“My Father is the Gardener”

Meditation on John 15:1-17

March 25, 2015

     “I am the true vine,” said Jesus, “and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t bear fruit, so that it can bear more fruit. You are already clean. That’s because of the word that I’ve spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you! The bran can’t bear fruit by itself, but only if it remains in the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. People who remain in me and I in them are the one who bear plenty of fruit. Without me, you see, you can’t do anything. If people do not remain in me, they are thrown out, like a branch, and they wither. People collect the branches and put them in the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will happen for you. My father is glorified in this: that you bear plenty of fruit and so become my disciples.

       As the Father loved me,” Jesus continued, “so I loved you. Remain in my love, just as I have kept my father’s command, and remain in his love. I’ve said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and so that your joy may be full. This is my command: love one another, in the same way that I loved you. No one has a love greater than this, to lay down your life for your friends. You are my friends, if you do what I tell you. I’m not calling you ‘servants’ any longer; servants don’t know what their master is doing. But I’ve called you ‘friends’ because I’ve let you know everything I heard from my father. You didn’t choose me. I chose you, and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that would last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command to you: love one another.”

***

      I was working on bulletins for this week, when my house phone rang yesterday. The connection was poor, so I struggled to hear every word the young lady was saying. Also, she was speaking rapidly as if she were afraid I might hang up. And it’s true that most late afternoon phone calls we receive on the house phone are usually sales calls, charities seeking donations, or the dreaded recorded messages, “This is Bridget from Cardholder services,” and “Attention Seniors!”

      But as soon as I heard her voice, I knew this call was important and that she was calling for help. Living next door to the church, we have grown accustomed to calls and surprise visits from the community. And lately, for some reason, the calls and visits from people in need have increased. All of them have that same desperate tone in their voice as the young lady who called yesterday. By the time people are calling area churches for help, they have exhausted all their usual options for assistance. They feel as if they are at the end of their rope. They feel ashamed for asking for help from strangers; they feel even worse when the strangers say no. Many feel as this young caller did that she did not want to bother me; she was apologetic for her situation. She has a job, and she’s studying to get her G.E.D. She has a home and some family in the area. She usually pays all her bills. But she couldn’t pay her utility bill for the last few months, and now she had received a cut-off notice. Very soon, she would have no heat, light, or electricity. Essentially, she and her two small children would not be able to live in her home. Her story tumbled out in a rush, as if she could not hold it in one moment longer.

   After taking her name, address, and phone number, I said I would call her after I made some calls and then stop by her house when we had determined how we could help her. We wouldn’t be able to pay her entire utility bill, I said.

    She was grateful for any help, she said. But then she didn’t hang up. She wanted to talk some more. She had had a bad day. A bad week. She wasn’t sleeping; she wasn’t eating. All she could think about was this money she didn’t have and wonder what she could possibly do.

    I asked, “Where are you now?” “A few miles away,” she said. She paused. “Can I stop by?” “Of course,” I said.

    She needed money--and it was that need that motivated her to call the church. But what she really needed was a friend. A Christian friend who would invite her in. Listen and encourage her and pray for her. She needed to know that God hadn’t forgotten her. He still loved her. And everything was going to be OK. That though she had this bill she didn’t know how she could pay, God would provide for her family’s needs, perhaps another way.

      Brothers and sisters, I had a different scripture picked out for tonight and a different sermon before I decided that it wasn’t the message I needed to share. I feel that God wanted me to share John 15 and talk about our need for one another--and for the Lord and the promise of abundant and eternal life with Him. I also want to say thank you to all you faithful followers of Christ, who took the time to come each Wednesday night. I pray you were blessed with God’s peace and joy! Throughout these midweek Lenten services, we have grown together as we drew nearer to the Lord, pilgrims walking a journey of faith. I have felt God’s loving, comforting presence with us as we studied His Word, sung God’s praises, prayed for one another and sought to build one another up. Coming “to the Garden” each week, seeking and worshiping the Lord, and listening for His voice, we have done what God wants us to do.

       Jesus says in John 15, “Remain in me and I will remain in you! People who remain in me and I in them are the ones who bear plenty of fruit! Without me, you see, you can’t do anything!”

       And yet some Christians live lives never wanting help from anyone! They never want to need anything or anybody. Some people really struggle with accepting help and love from others! Some may look down upon people who come to the church, seeking help from the people of God. And yet caring for people in need, caring for strangers, is exactly what God calls the Church to do! Some take so much pride in being “self sufficient” that they don’t realize self-sufficiency is an illusion! No matter how much money or property we have, we still need one another; we will always need the Lord.

      God created human beings to be in relationship with Him and one another. Isn’t that what we learned in Genesis in the Garden? God planted a garden so that the human beings would have a beautiful place to live with God. But the Garden was not just a home for people. This was a home, a paradise, truly, for all creatures that creep, crawl, walk and fly to live together in harmony with the Lord.

     In today’s reading in John 15, God is called, “The Gardener.” Some translations say, “The Farmer.” “I am the true vine,” Jesus says, “and my father is The Gardener.” What does the Gardener do? He prunes the branches that don’t bear fruit. Who are the branches? We are! What happens to branches that are cut off or fall off the vine? They wither and die. People pick up the branches and toss them into the fire.

    Hear the promise in our gospel reading today. If we remain connected to Christ the Vine, we will live abundantly and joyfully with the Vine forever. That connection is made by the Holy Spirit and through faith, worship, service in Christ’s name, and meditating on God’s Word. Branches that remain on a living vine live on and on. We will never be separated from Him! The only way, though, that branches will keep bearing fruit is if they submit to the Gardener’s pruning. The Lord, who promises to complete a good work in us, will cut away whatever keeps us from bearing “plenty of fruit.” Sometimes we might not be happy as the Lord prunes us, reshaping and reforming our character and renewing our minds. When God prunes us, the Lord remove things in our life that get in the way of God’s purposes for us.  We might rather hold onto these things, rather than let them go. We have to trust that God knows best.

     What does the Lord mean by “bearing fruit”? Beginning at verse 9, we move from the gardening imagery, which Christ uses to explain our intimate relationship with him, God, and one another. Jesus hammers his point home. “As the father loved me,” he says, “so I loved you. Remain in my love …And as you remain connected with me in love, love one another.” Then he calls us his friends and speaks of his own death on the cross--for us! “No one has a love greater than this, to lay down your life for your friends.” He tells us that if we want to remain his friends, then we will do what he tells us to do. Then he says, go and bear fruit! Love one another! The fruit we bear, when we remain in the Vine and are pruned by the Gardener, is love!

     But we can’t love alone. We need other people to love and to love us, if we choose to receive their love. And we need the Lord. Jesus says, “Without me, you see, you can’t do anything!”

Let us pray.

Holy One, our gracious Gardener in Heaven, we give you thanks and praise for supplying all our needs in Jesus Christ, the one who died in our place, for our sakes, that we might live with you forever and be forgiven for all our sins. Thank you for calling us your friends and loving us, even when we have been prideful, thinking sometimes that we don’t need anything from anyone, that maybe we don’t really need you! Thank you for your Word to us tonight that exposes this lie. We know the truth that without you, we can’t do anything! We cannot bear any fruit. We cannot love as you have loved us. We surrender ourselves to our Gracious Gardener, who knows what is best and prunes us so that we will keep on bearing fruit. Help us to remain always in you, in good relationship with you. Help us also to be kind to one another, especially people who are in need, and to remain in loving relationship with one another, connected by faith and the Word, worship, prayer, and service. Through Christ our Lord and Friend we pray. Amen.