Scripture - John 15:1-8
One day I caught the tail end of a show on television. I am not sure what it was called, but I think it was an Oprah Winfrey show about consumer reports. The time was early winter shortly after the first snowfall. A reporter was walking around a parking lot and interviewing people as they returned to their snow-covered cars. The interviewer was asking the question, "Is your car ready for winter?" The reporter was pointing out things like: "Didn't you know that you should be carrying a blanket in your car and a box of crackers in case you get stranded?" "Aren't you going to brush the snow off your taillights and headlights so that other drivers can tell where you are and where you are going?" "Don't you carry a set of jumper cables around with you in case your battery goes dead?"
They were all good questions. One could say the reporter was only trying to be helpful. After all, if the people followed her words of advice, they might save a life - theirs or someone else's. What I found most intriguing was the people's reactions to the reporter's words of advice. They certainly didn't look pleased and didn't act happy that the reporter seemed so concerned about their well-being. Most of the people shrugged her off. When the reporter pointed out to one person that snow was covering his license plate, she was rebuked rather nastily. The reporter was only trying to helpfully point out things that were wrong, and people were responding with rudeness or indifference.
I thought to myself, that's how people reacted when I used to point out what was wrong in their lives. I had to smile to myself. I used to think that was my job as a preacher. Pointing out the things that were wrong in people's lives. I didn't exactly fit the hellfire and brimstone repent-you-sinner model of preacher, but I was not far from it in my own way. I know I was not alone in that perception of the pastor's job as finger-pointer because I had a pastor friend once tell me, "I love preaching every Sunday. It's the one opportunity I have all week to put the screws to the people." Wow. That would make you want to go back to that church for worship, wouldn't it? The same pastor used to tell me a joke. He told of one person who ended his vocation as a pastor in order to become an undertaker. When people asked the former pastor why he did that, he responded, "Well, as an undertaker, once I straighten people out, they stay straightened out!"
It's not just other pastors who have the perception of pastors being the ones to straighten people out. I sometimes have people say to me, "I am thinking of sending so and so to talk with you. Maybe that will straighten them out." I keep looking for that magic wand that is supposed to make all things better, especially those things people have wrestled with for months, sometimes years, with no solution. One session with the pastor should clear everything up, though, right?
I have a few people who like to visit and point out all the things I am doing wrong as a pastor, as a husband, and as a father. I have to admit that those kind of people are not among my favorites to have for company. In the same manner, I don't think other people are usually willing go to someone else to get themselves straightened out - unless, of course, it's the last resort. Some people believe that going for counseling is the same thing as going somewhere to pay someone to verbally beat you up. The kind of counsel that leaves you feeling worse than when you came is hardly one that would encourage me to return.
Yet that is how we often treat our worship services and our relationship with God. Some people see God as someone who is just waiting to pounce on them and punish them fro the things they have done wrong. In other words, when God points fingers, lightning bolts fly from the fingertips. No wonder some people are afraid to walk into the church, "God's house." They are probably afraid they won't be able to walk back out again without third degree burns. Sometimes their fears are justified in that sermons are more a sharing of bad news than good news. One pastor, when he preached a sermon that heavily laid upon the people the duties of discipleship and the responsibilities of following Jesus, was met at the door with the comment, "Look, preacher, my life is tough enough without you making Sunday into another day to beat up on us." (1) This makes a bit of a quandary for someone who follows Jesus. How do we make disciples without making others feel like they've been beat up? If we are not to be ruthlessly pointing out other people's sins, then what is it we are supposed to be doing?
Jesus said he was the True Vine. Did you notice that it is not us who are the ones to do the pruning? No, that responsibility is left to God. God is the one who "removes every branch that bears no fruit" and "every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit." (John 15:1-2) Have you ever seen a vine being pruned? I haven't, but one pastor reported how drastic the pruning can get. "In the Yarra Valley of Australia, just outside of Melbourne, [he] visited the vineyards of an outstanding winery. There, at the beginning of spring, what amazed [him] was how bare the vines looked. Beneath every vine there was a large pile of branches, the results of winter pruning. How ruthlessly these grape growers cut their vines! Yet the cutting is essential for a good harvest and healthy vines." (2)
We lived one place where the hedges had been let run wild for years. What should have been a short little hedge had turned into an eight foot high monster that practically obscured the house from the road. My father in law and I took it upon ourselves to trim those hedges. We wanted to make it so that we could at least see the road from our windows. When we cut the hedge down to about four foot high, it was obvious that it looked terrible. Wide sawed off branches were sticking out. There were few leaves left. Numerous birds and other critters were left homeless. The branches had so thickly intertwined that we judged there was no hope left for it. So we cut the hedge right down to the ground with the understanding that some day we would plant new there and start all over. A neighbor walked over and took a look at our handiwork, as we were covering the stumps over with dirt. He said, "Remind me not to ask you guys to come trim my hedges."
