Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
The Rev. Drew Brislin
With the arrival of Spring that seems to last only a couple of weeks before the ensuing summer heat and Alabama humidity, so too has the season of planting arrived. The general rule, I think most agree with, is that you are to wait until Good Friday to plant. Now that Lent and Holy Week have come and gone, I have been able to turn some of my attention back to our yard. Yard work, like mowing, planting potting and creating a nice outdoor space to enjoy is a passion of mine. I love playing in the dirt. Allison is really good at putting a vision together and has a good eye for picking plants and flowers and visioning the backyard and I love to take that vision and try and make it come to life. I think we are a pretty good team that way. I have already planted some Pride of Mobile azaleas, potted hyrdrangeas and various other plants as we begin the greening of the yard. We love hydrangeas. We have a lot of different varieties and colors, and we are constantly looking for new varieties that can add beauty in diversity. Another plant that we often use during the summer, especially in our pots, are petunias of different varieties. They are a really quick way to add more diversity and color to a garden. Some flowers like petunias require pruning though to promote growth and flowering. Prior to potting some petunias for Allison’s mother, she began to prune them or what most people refer to as dead head them. She said that for a little bit they will look rather barren and ugly, however, it will result in an explosion of blossoming of the flowers and the plants will in the end look even better than before they were pruned. This process of dead heading requires not only the pruning of the spent flower but also the removal of the seed pod. This prevents the plant from putting energy into seed production and instead promotes flowering. As I thought about our Gospel reading this morning, I contemplated the pruning of the vine in our Lord’s parable and what misspent energy is Jesus trying to remove from our lives.
Our Gospel reading this morning sets us near the end of Jesus’ farewell discourse as he makes the last of his “I am” statements. He is continuing to prepare his disciples for the work that will be required of them in the wake of his absence. I think in an effort to keep them grounded, he wants to keep them connected to him and to each other. The theological term theosis is defined as the process through which believers become united to Christ’s divine nature and as a result become united with God. In giving them this image of connection, Jesus gives them an image of community. It is through this community that believers will become united to Christ’s nature through the Holy Spirit. This image of community that emerges in John’s gospel is an image of interrelationship, mutuality and indwelling. When ever I read this Gospel, I often could not help but imagine a big patch of kudzu wrapping around itself. I also used to read this Gospel and always contemplate or maybe more accurately fear that I might one day be the object of this divine pruning that I always contemplated with the kudzu. This is another one of those passages that I think has so often been maybe misinterpreted and weaponized and used to strike fear in so many so as to encourage good behavior out of fear being gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. I think the beauty of this imagery that Jesus imparts on us this morning is that we are already part of a vine. That there is no such thing as freestanding individuals. We are all interconnected and part of a community and as a result of this we all encircle one another. We are fruitful and that fruitfulness is the result of our relationship to the vine. What if the pruning is about all those things that hinder our relationship with Jesus? Jesus invites us into this theosis, this divine unity with this divine nature. During this past Lent we explored our relationships with technology, social media, news media and other various forms of technology that have come to take up so much of our attention. We may not have realized it, but when we were engaging our practices, I think we were doing a sort of pruning as we sought to remove those things that impeded our relationship with God and with each other. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit invite us into what Richard Rohr calls the divine dance or into divine participation in the Holy Trinity. Because we are made in God’s image we are called to be in a divine relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Rohr further says ‘that all authentic knowledge of God is participatory knowledge. That divine knowledge is actually an allowing of someone else to know in us, and through us, and for us, and even as us. This knowing does not inflate the ego but beautifully humbles it, teaching us patience, because even a little bit of spiritual knowledge goes a long way. God cannot be known objectively. One must subjectively submit themselves to participation in this divine knowing and we seek this divine knowing by seeking and serving Christ in one another.’ The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not so much to be the objects of worship but the way through which we worship. This morning our interconnected vine will grow as we welcome young Vivienne Jamieson and Ella Bradley Little as the newest members of the church. As we prune away the distractions of the world we are able to gaze on the beauty of the blooming church in these two beautiful blessings this morning. Just as Jesus sought to show his disciples the way to participate in this beloved community so too do Vivienne and Ella Bradley show us the path to participation in Christ’s beloved community and interconnectedness.
As we continue in this season of Easter, Jesus not only is continuing to reveal who he is but also who we are and what our role in this great new endeavor that God as the Holy Trinity is undertaking as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit seek to draw us into new relationship. To bear fruit is to act in love, which is always a communal act and to live as a branch is to live in a community shaped by love. In order for us to take our place in this relationship we must find our own seedpods and withering flowers that must be removed so that our energy might flow into those efforts and more importantly into the people that we are being called to serve and that we are being called to love. Let us find comfort in this season of pruning and deadheading as a time when beauty and love are revealed in the channeling of our energy toward one another.
Amen