Vine and Branches

April 29, 2018, The Fifth Sunday of Easter


Gospel Lesson: John 15:1–8
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

This is the 500th Year of the Protestant Reformation which started when Martin Luther wrote and posted his famous 95 Theses. Luther went on to write many, many more things: books, pamphlets, letters, and sermons. Today I want to introduce to you one of his little books, entitled, “A Simple Way to Pray.” He wrote the book for his friend, Peter Beskendorf who was his barber. Peter had asked Luther to teach him how to pray, and so he wrote this little book. He gave samples of his own prayers based on the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. The prayer method had four points: Instruction, Thanksgiving, Confession, and Prayer. Today I want to show how this prayer method works using today’s Gospel lesson where Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.”

Instruction, Thanksgiving, Confession, and Prayer.

Instruction. Jesus instructs us about his relationship with us. There is the vine, the branches, and the fruit. Just as there can be no fruit if a branch is not connected to the vine, a person can do no good thing unless connected to Jesus. Just as a branch needs the nutrients of the vine or the tree, a person needs the love of God, the Holy Spirit, and the nurture of God. A good vinedresser takes good care of his vineyard. He prunes the vine, that is, he cuts off dead branches so that the good branches will bear even better fruit. God the Father is the Good Vinedresser. He takes care of us so that we bear better fruit. And so that our lives are more pleasing to him, he cuts off our bad habits and sinful ways. We are connected to Jesus by faith, so if we have no faith we are cut off from him, and our end is like a branch that withers and is thrown into the fire and burned: hell fire. In faith we abide in Jesus and so his word of promise and gospel abide in us. Jesus tells us to pray for whatever we wish, and what else could we wish for than to bear much fruit for Jesus?

Thanksgiving. We thank God that through faith we are connected to Jesus. We thank him that the Holy Spirit has filled us with the love and grace of God so that we might live lives pleasing to Him. We are thankful for his promise made to us in our baptism to take good care of us. Sometimes we feel God’s clippers. We feel the Law of God accusing us of sin. We feel the Law of God trying to curb us so that we stay on the correct path of God. In this we see the love of God who wants to discipline us, and so we are thankful. And we are also thankful for the people who have connected us to Jesus.

Confession. It is time to examine the fruit of our lives. If fruit is love, then we confess that we he have not loved God with all our heart and soul and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves, in what we have done and what we have left undone. That love is just like little, dried-up, rotten grapes. Or like sour grapes, we have made other people miserable by what we do or say or how we treat them. We cheat others by looking sweet and beautiful on the outside, but inside there is no taste because our lives are lies. Or perhaps we try to be the vinedresser and we start cutting off branches that get in our way. The trouble is that we do not know the hearts of others, and we could damage the faith, even the salvation, of someone else. Or worse, we cut ourselves off from Jesus. We do this when we cut ourselves off from the word of God, from church, from the sacraments, from other Christians. We can make this honest confession because we know that Jesus was cut off from life when on the cross, but rose on the third day in order to forgive us and to reconnect himself with us. He abides in us and so we can abide in him.

Prayer. O Lord God, keep me steadfast in faith and fruit. Give me the Holy Spirit in order to bear much fruit for you and for others. Give me strength to endure the times of discipline and testing which you send me that are meant to help me bear more fruit. Give me wisdom so that I might guide others in order that they too might become connected to your saving grace. Bless those who work in your vineyard: the pastors, teachers, evangelists, missionaries, elders, deacons, deaconesses, church council members, organists, acolytes, readers, singers, babysitters, cooks and cleaners. Bless this branch of the Vine that is in Okinawa. Give us guidance and hope. Give to all of us all the various fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, etc. Give health and strength and healing to those whom we love and care about. In this 500th Year of the Reformation, we ask you to continue to send workers and reformers into your vineyard the church who teach us to pray and who help us to keep abiding in you, our Lord and Savior.

Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy, through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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