2118AFC043021 – Rooting for Fruit
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Acts 9:31 – 31 Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.
1 John 3:18, 23-24 – 18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. […]23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
John 15:4-9 – 4 Abide* in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
* μένω (meno) {men’-o} – abide, remain, dwell, continue, tarry, endure; to remain, abide in reference to place, to sojourn, to tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept continually; to continue to be, not to perish, to last, to endure; of persons: to survive, live, to remain as one, not to become another or different, to wait for someone In the Old Testament it is יָשַׁב (yashab) {yaw-shab’} – to sit, remain, dwell; abide, live, stay tarry, connect
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! That’s a lot of stuff up there, so I should just get on with it. I’m hoping my Spell-Check will catch the typos I make. My right hand is numbing up (or numbing down?) and thus my typing is weirder than usual. Nonetheless for the topic at hand, we begin with a riddle: Q: What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back? (Come on, you know this one) A STICK! Now, what do you call a branch cut off from the tree? You want to say “a stick,” but that’s not correct. A branch cut off of the tree is kindling. Matthew 7:19 – 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. In either case, whatever is cut away ends up getting burned. I see you’ve figured out where we’re going with this, so “Per aspera ad astra!” Or perhaps Per ardua ad astra.
When I looked ahead at the readings for this Sunday my heart and mind did a little jumpity-jump. I remembered this passage from 1817AFC042718 – Heard It IN the Grapevine Suppose I know that you really love grapes. I decide I want to give you a memorable present, so I go to a vineyard being pruned and gather up a few of the pruned branches, and wrap them in a pretty velvet bow as a friendship present to you. “Not much of a present,” you say. “What am I supposed to do with these? They’re already wilting.” You get the idea. You do not define your life, or anyone else’s, by the fruit that can’t be grown on pruned branches. Like the artist who throws away everything he does not need in a chunk of marble so that only the figure remains, the branches that are pruned are discarded because they allow the true purpose of the vine to become manifest. The vine bears more fruit after it is pruned.
No fruit will come from a vine or a tree or grass or wheat or any green growing thing unless it has its roots in a nourishing environment. Belovéd, where are your roots? I hope by now you know where mine are – they are in the Word, not the World. I make it a point throughout every day that I must be in the Vine. Those who know me best know that in addition to being in the vine daily, I also need (and often receive) a severe and well-deserved pruning as well. Let’s grab another branch from these roots. Here we go with another flashback:
1518AFC050115 – Fruit to Root
You can make a climbing rose look like a grape vine by tying clusters of grapes to it. You can make a cactus look like it is bearing figs by sticking them to the thorns. Would that really fool anyone? Yet sometimes we try to do that with our lives; we try to make them appear as though we are yielding those spiritual fruits by showing the outward signs of them. Do those signs last? If they don’t start at the root, then of course they don’t last! The same is true of false prophets. They drape themselves with the supposed fruits of their prophecy, but everything they produce smells of decay and ruin. They reek of the fruits of the flesh as found in Galatians 5:19-23 – fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. In this time of upheaval we could also add terror, murder, blasphemy, deceit, persecutions, violence, evil appetites, and many things like these. When people produce this kind of fruit, it is because of where the root is growing. It grows from a bad tree and produces only bad fruit. When that fruit is fed to others, it takes root in them as well – we are what we eat. If, then, Christ is in us, then the fruit we bear will be good fruit if we remain in HIM. Will parts of our lives be like a slightly-fruitful vine that is pruned away to make better growth? Will we remain true to our roots? Will we produce the fruits to feed others? “Dear God, I hope so” is the prayer that helps us defeat the famine that is crushing the world. The prophet Amos described that famine:
Amos 8:11 – 11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
Do you watch the news? Have you seen what’s on TV? Are you connected through “social media?” If and of these are part of your environment, then you know the audacity and intensity of all those things the Apostle Paul mentioned; they are constantly around us. What has happened? How did we get this far into a broken World of ubiquitous evil? I am reminded of the Curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal. You can find that fascinating story in Judges 9. It is the story of the rise and fall of an evil man named Abimelech. He conspired with the rulers of Shechem to depose the rightful king and his family. They killed all 70 of Abimelech’s brothers! Only one escaped – Jotham, the youngest. Jotham prophesied against his brother saying that if God wanted such a king – whom he likened to a bramble bush, then God would support him; however, if God saw Abimelech as an evil man who seized power that was not properly his, then Abimelech and his supporters would perish as if a flame set fire to the brambles. In this story, the wrongful king is mortally injured when a woman hurls the upper part of a millstone down on him from a high tower. He fell, and ordered his armor bearer to run him through with his sword so that no one could say a woman had killed him. Judges 9:56-57 – 56 Thus God repaid Abimelech for the crime he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers; 57 and God also made all the wickedness of the people of Shechem fall back on their heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal. The biblical principle in that account is that we must not follow an unsuitable leader, particularly one associated with evil. Those who depend on and support reprehensible leaders will ultimately be destroyed by those same leaders. Whoever has eyes to see, let them see! (↔ Click Link)
We are given gifts from God that are assigned to us for the purpose of being fruitful. When we live fruitless lives, we are failing to make us of those Gifts. “Honor the Giver by 
accepting the Gift.” If we’re gonna make fruits, we gotta have roots. Note that the power to make fruit is not in the root, nor is it in the branch. It is in the nourishment that comes from soil, and air, and sunshine – from the Word, the Worship, and the Light of the Nations. All of that comes from the seed that is sown in suitable soil. Belovéd, we’re in pretty lousy soil right now if we do not get deep into the Word and away from the World. You might ask, “Can a tree or a vine get up and walk away to find better soil?” Well, yes, if you’re an Ent. But we can control our “diet” by getting off all the junk-food misinformation and intentional chaos. The phrase I’ve found most useful for that is, “I don’t need to do that.” Another useful “adage” is “Do what you know is right. Avoid what you know is wrong. Ask God to bless your decision.” In other words, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action” since “All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.” Then we will see in the Church “had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Remember we don’t have to be a sola scriptura Evangelical to evangelize! We root for teams, for underdogs, and – hopefully for the Gospel. Rooted in the Word, we produce good fruit.
Jesus has told us Abide in Me (↔ Music Link) because he also says I am the vine (↔ Music Link). All he asks is “Return to Me” (↔ Music Link) and when we do, we cannot help but Shout to the Earth! (↔ Music Link) because, and you know this so well Belovéd, he has Loved us with an Everlasting Love! (↔ Music Link) We can and will do as Jesus commands: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”
Jesus Loves us. Let us therefore Love one another in precisely the same way he loves us. We can fill the World with Good Fruits. We just need to stick to our Roots. That way we don’t get burned.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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