YOU ARE THE BRANCHES

I have an old friend with whom I went to college, who grew up on a farm in Western Minnesota.  And even though he now works as an IT guy at 3M, he’s still got farming “in his blood”.  In fact, he still lives on a small farm about 40 miles from here.  Among the many things I’ve learned from him over the years about farming is that it is very hard work.  My friend is the kind of guy who thinks it’s fun to spend his free time chopping wood or tending crops or removing enormous rocks from the ground or roofing an out building.

I grew up in the suburbs.  When I want something to eat or drink I go the store and put it in a cart.  We he wants food or drink he grows it and processes it and waits for it to ripen or mature…for example, he works for it. For him that is that’s enjoyable.  For me that would be terrible.

He’s also shown me that to be a good farmer you have to know a lot about many different things, like how to tell the difference between good soil and bad, between an animal that’s relatively healthy and one that’s not. You have to know what crops grow well under what conditions and which ones don’t.  you have to know about climate and drainage, and how to fix a broken tractor by yourself, how to build a storage shed, how to put up a fence, how to cut down large trees safely. And maybe most importantly you have to have patience because success on a farm is often measured in years and months – certainly not in days.  And you have to know when a task is or is not too big or too difficult to do by yourself and when you need to ask for help. You can tell how hard it all is just by noticing a farm that’s been abandoned.  As soon as a farmer stops working the whole thing starts to collapse almost immediately.  If you take a look at a place like that you can see how fast it all turns to weeds and brush.

A while ago as my friend was beginning to think of plans for his retirement de decided it would be fun to into cultivating grapes to start up a small home winery.  You may know that grapes are very fussy about where they will grow well, and for the most part Minnesota is not such a place.  But there is one particular “sweet spot” in Minnesota where grapes can do quite well – along the St. Croix River in Stillwater, which is fortunately where my friend lives.  So he began to do his research and discovered that after planting thousands of little seedlings by hand and constructing the necessary structures to allow them to grow it would be anywhere from 5-8 growing seasons (i.e. years!) before the plants would provide any usable result.  He finally decided that was just too much at his stage of life and now he’s back to growing vegetables.

When Jesus uses that image of the grape vine and the branches in today’s gospel of John he does so very deliberately.  [Especially on a day like Confirmation] It is good for us to be reminded that despite all the love with which we are surrounded, you are in fact a lot of work, not only for [parents, elders, teachers, sponsors] but for God.  We are all a lot of work and not only we, but also the Christian mission to which we have all been summoned by our baptism/confirmation, and for which we are strengthened by Eucharist. This mission is rich and rewarding and essential, but it is often demanding or difficult.  It requires a lot of work and a lot of time and patience and reliance upon the help of others.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit are essential to is all, because without that task is simply too hard.

Jesus refers to us as the “fruit” of his vine, but what is that exactly?  How can we know that our fruit is good and that our mission is be accurately understood by us and by others?  St. Paul, that great apostle of whom today’s readings speaks (Acts) thought he was doing it right. So full of enthusiasm for his presumed mission was he that he believed at first that he was bearing his fruit by threatening and imprisoning everyone who wouldn’t listen to his Jewish preaching.  That’s why people were afraid of him when they heard that he had come to town. He made a lot of work for God that way – a lot of damage control – before he was made to realize that he was completely wrong in persecuting the followers of Jesus.  He’d been working very hard – but at the wrong task.

Instead it was Jesus himself who taught Paul and showed us what real Christian fruit looks like.

• It has to do with service to others, especially to those not alienated and marginalized and poor
• It has to do with living with integrity with living what you say you believe and value, even when it is not immediately rewarded or understood by others
• It has to do with courage to stand for all of the responsibilities that true love demands, particularly when it is unpleasant or seemingly useless
• It has to do with perseverance, staying at the task when the fruit seems slow to grow or even when it appears to be counter – productive (“pruning”)
• It has to do with being wise and honest in recognizing what things in this world are truly life affirming and which are toxic – especially when the toxic things are dressed up seductively or glamorously
• And it has to with patience with one’s self and with others around us.And a big part of the patience involves the art of forgiveness – not forgiveness once, but (as Jesus taught) forgiveness 70 times 7 times

Did I mention that is hard work?  And did I remind us that it’s for the long haul?  Jesus was right to speak of vines and vineyards.  The mission is filled with its rich rewards, but let us have no doubt of its demands as well.  Not everyone can or will sign on for it, which is what makes it so important and inspiriting for those who do [Today that is you.]

So congratulations are surely in order right now, but so are our commitments.  We all have work to do for the Kingdom.  May our prayers here and now be on that will keep us faithful to our call and later, our reward.