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“Mothering love, family love, love all around the vine!”
John 15:1-8
Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola
May 10, 2009
First Congregational Church, Morrisville, VT
John’s imagery for this week, the vine and the branches, is different than the imagery from last week, which was the shepherd and the sheep. John’s imagery for this week speaks not of a protective shepherd laying down life for sheep. It speaks not of intimate knowing and calling by name. This week’s imagery speaks to an even closer image than that, an even more intimate image, if we can even imagine a more intimate image. It speaks to a relationship with vine and branches that weave together for the nourishment of the entire plant, tended lovingly and carefully by the vine grower whose entire purpose is the health and well being of the plant.
Even those of us who have never grown or tended grape vines have probably seen them. On such a plant, branches intertwine in such intricate patterns of twists and turns that it is impossible to tell where one branch begins and another ends. The vine appears to be one with the branches, as the branches appear to be one with the vine. As growers will tell you, sometimes it is necessary to prune dead parts of the branches, but that does not mean the entire branch is discarded. Pruning branches is for the purpose of strengthening the relationship of the branch to the vine, and ultimately of bearing fruit.
Such an intricate and intimate backdrop for Jesus’ words that paint a picture in the fourth verse of chapter 15. Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
The word abide can be translated to stay, to remain, or to dwell. Jesus is saying “dwell in me, make your home in me--just as I dwell in you, just as I make my home in you.” Such an invitation from Jesus seems appropriate on this day when we honor mothers and the Christian home. For those of us who are so fortunate, home is where we learned to abide. Home is where our mothers taught us the intricacies and intimacies of love and relationship. Home is where we first learned that we are loved no matter what.
When many of us were small, our mothering ones with whom we abided, with whom we felt the most at home, were the ones who cared for us, kept us healthy, prayed for us, and worked very hard to ensure our well being. Those who came from the closest knit families are those who were the most nurtured, were the most challenged in mind and spirit, grew with the most accurate sense of themselves, grew into whole and healthy adult human beings who are productive givers to society.
And although we may think that we’ve outgrown that need for such nurturance, we nonetheless carry our mother’s, or our whoever was our caretaker’s, love and care with us to this day. It has become so internalized that we spread that care and concern to our children and to all the children with whom we come into contact. Jesus says that we never outgrow that need for home, for that intricate relationship with vine and branches. Jesus says that even in our adult years, we cannot thrive without our abiding connection with the vine, with home. Jesus says that without such connection we cannot bear fruit, we cannot share our love and concern to other people. In the fifth verse of chapter 15 Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus is saying, I am home base, the center of your care and growth, where you are nurtured and challenged, guided and taught. Jesus is saying, I am home base. Without me, without home base to abide into, you cannot grow and thrive and do the good works for which you were created. Jesus is saying this not to young children who still need the nurturing and guidance of their parents. Jesus is saying this to his disciples, grown men and women in the Johannine community of the early church. Jesus is saying this to us, grown men and women of today. Jesus is saying this strongly and emphatically. Without me, you can do nothing.
As independent, self sufficient adults, a long way from needing parents and home as we once did, we may recoil at these words. These words go against our independent Yankee spirit, they go against the values of a Western society that promotes individualism and independence. We may acknowledge that these words could be relevant for back then, 2000 years ago, in a middle eastern culture when group was more important than individual; when these early Christians had lost their ties with their Jewish roots and were floundering to find a church home.
I wonder. As independent as we may be, how much do we long for home and the values from which we learned? How much do we seek home in our families today with whom we share common memory and common household, common values and common beliefs? How much do we long for home as we come here to this home, our beloved church family, to seek a God who is relevant for our lives, to seek a God who fills the God-given need for love and acceptance, support and guidance? To seek a God in whose name we can bear fruit, to do the good works of God’s ministry for the blessing of people in our community and in the world?
As we reflect on this day of home, as we reflect on those who cared for us in our youth, by birth, by adoption, by foster parenting, or through other avenues; as we remember those who gave us home and security and a sense of who we are; as we draw close to our different kinds of families today; we can touch our very selves, we can have a glimpse of who we really are, we can begin to recognize who we were created to be.
Jesus is saying, draw close to me, the true vine, your eternal home base, where you are nurtured and you become more of who you are, the true branches. With your brother and sister branches you abide with me the vine, tended lovingly by the vine grower. As you are intimately and intricately connected to the vine, you can thrive and grow as you learn of me.
Jesus goes on to say in verse seven, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Ask whatever you wish, and you’ll have it. How can this be? Does this mean I’ll get a million dollars if I ask? Or a brand new car even if I only have money for a used car? As we draw close to Jesus, as we take residence in the home of the vine, Jesus’ words, Jesus’ values, Jesus’ teachings abide and they take residence in us. We then ask, we pray, we hope, we dream according to the will and purposes of God. And as we stay close, as we learn more and more of Jesus’ words through prayer, through scripture, and through our conversation, and have those words abide in us, we know more and more what God’s values and purposes are.
