fifth Sunday of Easter

‘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.’

Nobody likes hospitals very much. And one of the distressing things about going into hospital is the number of tubes they stick into you. Yet they are very necessary and it’s wonderful what those tubes can do. Through those tubes and into your body there flow all the essential chemicals that enable the body to get on with the job of healing itself. The tubes bring drugs to fight disease, antibiotics the fight infection, food and liquid to nourish the body, oxygen to sustain life. Sometimes those tubes form the basis of a life-support system which keeps the patient alive until the body is strong enough to support itself.

In the Gospel for today as he speaks to us about the Vine and the branches, Jesus is saying in a way that we are all on a life support system and that he is the source of it. It is the spiritual life that he’s talking about of course. Life in relationship with Jesus and thus life in relationship with God. And spiritual life is as precious to us as the life of our body. It is our spiritual life which enables us to know God and know his love for us. It is our spiritual life which keeps us in touch with God, close to God as he is close to us. It is through our spiritual lives that God can speak to us and we can speak to him in our prayers and through scripture. It is in our spiritual lives that we experience the closeness of God the intimacy of God  with us as we meet him right close up in the sacraments – especially in the Eucharist. It is our spiritual lives which enables us to give and receive love, to appreciate the beauty of God’s world and to be creative for God in his world.

The Christian understanding of what it is to be fully human is that we are body,  mind and spirit – and all three need to be fed. The temptation is to neglect to feed the spirit, to neglect the spiritual life. When in the creation story of the Book of Genesis God breathed the breath of life into Adam it wasn’t just Adam’s body that was animated and given life. No, he was given spiritual life as well.  God imparted his breath to Adam. The Hebrew word is ‘Nephesh’ which means ‘soul life’. We were built to have a life with God. We were created to have a relationship with God. We are spiritual beings. And that spirit has to be kept alive amidst all the deadening effects of materialism  and life in a secular world. And Jesus is the source of our spiritual lives. He is the vine that gives life to the branches. It is his Spirit living within us that animates us and gives us life. Our spiritual life support comes from Jesus himself by his Holy Spirit meeting with our human spirit. We must pay attention to our spiritual lives. We must  pay attention to the Lord calling to us to be close to him.

St Paul wrote to the Galatians and told them that the fruit of a lively spiritual life is, love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Who amongst us wouldn’t wish for more of those fruits to be more abundant in our lives? ‘I am the Vine you are the branches.  Those who abide in me with me in them bear much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing’.

But there is yet another meaning to this metaphor of Jesus the Vine which may not be quite so obvious. As you drive into Wolverhampton on the A499  you come to a traffic Island known to the locals as ‘The Vine Island’. There used to be a pub named The Vine by the island; The Vine is no longer there. In its place is a very smart apartment block. They tell me that in Britain at least one pub closes every day. There are all kinds of reasons for this. But perhaps  the greatest reason is the increasing preference for just staying at home. In many ways it’s a pity that pubs are closing because the local pub was and still can be a great place for making community. People meet and talk and enjoy each other’s company in a pub. That human interaction is a basic building block of community and community life. One of the fears that is shared by many of us is the fear of the breakdown of community and community spirit. There is a lessening of that sense of belonging and that sense we all belong together and that we have some responsibility for each other. What is happening to community? Where is it going? It’s a pity that the Vine has closed.  It’s a sign of a worrying tendency in modern life - a lack of community.

‘I am the Vine you are the branches’ says Jesus. When Jesus describes himself as the Vine and we as the branches he was as I have said using the language of metaphor but actually he is using the language of community. The Vine in the Old Testament was a symbol of the community of the People of Israel. In the Old Testament we hear how God chose Israel as a farmer would choose the choicest vine. He planted her and cultivated her to bear abundant fruit. Isaiah says ‘The Vine of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting’. When he is using the image of the Vine and attaching that image to himself Jesus is identifying himself with his people his followers, the community he founded. The Vine is a communal image – it’s about the church. Jesus is the mystery at the heart of our common life as Church and of our community life as his people. He is the Vine we are the branches and we gain our life together by sharing in him. This is a very high understanding of the place of the Church and a very high responsibility for us who are members of the Church. Our life together as Christ’s people is to be of such depth and of such quality that it feeds and sustains the spiritual life of us all. If Christ is the Vine that feeds us then his life and his love and his vitality is meant to be evident amongst us. Our life together, our worship our concern for each other our fellowship together should be a source of spiritual enrichment for us all. We are not a club. We are the Church of Jesus Christ who is amongst us. As Archbishop William temple once remarked: ‘The Church is unique amongst all organisations in that it exists for the benefit of those who are not its members’.

We have a responsibility to those who are not part of us. If any come seeking Christ amongst us will his presence be obvious by our life together, by the welcome they receive, by the vitality of our worship by the warmth of our fellowship. Is the face of Christ evident in our life together? In a world where community is diminishing people have a right to expect a true sense of community in the shared life of the followers of Christ. Is the shared love of Christ evident amongst us? Can the spiritual life of a seeker after faith be nurtured amongst us? Does the attraction of Christ himself draw those who may be seeking him? If we remain close to Christ as our Vine and the source of life together and the source  spiritual life of us all then the answer to those questions will be yes and we shall bear much fruit. As the Lord says to us today:

‘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.’