I. The Next Branch Over 00:00
…open our eyes to see the wondrous things that you do and are doing in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
My timer broke, so strap in. We’re going to be here for a while. Unlimited time is what we’ve got this morning.
So I just wanted to share: Drake Mercer and Katie, Sam and I all got to go out to Henderson the past few days and help them set up what’s going to be the new cathedral. And the joy and the excitement of the people who are helping in those projects is contagious. It is just awesome. You should be really excited for what’s happening in Henderson, even if you haven’t been there. Let me just share with you: they are awesome. I got to meet with the deacons. They’re like, “Okay, we’ve got a bishop. What do we do?” They’re ready. I got to meet with the tech guy. We put in a new camera so that everybody can see how awesome it is out there.
It’s really a special moment in the church, and I don’t want us to lose that because it’s not happening here. This is about us just as much as it’s about them, and it’s about what God’s doing in our churches, our dioceses, our movement that God has called us to. They are our brothers and sisters over there, and they have that Saint Michael’s gusto. Let me tell you, they caught the vision, and they’re out there doing stuff. And I hope we catch their vision and their excitement as well.
That was my intro. Now let’s jump into the sermon, which is all about how we find our unity, our life and our sustenance in Christ. You want to know why we should care about Henderson? Because that’s the next branch over. We’re interconnected on this thing, the vine, Jesus Christ. Their fruit is our fruit as well, and we get to be part of their fruit.
II. I Am the True Vine 02:20
Okay, let’s jump in with verse 1 of our Gospel this morning. “True Branches Abide” is my super clever sermon title, because it doesn’t actually say that. It says Jesus is the true vine. But I want you to be true branches, because there’s other branches mentioned in the passage, and they don’t do so hot. We’ll get there. But let’s be true branches as well. Verse 1 says:
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. John 15.1
I want to just touch on this to start. What is this image of Jesus as the vine? There’s so much to talk about, and we’ll get to a lot of it as we talk through this passage. But I wanted to start with this one image that came to me as I was reading this and praying on this. When you look at the history of humanity, it’s not uncommon to see this thing that’s like a tree of life of the Bible, and it starts with Adam and Eve, and then it branches out through all of Israel, and then eventually you get to Jesus.
But I had this image this morning of what Jesus does as the vine. If you know how vines grow, they kind of have a center, and then they grow outwards. What Jesus does is he comes in the center of history, and he reaches backwards and he pulls in the tree of humanity into the true vine, and he reaches forwards to us. He is the center point of history that reaches backwards and forwards, just like he reaches his arms out on the cross, and he brings us into true life.
And we even have an icon of that. We have the Harrowing of Hell, which we studied in our catechism home group recently. And who’s Jesus holding in that picture? It’s Adam and Eve. He’s reaching forth as the true vine and integrating and grafting us into the life eternal. Because what happened is, God gave life to Adam and Eve, and they chose death, and every human since then chose death, and all of us were in this dying tree. And so when Jesus comes as the true vine, he comes that we might have life, and life abundantly. And he reaches throughout all of history as the vine and pulls us all into his life eternally. And that’s the project that is envisioned by this idea: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.”
III. Pruned to Bear More Fruit 04:28
So let’s keep that in mind as we continue through this. In verse 2 it says:
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15.2
Something that’ll jump out at you: guess what happens even if you’re bearing fruit? God prunes you. You get chopped up. In fact, a lot of us think (and we’ll go to our first image here) that this is what we look like. There we go. We think of ourselves as vines bearing much beautiful fruit. And you know where God’s taking you? This is where God’s taking you. That’s a good, healthy vine, one that’s been properly pruned. Just leave that up there. That’s ugly. That’s what God does to us.
We think God’s project is to get us to look like that big, great thing, and it is. But the path to that fruitful vine is this. And what does that look like? The cross. That’s what it is. Jesus, in this beautiful image, tells us what he’s going to do. And then when things get hard, we go, “What is going on, God? What are you doing? This can’t be your purpose.” And yet we always should have this image in our mind: that’s what you’re supposed to look like, so that you can end up looking like the fruitful branch, so you can bear more fruit. This is not the entirety of the Christian life, but it starts there. And then you go through this cycle where he trims you back and you bear much fruit, and he trims you back and you bear much fruit.
Don’t be shocked when things go sideways. Don’t be shocked when God prunes you. That’s actually a good sign, because you’re bearing fruit. In fact, John tells us (our other icon is of John’s baptism of Jesus), and in John’s baptism, what does he say? He says, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3.8). Centrally, we are to change. Like Father Powell was preaching last week, we’re going to go through this thing called metanoia, transformation, so that we could become… that other word he said, metamorph-something-or-other, which is the word for “transfigure,” so we can be like him. We go through the transformation so he can change us into little Christs, or Christians.