Jesus ends this passage with words that complete the imagery of the vine. Jesus says in verse 8: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” The vine grower lovingly tends the plant, nurtures it, prunes it, cares for its health, so that ultimately the branches bear fruit. Those that abide in the vine are nourished through love and nurture, guidance and teaching. The outgrowth of that love and nurture, guidance and teaching, is that the branches bear fruit. The fruit is the work of God’s ministry in this world by the branches, Christ’s disciples. The fruit is the ministry. The branches are us, Christ’s disciples. Through the ministry of Christ’s disciples God is revealed, people know that God is alive and well and relevant in this world.
And it all begins at home. It all begins in the intricate and intimate interweaving of a loving and nurturing home where we can rest and abide in comfort and security. It proceeds through a natural growth process through the loving tending of the vine grower God, through the loving and nourishing teaching of the vine Jesus. Through such a process, becoming disciples and bearing fruit is inevitable. But it is necessary, absolutely essential, that we stay close, that we stay very close, that we continuously abide in the intimate vine of Jesus, tended by the loving hand of the vine grower God. Amen.
This is my Commandment
John 15:9-17
Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola
First Congregational Church, UCC
Morrisville, VT
May 17, 2009
“This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.” Such a significant statement. Such a challenging statement. Such an awe inspiring statement. Such a significant statement deserves pause and reflection. Such a significant statement invites a significant question--a question that deserves pause and reflection.
If I am to love others as Jesus loves me, how do I see, how have I experienced, Jesus loving me? What do I believe, what have I felt, what of Jesus’ love have I known for me?
We’ve talked in the last several weeks about Jesus as shepherd who has such fierce and devoted love that he willingly guards us with his very life; who knows us so intimately that he calls each of us by name. We‘ve talked about if we respond to such love, we will know Jesus and be able to tell Jesus apart from anyone who tries to lead us somewhere else. We’ve talked about Jesus as a vine who nourishes us as branches; who makes his home in us as he beckons us to make our home in him. In Jesus, we are home, in a good home, in a home of being held in nurture and peace; in a home of guidance and teaching of the Godly ways of life. Is this how I see Jesus loving me? How would any of us answer the question “How do I see, how have I experienced, how have I known Jesus loving me?”
Do I see Jesus as my shepherd who would protect me even if it meant death to him? Do I see Jesus as knowing my name and knowing every detail of my life? Do I see Jesus as the vine to me, the branch? Do I even want such a home in Jesus?
Jesus says later in this same passage, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” What a statement to us who pride ourselves in making independent choices. Could that be why we are all here in worship today? Because Jesus has chosen us to be here? We like to think that we have chosen to come, we have chosen to be in worship rather than snuggled in our homes for that second cup of coffee or tea, rather than working in our gardens or beginning that Sunday walk or drive a little earlier than usual. Could that be why we are here willing to participate in this church’s mission and ministry to the community and to the world, through our presence, our time, our talents, our finances, so that this church and its ministry will thrive? Is that why we invite others to our church family, why we so warmly welcome visitors who grace our doorway? Because Jesus has chosen us to be here, to do God‘s work here, to ensure that God‘s work will continue here?
Just imagine for a moment, just for a moment that the answer to any of the questions that I posed is yes. Do I see Jesus as my shepherd, protecting me to the point of death? Yes. Do I see Jesus as knowing my name and knowing everything about me? Yes. Do I see Jesus as the vine into which I nestle and abide, into which I call home? Yes. Do I learn of Jesus how much I am loved unconditionally, nurtured steadfastly, taught and guided surely? Yes. Do I believe Jesus has chosen me? Yes. Do I want this life with Jesus in whom I know and learn so much of Godly love and Godly ways? Do I know that Jesus calls me friend and not servant, with whom I share common loves, values, beliefs, and purposes? Yes. Am I friend of Jesus and Jesus friend of me, in which He is not my master and I am not his servant? In which we serve together? Yes.
If we were to say yes to any of these questions, what would it be like? Maybe at first we would be so overwhelmed, we’d need to just pause and shake our heads. Perhaps we would need to stop and say, wait a minute, what does this all mean? That Jesus is mine and I belong to Jesus? That I can know such unconditional love? That Jesus has chosen me, even me, to receive such love and nurture? And--, and--that Jesus has chosen me to share this love and these values so intimately that I learn to love others as Jesus loves?
I imagine if we said yes to any of these questions, we may be overwhelmed as we attempt to take in their meaning. I also imagine that perhaps after awhile, after praying on these questions, we would have a heart response; perhaps of love and gratitude back to Jesus; perhaps even of love, self-giving love for even the most unlovable of God’s children. Sounds pretty lofty, doesn’t it; sounds like I‘m talking ideals, maybe even impossibilities. And Jesus said, by ourselves we can do nothing. Jesus also said, with God, all things are possible.
