Fruitful Branches

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God, our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this evening is the Gospel lesson. Jesus says: "I am the True Vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither, can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears, much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so as to prove to be my disciples."

I like this time of year. I like May. Why do I like May? Well, because you can really start putting stuff in your garden.

Some, you have to wait till after Memorial Day, but like this year Memorial Day is like the last day of the month, I think. But the other reason I like May is it doesn't have an R in it, and so that means rhubarb time. Rhubarb time. And I always knew spring was coming, cuz my grandparents, they had a rhubarb plant. And I could see the thing come up. And the wonderful thing about rhubarb is the more you pick it, the more, it grows, And then one year, my grandparents, they said they're going to move the rhubarb patch. It was never the same again, never the same again. So I guess the saying "Bloom where you're planted" is really quite true. That rhubarb did not bloom elsewhere. It had to be in that spot.

My grandparents had a rather large garden. In fact, about a quarter-acre's worth of a garden. And guess who got the privilege of weeding it? Even pulling out two rows of corn didn't prevent me from having to weed it. I just learned that this is what quackgrass looks like, and this is what corn looks like. Cuz Grandma was not pleased to come out and see that I cleaned out two rows of corn. I thought I was just pulling quackgrass. Didn't occur to me that boy, those weeds are sure in a nice thin row.

And Grandma grew up in the Depression, so everything had value. You didn't get rid of anything. And Grandma sowed her garden seed rather heavily, rather heavily. One time I was out, I was thinning the carrots. And she goes, "What are you doing out there?" I said, "I'm thinning the carrots so we get bigger carrots." She didn't care how big the carrots were. It was the quantity of carrots that mattered to her. And I guess having grown up in the Depression, I guess I could understand that, that's where she would be coming from. Who cares how big they are? If there aren't enough to go through the season, it wasn't worth it. Same with the onions, cabbage, tomatoes. And if you plant 40 tomatoes - I mean tomato plants - given the yield from each plant. They usually come in late July, early August. Convenient for them to go visit my uncle in Maine. So guess who had the privilege of playing with tomatoes? They made really good granades to throw into the field. Not at anybody else. Just out in the field.

And she also had raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. And if you know anything about berries, particularly raspberries, blackberries, they're a vine. And usually in the spring, you go in and you cut off the dead canes, so that the new canes will come forth. Grandma had no problem with that. Until the raspberry bed was increased. Probably like from here to about there, where that pew is where there isn't a pew in front of it. About that. That area was the berry patch. Raspberries have prickers. Blackberries have bigger prickers. And you don't like going through a massive pricker canes to get all prickered up to pick the berries. And the strawberries! I mean, my other grandparents also had strawberries, and they had tilled nice rows between the strawberries, so it was easy to pick them. Grandma had no vision of that whatsoever, so you had this big mat of strawberries that you had to go all through and pick.

And I said, "You know, I think we'd get more strawberries and bigger strawberries if we tilled between the old plants and let the new runners establish themselves for next year."

I never said it, but I was beginning to think that my grandmother, who had grown up on a farm, was a little dense. I mean, all the books said that was how you were supposed to raise strawberries. But again, quantity was everything. I would have had more berries. She wanted more plants, because of her thinking, more plants, equals more berries, not less plant equals more berries. And you might say, "Well, Pastor why you talking about berries and all the stuff you're kind of making us hungry." That's kind of terrible, because berries aren't even in season yet. And we do have an R in April, so don't eat any rhubarb yet. But the point is, is the whole purpose of raising a garden, having berries, or even having a fruit orchard, is you want it to produce. You want it to produce vegetables, fruit. And sometimes, in order to get really good fruit, you go out and you have to prune. You have to prune. Now, there's two ways to prune. There's the - I'll say unskilled way - and you just go in and you hack stuff off. With your scissors or your clippers or whatever. You just cut, cut, cut, not making any educated guess or choice as to where the proper cut should be.

