Abide with Me

Last week, we reflected on the image of God as the Good Shepherd-an image with ancient roots in the Old Testament. God is the One who feeds us, nurtures us, guides and protects us, and never abandons us.

Then we saw how Jesus took up this metaphor and applied it to himself and elaborated on it. Through Jesus, the Good Shepherd has drawn near to us and is revealed to us. In Jesus, we see the Good Shepherd on earth, feeding the sheep, binding up our wounds, protecting us in every way. And in Jesus, the Good Shepherd is revealed as one who is even willing to lay down his life for the sheep.

Today, John's Gospel offers us a similar elaboration of another ancient metaphor-that of the grapevine and the vine grower. This one also has its roots in the Old Testament. In Isaiah for example, Israel is the vine that God tenderly plants after clearing the ground of stones. God tends the vine and builds a watchtower so he can guard it. But when God looks for grapes on the vine, he finds nothing but wild grapes. Here is how the prophet interprets this metaphor for us: "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry." (Isa. 5:7).

In other words, God is looking for the fruit of mercy and righteousness and love. The fruit of God's labor is for God's people to love one another.

Notice what happens in John's gospel to the branches that are not fruitful-they are gathered up and thrown in the fire. That is in fact what would have happened in a vineyard in ancient times. It sounds a little scary to those of us who question whether we are bearing the fruit that God seeks.

But here is the amazing thing-God did not actually gather up the unfruitful branches and burn them. Instead, God became the vine in order to nourish the branches. Listen again to Isaiah, who predicted that God would not give up on us but would have mercy on unfruitful Israel, and by extension, on all of humanity. "On that day: A pleasant vineyard, sing about it! I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. I guard it night and day so that no one can harm it; I have no wrath. If it gives me thorns and briers, I will march to battle against it. I will burn it up. Or else let it cling to me for protection, let it make peace with me, let it make peace with me." (Isa. 27:2-5).

Jesus is the true vine-the vine who is one with God, the one who is able to produce the fruit that God desires. Though Israel, which stands for all of humanity, has so frequently failed to bear good fruit, God has not given up on us. Instead, God has become the vine, and become inseparable from us, so that we may be nourished with God's love and become fruitful. Just as nutrients flow from the vine to the branches, so God's love flows into us and enables us to grow and bear fruit.

I want you to notice two things about this metaphor of the vine and the branches. First, it is a metaphor of unbelievable intimacy between God and us. We are joined to God organically. We are part of the same plant. Our union is complete. I invite you to reflect on this when you are feeling lonely and distant from God. The life force that flows through you is God's life force. God is the air that you breathe, the food that you eat, the heart that beats in your chest. Above all, God is the love that animates each of us and gives purpose to our lives.

The second thing to notice about the metaphor of the vine and the branches is that it challenges our culture's emphasis on individualism. Our culture stresses individual gifts, individual effort and individual achievement above all else. But in the world of the vine and the branches, every branch is as capable as any other of bearing good fruit. All of us are equally capable of love, whether we are old or young, strong or weak, powerful or lowly. Individual gifts and abilities, though God-given and valuable, are just not as important as our capacity to love.

Similarly, the activity of bearing fruit is primarily a collective activity rather than an individual accomplishment. The branches bear fruit because they are connected with the vine and with the other branches. If you have ever looked closely at a grapevine, you know that the branches curl around each other and are intertwined. They are mutually interdependent, just as we are mutually interdependent. Growing in love is something we do together as a community, in union with Jesus, the true vine. Picture a single stalk bearing a single grape-a lonely vulnerable image indeed.

Growing in love and bearing the fruit of love is actually not something we do at all, but something that God does in us. So we don't have to go home and add it to our already extensive "to do" lists: 1. Grow 2. Bear good fruit. We can no more make that happen than we can make grapes appear on grapevines. Only God can make us grow. But Jesus has promised us that if we abide with him, God will continue to unfold this miracle of growth and fruitfulness within us.

What does it mean to abide with Jesus? Quite simply, it means to stay with him. Abide has connotations of making one's home with someone, and also of persevering or staying with someone. Abide in me, as I abide in you. … Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.

The only thing we have to add to our "to do" list is to abide in Jesus. That's pretty easy, don't you think? Just stay with him, and let him love you. Let him nurture you, sustain you, make you one with him and with each other. Here is your "homework" for this week: try to take five minutes each day and let God love you. Just sit there and take it in. And then watch as you grow in love.

Fun fact: the sweetest grapes grow closest to the vine. Abide in him as he abides in you.