Power Vines

John 15:1-11

  

            This past week of widespread power outages inspires me to ask a question of us this morning -- where are the power lines for our church?

There are power lines threaded throughout all of the communities where we live and work.    We generally do not take notice of their power-full current carrying presence … until they get damaged and we lose our light, our heat, our hot water, our sense of security and our air of normalcy.   These past several days we’ve certainly been forced to take notice.    Untold numbers of autumn-leafed tree branches were suddenly adorned with several inches of heavy wet snow from a hundred-year Saturday storm.     As very, very many broke off they brought thick black electric vines down with them.   Cautiously driving around in the aftermath revealed these snapped snakes and provided a narrative as to why the electric grid was devastatingly shut down most all the week.   I know I’ll not soon forget the image and experience of driving on Parker Road and barely passing under an arc of low-bent power line from a long, broken branch.     

With interrupted power came interrupted life.    Roads and schools and stores and work places were closed.    Regular routes and routines were anxiously altered.    Finding an open gas station was meandering guesswork.   We worried about ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors.    And we waited with a tremendously uncomfortable feeling of being at the mercy of the power company as they rolled out the massive restoration process.    

Keep everything you just experienced this difficult week in mind as we go back to the inspired question -- where are the power lines for our church?    Our sanctuary, Community House, and manse sat dark and cold for about five days.     But does this mean our power lines as a church were down?

Let’s turn to our Bibles for an answer.   Specifically, let’s revisit the Good News of Jesus Christ.   As we do, we are unquestionably reminded that our power as a church did not go off even for a millisecond this past week.   Nor can any storm at any time ever damage and interrupt it.    Our buildings may be powered by JCP&L, but as a church we are a much more powerful company.  We are a different JCP&L … we are Jesus Christ’s People and Light!    At all times -- and especially when the way is dark, anxious and uncertain – Jesus shines through us.  His Light is constantly on, His power grid forever flowing, and He is always illuminating a path to peace of mind, hope, and strength. Nothing on earth and in the universe can shut-down the people that God empowers through the Light of Christ.

In this morning’s Gospel lesson from John 15, this faithful truth is relayed by using the community imagery of a vineyard.    You may immediately picture in your minds a vineyard where the rows of vines are all neatly manicured and picturesque.    This was not the case in biblical times.    The vineyards of ancient Israel were huge, heavy, ancient and “trailed along the ground covering large areas.”[i]   Sounds a bit like the downed tree limbs all around us this week.  In order for the vine branches to be able to bear good fruit, vineyard workers had to constantly check them.   Most importantly, they needed to keep them propped up on small supports.   If no support was offered, the vine branches broke away from the parent vine, withered and died.   A broken vine could not simply be replanted to bloom again the following season; it took years for roots to go deep enough to bear good fruit. ^[ii]       

Jesus grew up surrounded by vineyards.    He knew their historic and contemporary significance for the well-being of the community.    He knew about the great need for deep roots, for endless supports, for constant cultivating.  He understood the utter importance of bearing healthy fruit for the good of the community at large.    He especially understood the vital significance of the parent vine, the life-flow of all the vine off-shoots.   Drawing from this real world example, John records Jesus as identifying Himself with it.  He quotes Jesus as declaring, “I am the true vine.”  He also has Jesus declaring His followers to be the vine branches.     

The True Vine and His vine branches cover the ground of God’s massive vineyard, the Church.    We exist to be an interwoven community whose life-flow comes from Christ.  Our purpose is to constantly work together in order to provide the crucial supports needed to bear good fruits (that is, faithful works) everywhere wild, sour grapes are choking the life and light of God’s good Creation.    As the church, we faithfully affirm in word and deed that when worldly power lines go down, Christ’s power vines stay up!

I saw so many healthy power vines throughout these recent difficult days.    Each caused a surge of gratitude to flow through me.   A few examples …

Last Saturday evening in the heart of the heavy snow, one power vine called my mobile phone to let me know we had an FPC family on the way to the Community House to seek emergency shelter for the night.     We wove power vines together soon after to make this happen.

In need of shelter for myself and the girls once the lights and heat went out, another power vine in the congregation offered us – and quite a few others – a generator powered warm place to stay when we were in town. 

There were also the power vines that worked to clear the church yard before going on to clean out the sad state of the main Community House refrigerator.

Still other power vines found ways to communicate and collectively make a decision not to cancel or postpone yesterday’s festive Mistletoe Market; a decision that then ushered lots more power vines into play for the good of our whole community.   

As offshoots of the True Vine, we prayed for the exhausted utility workers and emergency personnel laboring through very long days and nights.   Further, we turned to the True Vine to sustain our hearts and minds during hours of deep frustration and slips into despair.  The unfailing life-flow reached us in several forms … such as through a prayerful, Biblically grounded sense of security and through small supports put in place by family, friends, neighbors, and strangers.

As God’s power grid, as God’s vineyard, we strive to abide at all times in the True Vine, in Jesus.    Abide is a very powerful word.    It signifies that we do not work for Jesus, but in and with Jesus.[iii]   In the original Greek language, “abide” can be further translated to mean “not to depart,” “not to perish,” and “to remain as one.”    As we abide in Jesus, we therefore also abide in one another.  We do not abandon one another, let one another perish, or let one another remain in isolation.   A contemporary translation of John 15:6 has Jesus saying it this way – “When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relationship is intimate and organic.”[iv]  

The good fruit of this intimate, organic relationship is love -- real, deep, divine love; the amazing, selfless love that only comes from the life-flow of our Lord.   In the midst of many other feelings this week, I trust you also had a strong sense of being lovingly cared for.  And I trust you felt compelled to love others, especially those enduring the same inconveniences and hardships.

All week long, I kept in mind that today is our scheduled Stewardship dedication.  And my goodness, when we embarked on our Stewardship campaign several weeks ago, we had no way of knowing how poignant our theme of “Keeping the Light On” would be considering the events of this week!    So here we are today bearing fresh witness to the light and love of Christ shining strongly come what may.   Your financial pledge for the coming year of vineyard life is one very vital expression of your gratitude for this amazing gift that never goes out and continues to be cast forth from Fairmount Presbyterian Church.    It is not first and foremost a commitment to a human organization; it is above all an offshoot abiding in the True Vine.   It is a measurable, vital portion of good and faithful fruit that will help maintain and further grow the beautiful deep roots we have in this community.      

So the inspired question isn’t really “Where are the power lines for the church?”   It’s “Where are the power vines?”    Praise God, these are faithfully in view everywhere around us.  Check your mirror.   Scan the face of the person next to you.   Be grateful for the unbreakable, unifying, abiding connections we have as JCP&L – Jesus Christ’s People and Light!    Amen.      

           

           

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[i] “Weavings” magazine, September/October 2001, p.11

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid, p. 14

[iv] THE MESSAGE