It is a good thing that the pruning of the True Vine is left up to God, because if it was left up to us we would totally destroy it. We would take a look at some of the people that called themselves followers of Jesus, a part of the True Vine, and we would say, "We can't have them here. Cut them out." Or about someone else, "Look how bad they are. Do they ever need pruning!" Rarely do we take a look at ourselves and say, "Whew, I guess God has some work to do on me too!" Some times we become our own worst critics and wish someone would uproot us altogether because we don't feel worth the effort of being made more fruitful.
So, it is good news that Jesus is the True Vine, God is the vinedresser, and we are the branches. That cuts out all the hierarchal thought of "I am better than so and so" or "So and so is better than me," because all of us are part of the one True Vine together. When one person gets "pruned" then we all feel it. When one person bears "good fruit" then we all benefit. There isn't one person who gets pruned and another who does the pruning. All of us are pruned by God so that we can bear good fruit together.
One pastor put it in a different way. He said, "There are two parts of the Good News. First, everyone's a rat. There are no squirrels.' [He] told his congregation, 'Some of you think you're just a cute little squirrel sinner. Who hates a squirrel?' [The pastor] said, 'Have I got news for you. Everyone's a rat. God doesn't see any squirrels.' When he said this at a drug rehabilitation center - 'How many feel like a rat?' - everybody raised their hands right away. At seminary chapel, it was like, hmmm, some of the professors weren't sure. [The pastor] said, 'Some of you are raising your hands because you know I'm theologically correct, but you don't feel like a rat.' [He] said, 'Until you know you are a rat, it's not good news to find out that you're not the only rat in the room.'
"He said, 'Some of us are rats because we are not convinced we're rats. We look around and think that someone else is a bigger rat, that someone else needs the cross more than I do. Only when you know you're a rat are you ready for the second part: God is not an exterminator.'" (3)
Jesus is the True Vine. God is Vinedresser. We are the branches. Branches aren't supposed to be comparing themselves one to the other. That way only leads to either self-righteousness or self-condemnation. We are to look at ourselves as a whole, each one of us a part of the one True Vine. A branch all by itself cannot bear fruit. A branch all by itself withers and dies. A branch needs to depend on the vine for its sustenance, to provide the life and nourishment it needs to carry out its purpose of bearing good fruit.
And, yes, there will be times when we will be pruned by God. If we as individuals and as churches are to abide in Christ, it also means that we must be willing to be cut and pruned by God. Being pruned by God is painful enough in itself. God doesn't need any help from us. God prunes those who abide in Jesus but does not exterminate them. "Sometimes [our] most painful moments are, in the long run, times when [we are] driven closest to God." Lief Anderson spoke about churches in transition, yet could also be speaking about us as individuals when he said, "Adversity is often the window of opportunity for change. Few people or organizations want to change when there is prosperity or peace. Major changes are often precipitated by necessity." (4) The process can be unpleasant and painful but, in the end, God knows how we are best pruned to bear good fruit. We are not called to prune one another, but to abide in Jesus, the True Vine.
When we abide in Jesus that is our best witness in making disciples. Have you ever noticed that people don't like to have what they are doing wrong pointed out to them? It generally has little to no effect on them anyway, because they don't like to be told what to do to correct the wrong. The best way we can witness and make disciples is in living by example. When others can see how abundantly and fruitfully life can be lived when it is lived abiding in Jesus, then they are more likely to change their lives so they can abide in Jesus too.
(1) William Willimon, "Pulpit Resource," © 1997 Logos Productions Inc., Vol. 25, No. 2, p. 16.
(2) Ibid., p. 17.
(3) Ken Fong, "Leadership," Spring 2000, "Measuring What Matters," © Christianity Today, Inc., pp. 62-63.
(4) Quoted by William Easum, Dancing with Dinosaurs - Ministry in a Hostile and Hurting World, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993 and retold in "Pulpit Resource," Vol. 25, No. 2, p. 18.
(Comments to Steve at sgportner1@aol.com.)
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