The Gospel for The Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 1, 2005)
John 15:1-8
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch—and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Metaphor
Ghandi said, "I am the wedge that conscience will drive between my people and the British Empire."
Well, no, Ghandi never actually said that.
But he was.
A Reflection
Marcus Borg in several of his books makes the distinction between Jesus the man, the before-Easter Jesus --- and Jesus the Christ, after Easter. Notably, our attention on Jesus the man is made stronger when we take Him as flesh-bone-blood human right through to His last breath. If Jesus is God masquerading as a human, we have no identification with the human who acts always as God would act; we have God, acting as God, playing the puppeteer with a flesh-bone-blood puppet. And what's the point of that?
The gospel attributed to John is almost certainly the last (chronologically) of the Canonical gospel texts, and it shows its maturity through the beauty of its prose and the majesty of its language. This gospel soars with its mystical imagery, from "the Word made flesh," right up to "I am the vine," and beyond.
Are the "true vine" words true? Yes. Did Jesus say them? Probably not.
Jesus, over and over, stressed unity with his followers. He tore down barriers of class and culture and gender, sitting at the well with a Samaritan woman, eating with tax collectors, revealing the oppression of the Temple elite over the poor of Palestine who were his sisters and brothers. Jesus was not a separator, he was a unifier.
So would he want his followers to see themselves spiritually connected to him as branch to vine? Of course. But would he un-lovingly rip an underperforming branch away and burn it? Would Jesus do that?
The early church's writers are putting metaphorical words into the historical Jesus' mouth. And did the little-c church get a few things a bit off-kilter? I think so. Jesus, the prophet and preacher of love and forgiveness, was ever ready to offer to anyone another opportunity to love, or forgive. And his supreme sacrifice of love, given as all he had left to give:
"I give you a new commandment; you must love one another as I have loved you."
The Collect
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
7:58:46 PM 
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