So when we look at this, remember, the plan is not to punch your ticket to paradise. The plan is to join the vine that brings eternal life to the world, and to spread out. Vines spread throughout the whole earth. We’re supposed to be bringing people in, grafting people on. Or, you know what, like a couple of our people here today, you can have some babies. That’s a great way to grow the vine. Thank God.
IV. Clean Because of the Word 08:13
Okay, verse 3:
3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. John 15.3
Elsewhere, in Colossians, we’re told, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col 3.16). What does the word of Christ do? It purifies you. It cleans you. Hebrews 4:12:
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb 4.12
You guys have probably heard that verse before. But what does that mean? Well, it means something like this. When you encounter God’s word, it will show you all the ways that you are not a fruitful vine. It will show you all the branches that need to be pruned, all the things that God might want to cut back. In fact, the word is so good that it doesn’t just tell you how… God’s word has power to accomplish that for which he has purposed. When you let the word of God in, when you read the Bible, it starts to change you. It starts to activate that metanoia, that transformation. It brings us to repentance.
And as you start to read the word, it’s like what Jesus said about the kingdom of God: it’s like a mustard seed. It starts small, but then it grows, and it grows so much that the birds can find shelter in its boughs (Matt 13.31–32). It’s one of the classic images of Christianity when you’re talking about the kingdom of God. It absolutely applies to God’s big plan to transform the world, but it also applies to each one of you. Each one of you takes that seed into your heart. In each one of you, the word of God can grow as you let it be fertilized. And as God prunes that tree, he grows something in you so that all of the birdlike thoughts of our mind can find the proper shelter. You know how our mind works sometimes: it just flies in and it flies out, like birds. And yet what the word of God does is it creates a structure in your heart and mind, so that your thoughts find their proper resting place.
I know how many times we encounter things and our anxious thoughts overwhelm us. I’ve been there. Our depressed thoughts, our angry thoughts. And we don’t know what to do, because sometimes your thoughts feel out of control. And so I just encourage you: go to the word. The word of God will grow something in you, so that when you have those thoughts, they find their proper place. Because it’s not that we cut out all the negativity that we encounter in our minds, but instead, like the psalmist, we know how to direct that negativity. We know where to bring “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22.1)
Because you know what we read this morning? We read Psalm 22. It’s unrecognizable if what you think of Psalm 22 is “I can count all my bones; the bulls of Bashan surround me; my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And then we’re reading from Psalm 22, and it says God and his purposes will be fulfilled in his assembly, and God is good. It says all this stuff. That whole passage we read in Psalm 22 was because the psalmist brought his anxiety to the Lord. He brought his depression. He brought his fear. And the word of God, the Scripture, transformed it into praise.
That’s a lot of what we do when we sing these beautiful worship songs. We take the word of God and we incorporate it. We embody it as we sing, and it creates something. And over time, the same thing that you encountered that you had no answer for, you start to find answers for. You encounter things, and a Scripture or a line of a worship song comes to your mind, and you go, “Oh, that’s what’s going on.” The word of God will change you. It will transform you. It will grow into something that makes you who you’ve been called to be. And so as we think about that, that’s why Christ says you are clean because of the word. That’s what it’s doing.
V. Abide in Me 11:43
And so in verse 4 he says, “Abide in me, and I in you,” which is the central idea of this passage. Everything else is preamble. This is central:
4 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. 5 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. John 15.4–5
Now, what does this mean? Let me tell you what it doesn’t mean. It’s not sentimentality. It’s not like Phil Collins, the great songwriter: “You’ll be in my heart.” No, it’s not that. Because what is that? Okay, if you’ve seen the great classic movie Tarzan (I’m assuming you have), it’s about the mom and her child, and “You’ll be in my heart.” That doesn’t mean anything. What she’s saying is, “I love you,” but there’s no spiritual indwelling like we mean when we’re talking about God. It means something, I will say. It’s good. I understand: you carry your children with you always, all that. But Jesus is saying so much more than that. He’s saying, “You can live in me, metaphysically, spiritually, and I will abide in you.”
