The strange beauty of human connection
Easter 5B | John 15:1-8
Vines, growth, God, participation, pruning, fire, glorified, become my disciples.
Jesus offers an image from the natural world to speak of a relationship that transcends nature. Which means our vision of the image must transcend nature, too. In other words, don’t be literal.
It isn’t easy, of course. The image is so defining—so literal itself. It draws us into thinking of our connections to God, each other. The tendrils that tie us and wind about us, creeping up the walls and spreading throughout the garden.
Jesus is the vine, connecting the earth to the fruit. But God isn’t the earth—God is in everything. The earth, the vine, the branches, the fruit. And the bees that pollinate, the birds that peck, and the squirrels that nibble. And even in the gardener who cusses out those squirrels for eating all the cherry tomatoes.
Jesus uses an image to show connection—us to God through him. But he also wants us to see the scope of God’s work in the world. That it isn’t restricted by a mediator, but boundless and permeates everything.
This is a big, bold image wrapped in delicate paper.
Of course, there are several things that draw our attention. And it probably isn’t the image of Jesus as the vine itself.
The pruning and casting into fire parts are far more evocative. And we are nothing if not predictably self-absorbed. Worried about the nature of God. And our place in the arrangement. Whether we’re the dead weight sapping the nutrients from the vine. Or how we might be pruned to better grow—knowing growth is always full of growing pains.
I know some of us worry about defining the bounds for God. What God is allowed to do and still count as “good.” Or how consistent their nature is with what we know about them. You know, watching the boundaries to make sure God is suitably within them.
And when we hear about separation, cutting people off from grace, we go, Woah, woah, woah, hold up! What’s going on here?
We want good to be good, right? And for all to be redeemed, no one gets left behind, right?
Great questions. Tough questions. But not the purpose of the teaching. Which is, instead, about contending with evil, not judging the limits of good. Speaking to what doesn’t contribute to our common growth. The things which aren’t healthy.
We can name things. Like selfishness, violence, lying, stealing, being a jerk.
But it is more than pruning bad habits.
It’s about making us a better people.
I’m not good at pruning. But not because it has anything to do with talent—or attitude. But because I haven’t learned it. And intuition only takes us so far.
I don’t know what the plant is supposed to look like.
And I think that is where we have a lot of trouble. Because either we don’t like the idea of our having a “supposed to look like” for ourselves or that we do know what we’re supposed to look like and have a rebellious streak. So we’re like, I know I’m supposed to be good, but…I just don’t want to.
We all know that feeling of going to the doctor and hearing about our weight, our habits, things we ought to change about ourselves. By ourselves. That we already know about ourselves. But can’t ever do for ourselves.
What’s missing is always so clear. That we’re just fitting into our world and our world is saying back: Good luck, bruh.
All this worry about ourselves, pruning, separating, perfecting, fixing, doing, making, changing, building everything up ourselves about ourselves for ourselves by ourselves and we’re missing the most elementary part of the story, about our faith itself. It is right there, in plain sight.
We aren’t alone. In Christ there is no “ourselves”. Ever. Ever.
This is an image of a network.
If Jesus is the vine and we are branches, then we’re all connected! There is no alone. It isn’t about me. None of this is! Not in isolation.
Which means it isn’t about your weight or your habits. It isn’t about your orientation, race, age, ability, or status.
The image is entirely about connection. About relationship.
“Abide in me as I abide in you” he says.
Our obsessions are so far off, it is embarrassing. Because this is about the opposite! It is an image of intimacy, proximity, closeness. About Jesus being inseparable from you and you from him. About our being connected through him to one another.
We are part of the same organism. That’s the nature of the image.
And as much as we fear about being cut off, that isn’t the point. It isn’t the plan. And it isn’t how this works.
We’re networked, tied to each other by the vine, and made one. So we are all in this. And we want us to be healthy.
We are made in the image of God.
But not as copies. Remember, God is in everything. We aren’t connected to God because of the vine. God is already there!
The vine helps us see our connection to everything. Each other. Our world. The squirrels and birds. And the servers and baristas. To our neighbors sleeping on the streets and those across the street. Our school board and councils and local news. Everything and everyone.
Growing up, whenever we’d see the bumper sticker: “God is my copilot,” my Dad would say “You’re in the wrong seat!”
God isn’t endorsing the way we do things. Blessing us with power or condemning us with poverty.
God loves us and dreams for us to love each other the same way. To love our connectedness, our network of branches from a vine that is the glory of God.
This is about us and finding a way to love who we are together. Our connectedness in Christ and our place in creation.
In our baptismal covenant, we affirm our commitment to respect the dignity of every human being. Because our culture so isolates us, divides us, and individualizes us. Making us into each. So our first step is recognizing we are commanded to respect the dignity of each person.
Only then can we grow up. To see our connectedness and our responsibility. Not only how alike we are. Or how that person could be us. But that we aren’t separated by anything real. We are of one vine.
Then we can begin to respect us. Inseparable. From God and one another.
Indeed, we are children of God, a divine family, all one, and made for love.