May 14, Mother's Day, Rural Life Sunday

Lesson: John 15.1-8

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1. I thought that we might begin with a little humor

1. I especially enjoyed the Old Spanish Proverb that was in this month's Good Tidings.

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. ⁽¹⁾

2. Here is another, rather thought-provoking, comment:

Mothers and Fathers -- you think you're special? You think you're being honored, having one day out of the year dedicated to you?

Consider this: Egg salad gets a whole week. As do pickles, pancakes, pickled peppers, split pea soup, clowns, carpenter ants and aardvarks. Peanut butter (March), chickens (September) and oatmeal (January) each rate an entire month.

Mothers and fathers can draw solace from the fact that along with themselves, such national treasures as the rubber eraser and moles also merit only a single day of recognition.

3. Things Moms Would Probably Never Say ⁽²⁾

1. "How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?"

2. "Yeah, I used to skip school a lot, too"

3. "Just leave all the lights on . . . it makes the house look more cheery"

4. "Let me smell that shirt. Yeah, it's good for another week"

5. "Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey. I'll be glad to feed and walk him every day"

6. "Well, if Timmy's mom says it's okay, that's good enough for me."

7. "The curfew is just a general time to shoot for. It's not like I'm running a prison around here."

8. "I don't have a tissue with me . . . just use your sleeve"

9. "Don't bother wearing a jacket. The wind chill is bound to improve"

4. Perhaps we ought to move on to the lesson for today.

INTRODUCTION:

1. Do any genealogical research and you begin to put people on your family tree.

1. For a number of years, Helga has been working on her Family Tree.

1. After a lot of research she has over 600 names on her tree.

2. This covers the years from the present to the late 16^th century.

2. The family is a tree.

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MAIN BODY:

1. We are all part of a family tree.

1. What we learn about life and relationships, we originally learn from our family.

2. The family is the source of

1. Principles

2. Morals

3. Ethics

4. Attitudes

5. Behavior.

3. We are taught or not taught what is important.

The Children's Guide to Character ⁽³⁾

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.

If children live with abuse, they learn to feel worthless.

If children live with ridicule, they learn to be shy.

If children live with approval, they learn to praise.

If children live with conviction, they learn to have faith.

If children live with tolerance, they learn to be just.

If children live with encouragement, they learn to be confident.

If children live with reassurance, they learn to love.

2. To be fruitful we need connections beyond the family.

A missionary in Africa had a small generator to supply current for his church and small rectory. Visitors from an outlying mission noticed the electric light hanging from the ceiling of his living room. They watched wide-eyed as he turned the little switch and the light went on.

One of the visitors asked if he could have one of the bulbs. The priest, thinking he wanted it for a sort of trinket, gave him an extra bulb. On his next visit to the outlying mission, the priest stopped at the hut of the man who had asked for the bulb. Imagine his surprise when he saw the bulb hanging from an ordinary string. He had to explain that one had to have electricity and a wire to bring the current to the bulb.

1. You have to be connected to be a light.\

2. More than this, you need to stay connected.

More than anything else, Mary wanted a Rainbow Vacuum for Christmas. She'd seen the model demonstrated at a local store and was excited about its power and ease of use. Her family decided to buy it for her and had as much fun watching her open it as she did unwrapping it. After all the presents had been unwrapped, Mary decided to take her new appliance for a test drive across the living room floor.

The vacuum purred quietly as she pushed it across the floor. She could see the difference in the carpet ---- this thing really worked!

And then, it suddenly didn't. The vacuum just stopped. She flipped the switch a few times and it started up again. But only for a few moments. She started to get upset, and jiggled the switch again. The machine started up and shut down, started and stopped. Mary started to get angry. What kind of defective vacuum did they buy me? she thought to herself as she gave up and went looking for her husband.

She hunted down her husband in the garage and vented her frustration on him. "You just bought me a brand-new vacuum cleaner, and it's defective! The crazy thing keeps going off and on, off and on!"

Her husband went in and there was the vacuum cleaner, going on and off, on and off. He couldn't figure it out and decided that they should just take it back and exchange it. So, he went to unplug it and that's when he solved the problem. In her excitement and haste, his wife had plugged the vacuum cleaner cord into the Christmas tree blinker outlet.

1. Vacuum cleaners don't work well that way; they need a steady supply of current.

2. And so do we.

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3. Jesus offers an alternative source of connectedness that the world around us cannot provide.

1. He is the vine.

1. He is the source of nourishment.

2. He is the source of religious education.

3. He is the source of moral development.

4. He provides us with the principles of life.

5. He provides us with the living example that allows us to know how the principles may be applied and maintained.

2. Jesus makes it possible to engage in creative change.

I was getting a haircut.

The person cutting my hair was in the midst of a divorce.

She was unhappy with her living conditions and her life.

She asked me if you could start again: "Is it possible to simply end this present life and start over."

"Oh, yes," I replied.

3. Jesus is the vine and his disciples are the branches.

1. We are his disciple if we are joined to the vine.

2. We are his disciple if we remain connected to the vine.

4. We are his disciple if we are bearing fruit.

1. Fruit is character development.

2. Fruit is the fruit of righteousness (Galatians 5:22-26, NRSVA):

²²...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

4. Branches that do not bear fruit are removed, (John 15.1-2, NRSV).

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.

