The branch speaks

…been thinking about grapes lately (well actually, more before Christmas than now, but I was too busy to write at Christmas time, so I’m doing it now). Vines, branches, dirt, leaves, sunlight, vinedressers, the whole bit. …been reading a book, hearing a preach, talking to God…about grapes and stuff. Jesus says that he’s the vine, I’m a branch, God is the gardener. The gardener prunes the branches to produce more fruit. …heard lots of stuff about what pruning looks like and why…some sounds good, some not so good. Heard less of what fruit looks like …mostly it’s implied that fruit looks like “good works,” an ambiguous cloud of things that, should I fail to produce them, will bring feelings of inadequacy and guilt. Even though Paul says that fruit is “love, joy, peace, patience, etc.”, and Jesus himself implies that the fruit is love for each other…I don’t hear that very often. I hear consistently that I am to bear much fruit…no fruit, is complete failure, small amounts of fruit are an embarrassment, and large, vast amounts of fruit are the thing to strive for. More often, of late, I’ve been hearing that branches don’t “strive”, they “abide”, that “fruit” happens naturally if the branch remains in the vine, and the gardener is about his business. This last bit is good news, takes the pressure off.

The other thing that keeps getting thrown in is this idea that, after all is said and done, and the harvest is in…I the branch, will lay this (hopefully) overflowing basket of grapes at the feet of Jesus (the vine) and/or of God (the vinedresser). Always the concept is thrown out there that I am producing fruit for Jesus. I’m working for him, I’m abiding for him, I’m an asset to him. God and/or Jesus are sitting on this big throne somewhere in the vineyard with basket loads of grapes, just sitting at their feet. We the branches are preening around waiting for a nod of approval, or a “well done”, all the time looking at everyone else’s baskets, and taking stock. The grapes are never used…just weighed.

Enter….a new thought. Whatif….the grapes are not for him at all, nor even for me, but rather for the world? Whatif…they never make it into a basket, but get eaten right off the vine? Whatif…this abundance of wonderful fruit is meant to feed a hungry world, a world that’s hungry for truth, for love, hungry for reality, for life, for peace?? Whatif…the fruit is not something to measure myself with? Big basket, small basket, empty, full…, all this talk of me producing for Jesus makes me feel so full of self. So empty. I have never heard that the “fruit” would feed a hungry world, that the world would pick it and squish it and ferment it and drink it and it would bring them joy, and life, and they would “taste” Jesus. (Except maybe just now, from Jesus…) Whatif...it's not for Him, or me, but for "them"??