I am the Vine, You are the Branches
By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Bridgewater, Massachusetts
April 6, 2003
Readings
Deuteronomy 7:7-14
The Lord will love, bless,
and multiply you
It was not because you were more numerous
than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and
chose you--for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was
because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to
your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty
hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand
of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God,
the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who
love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does
not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him.
Therefore, observe diligently the commandments, the statutes,
and the ordinances that I am commanding you today.
If you heed these ordinances by diligently
observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the
covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors; he will love
you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of
your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine
and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your
flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you.
You shall be the most blessed of peoples.
John 15:1-12
I am the vine, you are the branches
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the
gardener. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.
Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more
fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have
spoken to you. 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.
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. Whoever does not abide in me is
thrown away like a branch, and withers; such branches are
gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me,
and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it
will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you
bear much fruit and become my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved
you; now abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will
abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that
my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is
my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Heaven and Hell #230
All power is from the Lord
Angels have no power at all on their own. All
the power they have comes from the Lord--and they are powerful
just as much as they recognize this fact. Any of them who
believe that their power comes from themselves immediately
become so weak that they cannot resist even a single evil
spirit. This is why angels take no credit at all for themselves,
and will not accept any praise or admiration for anything they
have done, but attribute it all to the Lord.
Sermon
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. (John 15:5)
If only we believed these words--truly
believed them--what tremendous power we would have at our
fingertips! Jesus said in another place, "Truly I tell you, if
you have faith the size of a mustard seed, . . . nothing will be
impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20). Nothing will be
impossible!
If we truly believed from our soul, and with
all our heart, that the Lord is the vine and we are the
branches, nothing we wanted to do would be impossible for us.
Why? Because the only things we would want to do would be those
that are according to the Lord's will--and the infinite power of
the Lord's will is available to accomplish all of God's
purposes. If we were to put ourselves fully in harmony with the
Lord's will, and draw all our strength from God, each of us as
individuals, and all of us together, would become powerful
centers from which the Lord's love and truth, the Lord's
understanding and kindness, would flow out to everyone around
us. If only we truly believed.
During the last three months, we have gone
through a series of four visioning and planning workshops for
our church. And in truth, the results seem rather modest. I am a
person who likes visioning and planning. When I took the
Myers-Briggs personality type test back in seminary, I came out
in a very small (just 2% of the population) sector of the
personality map that includes people who tend to be visionary
thinkers. That's good to know, since it explains why ever since
I've been involved with this church, and with our Massachusetts
Association--not to mention our denomination--I have struggled
to develop or draw out a common vision for how we as a church
can move forward strongly into our future.
So far, this effort doesn't seem to have gone
very far. In fact, to be honest, it's been quite frustrating.
There are a few exceptions here and there around our
denomination. However, as I survey our church, I don't see a
clearly articulated vision and plan at any level--not for our
denomination as a whole, not for our Massachusetts Association,
and not for our church here in Bridgewater.
And I'd like to dispose of one fallacy about
this right away. I can't count how many times I've heard it said
that we "don't have the money" to do this or that. First of all,
the Swedenborgian Church has got to be one of the wealthiest
churches per capita in the entire world. At least, we have more
money for fewer people than any other church I am aware of. One
of the earlier leaders in the Swedenborgian Church was fond of
saying that we would run out of people before we ran out of
money. Collectively, we have tens of millions of dollars at our
disposal. The question is not where the money will come from,
but whether we have the vision, the plan, and the commitment to
use our money wisely and effectively in doing the work of the
Lord.
But there is a deeper fallacy in the common
idea that our money determines what we can do. Money, in itself,
is nothing. It is simply a means of exchange--a tool to help us
accomplish our purposes and our goals more efficiently. Money
has no reality of its own. It is simply a representative of the
things we value and the things we want to do. From a spiritual
perspective, money is simply a representative of our thoughts
and our desires. It is a physical symbol of what we believe and
love. If we trace where our money comes from and where it goes,
we will have a good picture of what we believe, what we love,
and what we value.
Money is simply a tool in our hands. It is
meant to be our servant, and we are to be its master. It is to
do our will--not dictate to us what we will or won't do. And as
Jesus said in yet another place, "You cannot serve both God and
money" (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
Especially since we are a church, our
decision should always be to serve God, and not to serve money.
