Mitch Lewis

Jesus said to his disciples: I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit. But he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit, so that it will produce even more fruit. John 15:1-2 CEV

John 15:1-8 - Lectionary for Easter 5B
See also Abide in Me: Spiritual Life in the Midst of Trauma

We don't live in Jesus' agricultural world, but we instinctively grasp the central element in his metaphor of the vine. To live, one must stay connected to the source of life. Jesus is the source of life for the community of believers.

The 1st century inhabitants of Jerusalem would have had an even deeper understanding of Jesus' figure of speech. The vineyard was the lifeblood of Judean agriculture; wine is mentioned 521 times in the Bible (well, at least by one count). More importantly, the vineyard was an important symbol in Israel's self-understanding.

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I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. John 15:5 CEV

John 15:1-8 - Lectionary for Easter 5B
See also The True Vine

Life in the Connection

Spring in Korea is absolutely beautiful. The mountains turn to green. Gardens erupt in a sea of pinks and yellows and purples and whites. Week after week brings a new display of color.

We have a volunteer in our chapel that produces the most amazing floral displays every week throughout the year. She incorporates an astonishing variety of seasonal flowers and her creations always seem to fit the liturgical theme. Her arrangements are astounding in both their natural beauty and their human ingenuity. I've never seen anything like them in nearly 30 years of ministry. She produces these works of art as a labor of love and fills our sanctuary with God's beauty throughout the year.

Still, the beauty of a cut flower always fades. My wife cut some irises from our garden last week and put them in a vase. Their beautiful purple flowers turned to brown, their green stems turned to mush and their aroma turned to stench. Within a week of being cut they were good for nothing but the trashcan or compost heap.

My street, on the other hand, is lined with birch trees that were severely pruned in the fall two years ago. When the trimming was complete, they looked like nothing but tall stumps. What was left of the branches ended abruptly where the chainsaws had done their work. The trees were barren, gnarled and ugly. I was sure they were dead. Even when spring rolled around, the trees showed no sign of life for weeks. By midsummer, however, new life had emerged. Even then, a few trees that stood outside the chapel appeared to be completely dead, with areas of obvious decay near the truncated limbs. They went through a complete growing season last year without sprouting a single green leaf. This morning, however, I was surprised to discover some new green shoots sprouting from the truncated limbs of even the most damaged trees.

What is the difference between beautiful flowers that turn ugly and rot and ugly stumps that blossoms in new life? New life emerges where the branch remains connected to its life giving root.

Jesus compared himself to a vitis vinifera - a common wine-grape vine found throughout Europe and the middle east. As the grapevine grows vertically from the ground, it eventually reaches the height of the trellis or frame, to which the gardener ties its outstretched branches. A single grape vine looks something like a cross, with its horizontal members spread to either side. Was this visual image one aspect of Jesus' intent?

Grape vines can live very long lives and they are not much to look at. Over the years they become twisted and knotty. Old branches are pruned away. Even new branches are trimmed to maximize grape production. Old vines bear the scars of generations of growth and pruning, but they still live on. Old vines, it seems, produce fewer grapes, but the fruit they do produce is more flavorful and intense. That sounds hopeful to an old guy like me.

Jesus compares himself to a grapevine. Vine branches only bear fruit, Jesus says, as they remain connected to the vine. That is demonstrably true for grape vines and tomato plants and all sorts of living things. Is it also true for people?

Resiliency after Trauma

I recently returned from a retreat with other chaplains and chaplain assistants at which we talked about resiliency in the experience of trauma. We were talking about the trauma of war, but we could have talked about death, disease, divorce, physical or sexual assault, job loss, or any other of a host of traumas. Trauma has a way of beating you up. We like to think that we will express our faith in profound ways and have a meaningful spiritual experience in the middle of trauma, but the fact is that trauma just pretty much kicks you in the teeth.

We learned a lot this week about how trauma affects the brain. When the brain senses a threat, higher brain functions get left out of the loop. In the midst of trauma, the brain is not capable of either reason or what we would normally identify as meaningful spiritual experience. The brain is overwhelmed by the threat of danger or pain. Very basic survival reactions take control when life is threatened. The ability to think religious thoughts or have religious feelings is severely limited.

How, then, do you mentally and emotionally and spiritually survive trauma? Theologically, for me, that question means, "How do I stay connected to the spiritual source of life even when life is kicking me in the teeth?"

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Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.' And after he said this, he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.' John 20:19-23

While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' But they were startled and terrified, thinking they saw a ghost. Then he said to them, 'Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; it's me! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones like you see I have.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still could not believe it (because of their joy) and were amazed, he said to them, 'Do you have anything here to eat?' So they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in front of them. Luke 24:36-48

Both Luke and John agree that the risen Jesus greeted his disciples with blessing, 'Peace be with you.' 'Shalom' is the Hebrew word for 'peace.' It was - and is - a customary greeting among Hebrew speaking Jews. Its Arabic cousin 'salaam' is used in the same manner. The phrase is present here, however, as something more than a courteous formality. Jesus surely greeted people with the word 'peace' on countless occasions in his life. Why is the risen Jesus' greeting of peace so significant that both Luke and John feel the need to remember it?

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Part Six of The Holy Spirit in John

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:21-23)

On the Sunday I preached on this passage, the spring breeze was filled with what looked like small pieces of cotton. The air was so thick with them that it looked like it was snowing. What the wind was carrying was life. The small, cotton-like filaments were the seeds of trees that had fallen into the sleep of dormancy in the fall. With the warming temperatures of spring, the trees had awakened from their sleep, blossomed and flooded the atmosphere with their cottony seeds. The wind took the seeds and spread them throughout the countryside, enabling the trees to propagate. By means of the wind, the trees reproduce and spread their own life throughout the land. It seems to me that is a useful image of Christ's intent in giving the Holy Spirit.

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Part Five of The Holy Spirit in John

Writing in the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, M.M.B. Turner says, "In the Fourth Gospel the Spirit is to be understood primarily as a development of the Jewish understanding of 'Spirit of prophecy,' redefined christologically and developed in a trinitarian direction." (Article "Holy Spirit," section 3, p. 347).

In John's gospel, there is an intimate, two-way connection between the Holy Spirit and words of Jesus.

He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. (John 3:34)

It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. (John 6:63)

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. (John 14:26)

"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. (John 15:26)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14)

The Holy Spirit, then, is not an independent player, doing his own thing apart from the gospel narrative about Jesus of Nazareth. It's not as if Jesus' death and resurrection ended one story and the coming of the Holy Spirit began another tangentially-related story. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to speak God's words, and Jesus' words themselves poured out the Holy Spirit into the world. After Jesus' resurrection, the Holy Spirit continues to empower Jesus' words and the story of Jesus' life.

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Part Four of The Holy Spirit in John

True worship takes place in Spirit and truth.

In Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well in Samaria, water becomes a symbol for God's life giving gift that Jesus bestows.

Jesus answered the woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:10-14)

The use of water as a metaphor is a recurring theme throughout John's gospel . As the conversation progresses, Jesus turns to the Spirit's role, creating one of many pairings of water and Spirit in the gospel of John.

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

"Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." (John 4:19-24)

Just as the Holy Spirit is necessary for true life (John 3:5-8), so the Holy Spirit is necessary for true worship. Note that Jesus is not describing a manner or style of worship, but a location. Jesus says, "Not in the mountain and not in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth." To contrast Jerusalem and Samaria with divinely-inspired ecstasy or human enthusiasm or sincerity or any other quality of worship is to make a category error. The locus of true worship, Jesus says, is Spirit and the truth.

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