‘Christ Is The Vine’, Wonderful to Think About
Abridge Worship Provided By: Rev. Jacob Shaw (Please note that this is not a verbatim account of our Sunday morning worship, but rather a condensed version for those at home to study and enjoy, Blessing)
Opening Prayer: Lord, You are the Light of the World, and you stepped down into to the darkness of the world we shifted into a fallen state. You stepped down to open our eyes, to help us see, that within this broken world, their is still the beauty of your finger prints, and a hope of a life spent with You! Amen.
Scripture Readings: Acts 8:26-40 and John 15:1-8
Acts 8:26-40
Philip and the Ethiopian
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Reflection:
The metaphor of Christ as the vine, and us as the branches gives us a wonderful image to think about. The vine being the centrality of the living plant, with the branches sourcing existence from the vine, begetting the growth of life. The vine delivers sturdiness and nutrients to branches so the branches can live and produce fruit.
This can be a wonderful image to hold because it reminds us of a few things. One, in faith we are part of a larger whole, a whole tree of life, branches, leaves, and fruit, which thrives together. In this new life sources from the Vine, we have a similar nature to Christ, (not a nature we can maintain on our own separate from Christ), but one that is only in completion when dedicated to the whole tree and the central vine. There is also the image of what happens when a branch falls, Jesus makes note of the branches that fall being burned. Maybe not our favorite idea to think about, but an important one, so we will look at this with seriousness.
What happens to the branches that fall from the tree? When they land away from the source of life, they begin to experience death. Bug and critters consume the bark, rot and mold set in, and the branch slowly gets consumed by the things, not of the tree. In contrast, when the branch is well attached to the vine and has that source of life, all manner of things can happen to the branch and the branch will endure. Wind, bugs, moss, and mold can attack the branch, even damage the branch, but the tree’s life will defend, heal and restore the branch for it purpose, to bear fruit.
And here is a very interesting thing, as we continue this metaphor, if a branch falls off a tree, if a good gardener comes quickly enough, they can reattach a limb which still has life in it to a tree, a graft it back on. You can even splice a branch from a different tree to a new tree and the trunk will share its life even though it was originally a different species.
Kind of reminds me of that sheep metaphor from last John 10:11-18. Where Jesus, the Good Shepherd would call sheep that once belonged to a different flock. Since the Vine, that is the Christ, is the source and image of human life, and human, no matter what tree they have been hanging out in, if grafted to the True Vine, will gain the life of the True Vine, but that means they need to fall away from their old source of life, their old way of being, their old flock, and join the new flock, the new and eternal life.
Neat how far this metaphor can go. And here is one more thing. It says at the end of our Gospel passage, this is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the branch, we are to, by the life given to us by the vine, produce fruit. Fruit is a source of new life, the vine continued again and again.
And when we look at this symbol of fruit, the fruit has to play out this seasonal ritual to gain life you know. It falls from the tree in its infancy, dies and is submerged into the soil, and rises in a life like the vine. Sounds a bit like our journey from the garden of Eden, and then our baptism into Christ’s death, doesn’t it. That process is for us to experience as we come to faith, but once we are part of the vine, the fruit bared comes from sharing the gospel with others. Being seen as Christ is, for others, allowing them to become like the seed, like the grafted branch, like the sheep that comes to the new flock, or whatever metaphor helps you come to terms with this.
The tree, the vine, this new life in Christ is a living force that is meant to grow, it is meant to flourish, it is meant to be fruitful, and multiply. We see this very fruitful nature happening in our Acts reading. Philip is called by God, directed by one of God’s angels to a major desert road. God brings Philip to this one man, an Ethiopian man. And, Philip is led by the Spirit to bring understanding to this man, about Jesus, in the case, and bring context to a metaphor prophecy from Isaiah.
This passage stresses the importance of an individual to God. God wants every person to become part of this new living tree, he wants every branch to bear the fruit to continue to expand the life of this vine into a whole garden. God is so concerned with each and every person, that he will guide is faithful to find them, the faithful just need to listen for God’s Voice, God’s Spirit, and God’s angels to direct them where to find those who need to hear the Gospel like this Ethiopian.
And here is the thing, the amazing part is, once you start trusting that Christ is the Vine, that you are a branch, and that God will use you to bare fruit, suddenly you will begin to see how God will line up everything for you to share the Gospel and bare those fruits, just as he did for Philip, He will help you in sharing the Gospel.
So let us take a moment of prayer to thing about the true vine….
Living God, we pray to You this day after witnessing in the Scriptures Philip telling the good story of the Son. The Lamb, the True Vine, we ask as Your branches, as members of the flock, to help us feel empowered by the living water that You led us to, to help us bear the fruits of the Spirit, in order to support our efforts to produce fruit for the garden. Your garden! And we give thanks to know You have welcomed us to participate in the restorative salvation, a new creation and new life, but one story which we love to tell. Amen.
Homework: Pray and reflect upon the nature of Christ as the True Vine, and ask yourself if you feel like you are baring fruit for the Kingdom? If you feel any void if your fruit baring, know God loves you, and Jesus is here to guide you in your effort to production for the kingdom. If you need help on this reflective journey email: minister@mountainviewunited.ca
Closing Prayer: God, help us this week to remember how Jesus is the source of the spiritual sustenance and the living water which needs to flow through us. Help us to rest in this knowledge and welcome the life amongst the garden of the Kingdom. Amen.
Meme of the Week:
Thank you for joining us this week. If you have any thoughts, feelings, or prayers, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. Please be respectful of others’ posts and make room for all those joining us.
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