Several years ago, I was at a family reunion down in the states where I met several of my cousins for the very first time. In fact, shortly before this reunion the rest of our family didn’t know that these cousins even existed. My dad came from a very large family, having sixteen brothers and sisters. One of his older brothers left home at a very young age and was never heard from again. Not that anything happened to him, he just wasn’t interested in staying connected to family. The family tried tracking him down several times, but this was long before the internet and today’s technological world, so if someone didn’t want to be found it wasn’t that hard to disappear.

     I don’t think that is all that uncommon. I think there are many families who have a member that has become alienated, for various reasons. No matter how hard the family tries, the person just doesn’t want to connect. You could say that the family is with them, but they are not with the family.

     That alienation happens in God’s family as well. There are those who leave the family and cut off communications. You could say that they prune themselves from the vine. But God still remains with them. At the end of Matthews Gospel, Jesus says, “Know that I am with you always”. We know that God is with each and every one of us, but that’s not good enough. We must also be with him. Like any relationship, it must be mutual, or it suffers. Just knowing where the vine is doesn’t allow the branches to be nourished by the vine. The branches must be grafted to the vine. In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the True Vine. Remain in me as I remain in you.” Sometimes we are like that alienated family member. We can say, “I know God loves me.” But that’s not good enough. We have to be united to the vine for his love to flow into us.  We have to want to be related to God. If we really focus on today’s gospel text, we see that in his teaching about the true vine Jesus is letting us know in a wonderful way how closely we are united to him and how he continues his work in the world through the lives of all those who believe in him.

     At first there may be some who are discouraged or put off by the idea of being pruned. I don’t think any of us like the idea of being cut off and being thrown into the fire to be burned; but on a deeper reflection we can see that this pruning is really about channeling the energy of the vine to make it more productive. The gardener cuts off withered or diseased twigs to make the rest of the branch healthier; and he shapes the plant, so the fruit has room to grow. I’m not a gardener, but I can realize that pruning correctly is a skilled job. You have to know what you’re doing. Someone inexperienced could do a lot of damage and possibly even kill the plant. But the gardener whose expert hands we are in is none other than our Heavenly Father, the one who created us for a specific destiny. Pruning is necessary to make sure we reach that destiny. If we had the image of a vine that didn’t need pruning it would be easy to think that we had a nice cozy, intimate relationship with Jesus that was perfect and needed no change. But pruning stresses that change is an inevitable and necessary part of our lives, making us recognize that sometimes there are parts of our lives that need to be pruned and let go. 

     Jesus’ words, “I am the True Vine” implicates that there are also false vines out there. The metaphor of us as branches gives us warning about the vine that we attach ourselves to. We need a vine in which to graft and root ourselves, but vines come in many shapes and colors. There are thousands of different religions and cults. Vines can come in the form of political or corporate allegiances. Materialism, and power and greed are very popular vines that many people attach themselves to. The type of vine we attach ourselves to conditions our lives and can ultimately seal our fate. Do we attach ourselves to the “True Vine” that gives us nourishment? Or do we attach ourselves to a false vine where we will eventually wither and be pruned to be thrown into the fire? That’s one stern warning that we get out of today’s Gospel.

     If the branch is united to the “True Vine” the gospel tells us it will bear much fruit. God calls us to make his message real in the world. He calls us to be witnesses to the Resurrection. He calls us to bring his love to the world. He’s not calling us just to be in his presence. He’s calling us to transform the world with his presence. We are all called to live a life that attracts others to Christ, so that our union with God draws them to him. We’re called to try to reconnect those alienated family members of our community. When we live our Christianity in our workplace, at our schools, in our communities, and in those we meet, others experience the Word of God that is within us; and the power of God works through us in ways far beyond our understanding. By this we bear much fruit. Jesus says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” We come to Church to praise God and worship him, but if this is all we do, and then return to a pagan world immersed in pagan values, we’re not bearing fruit. We’re pruning ourselves off of the vine & we risk being thrown into the fire. We bear fruit when we take what we experience here out into the world that longs for his presence. We gather so that we may be nourished, and we are nourished so that we may be sent to others.

     God is with us, yes, but to have an intimate relationship, we must be with him also. We must be united to the “True Vine” to receive the nourishment to do the work of a true Christian. When we do this, we draw others to God, and we bear fruit.