Sermon: Viticulture

Lectionary Year B, Fifth Sunday of Easter

Text: John 15:1-8

Introduction

This week, I learned how the word “Op-Ed” originated and what it means. First, the word is younger than I am, even if only by nine months. But more importantly, I had the wrong definition for it. Maybe I’m the only one here, but for my entire life, I thought “op-ed” was synonymous with “opinions and editorials.” But no. It is shorthand for “opposite the editorial page.” It originated with the New York Times, and in this week’s Opinion article explaining why they have chosen to retire, the piece begins:

The first Op-Ed page in The New York Times greeted the world on Sept. 21, 1970. It was so named because it appeared opposite the editorial page and not (as many still believe) because it would offer views contrary to the paper’s. Inevitably, it would do that, too, since its founders were putting out a welcome mat for ideas and arguments from many points on the political, social and cultural spectrums from outside the walls of The Times — to stimulate thought and provoke discussion of public problems.[1]

The Times made the decision to retire the term, because in the digital world, there is literally and physically, no longer an “opposite the editorial page.” Instead, they have switched to using “Guest Essays” for these signed pieces from authors outside the Times staff. It more accurately reflects what these pieces are and corrects the oft-mistaken idea that these opinion pieces are necessarily contrary to the editorial position.

This is just one personal example of an assumption that I made that was wrong. And its origin is younger than my own. So it shouldn’t be surprising that when we read texts in the Bible, we might make far more assumptions about them and they might not be entirely accurate.

I attended college in Napa County – where vineyards are everywhere, sometimes stretching as far as the eye can see. So you’d think I would have absorbed some ideas about how grapes are cultivated. But no.

You see, even though I saw the rather bare vines in the winter and very full vines by the end of summer, I had no idea about viticulture – the agriculture of growing grapes.

Part of it might have something to do with hearing many sermons and reading about the very text for this morning. I can’t recall specifics, but they all tended to focus on how we (as individuals) are the branches and that we need to keep connected to Christ so that we can bear fruit. And from that I assumed that the same branches were attached to the trunk year after year, and that the vinegrower merely pruned and trimmed the same branch year after year. I assumed that only when the branch, for whatever reason, stopped bearing fruit would it then be cut down.

I learned, however, that the branch that produces fruit is always in its second year, and that after producing fruit, it will never fruit again. Shoots, called canes, come out from the trunk and from the branches every season and some of these become branches for the next season when they become fruit-bearing branches. In order for the vine to produce the best and most fruit, most of the canes have to be pruned away and, depending on the type of viticulture, only a handful of canes are allowed to become branches. In some systems it may be as few as two canes. At the end of the fruiting season, after the harvest, all the second-year branches are cut down and discarded, often burned.

Discussion

As you might guess, this new knowledge dramatically altered the way in which I read today’s grape vine metaphor.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.”

Somehow, all this time I imagined that when Jesus said this, he meant that he was the trunk (and only the trunk), because if the rest of us are branches and we are to abide in him, he must be the trunk to which we are connected. But now I think that it is best to understand that Jesus is speaking of the entire grape vine plant as himself, the true vine.

“He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.”

All the old branches that have already borne fruit gets removed. The branches are not a one-to-one correspondence to individual Christians. May I suggest that perhaps the branches might more aptly refer to methods, practices, and even some traditions?

“Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”

Every branch that is entering the fruiting year will be trimmed of any extra, unnecessary growth, so that it can bear more fruit this year, and so that it can produce promising new canes for the following year on which more fruit will be borne.

I think that this may be closer to how the original audience of Jesus and John’s gospel would have understood this vine metaphor. None of the viticulture practices had to be explained to them, because they all knew it, and many had direct experience.

It may be likened to how fishing metaphors don’t have to be explained when used here, because most of us (even those of us who don’t fish) have observed and at least have cursory knowledge of how fishing in Southeast Alaska works. Whereas if you went to the middle of the Lower 48 and started telling a story using fishing metaphors that involved longlining, seining, gillnetting, your audience will probably be completely lost and make numerous assumptions based on their experience with fishing, which may be limited to lake and river sportfishing.

