Readings: Acts 9:26-31; Psalm 22; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8
Grace, joy and peace to you dear family of God.
Our Gospel is a very important discourse of Jesus with His disciples. It is part of what is called the Upper Room Discourse, part of His valedictory speeches to them before departing this world. It spans from John chapters 13 to 17. Today, we have John 15:1-8.
In 2021, my homily was titled Divine Pruning and I promised that in 2024, when we would have this text again, that I would be preaching on “Remain in me.”
I would like to begin today by dividing this text into 3 parts. In this text, Jesus tells us:
- What God wants from us
- What God does for us
- What God expects of us
Let’s cut to the chase, we have a lot to think about.
Part 1: What God wants from us.
Jesus tells us what God wants from each of us. God wants us to be fruitful. We are called to fruitfulness (Read John 15:16). The question is what kind of fruits are we called to bear? I will summarise into 3:
I. Spiritual fruits/Christ-like character:
St. Paul states these in Galatians 5:22-23:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
Let us pause and reflect on each of these – how well are we faring in these virtues and fruits
II. Christian conduct:
Each of us have received the grace of God. This grace must not be fruitless/in vain but must cause us to lead lives worthy of our Christian calling, lives that witness to Jesus (that is the Summary of the Second
Reading. Also read Ephesians 4:1-2; Colossians 1:10-11). A life that is lived in obedience to God, in submission to His will and in accordance with the Gospel values is a fruitful life. When the grace of God is fruitful in us, it translates into a good Christian life (1 Corinthians 15:10).
III. Christian convert:
A person brought to faith in Christ is a fruit. The Lord has called all of us to gain souls for Him, to lead people to Him. A life that points to Jesus and leads people to Jesus, is a life of great fruitfulness. This fruitfulness is made possible not only through our words but in the witness of our lives (a case study is St. Paul in the First Reading. Having encountered the Lord, he became a fruit bearing branch for the Lord).
Let us ask ourselves:
Am I bearing fruits for the Lord?
How well am I bearing fruits?
Part 2: What God does for us
Jesus tells us four things that God does for us:
A. He grafts us into Christ
B. He feeds us (Spiritual nourishment)
C. He lifts us up. The English translation says “cuts away” but the Greek is “aerei” which is more properly translated as lift up. God doesn’t want to cut off the fruitless branch; He wants to lift it up and make it fruitful.
D. He prunes: Pruning is “Kathaerei” which means to cleanse or purify. Pruning is cutting back, trimming a plant by cutting back small branches, leaves, buds, dead or overgrown branches so as to give good shape, avoid congestion and increase the growth and fruitfulness of a plant. The parts that are cut away are called suckers because they suck the sap from the plant.
One of the things God wants to do for us is to prune us, to remove from us those things that suck and drain our spiritual vitality, those things that distract our relationship with Him, the things that have no eternal value but consume our time and energy so that we have little time for God, the things that prevent us from growing healthily in the Spirit and bearing fruits for the Lord.
Some of us here are bleeding branches because God is pruning us. He is cutting some things from our lives – some relationships, associations,habits, lifestyles etc. The process is painful but the essence is for freedom and fruitfulness.
Let us also identify those things in our lives that need pruning and open ourselves to God to prune us, so that our lives can be freer, more fruitful and beautiful for the Lord.
Part 3: What does God expect of us?
God expects us to abide in Christ. The word abide is “meno” in Greek and it means to remain, stay, live or dwell. God expects us to stay connected with Christ. This is the secret of being fed, the secret of spiritual stamina, the secret of fruitfulness. To stay connected in Christ is to have faith in Him and His words, to be in communion with Him, to never allow anything in this world to come between us and Him. It is to never turn our backs to Him.
How do we stay connected with Christ?
We stay connected to Him through a daily and careful study of His Word (Psalm 1:1-3), through a life of prayer, through a deliberate effort to avoid sin and occasions of sin (sin separates us from experiencing His love – Isaiah 59:2), through fellowshipping with other Christians, being part of and active in the community of faith and associating with others who are united in their common thirst and hunger for the Lord.
We pray today that we may remain in Christ and bear abundant fruit for Him. We pray that He may prune us and cut from us every sucker, everything that may hinder us from being free, fruitful and joyful in our relationship both with God and with one another.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on April 28, 2024.