Jesus grew up and lived in a primarily agrarian society, so he often used farming imagery as metaphor to make a point. In today's Gospel he uses the metaphor of a grape vine. His listeners would all have been familiar with the process of growing grapes, harvesting them and producing wine. Even though California is famous for its wine, most of us in southern California, however, have not grown up surrounded by grape vines. If you've never visited a vineyard to see for yourself the way that grapes are grown, I encourage you to do so. And you might have a chance to taste the final product.
Grapes are different from most of the fruit we are familiar with, such as oranges and apples. These come from trees that are planted, and after a year or two begin giving fruit. As they grow larger, they give more and more fruit. A sturdy trunk holds up branches which grow and multiply each year. On the branches are leaves that gather energy from the sun and blossoms producing fruit. A farmer may do some pruning, but basically the tree grows bigger each year.
With grapes the farmer plants a central shoot. During the first year the shoot sends out lots of roots while the farmer chose one of the stems and guides it to grow straight up as a single stick which is tied to a trellis. The vine is not strong enough to stand upright on its own. The second year several cross branches are encouraged grow in a T shape down the trellis. Other branches are pruned away. By the third year the branches that come off this foundational vine begin to provide fruit. The branches are carefully pruned to be sure that the ones that remain get sufficient light to produce grapes. At the end of the season, most of the branches are pruned back.
Each year the root system and the central vine grow bigger and stronger. At the end of each growing season most of the branches are pruned back. A grape vine can live for thirty or forty years. One vine was found to be over 400 years old. Often branches of different kinds of grape are grafted onto vine. This can be done for many reasons. Sometimes there are desirable grapes who tend to have fragile root systems. By taking a branch of the fragile grape and grafting it onto a strong, mature vine, the desired grape can be produced in abundance. When a pruned branch is grafted onto a vine, a slot is made in the skin of the vine and the branch is put in the slot and bound into place. The new branch becomes one with the vine.
(As I said this can be done for many reasons. In my family there is the story of a great uncle of mine who had a vineyard in Healdsburg California. When prohibition was passed and alcohol became illegal he found himself with acres of wine grapes, so he pruned off the branches of the wine grapes and grafted in table grapes.)
There is a strong relationship between the branches and the vine. The vine's extensive root system pulls water and nutrients from the ground. A process called the cohesion - tension mechanism, (you can look that up on Google) pulls the water from the roots out to the branches, leaves and ultimately fruit. Water molecules tend to stick together, so when you have a thin column of water, when you remove some from the top, it will pull water in at the bottom and stay full. You may have tried that as an experiment as a child. Think of sucking on a straw. So the roots of the vine are full of water and nutrients. As the water evaporates from the leaves, more water arises and feeds the growing plant.
Trust me, I'll refer back to this later.
So when Jesus says in the Gospel today, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower," his listeners had a very clear image in their minds. When he said "Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers," they could see themselves and branches that were grafted onto Jesus. And when he said "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples," they could understand the expectation that the branch bears fruit - that there is a responsibility in being grafted onto Christ.
How reassuring it must have felt to hear "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love." All these words and images of intimacy, mutuality, love.
He tells them he said this "so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete." What an incredibly welcoming image of Christ's relationship with his followers.
To have this relationship we are asked to keep his commandments. What are his commandments? Which ones are important? What do I have to do? Keep the sabbath? Go to church? Give money to the church? Not dance? Be baptized? Believe the correct theology? There are so many things that we have heard over the years as being what we have to do or believe to be in right relationship with Christ.
This is the passage where he states a definitive answer to these questions. He says clearly and succinctly, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Period. The answer is that we are to love one another as we have been loved, totally, completely, unconditional, sacrificially. That is what the relationship with Christ is all about - Love.
So let's go back to the image of the vine and the branches. The branches are totally dependent upon the vine, that generously, unconditionally provides moisture and nutrients - love. In order to receive the life-giving moisture the branches have to give what they have away through evaporation. By loving, by sacrificial giving of our own love, we make room for God's love to flow into and through us. When we love one another, God's love fills us. When we give ourselves away in service of others, God's love fills us up again. When we die to ourselves, when we sacrifice ourselves, the reward is the welling up of God's love within us. And that is what makes our joy complete.
The end of this passage from the Gospel of John says, "You did not choose me but I chose you."
Today we are celebrating St. Mathias. He had been a follower of Jesus from the time of Jesus' baptism. He was liked and respected by colleagues. He was picked to be considered for an important and potentially dangerous position, to be one of the twelve, one of the Apostles, one of the ones to go out and testify to the resurrection of Christ. He agreed to being considered. He said yes, but ultimately the choice was Christ's.
We don't know anything else for sure about Mathias. We are not sure whether or not he was martyred. We don't know whether or not he was a bishop. We have differing descriptions of his ministry.
But we do know that he was chosen and that he said yes.
Each one of us has been chosen by Christ. We may think that we chose to start coming to church. We may think that we chose to be faithful to the faith we were brought up in. But each one of us, in some way, at some time was chosen by Christ, invited by Christ to relationship, and we said yes to being grafted onto the great vine of love. We are chosen. We are part of the great vine.
If we choose to do our best to love one another. If we give our love to others, even in the smallest ways, we are part of that vine, and we can thrive. When we say a kind word to the grocery clerk, when we take a casserole to a grieving family, when we come by and lovingly spend a Saturday morning cleaning and repairing the church, when we let a car into our lane, when we love our children or grandchildren, when we help a stranger, when we pray for someone in trouble, when we speak up for someone in need, when we do the small acts of love, we are living out Christ's commandment, we are giving ourselves in love and Christ's love fills us with life and love.
Most of the time no one knows of our loving acts. It doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter how St. Matthias lived out the rest of his life. When we love, every time we love, whether anyone knows or not, we bear fruit. Fruit that will last.
And our joy will be complete.