Becoming Invisible

A little over a week ago, the band “Me and My Monkee” was scheduled to play a concert at Birdsong Amphitheatre in Stephenville’s City Park.  I was sitting on the hill in front of the stage with several other foolhardy souls when the concert began… despite the forecast for severe thunderstorms with high winds and hail.  The group had just finished their third song when all the lights went out… not just in the park, but in the entire city.  The group was still plugged in, but without any electricity, there wasn’t any sound and, after several minutes, the rest of the concert was cancelled and we all went home. 

            It’s funny how dependent we are on electricity… this invisible source of power that has only been around for a little over one hundred years.  I got home to find Mom wandering around the house lighting candles.  The air conditioning was off, so I suggested we turn on some fans… until I remembered that fans run on electricity as well.  The television was off, so I was going to suggest that we listen to music instead… until I remembered that CD players run on electricity as well.  So, we sat there by candlelight and sipped some wine… and munched on some cashews and slices of Dubliner cheese… and just talked until the lights came back on sometime later that evening.

            It is said that the first question that all technical support personnel learn to ask their clients is the question: “Is your machine plugged in?”  “Is it connected to a source of power?” Apparently, one of the most frequent problems that their clients have is that somehow they have accidentally kicked or pulled the electrical plug for their machine out of the wall socket.  Some machines may run on battery backup for awhile, but eventually, without a source of electricity, even these machines cease to function.  Without a reliable source of power, machines that need power to function will function poorly or not at all.

            Perhaps, if Jesus had lived in our time, he might have used electricity as his example for this illustration… for in all his illustrations, he used things that people in his time knew well.  There were many vineyards that dotted the hills of Palestine and even people who did not own vineyards were familiar with the process of growing and harvesting grapes.  We are not as familiar with the process and yet I know there are those in our midst who enjoy gardening and understand the basics of enhancing the productivity of the plants they grow.

Even those of us who are rank amateurs in gardening know that, the closer a branch is to what nourishes it, the stronger it is… and the more likely it is to have good fruit or plentiful blossoms.  And I think that all of us understand that when a branch is broken off of the main plant, it immediately ceases to grow and any bud it had on it will not bloom or bear fruit… but wither and die.  I have accidentally broken branches off of my mother’s rose bushes when I was weeding and have mourned the tiny rose buds that will never blossom.

            I have also seen rose bushes send out long scrawny branches with few leaves and no buds.  When I was young, I used to hang on to those scrawny branches… plying the plant with fertilizer and water… hoping to see buds on that sickly branch, but nothing I did seemed to make a difference.  It was as if the branch could not get enough nourishment to blossom.  I am quicker to cut back those branches these days… to conserve the energy of the plant and channel it toward branches that are productive.  That usually results in stronger rose bushes and bigger roses.

            What is it that Jesus is saying to his disciples when he uses this analogy of the vine and the vine grower to talk about himself and God?   There are several things that stand out.  First of all, the text clearly says that God is glorified when our lives are fruitful… when we bear fruit… when something that we do… that we produce… nourishes and sustains others.  And it goes beyond basic nourishment for sustaining life.  Vineyards were a sign of wealth.  Those who were poor concentrated their efforts on food that could be consumed in the same year… grain for bread… vegetables from the garden… and meat from chicken, goats or sheep.  Grapevines do not produce fruit in their first year or even the second year.  And the wine that was made from the grapes had to be stored until it fermented and aged in oak barrels to be fit to drink.  Thus, it takes many years from the planting of the vine before the owner of the vineyard realizes the profit from the fruit that is harvested.  Similarly, it may take years for young Christians to be fruitful as well.

Secondly, our lives can only be fruitful if we have a close relationship with Jesus… a relationship that is totally dependent upon him.  Each branch of the vine draws its nourishment from the same source… Jesus Christ.  The closer we are to the source of our nourishment, the stronger we are as Christians.  The word that is translated “abide” here means to stay… to live… to dwell… to remain… to always be in Jesus as he is in us.  This is the only way that we can bear fruit.  Notice that, in these verses, Jesus does not define what fruitfulness is… just that if we are in him as he is in us, we will be fruitful… and apart from him, we can do nothing… nothing that bears fruit… nothing that is of interest to the owner of the vineyard.   Like an electrical appliance that is unplugged from its source of power, we are useless to our owner.

Thirdly, there is nothing that distinguishes us from any other branch of the vine other than our fruitfulness.  Unlike Paul’s metaphor of the body of Christ, which uses the parts of the body to highlight the various gifts that Christians are given to be used for the common good, Christ’s metaphor is stunning in its pronouncement that we are all the same… we are branches of the vine… and the only measure that sets us apart in any way is our fruitfulness.  Our fruitfulness comes from Jesus… and only through our relationship with him.

