John 15: 1-27
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 trims clean, so
that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power
of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you.
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given
life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I
am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can
work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever
does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such
branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me,
and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it
shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich
spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my
love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in
his love.
These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that
your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love
one another as I have loved you.
No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life
for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No
longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master
is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I
have heard from my Father.
You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that
what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out
of the fullness of my power: Love one another.
If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first.
If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them;
but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That
is why people hate you.
Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his
master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to
you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent
me.
If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin,
but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me
turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them,
deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now
they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.
But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me
without a cause.’
But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the
Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will
be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.
4th
Easter Sunday
April
13, 2008
John
15: 1-27
In
this time after Easter, the gospel readings lead us back to what he tried to
describe to His disciples before He died: He tried to tell them that His life
continues forever.
At
His death the disciples hearts were broken – broken open. Their souls were
grievously wounded by their loss, the loss of their deepest Friend, the loss of
all their hopes and dreams of His glory. But at Easter, Christ began to pour
the power of His resurrection into the open wound of their hearts. At first
they could not recognize Him. At first, their pre-conceptions about the
finality of death prevented them from perceiving Him as the Resurrection and
the Life. But gradually they began to receive His life-giving power in their
hearts. They began to affirm and to accept the great mystery of his
resurrection. An enormous reverence began to grow in them. They began to assent
to a new World Way.
They began to realize that He, the being of Love, had survived death.
Today we hear the wonderful words: ‘I am the true living vine, you are the branches.
My father is the vinedresser. Stay connected with me, so that your souls will
become fruitful’. It is our task not just to keep our souls alive; it is our
task to make our souls bear fruit for the Father.
What
are the fruits of soul that the Father hopes to harvest from us? They are the
same qualities of soul that the disciples wrested from death—the fragrance of
reverence, the fruitfulness of a mood of
all-affirming acceptance, the ripening substance of a love for all of humanity.
This is the Life that the Resurrected Christ, the True Vine, pours into all
souls connected with Him. These are the fruits— reverence, open acceptance,
love—that the Father would harvest. These are the fruits that nourish the
evolution of the world.
Staying
connected with Christ is our task. It is a challenge for the heart to remain
open and receptive, within love, within Him. But love is a creative act. And to
create is to labor, sometimes in pain and travail. As Novalis said, “To love is
to hold the wound always open.” We hold
our wounded hearts open so that Christ can pour His reverence, His openness,
His love into us. We hold our wounded hearts open so that we can become
fruitful. We hold our hearts open so that we can nourish the world.