If our concern and our care is focused on where the money is
going to come from to survive as a church--to keep our doors
open, to pay for the salaries, building maintenance, insurance,
utilities, and so on--we have begun to serve money. We have made
money our God, instead of serving God, and making the Lord our
God.
Yes, of course we do have to be practical and
take care of the financial side of being a church. But this is a
secondary consideration, not a primary one. Our
primary concern as a church is how we are called upon to do the
work of the Lord. Everything else--including money, property,
salaries, building maintenance, and all the rest of those things
that "the world runs after" (Luke 12:30)--are simply a means to
accomplish the Lord's work.
We are so concerned with whether we will have
the money to do this or that. But we shouldn't be. We are a
church. We believe in the Lord, and in the Lord's care and
provision for us! And the Lord knows that we need all these
things (Luke 12:30 again).
However, the Lord has given us a deeper
vision of the spiritual realities and the spiritual power
available to us. "I am the vine, you are the branches." For the
branches, the nourishing sap that comes to them from the vine
is money. It is their sustenance. It is their lifeblood. And
the Lord tells us where the true nourishment, the true lifeblood
comes from. The Lord is that lifeblood. The Lord is
the source of everything we have and everything we are. The Lord
is our spiritual "money tree," providing for all our wants and
needs--and doing it freely, out of pure love. As the Lord said
in our reading from Deuteronomy:
It was not because you were more numerous
than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and
chose you--for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was
because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to
your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a
mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from
the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
When the Lord chose Israel to be a special,
dedicated nation, it was not necessary that they be rich or
numerous or powerful. Only that they be willing to listen to the
Lord, and obey the commandments that the Lord gave them:
Know therefore that the Lord your God is
God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with
those who love him and keep his commandments, to a
thousand generations. . . . Therefore, observe diligently the
commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that I am
commanding you today.
And the passage goes on to say that if we
will do this, the Lord will love us, bless us, and multiply our
fruitfulness to a great abundance, so that we would be the most
blessed of people. And I state it this way intentionally,
because even though the promise was originally made to the
ancient Israelites, it is enshrined in the Word of God because
it is a promise made not just to one people and one nation, but
to all people, communities, and nations everywhere,
throughout all time. "Your word, O Lord, is eternal" (Psalms
119:89).
That promise is made to us today just as much
as it was made to the ancient Israelites. The Lord tells
us--tells you, tells me, tells this congregation, our
Association, our denomination--that if we will obey the divine
commandments, we will be richly blessed with all the abundance
we could ever want. And though that especially means
spiritual abundance, I believe that if the Lord sees that we
will use it well, then it also includes material abundance.
The Lord wants to give us every gift! The Lord wants us to
have everything we need to do the good work of the kingdom of
God. And the Lord will give those things to us--including the
money--if we are ready and willing to use them prayerfully,
wisely, and generously in serving God's children here on earth.
"I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and
I in them bear much fruit."
What is the fruit that we wish to bear? What
is the work of the Lord that we wish to do? Simply keeping our
doors open and our church in existence; simply paying the
minister's salary and taking care of the building maintenance as
needed; simply providing for our own continuation as a church is
doing the Lord's work only in the most minimal way.
What is the work of the Lord that we want
to do for this community? Why are we here as a church? What
is our mission? Why has the Lord entrusted us with this
building, and with the money that flows through our treasury?
And are we using that money well and wisely? Are we loving the
Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength as a
congregation? Are we loving our neighbor as ourselves? How are
we serving our neighbors here in Bridgewater and the surrounding
communities? How are we called to serve them in our own unique
way?
So many questions. And if we truly wish to be
a church; if we truly wish to be a center from which the Lord's
love and truth flows out into this human community, then we need
to ask ourselves these questions.
The power is available. Infinite power
is available from the Lord. And it will flow to us when we
dedicate our lives and our church to serving the Lord fully. It
will flow through us when we focus our church, not on our own
survival as a church, but on the work for our community, for our
neighbor, that the Lord has put us here to do.
I have said these things to you so that my
joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is
my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Amen.
Music: Heart to Heart
© 2003 Bruce DeBoer
Used with Permission
