Sermon for Easter 5: "Christ the Vine"

 + 5^th Sunday of Easter – April 28^th, 2024 +

Series B: Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 1:4-11; John 15:1-8

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Here in Washington we’re no strangers to fruit trees and fruit vines. You’ll find apple, pear, and cherry orchards. Vineyards of grapes and hop vines…and patches of raspberries, boysenberries, and plenty of blackberries (whether you like them or not!). And on those once barren looking trees and vines we witness the rhythm and pattern of life God first planted in creation; we see the masterpiece that is spring. Dormant buds give way to leaves, and flowers. Flowers are pollinated and give way to fruit. 

 

And obvious though it is, it’s worth remembering the order of things: fruit hangs on branches; branches are connected to a vine / tree. And the tree is the source of life for the branches and fruit. For fruit trees / vines to grow and bear fruit they need a true Vine, a living Vine, and a vinedresser. 

 

So, Jesus opens up his personal farmer’s almanac and gives us a little agricultural theology; he describes our Christian life in his dying and rising using fruit trees and vines. Jesus truly is as he says he is. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

 

Jesus tells us who he is. Who we are in him. And how we live in him. Jesus is the Vine. You are his branches. As a branch you abide in Christ the Vine. And as his branches, who abide in Christ, you also bear fruit. Bearing fruit is what branches do. But they don’t do this very well on their own. For the life, health, and growth of the tree / vine and the fruit, the gardener, or vinedresser prunes. 

 

This is a familiar image for us. Perhaps you’ve been in your yard, as we have ours these past few weekends, clipping dead raspberry shoots, pruning dead branches on our apple, cherry, and pear trees. Our backyards are a window into Jesus’ words today in John 15. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

 

Bearing fruit is what branches do. As branches of Christ the Vine our branches and fruit do not all look the same. Some produce more fruit, some only a little – don’t bother comparing your fruit to another’s, or another’s to yours – it really is all gift to begin with. And Christ has no fruit quotas; he doesn’t take inventory – only that we bear fruit in him; and when you are joined to Christ the Vine, you are a good tree who produces fruit. And don’t worry that in this life our fruit is not perfect – our sinful flesh always worms its way through everything we do. But in Christ even our fruit is forgiven and covered in his righteousness by the tree of his cross. 

 

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. “Clean” isn’t really the best wording here. Jesus uses the same word here as he did when he said the branches that bear no fruit are pruned. Already you are pruned because of the word. How are we pruned by God the Father, the vinedresser? Because of the Word that I have spoken to you.

 

The Vinedresser did some pruning already this morning when we confessed our sins and received absolution. God’s word – at times – is a pruning shears, pruning the diseased branches, cutting away what is dead in us, casting off our sin. And, God’s word is also our life as branches of Christ the Vine. In the water and word of your baptism he grafted you into his dying and rising on the tree.

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. ⁵ 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. 

 

It’s true, apart from Christ we can do nothing. We have nothing. We are nothing. Apart from the Vine, we the branches whither, dry up, and die. But in Christ you are good branches, joined to the good tree. In Christ you have everything. In Christ you also bear good fruit. In Christ you abide. 

 

This is one of John’s favorite words for what it means to be in Christ. To abide is to remain, dwell with, and live in. To abide is to be with…to be nurtured…to receive, moment by moment life from the tree / the vine…to receive life itself from Christ. 

 

This is who you are in Christ’s dying and rising. I am the vine; you are the branches.

 

The God who said to Adam and Eve, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, also gave himself – gave his very life – on a tree, unto death, so that we would not be cut off from the Vinedresser forever, but grafted into Christ the Vine, given life in Christ the Vine, made to abide in Christ the Vine…now and forever.

 

The God who declares to you, “I am the Vine; you are the branches” gives his very body and his blood -the fruit of the cross, in the fruit of the field and fruit of the vine and abides with you in his body and blood in the bread and wine for you. Here he nurtures. Gives. Forgives. And we receive his life.

 

The God who bore our sins and death on the tree of the cross and is the first-fruits of the resurrection of the dead, is the same God who, by his Spirit, bears fruit in your lives. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

 

This is who you are because this is who Jesus declares you to be, created you, and baptized you to be. 

Jesus is the Vine. You are his branches, who abide in Christ, bear fruit. For you are good branches of and abide in Christ the Vine.

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.