1. Mark Roth, in "Jesus, the true vine," ⁽⁴⁾ describes the end result of removal.

1. Removal is not the work of God, but the personal decision of the branch.

The grape branch struggled mightily to hold on to the four huge, tightly packed clusters of grapes. That fruit emitted strong wafts of delicious aroma, and the look of the grapes seemed to insist on being picked and eaten. The branch could not hold back the self-confident satisfaction deep within the nuclei of each cell. It knew it was a grape branch. Appearance, fruit and chemical composition assured it of never being anything but a grape branch. Obviously the very best at that.

So the branch decided indulging in a little ungrapelike behavior would hurt nothing. "Once a grape branch, always a grape branch," it assured itself. It detached itself from the vine. No, it had neither intention nor desire to be anything less than a healthy, beautiful, productive grape branch. It just felt that submitting to the whims of the vine was no longer necessary. After all, its identity could never be changed! ...

Before long, though, the branch no longer felt strong and vigorous. In fact, it felt utterly drained and limp. Its grapes withered and dropped off. So did its leaves. Eventually it looked like a stick in the ground. Then it was broken up, and all that remained of it were small particles of various nutrients to be absorbed by other plants.

The other branches, still attached to the vine and plentifully nourished by it, produced a bountiful harvest for the master of the vineyard. They saw that without the vine, their comrade could do nothing. And as they looked at the bare spot of earth a scant foot away from the vine, they realized again that to continue as grape branches they needed to continue being attached to the grapevine.

2. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

1. This is not pruning as we understand the term.

2. What happens is described in an insight of Bruce Wilkinson.

In Secrets of the Vine (33-36), Bruce Wilkinson shares an insight that he learned from a vineyard owner in Southern California: "New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground, but they don't bear fruit down there. When branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust. Then when it rains, they get muddy and mildewed, and the branch becomes sick and useless."

"What do you do?" asked Wilkinson, "Cut it off and throw it away?"

"Oh, no!" he exclaimed. "The branch is much too valuable for that. We go through the vineyard with a bucket of water, looking for those branches. We lift them up and wash them off. Then we wrap them around the trellis or tie them up. Pretty soon they're thriving."

1. "…… For the Christian, sin is like dirt covering the grape leaves.

2. Air and light can't get in.

3. The branch languishes, and no fruit develops ……

4. When the branches fall into the dirt, God doesn't throw them away or abandon them.

5. He lifts them up, cleans them off, and helps them flourish again."

3. Okay, we have come this far, but we need to understand the practical application

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4. What benefits are there in letting Jesus be the Vine and we the Branches?

Reflections of a Mother ⁽⁵⁾

I gave you life, but cannot live it for you.

I can teach you things, but I cannot make you learn.

I can give you directions, but I cannot be there to lead you.

I can allow you freedom, but I cannot account for it.

I can take you to church, but I cannot make you believe.

I can teach you right from wrong, but I cannot always decide for you.

I can buy you beautiful clothes, but I cannot make you beautiful inside.

I can offer you advice, but I cannot accept it for you.

I can give you love, but I cannot force it upon you.

I can teach you to share, but I cannot make you unselfish.

I can teach you respect, but I cannot force you to show honor.

I can advise you about friends, but cannot choose them for you.

I can advise you about sex, but I cannot keep you pure.

I can tell you the facts of life, but I can't build your reputation.

I can tell you about drink, but I can't say "no" for you.

I can warn you about drugs, but I can't prevent you from using them.

I can tell you about lofty goals, but I can't achieve them for you.

I can teach you about kindness, but I can't force you to be gracious.

I can warn you about sins, but I cannot make you moral.

I can love you as a child, but I cannot place you in God's family.

I can pray for you, but I cannot make you walk with God.

I can teach you about Jesus, but I cannot make Jesus your Lord.

I can tell you how to live, but I cannot give you eternal life.

I can love you with unconditional love all of my life...and I will!!!

Always, Mom

1. Using your imagination are you able to hear Jesus saying these words.

1. The sentence structure might need a little modification.

2. But in a real sense this is what Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are attempting to provide you and me.

5. The end result is joy.

1. The word for Jesus joy and our joy is the same.

2. Joy is cheerfulness, that is, calm delight:--gladness, X greatly, (X be exceeding) joy (-ful, -fully, -fulness, -ous).

Prayer Chain ⁽⁶⁾

My mother called to tell me
about an old classmate of mine who

was dying on the parish prayer chain--
or was very sick--or destitute--

or it had not worked out--the marriage--
or the kids were all on drugs--and

all the old mothers were praying intensely
for all the pain of their children

and for life--they were praying for life--
in their quiet rooms--sipping decaf coffee--

I bet they've been praying for me at times--
so I'll find my way--so I won't rob a bank--

I'll take them--the mystical prayers of old mothers--
it matters--all this patient and purposeful love.

3. You can imagine the joyful response that is highlighted in this poem.

1. Do you desire to experience this joy?

2. There is only one way to have and maintain this experience.

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CONCLUSION

1. Jesus is the vine.

1. We are not the vine.

2. Remembering that we are the branches creates a need.

2. We all have family trees.

1. We have our earthly families.

2. Now we are part of the heavenly family.

3. It is a transforming experience.

Amen!

1. Old Spanish proverb

2. Mikey's Funnies [funnies-owner@lists.MikeysFunnies.com]

3. © D. N.

4. Mark Roth, "Jesus, the true vine," Christian Light Publications, May 16, 1999, anabaptists.org.

5. Retrieved from: Mikey's Funnies [funnies-owner@lists.MikeysFunnies.com]

6. "Prayer Chain" by Tim Nolan. Reprinted with permission by the author. Retrieved from: The Writer's Almanac [newsletter@americanpublicmedia.org]

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