"Abiding in the Vine" John 15:1-17

The Pruning Process - 15:1-4

How I remember my first coaching lesson about pruning rose bushes. I proudly showed a church member how I had reshaped the bushes and cut away some the runners that had become unmanageable. The person said, "You didn't prune this. You need to cut it back much more than that." I said, "If I do what you say, it will look bare and ugly." He said, "For now. But in a few weeks you will like what you see. Trust me." He was right, of course. God uses the tough times in our lives as pruning experiences, too. He doesn't send them, but he can and does use them. When I look back, my faith and my greater ministry have been built not as much on my celebrations and victories as my struggles and losses. Don't you just hate that? But I guess if we're going to have difficulties, we might as well get something good out of it. But there is one qualifier: we must be abiding in the vine - nurturing our relationship with God through prayer, study, and obedient action. Trials in themselves do not quarantee positive benefit unless we are open to them doing so.

It's All About Fruit 15:5-8

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in dealing with people: lots of sincere intentions, lots of attention to how we look, etc. But, in the end, what does the fruit look like? Are we demonstrating a growing faith and changed life? Are we loving some people we didn't used to love? Are we blessing people and situations in the name of Christ? Are we standing against those things that degrade and tear down? Branches that don't bear fruit aren't productive or useful. And our lack of fruit betrays a bad connection with the vine. We can't just decide, "Hey, I'll be fruitful and productive today." Fruitfulness is a developmental concept: requiring nutrition, water, cultivation and growth.

The Best Fruit of All 15:9-11

Agape love is such an amazing and revolutionary concept, a love that is unconditional, self-sacrificing, vulnerable, resilient, gentle and tough.
But love is more than an emotion or a disposition, it is active, obedient to God's call and to the mandate of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells his disciples to love each other as he has loved them. It would be worth surveying the ministry of Jesus with his disciples and noting how he loved them: his patience with their doubts and misunderstandings, his willingness to confront attitudes that were contrary to the kingdom, his taking the hits for disciple failures, his willingness to stay in there with those who would deny and betray, etc.

Friendship with Jesus 15:12-17

A song that has taken force internationally in the church is called "I Am a Friend of God." It sings,

Who am I that you are mindful of me
That you hear me, when I call
Is it true that you are thinking of me
How you love me, it's amazing
CHORUS:
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend

We are friends not just because we are loved by Jesus, but also because Jesus has let us fully in on who he is and what he is doing - and invited us into it. And all of this has been at Christ's initiative. He has chosen us.

That leads to another issue: Who is chosen? John Calvin taught that God's election was such that we really could not refuse his choosing of us, that God's choice was made and people were chosen for eternal life or eternal condemnation. As United Methodists, we disagree. We believe that there were those who chose not to follow Jesus even if Jesus chose them. In other words, we can refuse grace and often do. At the same time, we believe in prevenient grace, the grace that begins with God's wooing us into relationship with Him. In the words of John's first love, "It's not that we loved God, but that he loved us first." Chosenness is about initiative not about determinism or lack of choice. I'll stop here for now.