The Fifth Sunday in Easter

The Rev. Tommy Thompson
5th Sunday in Easter
John 15:1-8
6 May 2012

“The 33A.D. Vintage”

Today as we are being led closer and closer to the table of our Lord, the risen Lord stands among us and says, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower.”  What a better time than now to reflect upon the fruit of the vine that becomes for us the saving blood of our Lord Jesus Christ -- the cup of our salvation.

In this country, though it is becoming more and more well known, wine is still highly misunderstood and unfortunately, through prohibition, has even got a bad wrap at times.

But it wasn’t always this way...

When European settlers arrived in the U.S., wine was a huge part of their social and religious life.  So when they arrived and found that a native vine for growing grapes was present in the ‘new world,’ they quickly began to work towards the production of wine.  But there was a problem.  This wine didn’t in any way resembled the European wines for which the early settlers had grown accustomed.  No matter how hard they worked with this vine, the wine was always less than mediocre.

So the settlers came up with a solution.  They decided it would be a good idea to transport cuttings of the European vine here to the ‘new world’ in hope that it would take root and grow and produce fruit that would become that taste of home they had missed so much.

There was so much potential. In Europe the vine demonstrated such great fruitfulness...if this happened here in the new world, life would be good.  But, again, there was a problem.  The European vine was planted, and it began to grow; but the longer it’s roots grew in the soil of a new land, the settlers learned that the poisons of the land were too much for this vulnerable vine.  It did not have the immunities necessary to thrive and produce fruit that would in time become fine wine.

The vine had much potential...but over time it did not have the immunities necessary to overcome the diseases of the land.

In the Old Testament, we hear of another vine, another vineyard, another vine-grower.  The vine / vineyard was Israel.  The vine-grower was God.  As you know, God called the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt to take upon themselves the most special of roles--to be light to the nations.  Israel’s sole objective was fruitfulness.  She was to produce fruit as an offering to God that would in turn be transformed into communion with God and all those who tasted of that fruit in the land in which God was planting his choice vine -- Israel.  Israel was to invite the Gentile world to drink of the wine of her fruitfulness, which would truly satisfy...that would lead the nations back to their Creator.

So Israel, the choice vine of God, was planted in a new land...in new soil.  She established root and began to grow...but there was a problem.  Like that European vine that was planted on American soil and over time was revealed to not have the immunities necessary to overcome the diseases of the Land, so Israel, did not overcome.  She bowed to gods of the land.  She drank of the cup of the fruit of the wrong vines and she settled for less than mediocre wine.  Rather than offering fulfillment to the nations through covenant faithfulness, Israel accepted the world’s cup as if it were the best God had to offer. Instead of living in the land as a unique and holy people whose unique lifestyle would draw others to the source of that community --God’s own life--Israel allowed herself to be grafted into the cultures for which she was supposed to be a change agent!

Hear what God says about Israel, his choice vine, through the prophet Isaiah:
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!”

So the purpose of God planting his choice vine in the land was for fruitfulness that would lead the nations back to their Creator and eventually to the restoration of a sin-diseased world.  But Israel did not have the immunities necessary to thrive in covenant relationship with God in a land full of the disease of sin.  She became, once again, part of the old vine -- part of the problem rather than God’s solution.

So God says to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah:  “I planted you as a choice vine, from the purest stock. How then did you turn degenerate and become a wild vine?”

The image of Israel as the vineyard and God’s choice vine are prominent in the Old Testament and in the first century world where Jesus lived.  The problem is that whenever we hear of this image in the Old Testament it always coincides with the reality of Israel’s inability to produce fruit that would make a difference for the life of the world.

After some time in the early stages of life in the U.S., a new vine was introduced to the soil of the new world that had the immunities necessary to not become tainted by the diseases of the new world.  This new vine enabled the grapes that the early settlers enjoyed in Europe to, at last, be enjoyed in the the U.S.  The new vine was made known to the public and it was received with enthusiasm.

Hear what Thomas Jefferson said concerning the new vine: "By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt..."   When the vine species from which some of the world's finest wines came to the U.S. and finally thrived, it became more and more well-known.  And knowing this vine was an occasion of great joy as attested to by this quote from Jefferson.

The Gospel of John reveals to us another new vine that fulfills and makes the heart eternally glad.  "I am the true vine.  My Father is the vine grower."  At these words, the first century Jewish audience would’ve experienced a flood of those Scriptural references concerning Israel as the vine that God planted yet who did not produce good fruit.  This is why Jesus qualifies vine with ‘true.’  What Israel could not do...what Israel did not have the immunities to fight, Jesus did and he did victoriously!  God loved the world so much that when the original vine did not flourish, He provided a new vine that proved to have the immunities to fight the sin disease of the land and overcome.  The Vine Grower became the vine...God became flesh and blood--he became one of us -- the fulfillment of Israel, the fulfillment of humanity, in order to graft us into the true vine of his own life where we can now bear fruit by association with Him and not our own attempts to fight diseases for which we do not have the immunities to overcome!  The immunities needed to fight the diseases of this world reside in the sap that flows through the vine that gives us branches life.  This sap is what enables us to every good work we do in response to Grace...we branches only produce fruit because of the life-flow that circulates through us by being one with the Vine and the Vine Grower.  That sap is God’s love that sustained Jesus in His human life, that overcame the sting of death, and that has made you and me a part of the vineyard that produces fruit that becomes life for the world.

And brothers and sisters, this new fruitfulness produced by this true vine is fruit through which the Father is making the best wine of the best vintage known to man.  The vintage is somewhere around 33A.D. and this particular wine of this vintage will never spoil! It will never spoil nor will it ever run out as it is in the divine cellar for eternity.  It appears at every altar in the world where thanksgiving is offered to the Father for the Son who became salvation for us.  The Holy Spirit makes the fruit of the vine that we offer in thanksgiving the fruit of the vine of God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ and we drink the sap of God’s love that continues to give life and produce eucharistic fruitfulness in and for the sake of God’s world being made new in Jesus Christ.

Thomas Jefferson was ecstatic to make known the new vine created by grafting cuttings of the European vine into the rootstock of the Native American vine, and he should’ve been.  How much more, then, should you and I rejoice in the making known of the TRUE vine to the public through our own abiding & remaining in the vine and thereby producing fruitfulness for which the world can drink and never be thirsty again! Abide in God’s choice vine so that the world will know about this vintage that will never spoil and never run out!
Amen.