That means… you know how you walk around and you think you’re pretty powerful, because you’ve got a computer in your pocket, and at any time you can just pull it out and you can do stuff? That’s awesome. You know what God’s saying? No matter what you encounter, the God of the universe goes with you. That’s a little better. It’s a heck of a lot better. In fact, it’s the secret to life: that the God who designed the universe out of an abundance of love will walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps 23.4). He’ll take you to the highest mountain. He will be with you always, right there. That abiding is so much more. It’s not even just thinking about Jesus (although, great, please think about Jesus). It’s so much more.
It’s a reality that empowers people. Like in the early church, you’ve got this picture of the martyr Stephen, the first martyr of the church. And they’re picking up stones to stone him to death, a painful, excruciating death. The people, his own people, the Jewish religious people that he would have worshiped next to in the synagogue, are picking up stones to kill him because of his faith in Christ. And what does he say? “Father, forgive them.” How was he able to do that? Because Christ abides in him. And do you remember what Christ said on the cross? “Father, forgive them.” It’s not because Stephen was so great, but because he had the Spirit of God in him. And what’s good about that is, you have the same Spirit with you, in you, always, transforming you, empowering you. There is nothing that you will encounter that God cannot overcome. Abide in him.
Now, this is a practice. Because there’s a spiritual reality, and then there’s what we do every day, and what we do every day doesn’t look like Christ in us. Not yet. Maybe you’ll have glimpses of it. But this is a dance. This is a change. This is a relationship that builds over time. The closest thing we get is the mystery of a husband and a wife who come together, who make one flesh, and over the decades, if they do it right, they become better and more unified and more like one another. Not that they don’t encounter hard things as they go, but you can see what happens: something mysterious beyond the physical is happening in them, where they’re becoming more like one another, where they have shared vision, where they start to become that one-flesh promise that happened at their matrimony. And in the same way, but so much more, Christ walks with you and transforms you and becomes one with you.
It’s hard to describe, because it’s a mystery. But what I want you to take away this morning is: when you wake up, remember that Christ is with you. Take a moment and bring your awareness into the presence of God, who is always with you. There’s a whole bunch of ways to do that. I’m just going to let you figure it out. Look it up, Google it, ask me if you want. There are all these meditative practices, and they’re all great. But let me just say this: the important part is turning your eyes to him.
Because what happens is, we get distracted. And what does “distracted” mean? It means we get torn apart. That’s what the word distracted means. It’s like torn asunder. The reality is, we’re at one with Christ. We’re seated with him in heavenly places. But the world and the things we encounter distract us, and we experience this division between reality and what we feel and what we see. It’s not that Christ ever becomes less in you, or you are ever less in him. It’s that we have an opportunity, an invitation, to walk out that unity in our life. And he is constantly bringing us into that, but distraction interrupts the process.
Let me say it this way. I don’t want to go too far down this rabbit hole, but I want to just say that every day you have an opportunity to walk with God, or you have an opportunity to walk in your own strength, your own abilities. Christ is just as present either way, with you. But which one do you want to do? Do you want to be with him, aware of him, learning from him, growing with him? Or do you want to run the other way? I know which one I want. I’m really bad at it, but I try, and I trust. And I trust that the work he’s begun in me he will complete.
VI. Barren Vines and Bitter Fruit 18:57
And then what’s the other thing we’re called to do, out of that relationship, out of that unity? We’re called to bear fruit. So there’s three different things you can be. You can be bearing good fruit, you can be barren, or you can be bearing bad fruit. That’s how I’m going to break it down. You can imagine these are kind of three categories. You’re either one of these three.
Barren vines: that one may be the most depressing, somehow. Bitter fruit is bad, but emptiness, brokenness… There’s this great quote from T. S. Eliot, in this poem called “The Hollow Men,” where he says, “Lips that were meant to kiss have turned to stone.” And it’s like this moment of hopelessness. It’s like, you were meant to bear life, and you are dead. Another line from that poem: he talks about men without chests, and C. S. Lewis picks up on that and has this whole essay about it. And the idea is that you’ve lost your connection with the vine, with true life.
Don’t be barren. Don’t be empty. And the easiest way for you to be barren and empty is to ignore Christ. And I’m saying you have to actively do it, because he is wooing you. He is around you. He is calling you forth. But in this day and age, with that powerful computer in your pocket, and everything else, all the screens and all of the great food and all of the great alcohol and all of the great drugs and everything that we have access to, it is easy to ignore Christ. It is easy to just turn it off. You go throughout your day as best you can so you can get to the TV at the end of the day. You can have your Oreos and your milk, and you can watch Vanderpump or some crazy show, who knows. You can turn it off.