“You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.”

More precisely, the word cleansed is the root of the word prunes found in the previous sentence. Also important to note is that when Jesus says “you” in this entire section, the word is a collective plural. Reading in context, I think that Jesus is not primarily referring to individuals but to the community as a whole.

“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.”

Yes, part of abiding is each individual Christian’s connection with Christ. But in context, it seems more appropriate to interpret this as Jesus telling the entire community of faith that their collective effectiveness and fruitfulness depends on collectively abiding in him. What this abiding is, specifically in this part of Jesus’ speech, comes after today’s reading and is part of next week’s. Hint: it’s about love.

Although most of this section is addressed in the plural, verses 5 and 6 change to the singular form. The older RSV renders a more literal reading.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. [This is where the pronouns become singular.] He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.”

A cursory reading might seem that this text does, in fact, equate the branch to an individual. But a more careful reading shows that a simile is used within the metaphor. Jesus says the one who does not abide “is cast forth as [or like] a branch…” Jesus does not say that the individual is a branch. I think that this is a subtle, but important distinction.

But even more, the original audiences probably would have heard or read this as a shaming and rebuke of their community’s collective failure. In the collectivist world, it is the responsibility of the community to care and nurture all their members. For one of them to somehow escape abiding in Christ, is a collective failure. When we read the text from a Western, individualistic perspective, we frequently end up reading our own culture into it and making it about individual responsibility.[2]

The pronouns return to the collective plural.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

The reading concludes with a few of the results (or fruits) of the community abiding in Christ. It is not a blanket “yes” response to any request, but that the goals and desires of the church are so aligned with God’s that all the requests to be more loving witnesses, and to bear the fruit of love in the communities in which we are planted, will be answered.

Concluding Thoughts

One of the key changes to the grape vine metaphor that I now see is that the vine is never the same. It is always growing and changing. It is still the same plant, but the branches are in constant state of renewal and change. It is not any individual or groups that are specifically one branch or another, but collectively we are all a part of this ever-changing vine.

Even though the vine as a whole changes, there is a constant: the trunk that connects to the ground and draws up nutrients and water. There are a few unchanging elements of the Christian faith, and one specifically that next week’s reading makes more clear: God’s love. The implications of this will be discussed more thoroughly next Sunday.

In the meantime, if we take the approach of looking at the vine metaphor as encompassing the entire community, if we see this metaphor as one representing the lifecycle of birth, growth, maturity, death, and renewal, what does it mean for the church? I think that one of the aspects of Christ’s resurrection is the promise and power to meet the needs of every community in which Christ’s disciples are located. It also means that methods, ministries, and how we communicate needs to adapt and change to fit places, peoples, and times.

At one point in the lifecycle, it might mean spreading efforts broadly into many places. At other times it might mean paring back to strengthen the most promising efforts. As these mature, they bring a fruitful harvest of love. But then as times and people change, we must not be afraid to allow some things to die so that room may be made for better harvests in the future.

The New York Times is retiring the term “Op-Ed” that served it well for fifty years. But it no longer fits the context and is now a source of misunderstanding about the purpose of some of its content. It has changed the term for this content to “Guest Essays.”

In a similar manner, it may serve us as faith communities to look at how we do ministry – how we are currently attempting to fulfill Jesus’ command to abide in love and to love. Are there things we need to allow to die and for God to remove? Are there promising areas that could use some extra care and nurture? What is currently growing fruit where more concentrated effort could yield even more fruit?

John 12:24 records Jesus saying, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” I think that the seed metaphor and the vine metaphor could be similar. Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruit and an archetype of the resurrections that are supposed to be an ongoing part of the community that he birthed.

The one constant is God’s love for the world. As long as we abide in it, we should not be afraid of change and renewal that is inevitable and even, dare say, necessary everywhere else.

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[1] Opinion | Why the New York Times's Opinion Redesign Drops 'Op-Ed' - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[2] This interpretation based on application of collectivist responsibilities found in the parable of the Good Shepherd and the Prodigal as discussed in Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World; E. Randolph Richards and Richard James.