The God We Can Know: I am the True Vine

This message was done as part of Califon UMC's "The God We Can Know" worship series.

Fifth Sunday in Lent

The God We Can Know Worship Series

I am the True Vine 

March 13, 2016

John 15:1-8

Let us join our hearts together; Life giving God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather together one more time, to lift up your name in word and song. God I thank you for this opportunity to join with this community who have covenanted to learn more about you in this season. Holy One, let the words be yours not mine. May they be pleasing to you, may they help to transform your world for majestic things! Be with us.  Amen

It’s amazing that today we are one week away from the beginning of Holy Week. That after the sacrifices we have made and the struggles we have had as individuals and as community during this season we can see the finish line. Every year it seems that despite my hopes and attempts this Lenten season seems to fly by. Yet every year I am also amazed at unexpected revelations from God, deeper understandings I have of myself on this faith journey, and the power and awesomeness of this man named Jesus.

So when Pastor Kyle told me you were doing a worship series on the “God We Can Know”  and focusing on the “I am” statements of Jesus, I got excited! It seems that every time I participate in a study of these statements I am blown away by the new things God shows and does among God's people. And God is something different to each of us. Some of us know God to be a healer, or a protector, or a provider. Some know God through the love of a parent, or a teacher, or a friend. Yet in each of these varied experiences and understandings the God we serve is the same, the God we serve is many faceted because we are not cookie cutter people. 

The God I know is one of great love, great grace, great power, great hope, abundant welcome. The God I know loves me and calls me beloved. The God I know is forgiving, and understanding. A God of comfort, a God of peace. And my understanding of God, and how I got to that place is why today's Gospel passage resonates so fully within me.

I am a community organizer at heart who believes in radical hospitality. My heart beats for people, the ups and downs of the community I am a part of impacts my spirit, I aim to find creative ways for unity and conversation to occur over everyday and hard topics. I believe we need to aim to be a healthy church- on the local level, the little c. and as an institution, the big C. Good health is evident through our worship, our expressions of faith in the world are seen through outreach, our growth is not solely evident through numbers but through the ability to create new programs and try out new creative worship. And this same hope for good health, to truly be a beloved community,  is what we find in our passage from John. 

John demonstrates throughout his gospel that Jesus was unlike any man who has ever lived. John spends a majority of his book examining the last 24 hours before Jesus’ death. This narrative we see at the beginning of the 15th chapter is part of  4 chapters in John  known as the Farewell Discourse; calculated words from Jesus to prepare, calm, instruct and strengthen the disciples for life after his death. As modern day readers we have the privilege of knowing how the story plays out from a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, a betrayal from one of the twelve in Gethsemane, darkness at Golgotha, and resurrection in the garden. The disciples did not. 

Jesus knew that when he left his friends would feel alone, and scared, and even want to give up on this amazing ministry they had done together. So in these verses Jesus reminds them of the amazing connection they have.

I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. MSG v5

I love this version from the Message translation because it reminds us that our connection is intimate. It is about knowing in our heart of hearts who God is. 

“I am the true vine”

The vine isn't a new metaphor for people of faith. In the Old Testament, God’s vine was Israel. Even though God tended the vine, trimmed it, and cut off the branches that bore nothing, the vine bore no fruit.  God grieved for this vine, the people Israel,  and finally left it unprotected after everything that was done bore no fruit. Their privilege was forfeited. As people of faith our blessing and relationship with God is no longer connected to the old vine, one of covenantal relationship with Israel. Abundance comes through our connection with the new vine,  understanding who Jesus was and is.

A vine is a unique thing in a garden. Vines have a tendency to get unruly and to go all over, and if you aren't careful they can impede the growth of another plant. Yet you can prune the branches to your hearts content. Sometimes the branches coming from the vine are healthy and sometimes they are dead. The dead ones must go because they add unnecessary weight and prevent new branches from forming. The healthy branches must be pruned as well. While they may produce fruit, it may not be the best fruit. When you take the time to prune, shape, and guide the direction of its growth you can be amazed at the increase of the harvest.

If Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, God is the vine grower. God is the one doing the pruning. God knows our potential as people of faith and tries to coax our best our of us. Sometimes pruning is removing a bad habit or other distraction. But sometimes pruning is more painful because our branch has become tightly intertwined. Painful pruning means that we face truths we normally try to avoid. These moments of pain make us truly evaluate things and people in our lives. These moments make the fruit, the revelations, the new attitudes that emerge , greater than they were before. We become empowered by the strength of the vine, and the care of our pruning to give more. When we are pruned regularly we begin to look more like Jesus in our day to day. When we are pruned regularly we produce better fruit. 

When I am pruned regularly by God I am a better friend, a better coworker, a better daughter, a better sister, a better wife. When I let God show me the things that have to go the result is more beautiful than I can imagine. 

