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Garden Vines
John 15:4-5
Dear friends, today I’d like to share with you words from Saint John’s Gospel, chapter 15, where our Lord Jesus speaks these comforting words to us. He says,
Abide in me, and I in you. 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.
This time of year it’s summer. It’s beautiful to see all the plants growing outside right now. And if you have a garden like me, you probably have some vining plants, maybe some squash or cucumbers or pumpkins that are growing. And it’s always amazing to see those vines grow out. They start with just that little seed. You can just see the amazing wonder that is God’s creation there in nature. How God designs this world to be so beautiful and just the power that’s in that little seed as it grows out. Of course, if you have a garden too, there’s a good chance that you’ve accidentally stepped on one of those vining plants before. When that happens, you know that everything on the other end of that vine where you’ve stepped is gone. It’s not coming back.
Jesus gives us an admonition that we are to stay connected to him, the vine, so that we can be alive and grow in our faith. There’s always the danger that we can be cut off from our faith. And so the way that we stay connected to Jesus is to stay connected to him and His word and his sacraments. And we have the comfort there as we do that we have life in Jesus where we’ve been grafted into him. We have new life in him. We’re true living vines. Jesus also says that we’ll produce fruit naturally as we stay connected to him and keep receiving that sap of word and sacrament. We’ll do good works of love for him and for our neighbor.
But it’s so important for us to stay connected to Jesus, who is our vine. He has completely taken away our sin, canceled our guilt before God. He’s destroyed the power of death and the devil over us. We don’t want to be disconnected from him in any way. There’s always that danger for us to be distracted and to not focus on our faith, and maybe even to forget about our faith, to not come to church, ever. Jesus lovingly invites us to come to him and to receive that sap that we that is, that comes from him, the vines that we can grow and live in him.
And if you go to church this time of year, you’ll even notice that the colors on the altar and on pastor stoles are green. And that’s the color of growth. It was something we focus on this time of year. Matches nature outside in many ways. We want to grow in our faith and the way to do that is to stay connected to Jesus, who is our vine. What wonderful joy and comfort it is to know that we are connected to him who loves us. That wonderful forgiveness and peace and love flows into our life as we draw from him who is our vine.
So stay connected to Jesus the vine, friends in Word and Sacrament in the means of grace, and know that the Holy Spirit will work in you and cause you to grow in your faith and help you to do good works of love too, for him and for those around you.