And I’m not saying watching TV is bad. I love TV. If you’ve talked to me for more than like ten minutes, I’ve probably mentioned a movie or a TV show that I like. Stories are wonderful. But they’re not when they cause you to ignore life, and life with him. That’s how we become barren: over time we just die. If you run away from life, if you ignore what reality is, even if you’re just self-medicating because you can’t deal with the pain, well, guess what? Eventually you just flatline. That’s how T. S. Eliot ends the poem, or he has this great line in the poem where he says, “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” That’s depressing. I don’t want to be that. Golly, if I’m going to go out, let me go out with a bang. Now, the good news is, we actually get to be resurrected to eternal life when we go out. It’s a great party at the end. But let’s not be barren. Let’s not be boring, barren, dead. Let’s be life, and life abundantly. Let’s bear fruit.
And then, you know, bitter fruit. I just mentioned that. Have you ever drunk sour milk? It’s so awful. It’s one of the worst experiences. It’s chunky, and it tastes so awful. But part of it is because you expected the real thing. How awful is it to have a fruit-bearing vine, and then you have sour milk? If you know what you’re called to be, how could you let yourself become bitter? Let God heal you. Let God in.
You have to fight him in order for your fruit to become bitter. You know that in all of the world he is bringing you towards love. And bitterness comes when we choose, “We’re not going to let him have that. I’m not going to give up my unforgiveness. I’m not going to give up my control. I’m not going to give up my this, that or the other. I’m going to fight for my right, because I was wronged, or because I’m heartbroken,” or because of any number of things. “I’m scared.” That’s how you grow bitter fruit. He, in his grace, continues to give you life. Do you know, if God just withdrew his grace from you, you’d just die? There is no life apart from him. But he gives you life, that you might come into relationship with him, that you might let go of those things that you hold on to so tightly. Don’t bear bitter fruit. It’s poison, not just to the people who try and eat the fruit, but to you. Let go and let God, because we can do nothing apart from him. That’s the other part of this verse. Nothing we do is apart from him, so let’s do it his way.
VII. The Grace to Resist 23:24
I’ll just focus on one more thing. As you’re letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you’re getting pruned by God, there’s a process that happens, where you go throughout your day and you encounter an opportunity to sin. Sometimes it’s clear as day. You have an opportunity to do the right thing, to respond well, or to respond poorly. And I’ve noticed that occasionally I’ll even know, “If I just gave this to God, it would be better.” But because of anger or fear or anxiety, I hold on tightly, and I reject the grace offered in that moment. I want to argue that every time you encounter a chance to sin, the grace to resist is offered to you as well. God gives you the grace to turn away.
Now, most of us are about as good at not sinning as my daughter Margot is at walking. Not very. She can get some steps in, but she falls down quite a bit, and any sort of roadblock, any sort of, let’s say, temptation, she stumbles. It’s pretty easy. What we are called to do is not be perfect. We’re called to be like Margot: walk around, fall down, get back up, keep walking. You’ll get the hang of it. But what you do is you look towards Christ in those moments. And usually we kind of just run headlong into our sin, but over time you’ll start to have more and more distance as you make that choice: “Man, do I really want to do this again?”
This is if you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. If you’re going to your Bible, if you’re coming to church and worshiping the Lord and asking him to transform your life, if you’re looking to him, you’ll watch as the choices change in your life, and your ability to turn to him changes. It’s not because you get so much better. It’s because we get better at going to the source. We get better at relying upon him, just like a branch that’s in a vine can’t do anything unless the vine supplies it. Some of us are sitting out there like, “Fruit, come on, I got this.” And Christ is like, “I’m here. I got you.” Look to him.
Okay, verse 6:
6 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. John 15.6
I will just say this. People on earth are not guaranteed a happy ending. It is real that you can decide not to abide in the vine. And if you don’t abide in Jesus’ vine… Remember that picture I gave you: Jesus is the vine reaching throughout history, grafting the tree of life of humanity onto himself, that they might have true life and life eternal. Well, guess what? If you stay with Adam and Eve’s tree, that one’s going to die, because humanity rejected God’s life and chose death. And so the only salvation is Jesus reaching out and saying, “Come, be a part of me.”
Lewis also has this great quote where it’s like, everybody’s looking for life and fulfillment outside of God, which is like saying they’re looking for nonsense. There’s no such thing as life and fulfillment outside of God. It doesn’t exist. And so people are like, “Why are Christians so evil, that some people go to hell?” It’s like, no. Christians are saying, “Don’t go to hell. Please come with us.” That’s the way you go if you don’t choose God. It’s not like God’s out there going, “I don’t like that person.” No. It’s like, “Come to me, every one of you. You’re going to die. You’re on a sinking ship. Get off.”
