” the text by implying it says something it doesn’t.  As for those who are “self-separated” from the church, the implication is that these people are sick or dead — spiritually, I presume, and not physically — and that’s it’s perfectly okay to discard them.  I find this not only judgmental, but troubling.  I, personally, have “self-separated” from the church at times in the past and I’m glad I wasn’t “thrown into the fire.”

But juxtaposed with those responses were others that resonated with my own perspectives:  I found them positive.  Here are a few of those responses:

John’s gospel is of course a relatively late addition in the developing Christian tradition. Clearly by the second century the GOSPEL of Jesus was being transformed into JESUS as gospel.  I do not believe that Jesus taught and parabled about himself.  I do not believe that he called for ‘belief’ in his status/divinity.  Rather he spoke of God’s kingdom, and trust in the alternative way of this kingdom.  This is more a faith of the heart and feet than a faith of the head.[5]

Wasn’t Jesus speaking primarily to the ‘insiders’ here?  So these words are spoken to believers, and not unbelievers.  So we need to stop using this as an axe against others… it’s a warning WE need to hear.

This is JOHN speaking and John reflecting his own community and what it believed.  Unless you are a literalist, it’s not Jesus speaking, no matter what the text says.[6]

I think it’s important that Christians face up to these negative, exclusivist strains in our tradition and wrestle with them.  Not only does this pronounce harsh judgment on Christians who have fallen away, but it also implies that unless one is “in Christ” it is impossible for them to bear fruits of loving kindness.  I know too many “fruit-bearing” Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, and agnostics to believe that.

I’d say this is a case where someone overworked a metaphor.  The vineyard is good, the vine and branches is a very apt image.  But it seems to me that the redactor (editor) got carried away on the pruning and the reasons for that were probably rooted in the tensions of the community at that time.[7]

These statements attempt to deal with the text from a non-literal perspective.  And while I’m also a non-literalist, my initial tendency has often been to hear JUDGMENT because that’s the way I was taught to hear such texts in my formative years.  The tapes written on my brain from those years remain with me despite the fact that I believe them to be flawed.

If I thought God was going to REMOVE and BURN all branches that didn’t bear fruit, I’d have to abandon my belief in a God of grace — because a God of grace would NOT do that.  I know there are times I’m not the best “fruit-bearing branch but I’m very, very glad that God doesn’t cast me aside.  How can we possibly believe that God is our shepherd if we believe God would do that?  JOHN may have wanted to create fear within his community and imply that members would be CUT OFF if they didn’t ABIDE IN JESUS, but Jesus would have never said that!  This is not the inclusive, compassionate Jesus that I have come to know.

As for the various roles within the text, God, Jesus, and people are the characters.  God is the grower, Jesus is the vine, and people are the branches.  That’s easy.  But “branches” fall into two categories:  some branches will remain while others will be cut off, withering away in the process.  As the story is told, the vine grower knows which branches will yield fruit and which won’t; those that yield will be kept; the rest will be discarded.  Just like that.

Yet as I understand pruning from the perspective of someone who knows grapevines, “all grapevines produce fruit (only) on one-year old wood.”[8]  That means older branches are the ones that need to be cut away.  If we apply that to the church, I suppose older members have to go — they need to be “pruned away.”  Yet I’m not sure many of us want to hear that because it implies that after so many years, we cease bearing fruit and simply need to be discarded.

But do not despair!  One of my colleagues suggested that the word translated as “removes”[9] (the vinegrower removes every branch in me that bears no fruit) can also mean “lifted up.”  If the grower “lifts up” the branch rather than removing it, the branch would still stand a chance.

I wanted to consider this possibility as it certainly changes the meaning of the text, but further research uncovered that this verb is seldom used to mean “lifted up.” In addition, such a translation wouldn’t gel with the remainder of the passage:  Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  IF the vine grower actually were lifting up the branches to enable them to bear more fruit, then the final section of the text could NOT apply:  there would be nothing to throw away and burn.  Possibly then, as my other colleague suggested, the editor “overworked a metaphor….and got “carried away on the pruning.”

The bottom line is that each of us — whether we realize it or not — comes to this text or ANY text with certain predetermined ideas.  Those ideas have been formed by WHAT we were taught and our life experiences.  If our teaching and experiences gel, we probably have little conflict.  But IF what we were taught clashes with our subsequent experiences, we may walk away, especially if others aren’t willing to address our concerns or questions.  Yet others will ignore their experience and cling to their initial teachings, fearful of where change might lead them.  And yet others will dig deeper, hoping to find a new path that will lead them toward new discoveries.  Whichever choice we make will largely determine how we “hear” scripture.  And I would venture to say that it will also determine the image of God that we hold.

So, how do I hear this text?  Since I don’t believe Jesus would ever use the divine name, I AM, for himself, I’m skeptical.  I also don’t think Jesus would ever say that a person can’t bear fruit unless they abide in him.  It would be out-of-character.  He KNEW there were people everywhere who bore fruit and had never even met him.  He also knew that some close to him — including his own disciples — didn’t always bear fruit.  But more than that, Jesus didn’t model a God that prunes away “dead wood,” tossing it into the fire as nothing more than refuse.  That simply isn’t the Jesus I know.

Each of us needs to make a choice:  Do you have an image of a God that will prune away branches that don’t bear fruit?  Or do you believe in a God of grace who would never toss anything aside, NO MATTER WHAT?  Think about it; that might be the most important decision each of us makes, for our image of God makes all the difference in the world.  Amen.

 

 

 

This sermon was written by the Rev. Janet Weiblen, Intentional Interim Minister at Weston Christian Church.  It can only be used with permission of the author.  revj@kc.rr.com.