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The Fifth Sunday Of Easter
O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Fifth Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): John 15:1-8
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 15:1-8
✛
Vines and Brambles
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In my last home we had a garden – it had very rich Devonshire soil and, one day, my wife bought me a grape vine. I decided to put it next to the house and dug up some of the paving slabs that had been there at least 100 years in order to plant it. Clearly, it found even richer soil beneath, for it truly became a ‘Day of the Triffids’ kind of vine and within four years had not only started to engulf the house but seemed set on devouring the property next door as well. It really was quite unruly – it grew up the roof, through the gutters, over the wall and even climbed a 40 foot ancient Holly Tree.
Well, something had to be done so I decided to become the vine-dresser and take it in hand. Probably at the very wrong time of year, but while it was still fairly dormant and with the buds just beginning the swell, I decided to take it by surprise and my son and I, armed with two ladders, went in for the prune of the century. It took almost a whole day – and by the end of it we had enough debris to fill a small truck. Where had it come from? This was truly the mother of all vines. But, as you probably will have guessed already – it loved its prune…and it then produced double the number of buds as it sent out new and even more vigorous tendrils to try and take over the world once again.
My life is sometimes like that vine – no, I don’t mean I want to take over the world – but it sometimes seems to be out of control. I guess, like many of you, there are so many directions that I seem to be growing in and it can sometimes feel too much; and yet, this natural urge to fill my already full and busy life leads to yet more un-checked growth. But pruning is hard and who will do it for me? Will the right branches be cut off? Do I really want to be pruned at all? Wouldn’t I much rather follow my natural instincts to expand?
My dear friends, all of us in our spiritual journeys are faced by these hard questions. Jesus speaks of the vine needing to be pruned and cared for. So what must I deny in myself? What must I change? What must I have less of in order to grow more effectively? What must I control in order to be more like Jesus Christ? Which direction does Jesus want me to take in my life?
Here is a great mystery about our vocation as Christians– for unless we are part of the vine, deeply grafted into the root-stock of Jesus Christ, then we cannot grow to full maturity. But, if we are part of the vine then we must be pruned in order to bear more fruit.
Sometimes I feel more like a wild bramble than part of the vine and, sometimes, I wonder if Jesus can love the wild bramble in me as much as the grape vine that I struggle to be. The brambles, that also used to grow in my old garden, were always in the most awkward of places to reach and, no matter how hard I tried to combat them, they kept appearing and their thorns seemed ever more sharp.
Well, maybe our lives are a mixture of the two – the vine that is vigorous but whose pruning will help it grow still further and the wild bramble that is deeply rooted in the soil of the world and whose thorns make us cry and which is difficult to train.
Jesus says that we are to be pruned in order to bear fruit and, thus, remain his disciples. Our gospel reading stops there but next week we will hear what this fruit is to be and its cost. For Jesus immediately says “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”
Love.
This is the key to our growth and the reason why we need to be pruned, trained and formed. Love is at the heart of our relationship with God and each other. Love is what makes Saint Thomas Church a vigorous part of the True Vine. As we heard in the beautiful reading from the 1st epistle of St John, “We love him, because he first loved us”. This love is perfected in the example of Jesus Christ who wants our lives to be more like his for, as we also heard, “perfect love casteth out fear.”
It will affect our lives in dramatic ways – all that we do will be done with love so that we can be more like Jesus Christ.
When the scribe asked Jesus what he thought was the greatest commandment, Jesus summed up the Law in a very simple way, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Love of God; love of neighbour; this is the fruit that Jesus wants to grow in each one of us and it will be the true sign of our discipleship.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked what heaven was like. She said this: “I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?”
