Living on the Vine

John 15: 1-8

This Gospel reading is one of those perfect metaphors that Jesus sometimes used. It's a simple image, isn't it? He is the vine. We are the branches. The simple instruction is that in order to be fruitful as people, we need to remain connected to him.

But, there's a warning in this metaphor too. "No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine" (Vs 4). "Apart from me you can do nothing" (Vs 5). "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned" (Vs 6). Is this a warning about the fires of hell? Perhaps it is. But we must always be careful of pressing metaphors too far. What Jesus is certainly saying is that unless we remain 'in him', then we will wither and die. Spiritually, of course.

So, very simply, Jesus gives us an invitation. It's an invitation to remain connected to him, drawing from his life-force in the same way that individual branches draw life from the main stem of the vine. It's an invitation to a life that is greater than a single life - greater than a life that you or I could live on our own. Instead, it's a life which is larger, more fruitful, more expanded - because it is a life lived with Jesus at the core, and with his life-force flowing through us.

In another chapter of John's Gospel, chapter 10, Jesus says this about his followers: "I have come that they may have life to the full" (John 10:10). Jesus was very much about life. He wanted his followers to understand that being connected with him, and to him, was not a burden in any way. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 11, he says this: "Come to me, all who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). Jesus wants his followers to know that by drawing on him, by connecting to him, by giving him our problems and our hang-ups and our burdens...that he has the capacity to not only deal with the problems, but to give us 'life to the full'.

Which is all wonderful stuff. But I wonder if there are some of us who are thinking 'that's all very well...but I don't feel very connected to Jesus'. If that's you, if you are sitting there thinking 'I get the theory, but it doesn't mean anything to me personally...I can't seem to make the connection', then let me tell you something. You are not on your own. It's a common complaint. Let me tell you, as a Pastor, there are an awful lot of people out there who walk around with a big happy Christian smile on their face, talking about having a personal relationship with Jesus, who secretly are struggling, struggling, just like me and you, to actually make the theory a reality. And, if you will let me, I'd like to tell you why I think that is...

Let me ask you to think for a moment. Let's do a little word-association. If I say the word "God" to you - what image comes to your mind? For some people, it's an image of an old man, up in the clouds - looking down on us. It's the sort of image that Da Vinci painted in the Sistine Chapel - the God with the long white beard. For others, God is a sort of bigger version of their Father - a loving heavenly version of their earthly Dad. For others, he's the God on the Mountain - the God of Moses, who carves out commandments in stone, and hands them down for us to follow or ignore. For others, God is a sort of Santa Claus figure - someone who dishes out presents to good people, and who punishes the bad. Let me tell you - none of these images of God gets even close!

You see, I think, for most people, their God is too small. It's probably the church's fault. We have probably been guilty of reducing God to a sort of 'heavenly headmaster' - ready to give out prizes at the end of term, or to expell the naughty child from the school. As a church throughout the ages we have spent rather too much time begging for mercy, and asking for forgiveness, and not nearly enough time embracing the Life of the Vine.

God is SO MUCH MORE than any kind of Big Daddy in the sky. God is the source of all life. He is the energy that gives the universe motion. He is the breath that gives us life, the light that shines inside our eyes. He is the feeling, deep inside, the spark that burns to form a flame. He is the rising of the sun, the dawn of every brand new day. He is living rock, the joy in every heart. He is the light of the nations; the author of all life.

I'm going to ask you to try something now - a little meditation. While you stay seated, where you are, let me invite you to close your eyes. Now, bring your thoughts inward for a moment. Become aware of your body. Become aware of your breath, breathing in and out, in and out. Take a deep breath, hold it for a moment...and then exhale....and as you do, imagine the breath of everyone here, intermingling, mixing together, flowing together with each other.

Now, imagine the doors of this building opening wide...as they will do at the end of this service. Your breath, mingled with everyone else's, now passes out into the street. Your breath, and everyone else's passes into North End. It is picked up by others. For a moment, they share the same oxygen molecules that you had within you, but which were not burned up. For a moment, they share your life.

God's a little bit like that. (You can open your eyes now). The wonderful story of Genesis paints a picture of God breathing his life into the nostrils of Adam. Let's hear the wonder of those words again: "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being". (Gen 2:7) God shares his life with us. he gives us his life. He is our life. He is the force which sustains us. We are connected to him, whether we like it or not just as we are connected, physically, to this world.

I wonder, have you ever pondered your connection to the planet? Just think, again, for a moment. Think how dependent each of us is to the planet on which we live. The molecules and atoms of the planet pass in and out of us all the time, every day. With every breath we take, molecules flow in and out...sustaining us. With every morsel of food we eat, molecules flow through us, sustaining us. We are utterly, utterly, dependent on the world. The world is us. And we are the world. If we left the earth, and stepped out of our spaceship into space, we would die instantly. We need everything that the earth can give us, just to stay alive. Whether we like it or not.

God is a bit like that. God undergirds us, and over-hangs us. He is at our core, and at our edges. God is in all things, and is yet greater than all things - whether we like it or not. Perhaps that is what Jesus was pointing to in John 10:34, when he quoted Psalm 82, verse 6: "you are gods". In so far as God who created us remains part of us, at the core of us, there is sense in which we are, in fact, God. God is so much intertwined and intermingled with us - our physical and spiritual selves - that there is only one things left for us to do...

Either we can embrace the Oneness of God, and allow ourselves to be caught up in the things of God, and the life of God. Or we can stubbornly delude ourselves that we are little independent beings, capable of living life on our own.

Because that's the great delusion. That's the root of all human misery - to somehow delude ourselves that we are autonomous, that we are individuals, whose behaviour and choices don't matter. And that our behaviour and choices don't have an impact on the world, or the people, around us.

The message of the Gospel is clear: if we want to live life to the full, if we want our lives are to have meaning and purpose, if we want our lives to be filled up with the beauty, and the majesty and the power of God, then we need to draw from the source. We need to open our eyes to the reality of God all around us. We need, I suggest, to stop visualising God as some kind of bigger version of ourselves, or our father - some kind of heavenly headmaster. Instead, we are invited to become alert to the God who is in us, and with us, and through us, and over us, and under us, and around us. We need, I suggest, to look for the signs of God, among the things of God. We need to embrace the beauty of God, wherever we find it...in the smile of a baby, or the beauty of a sunrise, or friendly word to a stranger. We need to see ourselves as beautiful human beings, creations of God, perhaps even parts of God, certainly filled with God - and learn to discover how to embrace the God who is within us all. Love, generosity, self-sacrifice...all these things increase our sense of who we are in God, as branches of the Vine. Love, generosity, self-sacrifice are the fruits of the Vine. But we need to understand that any act of cruelty, any act of spite, any act of self-centered individualism works to dimmish us - and begins the process of killing our branch of the Vine.

Let's conclude, having thought these thoughts, by listening to Jesus' words, once again (from verse 5): "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If someone remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit; [but] apart from me, you can do nothing."

Amen?