"I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit."
Pastor Emillie's sermon was about the Gospel reminding us of belonging. Jesus followers are rooted in God. She quoted Paul in Colossians who wrote "Our lives are hidden with Christ in God, our source and hope."
In the Children's Sermon she gave great examples of flowers and fruits when they are cut off from the vine how they lose their vitality; they find it hard to remain with productivity and purpose. Jesus words here remind us that apart from Christ, we can do nothing of lasting significance. Our strength, our purpose, our very life flows from our connection to him.
The next two Sundays of Easter take us into the middle of the Farewell Discourse in John’s Gospel. Chapter 13 narrates the “sign” that sets in motion the hour and Jesus’ farewell. The Farewell Discourse begins at 14:1, interpreting both the foot washing and the events to come, for Jesus and for his disciples.
Like the good shepherd of last week’s text, this week’s image of the vine is another extended metaphor, which also borrows from and adapts Old Testament imagery for Israel.
We bear fruit not by squeezing it out of ourselves but because we are extensions of the vine, pruned by the gardener-God who wants us to be fruitful and to be drawn into the unity of the Father and Son. God’s love, presence, and pruning are gifts. But we do choose the abiding place of our soul. If we want to bear Jesus’ fruit, then we choose to abide in him, which we will learn in John 15:9 means to abide in his love.
Pastor Emillie joked that the congregation certainly knows by now she is not a skilled farmer. She has had experience with pruning and she told a pruning story about getting chrysanthemums from Walmart
every spring and throwing them away every fall because they looked dead. Then she learned about pruning an found there was more possible life if plants are pruned correctly.
She preached that as we remain in Christ, we are called to bear fruit – fruit that brings glory to God and
blesses those around us. This fruit may take many forms – acts of kindness, words of encouragement, deeds of justice and mercy – but it is always marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
She concluded by encouraging us abide together in Christ who gives us the fruit of the vine.
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