THE WORD 4 ev 1

Today’s reading is John 15 (click here for link)

In this reading, John uses another image, that of a vine and its branches, to help–and challenge–that early community, and ours today, to claim our close relationship with Jesus. In Jesus' time, people would have been familiar with the vine metaphor; it appears in the Hebrew Scriptures several times to describe Israel. But how many modern day readers know how to grow grapes? I like to garden, but I have never grown grapes domestically. However, I do remember climbing up and collecting the wild mustang grapes that grew wild around my childhood home. The huge vines would completely cover the trees, so closely intertwined that you could hardly see the sky through them. This year I am growing pumpkins and squash which themselves have almost completely taken over the back yard with their tangled vines.

But even if contemporary Christians have never tended a vineyard or even if they don’t like to garden, most of us have seen a tangled mess of vines at one time or another. Looking closely, we see the many entwined branches, winding their way around one another in intricate patterns of tight curls that make it impossible to tell where one branch starts or another one ends. This is not just intricate; it's intimate, and the vine shares with its branches the nutrients that sustain it, the life force of the whole plant. Even closer than the shepherd there on the hillside, this vine is one with tangled branches.

Jesus said, “I am the vine you are the branches, if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” A healthy vine is one with tangled branches.
Pastor Aaron