5th Sunday of Easter May 2, 2021
Pastor Tim Patoka Connected to the Vine Fruitful Branches of the True Vine John 15:1-8
1) Remain Connected to the True Vine 2) Bear Much Fruit to Glorify the Gardener My wife and I have a mesquite tree in our backyard that I’ve taken upon myself to care for. And one of the main ways I do that is with an annual pruning. I did that a few months ago, and I went to town on it. Armed with a handsaw and an extension ladder, I cut off every wayward branches and pruned off every lifeless limb I could find until I had more tree on the ground than on the tree itself. To be honest, my wife and I both thought that I killed the tree because I trimmed too much too fast. However, it turns out I may be a better gardener than I thought. The leaves up top look greener than they did before and, the other day, I saw some green shoots coming out where I cut things off before. Time will tell how good of a gardener I am when it comes to pruning mesquite trees for future growth. While the jury is still out about my gardening skills, we have no reason to doubt how good a gardener God the Father is at pruning the branches that come from the true vine of Jesus. As we heard about in our verses this morning from John chapter 15, Jesus uses an illustration of a vine and its fruitful branches to show us how we are connected to him in yet another way in our Easter worship series. As fruitful branches of the true vine, we need to remain connected to the true vine so that we have life in the first place. With a strong connection, we then bear much fruit to glorify our Father in heaven who, as the gardener, is responsible for all the good we do. And because this is a Youth Confirmation Sunday, I’ll also be directly addressing our youth confirmand, Emma Miller, a handful of times too. 1) Remain Connected to the True Vine If you’ve toured a vineyard or examined the grapevines you’ll see in the wine country of southern California or Sonoita, AZ, you are probably already picturing the vine and branches that Jesus is talking about. For those of us who aren’t doing this, let’s walk through Jesus’ illustration. Grapevines were a common sight in 1st century Israel with their long, skinny trunks running along the ground or strung up on terraces. From this vine-like trunk are the branches that bear fruit. You expect the branches to bear fruit because of their connection to the vine. It’s what naturally happens, especially if you have a gardener tending the vine. If that connection between the vine and the branch is lacking in any way, then the branch 1
Pastor Tim Patoka Connected to the Vine
5th Sunday of Easter May 2, 2021
is going to have a hard time bearing fruit because it is deprived of its life source. Jesus tells us in this illustration that he is the vine and we Christians are the branches. And the thing that connects us to our Savior is faith, trust in who Jesus is and what he has done. As a branch of the true vine, how strong is your faith in Jesus? Most Christians experience a weak faith at some point in their lives. Maybe it’s after Easter when a Christian realizes how they believe the impossible truth of Jesus’ resurrection but reject every other impossible idea that doesn’t come from Scripture. Perhaps it’s after a particularly troubling time when everything seemed to go wrong and God was nowhere to be found. It certainly happens when youth confirmands mature into teenagers and young adults when they naturally reassess if the faith they grew up with is their own faith. While we give thanks to God that a weak faith in his Son is still saving faith, a weak faith is still a danger to us branches of the true vine. Think back to Jesus’ illustration. It’s not good if a branch has a weak connection to its life-giving vine. In the same way with a weak faith, how easy would it be to sever that connection between a Christian and their Savior and deprive them of their life in Christ? Jesus makes special mention that he is the true vine, the one and only there is. As such, we Christian branches should be connected to him alone and to nothing else. However, when we place our trust in earthly institutions and tie our core emotions in the things of the world, the question comes – are we connected to the one true vine? Or are we connected to something else that can’t give us life? There are plenty of idols in this world to put our trust in, ones that look nothing like statues or icons. Emma, I give thanks to God that you’re going to Arizona Lutheran Academy that has a Jesus-first curriculum. If you weren’t, I’m sure you would very quickly hear the misinformation that so many of us have already heard – that there are many paths to heaven with different names for the same God, that a person’s religion is an extension of their community and therefore can’t be right or wrong. As the Bible tells us, there is only one true vine out there that gives life to the branches – Jesus Christ, our Savior from sin. Not only are we connected to Jesus through faith in him, he is also connected to us. As our Savior promises us, “Remain in me, and I am going to remain in you.” (John 15:4a EHV) Connected through faith in our risen Lord, 2
Pastor Tim Patoka Connected to the Vine
5th Sunday of Easter May 2, 2021
Jesus remains with us wherever we go. How often have you felt alone or isolated this past year? While it may have felt like it, you certainly were not. Your Savior was with you and will be as long as you are one of his branches. That includes you Emma, who has a long life ahead of you. No matter where you go or what happens to you in the coming decades, always know that your Savior is with you. As Jesus remains in us branches of the true vine, so he brings with him his full measure of blessings. The forgiveness of sins that is his to distribute because he paid for it with his life on the cross and confirmed its success with his resurrection from the grave. A forgiveness that he in turn gives to all the vine’s branches where he takes all their sins away, no matter how horrible or many they may be. Our Savior vine also gives us life. A life of peace while still on earth because the Lord above is pleased to call us his own. A life of eternal joy to come in heaven when we finally see the vine himself and every other branch of his. It is this forgiveness and life of current peace and eternal joy we all have whether we are years away from receiving Holy Communion, looking forward to it for the first time today, or have communed more times than we can remember. 