"The Road to Wholeness" - John 15:1-11 - May 14, 2006

We pastors spend a lot of time of the road. One thing that I really appreciate is my cell phone. While driving I can catch up on phone calls, make appointments or plans for the future and do follow-up calls for parishioners. It’s a great system when it works. Unfortunately, there are times when my cell phone drops the call. Either I am too far away from the signal tower or the battery is too low. There is nothing more frustrating then being disconnected.

With cell phones you have to remember to keep them charged. Since I frequently forget to do that I purchased a charger that plugs into my cigarette lighter. That way I always have power when I am using the phone in my car. That little black cord has become a lifeline. I keeps me accessible and connected especially in an emergency.

Here in John, Jesus is reminding us that as believers we need to stay connected. He is the vine and we are the branches. As long as we remain connected we are on the road to wholeness and able to bear fruit. When we are connected to Jesus, we will always act in a loving way. When we are disconnected, we will wither and die. "Whoever does not abide in me," Jesus said, "is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned."

Mother’s know the importance of the umbilical cord. They are essential for the growth and development of the fetus until the child is born. For the believer, Jesus is our umbilical cord. We need to remained connected to Jesus for the growth and development of our faith. Why? "That our joy may be complete." God wants us to experience wholeness in life. God wants our lives to be full of joy.

Is your life dried up? Do you seem to be wandering around, disconnected? Do you feel as though you might be losing it? Perhaps you are connected but you just don’t seem to be going anywhere. You don’t feel as though you are bearing any fruit.

Jesus used the metaphor of the vineyard to describe the kind of relationship that is essential for people of faith. I am no expert on growing grapes for wine, but I do know that the branches have to be "pruned" in order to be productive. Bearing fruit is the result of the ongoing practice of pruning. Grape vines flourish in fields that are inhospitable to other crops. Vines like steep hillsides and dry climates. Experts say that to produce great wines the vines must suffer.

One way to prune our lives is to simplify them. By continuing to add things to our already busy schedules, we become so overwhelmed we are unable to do anything effectively. Our oldest daughter recently had a garage sale. Her two children have gotten older and they no longer use some of their toys. She thought that she could recoup some money from them through the garage sale, but she was disappointed. No one seemed to be in the market. Since they were still stacked in the garage she decided to give them to her younger nieces and nephews. Not only were the younger children excited about their new toys, our daughter received a true sense of joy because she had given them away.

Pruning requires us to cut away those things we no longer need. It may be painful, but nowhere near the pain of holding on and creating an overstock of things that just get in the way. When we prune, we grow.

Just as a grapevine needs a gardener to nurture and love it, so do we. We need the love of God to keep us whole. God wants us to be loving in the way the Jesus showed loved for others. Our love needs to be unconditional and steadfast.

There are many great self-help books on the market that will help you to simplify your life. One such book is Simple Abundance, by Sarah Ban Breathnach. In her book she tells the story about Margaret Reed. In 1846 she reluctantly left her home in Springfield, Illinois and set off to California with her husband, James, and their four children. She refused to leave her life of luxury behind, so the Reeds traveled in a two-story wagon complete with a loft, spring seats, an iron stove, velvet curtains and her cherished organ.

With six months of supplies of the best food and wine that money could buy, the Reeds made their way across the country in a covered wagon. The Reeds were part of the Donner Party that headed west. But, 2,500 hundred miles into their journey and only two days from safety the group of 31 men, women and children were stranded in the Sierra Nevada’s.

They experienced a succession of the worst blizzards on record. When they ran out of provisions, some members of the party resorted to cannibalism to survive. However, Margaret Reed and her children were not among them. She kept her family alive on snow, bark and leather broth, until her husband returned. He left the group on horseback and went on to California to get help. The family survived, but not because of the worldly goods they attempted to take with them. All those had to be abandoned along the way. The family survived because of Margaret’s wisdom, courage, faith and love for her family.

During the Victorian era in which the Reed’s lived, the abundance of prized possessions was viewed as evidence of God’s favor. That attitude continues to prevail in the 21st century. A time may come, however when they have no value and no meaning. Margaret Reed and her family survived with love and togetherness.

Grape vines are wrapped in such a way that you can’t tell one from the other. They are intertwined. Thus, the metaphor of the grapevine was used historically to describe the community of faith. You can’t distinguish one from another but they are all producing fruit together. While the individual branches are important, it’s the collective quality of the whole crop that determines the quality of the wine.

The best way to experience wholeness is to remain in the faith community. When we distance ourselves from the Church we distance ourselves from the life-giving love and nurture of God. When you see a tree that has been damaged by a wind storm you notice branches that have been blown away and lying on the ground. Soon after the storm you notice that the leaves have already begun to wilt. The longer the branches lay on the ground the "deader" they become.

In March, 1984, there was a malfunction in the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in northern California. It triggered a chain reaction that darkened the lights for millions of people in six western states. The blackout happened at rush hour and caused huge traffic jams. The problem originated at the Round Mountain sub station about one hundred miles south of the Oregon boarder. A single circuit breaker had tripped and consequently hundreds of circuits shut down. (from Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations, Virgil Hurley)

That breakdown dramatically expressed the interdependence of our nation’s power. One little circuit breaker caused havoc for millions of people. We are one people more than we realize. We are connected in ways we fail to realize. What affects one of us can affect us all. As a church we are interlinked by our interests, our mission and goals that we share. We are a community, spiritually linked and inextricably bound together. To separate ourselves from the church is disconnect ourselves from a power that keeps us whole.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio