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Eastern Orthodox icon of Jesus Christ as the True Vine, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55553 [retrieved April 28, 2024]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_the_True_Vine_icon_(Athens,_16th_century).jpg.

RCL Year B, Easter 5
Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; I John 4:7-21; Saint John 15:1-8

In the Gospel today, Christ begins with what people know. People know vines and branches, and they know the intimate connections between them. They know farming and the need to cultivate and to prune to produce an ample crop. So, they understand and are persuaded when Christ says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.”[1]

The chilling thing, the scary thing, in this Gospel you find in Christ’s absolute insistence on collaborative effort. Vines and vinegrowers work together. Branches are healthy and productive when they are part of the whole vine. Jesus says, “Just 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.”[2] He says that people who wish to have things their own way are in for a surprise. Rugged individuals who will not share responsibility and reward are going to have trouble finding their place in the harmonious relationship of the vinegrower, the vine, and the branches. Jesus continues, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”[3] I hope you noticed something. Christ is saying that the needs of those who abide in him will be met, but, beyond that, they will be occasions for the glory of the whole enterprise: the glory of the Father as well as the others.

For the past nineteen years, I have studied Family Systems Theory, also known as Bowen Theory, at the Center for Family Process in Bethesda, Maryland, and at the Princeton Family Center for Education in Princeton, New Jersey. In those places we study theory, and we compare the theory with the human behavior in our families of origin, in our parishes, and in other organizations (or systems) in which we function.

Along the way, I have compared the theory to the teachings and ministry of Jesus. Today’s Gospel compares very positively with part of that theory, especially the concept of the nuclear family as the fundamental unit of emotional process. When Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my father is the vinegrower…I am the vine, you are the branches,” he is saying that he and his father are part of our nuclear family systems; they are part of our parishes; and they are part of the other organizations (or systems) in which we live. Their presence in our families and in our parishes means that at every single moment you and I have the example of Jesus and the example of his father to guide us in what we choose to do and what we choose to say.

The presence of those examples means that at every moment you and I can choose to do what Jesus would do or what God the Father would do. We are not compelled to do the human thing or the sinful thing. The divine thing, the thing that Jesus would do, or the thing that his father would do, is always within reach. You can do it, and I can do it. We are free to choose to do the right thing.

That makes a tremendous difference in our functioning and in what we do. There is always hope for the best. It never leaves us. There is always hope that you or I will do what Jesus would do or what God would do. There is always hope, in every situation, that God’s will eventually will be done.

I have come to define discipleship this way. Discipleship occurs when we act as God’s agents in the world, or in our families, or in our parishes. When we function as disciples, we do God’s will. And when we do God’s will, God’s kingdom has arrived, God’s kingdom becomes present, available to be seen and to be touched by people who otherwise would not have an inkling about it. When we act as disciples, we show the world what Jesus would do and what God would do. When we act as disciples, we make Jesus and God known to people who do not know them. We open the door, so that they can believe. Nothing we do is more important than that.

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[1] Saint John 15:1-2.

[2] Saint John 15:4-5.

[3] Saint John 15:7-8.