We’ve all heard the saying “the apple doesn’t roll very far from the tree.” You’ve heard that, right? Usually we hear that saying in a negative way, like when a child has a bad temper like her father, or a child is disrespectful to his mother the way others in the family are disrespectful to their elders. Or for a child who is a bully, we may suppose that the child has learned bullying by being bullied at home somehow. What if when we thought of that saying, we thought of something positive about the child?
For us this morning, I guess instead of pondering the expression “the apple does not roll far from the tree“, we may ponder the expression “the branch does not twist or turn away very far from the vine.” Perhaps we may think more positively using this expression, like for example, when we think of God’s children who nestle in the deep and unconditional love of home in Jesus and learn to love, trust, and respect Jesus in response. And because they abide so closely in this home, they learn to love as Jesus loves them. They bear fruit as they learn to love others with a love that hints at the love of God: loving the unlovable, loving the outcast, loving those who sin against them, loving those who are not welcomed. In principle, it sounds nice. In real life it’s very hard. It’s one thing to be lovingly warm and welcoming to someone who crosses your path. It’s a much different story to be lovingly warm and welcoming to someone who has hurt you, someone who has said unkind things to or about you, has bullied you, has somehow sinned against you; someone who is so different from you that you cannot imagine a welcome. It’s very difficult indeed. And Jesus says with God all things are possible. And Jesus says he has chosen us to abide with him and to learn to love as he has loved us.
In my psychology practice I worked with many, many people who had the misfortune of being raised in abusive homes. Often, in their desire to heal, they so wish that their painful pasts would not continue to plague them. They would ask me “I’m an adult now. Why does my past still affect me? Why does what my parents did to me still affect the way I feel about myself and the way I respond to others today?” What I would usually propose to them is an alternative question, “If your parents would have treated you lovingly and taught you loving responses, would you think that should not follow you into adulthood either? Do you think that their love would not shape your feelings about yourself into your adulthood? Do you think that their loving teaching would not shape your feelings and actions toward other people even today?” The folks who come from troubled homes suffer years of learning that they are not loveable, and that they do not know how to love. It takes years to develop an unlovable sense of oneself and others. Likewise, folks who come from loving homes learn that they are loveable, as are others. It also takes years to develop a loveable sense of self and others. And yet as healthy as our self image may be, as much as we believe we are loveable and so are others, we as humans are imperfect, and we can question lovability of ourselves and others--especially when it means accepting those who are so very different, forgiving those who have hurt us so deeply.
Jesus is saying, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” I have chosen you to do so, to bear the fruit of love that is giving beyond typical human capacity. Jesus is offering us the love, the loving home, years of loving nurture, teaching along a faith journey with him through the years of our life’s path. Jesus is offering to fill us with overflowing love, from which we can respond in love and trust toward God, from which we can learn, over time, to respond in love to even those whom we see as the most unlovable.
And we begin with a significant question: how do I see, how do I experience Jesus’ love for me? Do I dare to open my heart to Jesus as my shepherd who loves me with such ferocity that he willingly lays down his life, that he knows me by name, that he knows every intimate part of me? Do I dare open my heart to Jesus as the vine who has chosen me as a branch to abide at home with him in nurturing love and care? Do I dare to open my heart to Jesus to teach and guide me every step of my life’s journey? Do I dare to respond to his voice when all other voices are calling me to listen to so many ways and to believe so many ways in the world? Do I dare to open myself to Jesus as friend who calls me to share faith, beliefs, values, and actions of Godly living toward others?
And then do I dare to nurture this relationship with Jesus in prayer, in study, in conversation with my brothers and sisters of faith, in worship with those who also seek such relationship? Do I dare to live in friendship with Jesus, learning of him, seeking his guidance in everything I do? Do I dare to learn how to love others as Jesus loves me? Do I dare to love others who are the most difficult to love and to forgive? Do I dare to serve with Jesus as friend in mission and ministry for the good of all those to whom God sends me? Do I do so knowing that the journey with Jesus is a lifelong journey of faith, at times difficult, but always with Jesus as my friend by my side?
Jesus chooses us. It is our choice to respond back. Jesus invites us. It is our choice to accept the invitation. But rest assured, Jesus loves us with a love that knows no bounds always and everywhere. And Jesus calls us, his friends. Jesus calls us to be his hands, his feet, his voice, because we may be the only experience that others have of the love of God, the love of God revealed, the love of God poured out.
Come, ask the questions, come ponder the answers, come journey with Jesus, friend, shepherd, vine, lover, teacher. Come, let us journey alongside one another and learn to love one another as Jesus has loved us. Amen.
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