2) Bear Much Fruit to Glorify the Gardener Now that the connection is set between the vine and its branches, we go to the next part of the illustration – the fruit that the branches are expected to produce. Thinking back to the gardener, he determines what to do to the branch based on its fruit. As Jesus tells us, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he is going to cut off. And he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will bear more fruit.” (John 15:2 EHV) If a branch is producing fruit, the gardener prunes it so that it bears more fruit. If it isn’t producing fruit, he cuts it off and later burns it up since it is good for nothing. In the same way, we see that Christians are expected to produce fruit with the selfless acts of love to God and to our neighbor. Those who do produce fruit are pruned by the Father so they produce even more. Those who don’t run the risk of being cut off and burned in the fires of hell to eternally mark their lifeless separation from Jesus that they instigated. Thinking to those branches that do produce fruit, when God the Father prunes us to bear more fruit, he doesn’t do it by literally snipping off the offending parts of our body that lead us to sin or prevent us from fully living for him. Rather he uses his Word in which we find the law and gospel. As my students learn in Youth Catechism class, one of the ways that God’s law prunes us is as a curb. It tells us what is right, what is wrong, and the consequences if we cross that line. 3
Pastor Tim Patoka Connected to the Vine
5th Sunday of Easter May 2, 2021
The result is that our sinful behavior is kept in check so that we say no to our sinful wants and actions. A second way that God’s law prunes us is as a mirror by showing us how sinful we truly are. While it’s a humbling reality check, God does this for our good so that we don’t get a big ego and fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God to bear fruit among other things. Yet we are tempted to aside from our Father’s pruning because it is unpleasant. Nobody likes it when God’s law acts as a curb or mirror against them. After all, who likes to be told no and suffer consequences? To realize how pitiful and sinful they truly are? We’d rather turn a deaf ear to these portions of Scripture so we can fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t need any pruning at all. Or if we do listen to them, we’d prefer to apply it to someone else. It’s much easier to be critical of others than of ourselves, to call for others to be pruned than for ourselves. When we fall for such temptations, we not only limit how much more fruit we could bear, we run the risk of becoming like those fruitless branches that deserve to be cut off and burnt up. This warning is not only spoken to those who purposefully avoid God’s pruning, but to those who are preparing to be confirmed and have a full life ahead of them to bear much fruit. While the Father’s pruning is unpleasant, let us remember why God does it – so we can be branches of the vine that are even more fruitful. God uses the law’s curb and mirror for our good. The mirror in particular not only shows us how sinful we truly are, it shows us our need for a Savior and how sweet his gospel promise of forgiveness is. With the gospel firmly in our heart, we then see the law prune us in a third way as a guide. It guides our thoughts, words, and actions in God-pleasing ways so we know how to produce fruit as branches of the true vine. And this fruit bearing has a blessed result. As Jesus tells, “My Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8 EHV) Thinking to the physical vine and fruitful branches, the gardener gets the praise for the branch’s fruit because his work was essential. In the same way, our Father is glorified when we selflessly love God and our neighbor since he’s essential to all of our fruit producing. As Christians, we want to glorify our Father because everything we are and have is from him. Because of our connection to the true vine of Jesus, we have forgiveness, peace, and life in heaven assured to us. We have reason to rejoice for days like today with Emma’s
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5th Sunday of Easter May 2, 2021
Pastor Tim Patoka Connected to the Vine
Youth Confirmation where your whole Grace Church family give thanks to God for the faith he has planted in your heart and grown to what it is today. Our fruit producing also has the byproduct of publicly proving ourselves to be branches of Jesus, the true vine. One way this certainly happens is when a person is publicly confirmed in their faith. However, we can also show ourselves to be branches of our Savior on a regular basis. With the friends we make and the company we keep so that we mutually encourage each other to produce this Godpleasing fruit. How we schedule our time on Sunday morning in the grind of life and on vacation so we keep our connection strong to Jesus. In the way we carry ourselves as the salt of the earth and the light of the world whether it be four upcoming years at Arizona Lutheran Academy or anywhere else. Conclusion While I don’t know how good of a gardener I am when it comes to pruning my mesquite tree for future growth, we do know how good God our Father is at pruning the branches of the true vine of Jesus. As a branch needs to be connected to the vine in order to have life, so we must be connected to our Savior through faith in him to have life. The stronger our faith is, the stronger our connection is and the two-way remaining between the vine and its branches. From this connection comes our ability to produce fruit with our selfless acts of love to God and our neighbor. And to help us do this, God prunes us (as any good gardener would) with the law and gospel in his Word. With the law’s curb and mirror, we realize how precious and sweet God’s gospel promises are of a Savior and his forgiveness. With the gospel firmly in our hearts, we see how the law guides our thoughts, words, and actions so we may produce fruit that is God-pleasing, glorifies our Father, and publicly proves ourselves to be branches of Jesus, the true vine. And on this Youth Confirmation Sunday, we give special attention to Emma, our youth confirmand. When you publicly profess your beliefs as we teach here at Grace and get confirmed, you’ll be publicly setting yourself apart as a branch of the true vine who’s connected to your Savior through faith in him along with your confirmed brothers and sisters in Christ. When you promise to remain steadfast in the Christian faith as we have also promised, you’re also declaring your intent to bear much fruit to glorify God your Father in the time to come. As such, may this day not only be remembered as your Youth Confirmation Day, but also as your continuance as a fruitful branch of Jesus, the true vine. Amen. 5