VIII. Ask Whatever You Wish 26:53
Okay, we’ll move on. Verse 7:
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15.7
So you’re on this journey, and you’re grafted into the vine, and you’re letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and you’re choosing to look to him and be aware of his presence that is going with you everywhere. You’re taking advantage of the grace offered to reject sin. That’s what’s happening: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.” That’s the transformation that’s going on. And then, ask whatever you wish, and God will give it to you.
But what does that mean? Is it like a genie, where you put your coins in and you get to wish on a star? No. It means that you become so like God that you will only ask for those things that God wants. And guess what? If God wants to do something, he doesn’t check with anybody else. He does it. He has the power to accomplish that which he has purposed. And if the word of Christ is transforming you, and you are choosing his grace, and you’re abiding in the vine and aware of him, you will start to ask for the things he wants. That’s what it means: anything you wish, because, guess what, your wishes will be his wishes.
I don’t know about you, but if I just did the math, if I wrote it out as an equation (much harder to live this way), but if I thought about it abstractly: what do you want to happen? How about what the God of the universe, who knows everything, who loves everything, who created everything, wants? That sounds good to me. I’ll take that. I’ll have what he’s having. I want his will. It’s only our feeble, broken, fallen humanity that wants other things. But he’ll transform you, if you let him. You’re already grafted into the vine. Let the vine supply the life and growth and fruit.
IX. The Fruit God Is Looking For 29:07
And verse 8, this wonderful last verse here:
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15.8
God the Father, who has all glory, all power, all everything good, wants more from you. You get to add to eternal, everlasting, unlimited glory. You have that power. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like somebody who is the owner of Rolls-Royce comes along and says, “Hey, you get to give me a Rolls-Royce.” What? How does that work? God has all the glory, and yet he is so good that he wants you to be a part of that. He wants you to be a part of his glory. If you bear fruit, it reflects glory in your life and in God’s life. And eventually, we’re promised, the entire reality will become glorious. It will be filled with the presence of God like the water covers the sea.
Now, we look at this. What fruit are you called to bear? This whole time you might be thinking about all the things you should have done better: “I should have given more money to the church,” or, “I should have given more money to the school,” or… Oh, those are just the things I think would be good. But maybe you should have loved your wife better. Maybe you should have talked to your kids better. Maybe you should have driven better on the road and not lost your temper. Maybe you should have paid more attention at work, so you didn’t crash the car or drop the load off the truck. Not mentioning anybody in particular. Maybe you should have done A, B, C, D, E, F. And you have this list, and it weighs you down, and you feel this burden. You walk throughout your days, and instead of the life you’ve been promised, you feel chained and broken and not good enough.
Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s not the fruit God’s looking for. You know what the fruit God’s looking for is? He’s looking for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5.22–23). That’s the fruit. It’s about our heart. He’s not looking for you to make millions of dollars, although that would be good. He’s not looking for you to bring thousands of people to the knowledge of Christ, although that would be good. He’s not looking for the results in the world. He’s looking for the results in your heart.
You can trust God to bring the results. It’s like: you change, he’ll change the world. Yes, he will use you. He will infuse you with his presence, and you will go forth as the forgiveness and pardon and resurrection of God into the world. But he asks you to just change. What are you responsible for? You’re responsible to look to him to change your heart, and then he’ll bring about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. If you’re working on something else, start here. Start with the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Everything else you do will be a lot easier if you can get this right. That’s all I’ve got to say. There’s no project you can embark on that won’t be improved once you have these things. In fact, I would argue, if you have these things, there’s nothing you can’t do, because you’ll be walking with God. What can’t he do?
X. Drink My Joy 32:41
Okay, I’m going to end with this invitation as we transition. The sermon is this great transition between the two great pillars of our celebrations on Sunday morning: the word of God, and the Eucharist, the presence of God in the body and blood. And this is from one of the ancient church fathers talking about this passage, and he’s speaking in the voice of Jesus, and he says:
“I am the true vine. Drink my joy, the wine I have mixed for you. For my cup is intoxicating for me, intoxicating like the most powerful antidote—like joy against the grief that sprouted in Adam.… I have given you a table, life-giving and joy-creating, that offers in exchange for distress unspeakable joy before those who have envied you. Eat the bread that renews your nature. Drink the wine, the exultation of immortality. Eat the bread that purges away the old bitterness, and drink the wine that eases the pain of the wound. This is the healing of your nature; this is the punishment of the one who did the injury.… I became the true vine in your race, that in me you might bear sweet-smelling fruit.”
Amen.