Fruit -- Fifth Sunday of Easter

 

John 15:1-8, Acts 8: 26-40

May 2, 2021

 

A few years ago, in a book study group that I participated in we read a book by Barbara Kingsolver called, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” You may know Kingsolver from her fiction writing, but this was a memoir of Kingsolver and her family’s journey to becoming food sustainable. That’s a lot of big and trendy words, so here’s the bottom line. Kingsolver, her husband and their two daughters moved from Arizona to Virginia to live on her husband’s family farm. They decided that their goal would be to grow and raise their own food, and what they could not do for themselves, they would buy locally grown food, and they would only buy food that was in season.  

I found it to be an inspiring book, but I also found the reality of what they do to be daunting. For example, she makes growing and raising all their food sound so easy. I know it’s not. I know that she and her family put in a lot of hard work to make their dream a reality. But while she is describing the process of growing their own food and even learning how to make cheese, I’m celebrating the fact that I’m actually getting cherry tomatoes popping up from the container plant I’ve potted on our deck. I’m not quite sure I’ve achieved farmer status yet. But they were beautiful cherry tomatoes. All 20 of them. Beautiful. And tasty.

But, truly, reading this book has made me hyper aware of how much food I eat that is processed, that is not locally grown, and that is not seasonal. I have tried to change my shopping habits. I am more aware of what I buy that is local and all that I buy that is not. I am aware that I buy produce that had to be shipped from other states, even other countries. And I realize that when I buy food that is shipped from very far away because it isn’t seasonal here or grown here at all, that it adds to our collective carbon footprint. And the biggest thing that I keep on hand that is not seasonal? Fruit.

I love fruit. My family loves fruit. I try to keep fresh fruit on hand, because it is a better snack alternative than other things. But I know that the bananas hanging on our banana tree on the kitchen counter had to be shipped from a long distance. And I know that the grapes in the fridge are the same. But I love to have fruit, and while some fruit that I buy I only buy in season, other fruit I buy all year long.

This is not intended to be a sermon that lectures on the importance of local and seasonal food shopping. In all honesty, I had to have a way to get into a sermon with this title that I chose. Fruit. I have no idea why I decided that Fruit would be a good title for a sermon. Fruit as a title sounded like a good idea at the time, but … what was I thinking? When we were working on the bulletin this week, I told Erlene that it was the Holy Spirit urging me to do it. I believe that’s true, but that doesn’t mean that I have any idea why I’m supposed to use it. To be honest, I really wanted to just preach on our story from Acts. I love this story of Philip and the Eunuch, but something – the Spirit? – told me to think about fruit as well.

Certainly, the word “fruit” is mentioned several times in this passage from John’s gospel. This is another one of Jesus’ I Am statements. Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”

I am the true vine. Vines and vineyards are mentioned often in scripture. Wine is also mentioned. In a time when water may or may not have been clean and pure, wine would have been a standard beverage. In his first act of public ministry in this gospel, Jesus changed water into wine as a sign of abundance, of life, of overflowing and excessive love and life for all who believe in Jesus and follow him. In that story, and in the story before us, the people listening to Jesus would have understood this reference to vines and branches and fruit. It would have been part of their worldview. The analogy would have resonated with them.

I am the true vine, Jesus said. Jesus said all those who believe in him, those who follow him, those who hear and listen and trust his voice are the branches. But if there are branches in him that do not bear fruit they will be removed. And even those that do bear fruit, they will be pruned so that they bear even more.

This sounds ominous to our ears. I can only imagine that it also sounded ominous to the ears of those listening to Jesus firsthand. If Jesus was the true vine, and God the vinegrower, and they were the branches, then who was bearing fruit and who was not? The consequences of not bearing fruit, of being a barren, fruitless branch, was not only to be removed from the vine, but to be allowed to wither, then gathered up and thrown into the fire. And even the branches that do bear fruit will be pruned, cut back, so that their fruit can grow more abundantly. While I really don’t want to wither and then be burned, pruning does not sound comfortable or enjoyable either.

So, what is the fruit that we are supposed to produce, and how do we do that? Jesus goes on to answer this unspoken question. Bearing much fruit is about becoming a disciple, keeping the commandments, and abiding in the love of Jesus, just as Jesus has kept his Father’s commandments and abided in the Father’s love. John often uses the word “abide,” and it essentially means to stay, to be with, to live with, to grow into and remain.

When writer and scholar, Debi Thomas, wrote about this passage from John, she did some research into vines. The fruit that is produced by branches closest to the vine is usually the sweetest, the healthiest, the most abundant because it benefits from the nutrients that the vine provides. It has direct access to those nutrients because it is so close to the vine. But she also pointed out another aspect of vines and branches. Have you ever observed vines of any kind growing?

They don’t just grow upward in a straight and neat line. They become twisted and tangled in with each other. They grow in messy formation, twisting and turning, even with pruning. It seems to me that branches of the true vine are not only tangled up with the vine itself but with the other branches. The fruit of one branch will not remain separated from the other branches. They are all tangled up together.

So, maybe, just maybe, if we seek to be branches that bear much fruit, if we seek to be branches that are abiding in the true vine, then we have to realize that its not just us and the vine. We are tangled up with all the other branches. The fruit we bear or don’t bear affects them, and vice versa.

What does this bearing of fruit look like? I suspect it looks like our story from the book of Acts. It seems straightforward that Philip is bearing the fruit of the true vine, the fruit of the Spirit. He is open and willing to the direction of an angel and the guidance of the Spirit. He does not hesitate to do what the angel of the Lord told him to do – go to the wilderness road, most likely the dangerous road, that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.

He got up and went, and on that road, he met an Ethiopian Eunuch from the court of Queen Candace. This was a man who was most clearly, literally and figuratively, an “other.” Philp bears fruit in approaching him, riding with him, clarifying the scriptures for him. But didn’t the Eunuch also exhibit what it means to bear fruit? Wasn’t it the Eunuch who was reading the scriptures in the first place? Wasn’t it the Eunuch who was seeking God on that wilderness road, seeking God in spite of all the obstacles that stood in his way of being a convert to Judaism? Wasn’t it the Eunuch who pointed out the water for baptism?

It seems to me that both Philip and the Eunuch were branches that were bearing fruit. And while at first glance you would never suppose that they would be branches of the same vine, it turns out they were. They were. They were both abiding in the vine, bearing fruit, and they were in fact tangled up together. The fruit one bore affected and encouraged the other to bear even more.

We are called to remember that when we hear Jesus’ voice, and when we seek to follow in his footsteps, and be his disciples, that we are effectively branches of the true vine. And we are called as branches to bear fruit – fruit of compassion, discipleship, courage, self-sacrifice, determined love. But that call is not just about being a branch to the vine and nothing else, no one else. If we are branches, then we also need to remember that we are tangled up with a whole lot of other branches. And all of us are trying to bear fruit. Maybe the pruning comes when we are pushed to deal with branches we don’t like, or don’t want, or fear. Maybe we are pruned when we are challenged to change our minds or change our hearts. Being a branch to the true vine is messy. We’re going to get tangled up with other branches. We’re going to be pruned, cut back, so that our fruit will grow even more abundantly. We are going to have remain with the vine, even when it would seem so much easier to disentangle ourselves and fall away. But if we remain, if we abide, if we stay, if we allow ourselves to be pruned, oh the fruit we will bear. Oh, the blessed and glorious fruit.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”

Amen.