John 15:1-8; Acts 8:29-31

A grace delivery system

I think you would agree that overall our treatment of animals is becoming more humane.   There is a well known saying for politicians and bureaucrats:”If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” I think many people feel that way: they prefer their pets to people. For one thing, in most cases people’s love is conditional.  We have a cat and it maybe that our cat’s love maybe somewhat conditional.  With dogs it’s a different matter.  Sometimes their loyalty is so strong they will brutally hurt strangers.

People also love their plants, but it’s a different relationship.  We may refer to the personality of our pets, but not to the personality of our plants.  “Vegetative state” is one of the only references used for humans other s than “houseplant” and “wallflower.”  None of them are positive.  Yet in today’s text in the Gospel of John Jesus compares Himself to a grapevine. Jesus is comparing Himself to a plant!  Not only that, He is comparing His followers to plants.  Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.  Through Jesus the grace of God comes to us and allows us to bear fruit in life. It is a simple illustration everyone in the audience would have grasped.  And we have to understand that the wine the grapes were made out of was not a social drink or something to help you forget all the embarrassments of the day, it was one of the life giving fluids necessary for survival with well water and goat’s milk.

I chose to talk about this lectionary text after Maurine sent me an article entitled “Smart Plants” from a recent issue of National Wildlife (pp.36-40).  Turns out plants might be a lot smarter than we, that they may be able to communicate with other species.  Janet Marinelli claims that Douglas firs are “..using extensive underground fungal networks to share water and nutrients with other plants based on need… The roots of these and any other plant species monitor at least 15 environmental variables, including moisture, nutrients, soil microbes and temperature. Such plants also essentially create a three- dimensional perspective of their surroundings to tap necessary resources and optimize growth.”

Just under the outer bark of the vine and the branches are two layers necessary for the survival of the plant: the xylem and phloem. The xylem carries water and nutrients up from the roots, through the vine, into the branches and the leaves. The phloem carries sugars, the products of photosynthesis, down from the leaves, through the branches, through the vine, to the roots. It is a reciprocal arrangement of survival, nourishment and fruit bearing. (Susan Palo Cherwien, Christian Century April 29, 2015, p. 20).”  The Mystic Meister Eckhart said that a “plum brings forth plums not by an act of will but because it is in its nature to do so.

Friends, according to our faith, you and I are destined to bring fruit and to flower in this life. We are meant to flourish.  That is God’s intention for us.  Just like some plants, we sometimes only flourish under stress or at least show our best and most beautiful colors.  But grace has to find its way.  Grace has to have a delivery system.   The vine and branches must we healthy.  Christians believe that God’s grace flows best through our faith in Christ, that Jesus is the ultimate grace delivery system because in Jesus the Christ God showed Who God truly was and was about.  Susan Palo Cherwien says: “Through this connection to the vine of life, the community of faith receives the creative and merciful energy of God, that same love that flowed though Christ. And because of this creative and loving connection, we will bear fruit (Palo, p.20).”

But sometimes the grace delivery systems get damaged, blocked or destroyed.   We talked about the Vietnam War we are commemorating this week and how through stupidity, pride, stubbornness and hatred grace was blocked for so long and millions of people died as a result in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and other parts of South Asia. God did not want that.  Just like God does not want the tragedy In Nepal or the hatred in Baltimore. But God’s grace finds a way, new pathways and networks are created and Vietnamese immigrants are making a huge impact on the world, sending home billions to their country.  Today you have a chance to donate to the aid work in Nepal.

Friends, some or perhaps many of us have received an abundance of God’s grace.  But sometimes we block it because of our selfishness and ego and fear and anxiety.  Let us forget that we are here to flourish and allow others to flourish, not to be withering branches blowing around in the storms of life.  So my question for you today is: where and how are you blocking God’s grace from making you better?  What are the ways you are blocking what God wants to do with your talents in making others flower and flourish?  May God give us wisdom.