Pastor Greyson Grenz
John 15:1-8
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May 3, 2015 (5th Sunday of Easter, Year B)
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
I was trying to come up with a new and different way to think about our gospel lesson for tonight because, honestly, how many people have vines anymore? I have one in my backyard and my kids don’t know it from a dandelion. So this is what I came up with. A hedge trimmer and an orange extension cord.
I hope you enjoyed my children message for today, because I’d like to build off it for my sermon this morning. So a quick review: the electric tools and appliances? = You and Me, everybody with their own jobs to do and skills and abilities, even if there are other tools and appliances out there they don’t all serve in the same place. The Orange Extension cord? = church. One could say that the 3 prongs = 3 means of grace. The outlet in the wall = God, always there with power for us. Electricity = power of God coming to us by the Holy Spirit to use us as he designed us and for his purposes. The cut in the cord = sin, death, and devil’s work. The connectors fixing cut in cord = work of Jesus for us. Again the tools and appliances could not fix the cut themselves someone had to do it for them. God did by sending Jesus.
All in all, I think a decent, modern-day equivalent of the vine and the branches metaphor we see in our Gospel lesson for today. A good basic understanding of much of what Jesus is talking about in John 15. But I’d like to take us “big kids” a little deeper than the children’s message today. Drying off this basic framework, I want us to hone in on a couple of things that Jesus says in our gospel lesson. “I am the true vine,” says Jesus. “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” This seems simple enough with our electricity example. If you aren’t connected, “plugged in” if you will, you can’t do much.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” “…apart from me you can do nothing.” It seems a little drastic, doesn’t it? NOTHING!? “…apart from me you can do NOTHING!?” This is what we have trouble with in this passage as Christians and as human beings. The way Christ speaks of us in this analogy is NOT the way we think of ourselves. We look at ourselves in the mirror and see someone who is capable of doing an awful lot of things, and we take great pride in all of the things we can do. In all actuality, we pretty much think we can do whatever it is we want. Isn’t that what we tell our kids? If you put your mind to it, you can do… anything.
The reality is you and I have a very high opinion of ourselves. We are experts on anything you might want to discuss, as long as it interests us and we have heard of it before, and if we haven’t, then it’s not important anyway. Our opinion is highly sought after by everyone around us, and we know this because no one has ever told us not to share our outlook on a subject with them. A few people have tried to disagree with our estimation of the situation but what do they know anyway? They’re no expert.
We wholeheartedly believe that there is nothing you and I can’t do. Unless money is an issue, that I have some limitations and I imagine you do to. And there are some physical limitations, as well, probably for you too, that keep me from doing some things. I’m not in the NBA because I’m only 5’10”. I’m at the mercy of the weather if I try to go golfing on a rainy day… or in January. McDonald’s still won’t give me filet mignon even though I order it every time I go in. But nowhere do we see this overestimation of ourselves and others more clearly than in our viewpoint on humankind in general. For the most part we think that people should do the right thing. The problem is God says that’s just not gonna happen. In Genesis before the flood it is recorded that, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Paul in Romans 3 pulls no punches, quoting from the Psalms, roverbs and Isaiah and other prophets to say, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Our estimation of ourselves and the rest of the human race is in fact way off. Apart from faith in Christ given by the grace of God, humanity is all-out rebellion against God. They can do nothing but sin. In fact it is the very essence of their being, the fuel which their evil, fallen heart runs on. And that selfish and sinful nature still clings to us even after we have been brought to faith by the Holy Spirit.
And as believers and followers of Christ, faith and Christian living is not at all about plugging into God and the power that he has to work in our lives, it is instead constant repentance for our sins and acknowledging that we are full of sin and cannot do anything about it. Christian living is relying upon Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and applying the forgiveness he offers personally and individually to ourselves. It is acknowledging that we are beggars before God, wretched, completely and totally hopeless without God’s grace. We cannot offer God anything nor do we have anything that he would want.
That is how Christ could say, “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
I know it is hard for you to hear this today. It is hard for me to hear it of myself. But this is the truth of God about you and about me. It is important that you and I understand the reality of our standing before God. As long as we see ourselves as anything other than beggars before God, as long as we hold an overestimation of ourselves and our capabilities, then we run the risk of relying upon ourselves rather than upon God. And that is not a risk I am willing to take with your life or with mine.
The reality is you and I have no other recourse than to rely upon the grace and mercy of God. And that simple statement should honestly bring us joy, absolute ecstasy, relief and comfort and happiness beyond explanation. Because as the electrician wants the electrical system to work as it was designed, as the vinedresser desires the vine to flourish and to be fruitful, so our God desires that we beggars would have all that we need. Our God does not desire the death of his enemies. Our God does not desire that the sinner would perish, but rather that he would turn and live. So much so that he would come to us, search us out and grab us by the shoulders, fling us around and wrap us in his loving embrace. And that is what he is done. God sent his son to seek and to save that which is lost. God sent his son to heal our sin-sick hearts. God sent his son to reconcile us unto him, putting an end to our rebellion and making us children of our heavenly father. Children who are dependent upon him for all things as children always are to their father.
Christ came into our world and traveled the byways and alleyways the dusty dirt roads of our world in search of us beggars. And finding us he has picked us up and carried us along the way. Finding us unclean and unkempt, sick and dying, he washes our wounds, cleans off the muck and the mire that we have wallowed in and he sweeps it all away in the flood of blood and water from his side. He takes our filthy rags of sin and wears them himself. In their place, he gives to us robes worthy of royalty. When we have no strength, Christ scoops us into his arms and places us at his table where he feeds us his very body and blood that we might continue along the way. When we haven’t the stamina to walk through the valley of the shadow of death Christ comes alongside and bears us up by his word of comfort and peace and love lest we strike your foot against a stone. What was severed by the devil’s temptations has been fixed by the cross of Christ, his work for us has reconnected us to God and restored that which was destroyed by the entry of sin into our world.
Apart from Christ we can do nothing, but connected to God through him, like a branch to a vine, or a cord to the power tool, God can do great things in us and through us. By the power of God the Holy Spirit working in us electrical service can be restored around the planet. By the power of God the Holy Spirit working through us the vine is only enriched by new fruit produced by its branches. You and I have been made by God to be connected to him. You and I were designed by the author of life as his instruments to work in his creation. It is to his glory that you and I show ourselves to be his people and his instruments to drink grace and mercy to the world. By the power of God the Holy Spirit working in and through us. the gospel can be proclaimed to everyone throughout the world and the forgiveness of sins and the love of Christ that you and I know can show forth in our lives by what we think, say and do.
May we always remember that apart from Christ we can do nothing but connected to God through him God can do all things. Amen, amen, may it be so.