Finally, just as there is only one measure of success in the Christian life… and that is that we bear fruit… there is also only one who is capable of deciding whether or not we are fruitful and that is God… the vine grower himself.  You cannot compare your life and the fruit that you produce with your neighbor’s life and the fruit that he or she produces, for you are not the judge.  It is only God who knows what kind of fruit is needed and whether the fruit that you produce is worthy of the wine that he plans to make.  God is the one who prunes the branches than bear fruit to make them more fruitful… and the one who cuts off the branches that do not bear fruit and throws them away.

There are two other interesting things to note about grapevines and vineyards.  It does not matter whether we are productive branches or unproductive branches, we will be cut and trimmed by the vine grower.  Productive branches are pruned to make them even more productive.  Unproductive branches are cut away entirely to allow more room for the productive branches to grow and to focus nourishment of the vine into the productive branches.  If, at times, we feel God moving and changing things in our lives… if certain doors close and other doors open… it may be the work of the vine grower as he prunes the branches of the vine to produce more fruit.  Remember that it takes time for even the good branches to produce good fruit.

Also, the final product of the vineyard… the cash crop… is the wine.  The wine does not come from the fruit of just one branch of the vine.  It is the fruit of many branches blended together… crushed… pressed… fermented… and aged together that produce the treasured product that is sold.  While the vine grower wants each branch to be fruitful, the vine grower is also aware that it is the fruit of all of the branches together that create the wine from that harvest.  We not only draw our strength from our relationship to Jesus, but from what all of us do together as the body of Christ.  All of our fruit blends into a drink of powerful potency that is enjoyed by the vine grower… and those to whom he gives his wine.

            At my parents’ home on Rose Drive… the house we sold last year… there was a grapevine planted near the back fence.  The first year, we let it grow unchecked and it soon covered the entire chain-link fence with foliage so thick that you could not even see the branches.  I don’t remember seeing any fruit, but there were lot of leaves.   Those who grow grapes will tell you that grapevines need constant tending and pruning to insure that the energy of the plant is focused on producing grapes, not leaves.  Some leaves are needed to protect the young fruit as it grows, but the focus of the plant’s energy is the production of fruit… the grapes, not the leaves.

            A well-tended grapevine in the Middle East will be so heavy with fruit that often stout branches or poles are used to hold the branches of the vine up off of the ground where predators could eat the fruit before the harvest.  In some ways, it reminds me of the old clotheslines where poles were used to keep the clean laundry from dragging on the ground before it had a chance to dry in the sun.  In fact, a vine branch which bears much fruit is quite difficult to see.  It is so thickly covered with foliage and luscious bunches of grapes that the branch itself is largely obscured from view.  The casual viewer sees the grapes… the foliage… the poles that hold the branches off of the ground… and the sturdy trunk of the vine itself.  The branch of the vine has only one real purpose and that is to transmit the nourishment from the trunk of the vine itself to the fruit that hangs from the branch... the fruit that refreshes and sustains those who taste it.  If the branch is doing its job… producing fruit and then nourishing the fruit… then it is invisible… but the results of its efforts refresh and sustain many.

            If I were to return to my modern analogy… where I began this message… we… the branches of the vine… are like the wires that carry electricity from the source of that electricity to the many different appliances and equipment that depend upon that electricity to function.  Buried in the ground… or in the walls of our homes… those wires are not seen… nor can we see the electricity they carry… but we all are witnesses to what those wires can do if they are properly connected to the source of electricity… and what happens if they are not.  Because of those wires, our lives are filled with light… with music… with food… and with all that comforts and sustains us.  But if… at any time… though it is usually during the storms in our lives… we become disconnected from that source, we lose all ability to function in the way in which we were designed to function… and our ability to sustain life… to provide power and energy… to offer comfort… refreshment… and renewal… ends.  

            So, as your technical support person, I am obliged to ask you:  “Are you sure that you are plugged in to a steady source of power… or are you running on battery back-up and need recharging?”   If the only source of power is Jesus Christ… are you connected to him… and do you stay connected to him?   Are you capable of transmitting his power and energy to others… or are you too weak to carry that amperage to where it is needed?   What will you do to strengthen your ability to serve others… to be more fruitful?   Will you allow the master electrician to work on you?  Will you allow the vine grower to prune you?  All he desires is that you be connected to the source of power.

“Abide in me as I abide in you. 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. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”  My goal for this year is to become invisible… to be the wire that is hidden in the wall… carrying the electrical current to where it is needed… to be a branch so heavy with fruit that no one can see me… they can only see the fruit… and the source of that fruit… the trunk of the vine itself.  But I can’t do it alone.  I am only one branch.  Will you join me?  Together, I know we could make a great bottle of wine… wine that is pleasing to God.  Amen.

John 15:1-8