Sermon onJohn 15:1-8

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

At first, our Gospel reading sounds nice: an idyllic metaphor of a vine and branches, a vine grower and fruit.

But as the reading goes on, Jesus starts talking about pruning and cleansing and withering and fire. The metaphor turns ominous, and the message seems to become threatening: “bear fruit or else.”

I didn’t grow up in a “fire and brimstone” tradition where the threat of hell was dangled over my head to keep me on my best behavior, but still, I have a hard time not reading this fearfully.

When I read“Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned,” it’s easy to read it as being about individuals who either make the cut to get into heaven or are sent to a fiery afterlife. That concept is so steeped in our culture, from Medieval and Renaissance writers and artists who tried to map out hell to the Puritans who tried to live a strict way of life to please an angry God to many today who stir up zeal for evangelism by teaching people how to “save the souls” of their neighbors, as if it were our work and not God’s.

But if this passage is about heaven and hell, then it sounds like we have to do things to earn our salvation: we have to bear fruit or we can expect to wither and be burned.

But that goes against God’s grace. Ephesians reminds us “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”[1]

We don’t have to do anything to be saved—that’s God’s doing. If we’re worrying that we’ve done something wrong or haven’t been bearing enough fruit to get into heaven (or judging our neighbor’s fruit or lack thereof), then we’re making ourselves into God.

We celebrate during Easter that Jesus broke the power of death. So, we can rest in God’s grace, safe in the knowledge that we can’t do anything to make God love us any more or any less.

This Gospel reading is not about earning our way into heaven or finding a way to avoid hell.

It’s about our relationship with Jesus and what follows naturally from that.

Jesus spoke these words the night before he died. He knew what was about to happen, and he was trying to reassure his disciples that he would always be with them.

This wasn’t about warning them to “bear fruit or else.” This was about reminding them of their deep connection with him and how much they had grown by following him for the past three years.

The vineyard isn’t so much a metaphor for heaven as a description of the Beloved Community here and now.

God is the vine grower, who lovingly tends them for abundance and their health. Pruning helps plants become fuller and grow in the right direction. The words “prune” and “cleanse” are related in Greek, so when Jesus said that the disciples had been “cleansed” by the word Jesus had said to them, it means pruned.

While Jesus did say that he is the vine and his disciples are the branches, what if it wasn’t such a precise metaphor? (Peter’s branch is over here, Andrew’s is over here.) What if instead, the community of Jesus followers was represented by all the branches together?

Then, pruning a twig over here isn’t cutting off an individual, but perhaps a part of the ministry of the community that isn’t working. Or something that worked for a while but needs to be let go of to make room for something new to grow.

This congregation has looked very different over the years and has impacted our surrounding community in many different ways at different times. If we insist that everything stays exactly the same, then the vine suffers, because it isn’t allowed to change or grow.

The Beloved Community is full of fruit because of the careful tending of the vine grower, and it is grounded in Jesus the vine. The vine nourishes the branches and draws nutrients from the soil of creation. You can’t have the vine without the branches or the branches without the vine. And while, yes, things can grow in the wild without someone to tend them, the vine is more fruitful with the vine grower who shapes it and cares for it.

Instead of a fire and brimstone threat, this metaphor becomes a picture of a healthy, abundant community that bears fruit for the sake of others.

And we get to be a part of that. Safe and secure in God’s love for us, we as part of the Beloved Community bear fruit. It’s what a plant does—it’s part of how God created our beautiful world.

And yes, the vine grower is working to make the vine bear more fruit, but it’s not the type of productivity our society values. It’s not the grind culture that leads to burnout.

Instead, it’s the abundance that comes from community. Its fruits are love and peace and justice and joy. That fruit doesn’t come from working ourselves to the bone. It comes from depending on each other, having honest conversations, looking out for each other’s well-being.

It is Jubilee. It is the way of Sabbath.It is God’s shalom.

These, like any good fruit, take time and patience.

So, what’s a small way we can bear fruit this week?

Not out of fear and not even really by our own power, because God fosters abundance in us.

Let’s share our joy.

We started out our Sabbath theme of 2024 with learning about Sabbath, then we tried on some restful Sabbath practices during Lent. Now, in the season of Easter, we can share some of the joy ripening in us from letting our bodies, minds, spirits, and communities rest.

Hopefully by slowing down a little, you’re noticing more things that bring you joy.

Joy is different from happiness.Brene Brown defines joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.”[2] She admits that a research-based consensus on what defines happiness is harder to find, but she defines happiness as “feeling pleasure often related to the immediate environment or current circumstances.”[3]

We could, and probably will at some point, delve deeper into joy vs. happiness, but for now, let me just say that joy is something deeper than happiness that can be experienced even during very difficult times in our lives.

We can experience joy apart from being happy. It’s worth noting that “joy” is listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians, but “happiness” is not.[4] That’s not to say that happiness is bad—on the contrary—but there’s something deeper about joy.

So, when I say we are focusing on sharing our joy in this season, I am not saying we have to paste on a happy face for the sake of convincing our neighbors that once we start following Jesus we don’t have problems anymore.

Considering what Jesus went through the day after our Gospel reading, he would be the first to admit that the way of the Beloved Community is not easy and may not bring happiness. But there is still joy in God to be experienced even amid the hard things of this life.

So, in the spirit of sharing our joy, I want to start including a section at the bottom of our weekly announcement email all about joy. I’ll start us off for the first week or two, and then I’ll start inviting you to share what’s bringing you joy.

It doesn’t need to be long—just a sentence or two.

It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering—perhaps an everyday moment that made you pause with gratitude.

Here are a few of mine this week:

1.    Seeing some sunflower sprouts pop up in my garden

2.    Watching my cat chase a bug while I was writing this sermon

3.    Listening to the great discussion during last week’s book study

Like I said, I’ll start us off this week, but start noticing what’s bringing you joy. I’ll be in contact with you soon enough.

But let’s not stop at the newsletter. Let’s share our joy with each other and those we encounter in our daily lives. The more attentive we are to joy, the more we’ll experience it. And the more we share it with others, the more they can notice joy in their lives. That is a way the fruit of the Beloved Community grows.

So, rest assured that Jesus our vine abides in us and us in him.

Let the joy of that relationship bear fruit.

And be sure to share that joy with those around you.

[1]Ephesians 2:8-9

[2] Brown, Brene. Atlas of the Heart,p. 205.

[3] Brown, 207.

[4]Galatians 5:22-23