Today’s Scripture:

Psalm 22:25-31     Acts 8:26-40     1 John 3:18-24     John 15:1-8

 

            It’s that time of year when students are completing their studies.  Those being promoted from 8^th grade are asked, “Where are you going to High School?”  Those graduating from high schools and universities are questioned about their plans in life.  Suddenly they too will find themselves somewhere, studying or working, and will wonder what brought them there and what is it they are to do in life.

 

            Two weeks ago four youth stood before this congregation and professed their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  This week another seven adults are making the same confession of faith in our services.  Two other adults are transferring their membership to Immanuel from other congregations.  We rejoice with these persons as they profess their faith and join the fellowship here at Immanuel.  It brings many of us to the day when we too professed our faith.

 

            It is such a great feeling when one knows how completely all of his sinfulness is forgiven and looks forward to the day when Jesus himself will come, sending his angels to gather up all believers to be taken up with him to reside forever in his father’s house.  So, in the meantime, what am I doing here in Des Plaines, Illinois, for the remainder of my time on earth?  Why doesn’t God just pick me up right now and get it all over with?

 

            The disciples were anxious too.  Here was Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, walking and talking and teaching and performing miracles and declaring that the kingdom is near.  They too were eager for whatever it is God is about to do, to complete the job and take us into eternal bliss immediately.  Or, after Easter and the resurrection, do we go back to our old lives and just wait for the rapture to come.

 

            Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  You, the faithful believers in Christ, are the ones who are going to bear the fruit.   This producing new life is going to happen through you.  You are not always going to understand how all this works.  You are the ones through which it is all going to happen.  So let’s take a look at this vine and these branches.

 

            When you walk up to a plant, you usually see the branches first.  From a distance you do not see trunks, but the green foliage of the trees.  When you go to Wrigley Field you do not see the actual vines but the many branches and leaves that grow along those outfield walls that opponents’ batted balls soar over.  A few weeks ago on Easter, we did not see the stems as much as we saw the blossoms of so many beautiful flowers that adorned the chancel area.  We are attracted to the fruits of the branches.  A bare vine or stump is rather unattractive.

 

            Jesus calls you branches in faith in him.  The world is going to see Jesus in your life.  That is why you are here in this world.  That is why you are called to faith in Jesus, to bear his fruits so others will grow in that love and faith too. 

The relationship between the vine and the branches is a vivid description of the role God has for your lives.  The purpose of each branch is to produce fruit.  In Jesus’ calling you his branches, he is also telling you how deeply he loves you, connecting yourself to him, to show you his purpose in your lives. 

 

            As the vine, Jesus brings life and sustenance to the branches.  There is no substitute for this vine.  It is the only one of its kind.  Nothing else can take its place and do what it does.  What Jesus is telling you is that he is the source of your new life given in faith and in baptism.  As the source of that life, he supplies you, as a vine does to a branch, with everything you need to grow and produce fruit.  You cannot and do not do any of it by yourself, even though it certainly feels as if you do.  Jesus, as the vine, supplies it all.  It is no different from last week in Psalm 23 where our Lord as our Shepherd provides all that we need.  Jesus tells us emphatically that he is the source as he refers to himself no less than fourteen or fifteen times in this first verse alone.

 

            In verse three Jesus tells us how he nurtures his branches.  It is through his word.  Jesus comes to us in his word.  It is his word connected with water that brings the washing of sins in baptism.  It is his word connected with bread and wine that brings his body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.  It is through hearing his word alone that the miracle of faith occurs within one’s heart.  It is by his word alone that sins are forgiven.   Such joy we have knowing these things are all done for and in us.  Now what?

 

            Jesus says, the one who remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.  Note the tense of the word “remains.”  It is an ongoing action.  Faith is not a one-time thing, “now you are saved, go on with life and all will be well.”  Jesus is very clear that you remain in him.  It is an ongoing action.  It is not to take a vacation.  And it is only by remaining in him, as a branch that remains connected to the vine, that the fruit is produced. 

 

            What is this fruit we are to produce?  God speaks through Paul as he describes these fruits as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  [Galatians 5:22]  The fruit of the light that Jesus brings into your life is righteousness and truth.  [Ephesians 5:9]  As you know the love of God in Jesus Christ, you respond to him in a changed life that shares these good things he has given to you with others.  God brings them to you in and through Jesus Christ alone.  And, the purpose of this fruit is to bring glory to God.  What brings glory to God?  Other people receiving these fruits from the branches and coming to know that they are gifts not from men, but from God himself.  Bringing other souls to hear the good news of Jesus and believing in him brings glory to the father who sent him.

