Being Pruned

John 15: 1-8 (The Message)

“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. 

He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. 

You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. 

“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. 

“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. 

Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. 

But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. 

This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. 

For the past ten years or so, this has been my passage.

This passage from the Gospel of John that says I am the vine, you are the branches, has spoken to me so directly and clearly that it really took hold of me and would not let me go.

I have told a few of you that this ring I now wear all the time is one I found a few years ago, searching specifically for a ring that was a visual representation of this passage –

I wanted something that represented vinelike branches and fruit.

When I was at training a week ago for Transitional Ministry, we had worship every morning and evening. One morning the scripture reader spoke these words to us, and she used The Message translation, which we have heard again here today. I switched from our usual NRSV reading to The Message today because when I heard it last week, it spoke familiar words to me in a new way, and I wanted you to be able to hear them anew as well.

There are various ways that you might imagine this passage being important to me. Perhaps it is the reminder that we are always connected to Jesus, like branches on a vine. Or perhaps that the way we can bear good fruit is by abiding or remaining connected to Jesus. Or the opposite of that, that being separated from Jesus, we can produce nothing of lasting value. Or maybe you might think that it’s the part that says that if you remain connected to Jesus, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.

But it’s not any of those things that drew me to this passage.

It’s not that I don’t find the rest of it meaningful, because I do. But this passage has meant so much for me these past ten years for one primary reason: because so many times I have seen that the experiences of my life have felt a lot like being pruned.

I’ve gotten to where I can look back over my past ten years and realize that they can be explained fairly quickly, something like this:

2005 First child went away to college.

2006 Major surgery.

2007 Cat died.

2008 Dog died.

2009 Began seminary.

2010 Mom died.

2011 Husband left.

2012 Retired after 30 year career in engineering management.

2013 Graduated seminary.

2014 Received first call to New Life Presbyterian Church; Daughter married.

2015 Son moved out.

And what most of that has felt like to me, is being pruned. Not just because so many of these things sound like losses, although many of them are. But more because when I look back, I can see now how this cutting away here and there of the things that were constants in my life up to that point, actually made way or cleared the path for me to become the person I am today, the pastor I am today.

This pruning enabled me to bear fruit in a new way, to bear more fruit than I could before, more than I could imagine, in a way I could never foresee.

Now do I think God made these things happen intentionally to change my life? You know, I know that clearly God is able. But from what I understand of the character of God, through the life of Jesus Christ, I believe God wants good for us.

I don’t believe God chooses to have loved ones die at certain moments in their lives or our lives, and God doesn’t cause marriages to end, or create earthquakes that kill people, like the one in Nepal. I believe that when things like these happen, that God is the first to grieve along with us when we grieve.

But somehow, in that mysterious way that God works, God works the events of our lives for good.

And so when I was praying for a way to make all the pieces of my life somehow fit together with my emerging call to ministry, God somehow made all the events and experiences in my life work together for good, to clear the path for me to follow God’s new call on my life,and to bring me here in just the right season, when I could combine my gifts with your gifts, to help you to move forward.

And so, yes, I have been pruned.

And I have felt it – it hurt.

But that pruning has allowed me and prepared me to bear more good fruit for the vinekeeper, the farmer, the Lord God.

You all have been pruned, too. In the past four years, two former churches have ceased to exist. There is grief in that letting go. You have moved over the past four years from two separate congregations, to two yoked congregations, together yet worshipping separately, to one merged congregation. One step at a time. And each step involved pruning.

And now the work that lies ahead is about moving from a merged congregation to a new congregation, confident in your gifts, understanding the new mission and ministry to which God is calling you, and ready and equipped to pursue it.

Behold, God is making all things new, and here in this congregation, it involves abiding in Christ, just as Christ abides in you – and it involves being pruned, trimming things away so that you can produce new fruit, together, as a new community.

Take a look at this bunch of grapes.

Each grape is individual, and each grape is joined together with all the other grapes in a bunch. And the bunch of grapes grows on a branch, and the branch is connected to the vine. Every grape tastes good and is refreshing on its own – and taking all the grapes together produces juice, and wine.

And as we will take communion later in the service, we can remember that we are all the body of Christ, and that we work together, serving in unique ways, along with all other churches.

But for all of us to produce good fruit, we will be pruned –

we can’t avoid that. Unpruned plants and bushes and trees become wild, and the branches are unproductive. But as long as we remain in Christ, we abide in Christ, we stay organically connected to Christ, relying on Christ for everything in our lives, trusting in Christ, accepting the pruning that comes along and seeking understanding for how it will work for good in our lives, then Christ will abide in us as well, and we will live our lives as Christ’s disciples, bearing much fruit for God’s will to be done.

May it be so for us all, now and always.