The fruit, my best self, comes when I stay close to God, through Jesus, when I abide in Christ. Beloved we do not have to work to produce the fruit. When we aim to welcome society's outcast like Jesus did we are producing fruit. When we make space for new groups that enter our community, showing radical hospitality, we are producing fruit. When we sit with a friend who is experiencing loss, providing a gift of presence, we are producing fruit. 

Our fruit can cause a chain reaction in the world. When we aim to know the true vine, aim to know God, we learn to love, be gentle, be cheerful, be patient, and help others. THESE are the fruits we produce and give to others. As we remain connected to Jesus through the study of God's word, the gathering in communal body, praying for guidance, we do a lot of good things and inspire others to as well.

Beloved today is the first day of the rest of your life. Today we take the knowledge and the promises of the past 4 weeks. Today we claim to know God as the great “I AM”, as the Bread of Life, as the Light of the World, as the Good Shepherd, and as the True Vine. And be claiming this we make a conscious choice to invite Jesus into our lives daily through the rest of this season and beyond. We make a conscious choice to find strength in the promises of God, that God will do what has been said throughout time.  We make a conscious choice to claim that we each have potential, greater potential than we even realize. We make a conscious choice to be people of relationship, connected to the true vine and connected to one another, to create a bountiful harvest in this world.

It's more than a handshake

As I sat in a meeting at church the other evening we began discussing the roles of volunteers for an upcoming event. I suggested to the group that we should try and do immediate followup after they expressed interest, to say "thank you" for wanting to be involved. And as I left that meeting I began to think about how we tend to abuse the volunteers in our churches.

Lets be real church volunteers are the main reason many churches survive and thrive. The time and dedication they give,Volunteer burnout is a real thing. Type those two words into google and you will find articles, blog posts, and even "open letters" to leaders. Many people will always say "yes" and others truly have a heart to volunteer but as leaders we sometimes fail to put systems in place to make volunteering efficient, to be clear of our expectations, and to honor the fact that the Church (as institution) should not be an individuals entire life.

A friend of mine once said "as the church we are called to be stewards of peoples finances and their time." When we as the beloved community forgot to practice radical hospitality we run the risk of pushing people far, far away, we run the risk of creating resentment in dedicated people, we run the risk of forgetting to nurture the gifts and graces of the individual to fulfill an end goal.

"“Radical hospitality” requires intentional invitation and welcome. It goes beyond greeters at the door and handshakes during worship to welcome every person as an honored guest. Certainly, being a “friendly” church is good. But being in ministry in a confused and hurting world calls for “radical hospitality,” which breathes our core value: people are important to God and to this church."¹ 

We create a disservice when our welcoming efforts are solely focused on visitors. To be truly hospitable is to get to know the people you are welcoming. When my best friend comes to visit I know she gets cold easily so I make sure to leave her extra blankets, I anticipate a need because I know her. When I  was growing up we had three different individuals at church who used the large print bulletin and hymnal. All of the ushers were trained to have those ready for these individuals, as well as pay attention during the service to anyone else struggling to read the print in the bulletin or hymnal so they could try and swap it out for the large print version. Their training allowed for them to meet the need of an individual and to be on the lookout for ways to be inclusive to those who walked in Sunday morning.

Granted no system is perfect and sometime people slip through the cracks, yet the culture of the community shifted to provide moments of welcome in other aspects, to pay attention. If you come to my home church during our biannual Cantatas you will see a row of singers sitting in front of those on the risers. They want to be a part of this awesome ministry but can't stand for extended periods. By finding ways to accommodate we say to them "we want you here" and we say to those who see them minister "truly anyone is welcome".

So what does radical hospitality look like for volunteers in the church? It means that we get to know these individuals personally. It means that we attempt to use people for their gifts and graces, not because they are a warm body who said yes.

I think we need to be able to answer the following as we look to utilizing volunteers:

1. Are you prepared: Have those in charge been trained and empowered to be transformational leaders not transactional leaders?
2. Are you clear: Are the tasks and expectations for their completion clearly stated to the volunteers?
3. Are you strategic: Has space been created so varying needs can be met? (i.e. childcare for parents, low impact tasks for those with mobility issues, dietary restrictions considered for those with health and medical issues)
4. Are you intentional: Is their a followup structure in place for post volunteering? (i.e. thank you notes, certificate, appreciation dinner)

There are other questions, I dont deny it, but using these as a general framework allows us to actively engage people in church life and church work. It allows us to be places of radical hospitality. It allows are interactions to be more that a handshake during the passing of the peace.

1 http://www.umcom.org/learn/is-it-time-to-move-from-friendly-to-radical-hospitality^↩