But if you're skilled at vine-dressing, you know where it is that you want to put the cut so that you get a new shoot that comes out. You don't want to cut off the growth shoot, because then that branch isn't going to go anywhere. And we experienced that a couple years ago. Remember that really, really bitterly, bitterly terribly cold, winter back 2014-2015, and it killed off the buds over at the Door County, so we had to go a year without cherries and without apples over there? That growth bud is important for the growth to continue. And knowing where to clip so that more fruit would be born. Jesus says, "My Father is the vinedresser, and everyone who is in me and who bears fruit," What does He say? is going to happen. He says "The Father's going to prune you." So as God's people, we ought to expect that we are going to get pruned. That's just a given.

The other given is that Jesus says, "You're already clean because of my word spoken to you." Already clean. We're already redeemed. We're already saved. We're already part of the vineyard. Because we believe that word that Jesus has spoken to us, and we've been able to believe it through the Holy Spirit at work in us. So Jesus says "You're aready a good plant." As opposed to, you know, a diseased plant. I know all you gardeners, you go to whoever your greenhouse is, and you really scrutinize those plants before you buy them, don't you? You don't want any with wilty leaves. You don't want any with, like real, I'll say a wimpy roots hanging out of the bottom of the pot. You want a nice, firm plant. And you don't want any that's got scab or anything else. Jesus says you're already clean, you're healthy plants because of the word that I spoken to you. So, we can take a sigh of relief. Ahh. We're clean. We're healthy in Christ. Our sin has been covered, taken away. We're good, healthy, strong plants, able to bear fruit. And Jesus says, so every tree that bears fruit, what is my Father do> He goes and he prunes it so that it will bear more fruit.

My other grandparents that have the strawberries with the rows between, they also had grapevines. And they'd be out, Grandma would be out snipping the grapevine so that there'd be lots of grapes in the fall. Really good. Better than Welch's grape juice. But the point was to get good, sweet fruit.

That was the purpose. The purpose of planting a tomato, whether you're a beefsteak kind of person or a cherry tomato kind of person, is to have really good tomatoes. Either for your bacon, lettuce, and tomato, sandwich, or your salad. And you're saying, "Now, Pastor. Now knock it off. We're really getting hungry now, all this food reference." But if you didn't want all that stuff, you wouldn't go to the trouble of planting a garden, would you?

You want a harvest. And you want a good harvest. Because, maybe that's what you rely on for the fall-winter. Whether you freeze it or can it. And likewise, God expects Our Father in Heaven together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, expect they're going to produce fruit. And Jesus gives plenty of examples in the Gospels where God comes looking for fruit, and there's no fruit. There's like the fig tree that doesn't have any figs on it. That should have figs on it. And Jesus curses it, and the whole thing kind of withers in front of the disciples' eyes. It's like hey, that was a very nice. There maybe was a worm. And Jesus was like, "Hey, it's fruit season, there's no fruit there."

And heaven forbid that He should look at your life for my life and say, "Hey, there's no fruit there, and its fruit bearing season. Cut them off and throw them by the sticks." All those old canes of the raspberries and blackberries, they get piled up. They're already pretty dry, but they dried up more. Boy, that was a nice, hot fire. But that's what awaits those that don't bear fruit. And Jesus gives plenty of examples in ithe scripture, too, about the unbelievers being gathered up and thrown into the fire.

But He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. And apart from me, you cannot bear any fruit. You can't do anything apart from me."

From time to time, we get flowers at church. And sometimes, the stems have been bent. Out of no fault of anybody's, but they've just broken off. And I like to prop them up so that they look good. As long as a flower's showing, you know, it's good, it's still doing its duty. But then after a while, that poor bud, that flower, it begins to wither and dry up. And everybody, even sitting in the way back, will say "Hey, that flower's dead." And if you're on the altar committee, you're kind of like, "Oh, I hope nobody noticed that." Of course they did.

But anyway, apart from Jesus - that's us. Even if we're a little broken. Remember, Jesus says even a broken reed, He will not destroy. He will take care of that broken branch. In fact, if you catch a broken branch of a vine or a tree soon enough, and you wrap it the proper way, it'll graft into that place even stronger than it was before. And Jesus is saying that even the weakest of faith, I'm not going to destroy. Even the weakest branch, as long as it can bear fruit, I'm not going to destroy it. But the one no matter how strong it is that isn't, it's going in the fire. It is going into the fire.

"And by this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit."

What kind of fruit are you bearing?