 

 

            What does this mean in personal lives?  As the unproductive branches are removed from the vine, in repentance and following God’s commands, faithful Christians have unproductive branches pruned from their lives.   Those are branches or behaviors that do not produce the fruits of the Spirit that God gives.  Just as we prune the dead and unproductive branches from shrubs, flowers, and trees each year to make room for new growth, Christians cut off old sinful behaviors to make room for new life in Christ.  We cannot do this on our own.  We need constant nourishment from the vine, remaining in God’s word through faithful attendance to hear his messages in services, personal reading and devotions, and group devotions and Bible Study.  The fruits of faith are the actions of God’s love shared with others directly, through faithful service to God in various ways and in gifts that support the mission of proclaiming the love of Jesus to others.

 

            What does this mean in our congregational life at Immanuel?  As we are in God’s word he will lead us by cutting away activity that does not strengthen faith in each other and proclaim God’s love to others.  Sometimes that is difficult as we do have such sentimental attachments to different activities well established at Immanuel.  But, as we do in our own hearts, we need to prune hard feelings, dead activity that stands in the way of viable mission, and nurture the branches that produce the fruits of God’s love.  

 

Are we responding to God’s love to us in giving just a portion of ourselves to him in faithful service here at Immanuel?  Are we responding to God’s unbounded love to us in faithful tithes and offerings at Immanuel?  Are we responding to God’s love to us out of duty to maintain a church or out of love to bring the good news to Jesus to souls who do not know him? 

 

            Jesus did not sit back home in Nazareth and wait for all of Israel to come to him.  Instead, he went out to all of the villages, even into Samaria, to bring the message of God’s kingdom to all.  Likewise, we are not to sit back and wait for people to walk in the door and grow their own fruit here.  We are to branch out, like the vine that travels across the fence, to bring the good news of Jesus to others.

 

            Today we struggle with maintaining the mission at Immanuel, financially and with those ready and willing to serve in service and leadership positions in many ways.   One of the reasons is I haven’t always brought these issues to the pulpit.  One of the reasons is that we are too good of Lutherans, limiting invitations to serve or participate to those we know really well and not being bold to pick up the phone and call someone we don’t know all that well.  Some of the reasons are; someone else will do it, I don’t think I am good enough, what does the church need with my time and/or money anyway, If they want to come they will on their own, I go to church, why do I need to support Lutheran Hour Ministries or LWML projects, we didn’t do it that way before, we’ve always had this or that and need to even if no one comes. 

 

            This congregation has made a big step in an amount of friendliness to visitors.  This congregation continues to make big steps as so many reach out in many ways to support, encourage, and strengthen other members and friends of Immanuel in various ways.  This congregation is made of just short of seven hundred loving and caring people who confidently know that Jesus died for all their sins and will come to take them to be with him. 

 

            This congregation has fallen short over the past six months to keep current with our own expenses and completely neglected mission support to our district and synod who have cut back dramatically mission outreach locally and throughout the world.  This congregation and our synod have fallen short over the past forty years as Lutheran Hour broadcasts and productions have fallen from prime time airings and thousands knowing the love of Jesus through them to obscure and unproductive times and channels right here in the third largest media market in the nation. 

 

            This congregation however has members whose dream it is to broadcast our services on local cable and internet access to bring the true word of Jesus into common homes in this community.  But, this congregation has borrowed against gifts and memorials, using funds that are intended to promote projects as that to be used instead to pay salaries and utility bills.  This congregation knows the importance of music, that an over forty year tradition of hymns to the neighborhood is continued and rededicated this week in a new carillon given through a generous gift to God’s glory at Immanuel.  This congregation responds in love to so many projects from picking up litter on the grounds, changing the sign on the front lawn, folding bulletins, serving coffee and treats, fixing things, cleaning the church, ushering, preparing the altar for services, and yet falls short in leaders and hosts for Bible Studies and officers in this congregation.  This congregation responds weekly by many praying with and for others, reaching out in the most loving of ways as the prayer list is circulated on Thursdays via e-mail.  This congregation and its members are branches attached to Jesus, our vine, our source of all good things both of this world and in faith for eternity.  It is a joyous and loving congregation.

 

            Each one of us, beginning with your pastor and including the youngest of our children to the oldest of our members (3 @ 99), is called by Jesus in this passage to clear out the dead wood, the dead branches in our personal lives and in our congregation.  The only way to do that is being connected with Jesus in his word and living in his word.  That is why we are here, to share his love in any of countless ways to others. 

 

            In forestry there is a practice called select cut.  What looks like a bunch of brush and not healthy trees at all is turned into a forest that looks full and rich.  The unproductive plants are identified and removed, leaving the most productive to grow to the fullest.  When individuals and congregations remain connected to Jesus as the vine, being nurtured daily through his word, God cuts out the unproductive branches of our lives through that word.  He builds up and produces the good fruit through that same word of his love as it nourishes, strengthens, and grows in the hearts of believers. 

 

            You are here for that very purpose, to share this love of Christ that you know so well in your hearts with others.  Amen.