Have you ever thought about what type of fruit your bearing? Or the amount of fruit? My guess is maybe not, but my guess is also that you're very aware when you're being pruned, don't you? You know very well when the Father is pruning you. Because pruning hurts, doesn't it?

And we may say God, how can You be doing this? How can I have to endure such pain? Doesn't matter what the source of the pain is. It may be the pain that's the consequence of our sin against someone. Because sin always hurts someone: ourselves and somebody else. And someone else's sin always hurts somebody too. Sometimes us. Maybe it's not a dramatic hurt. Maybe it's just a bruised ego. Or maybe our toes have been stepped on. But sometimes, the hurt is very severe.

And remember, Jesus says we're already clean. So whatever pruning we receive isn't as a punishment but its desire is that we grow stronger in our faith. Even Peter says, "Even though you had to suffer many things, it's for the benefit of your faith being proven genuine in the day of our Lord, Jesus Christ."

You see, the Father rejoices in you and I bearing much fruit. The Holy Spirit rejoices in you and I bearing much fruit. Jesus, the Son rejoices in you and I bearing much fruit. Why? Because it brings glory to God.

I have no idea how much fruit I have produced. But I trust that I'm bearing fruit, just as I trust that you're bearing fruit. Because you've come into the midst of God's house to be fed and nourished, sprinkled and fertilized, if you will, with that which produces the growth in us. And again, the growth is not product of you and me. It's a product of God at work in us. God at work in us. Doesn't matter if we're the pastor of the parishioner; God has to be at work in us, and we have to be in Christ Jesus or, as I said, we cannot do anything. Tonight is the call service for the candidates and the Vickers and deaconesses at St. Louis seminary. Yesterday was the service at Fort Wayne - usually comes the end of April. And it's a joyous time, it's an exciting time. And then you graduate and what comes after graduation? You know it, all right? You know it all. So, it's the first day in the parish. No supervising pastor to guide you through things. The elders and the church members, they've all helped with the moving in as much as they can, and they've celebrated, and they've got their own work to do.

So, there's Pastor stepping out onto the sidewalk to go across to the church for the very first day as the called and ordained pastor of that flock. And it hits him. "Oh Lord. I just realized I don't know a thing about caring for a congregation. I think I know something about theological study, but as to dealing with Your people? I don't know anything."

To which these words: "Remain in me. Abide in me and I in you, and you will bear much fruit." I think of those young people every year about this time, going off with that excitement of entering into the Lord's Harvest. And I wonder how many of them on that first day have that same thought. Lord, God, I have no idea what I'm doing. And how many rely not on their own understanding, but upon His understanding to lead and to guide. Same is true for you and I in our lives. We need to trust and rely on God. And lean not on our own understanding. And as we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit. And the question for you and I is not so much what kind and how much fruit were bearing. Really, the bottom line is for you and I to abide in our Lord, Jesus Christ. To pray every morning when we wake up and every night when we go to bed, "Lord, God, Father in heaven, keep me grafted into Your Son, the Living Vine, that I may produce much fruit to Your glory."

And Jesus said, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." And so, we can lay our head to sleep peacefully knowing that indeed our Father will keep us grafted into His Son, because there's no greater desire for our Father in heaven than to graft us into His Son and that we bear much fruit. To His glory, not our own.

And then the time comes. The plant has produced its yield. And it's time for it to return. Just like you and I, to return to the dust of the Earth. Those words of Jesus, or rather of God in the garden: "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return." We hear those words on Ash Wednesday. But thanks be to God that you and I, we are much more than plants. We have the Breath of God, breathed into us. And yes, we will return to ash and dust for a time. But then, by that power at work within us, we shall be raised. A glorious Harvest to be entered into the Father's garden for eternity. And so we abide in Jesus.

And when we feel broken, or beginning to wither, then is the time to go to Him and say "Bind me back to you."

For He will.

Because who, after all, wants to be a dried-up old stick that gets thrown on the fire? Wouldn't we much rather be wash fruit-bearing plants that one day, we'll spend eternity with our Father in Heaven, rather than in the fire of destruction? Lord, Jesus, hear our prayer as Your word abides in us, and as we by Your grace at work in us, abide in You. Amen.

And now may the peace of God, which surpasses our understanding, keep our hearts, and our minds in faith in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.