040619 God puts us back
Core Ideas: God cuts us back to create space for himself. KSS
The Life of The Vine John 15:1-5
In one Tolstoy’s unforgettable short stories, Pahom, an ambitious peasant of central Russia is seeking a fortune east of the Volga River. Shrewd Bashkir tribesmen offer him a deal he is eager to accept: 1,000 rubles for as much land as he can walk around in a day. Pahom sets out at dawn walking and would have gotten a rich estate. But for his greed for more and more land causes him to run and run and run… He does manage to return to his starting point before sunset, but only to collapse on the spot with blood trickling from his mouth. Pahom is dead. The story ends with the question, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
How much land does a person need? How much money does a person need? How much such information does a person need? How many “groovy experiences” does a person need?
Many in our culture would say more, more, more…
Alxndr Solzhenytsyn has said the purpose of life is not accumulation of material goods but the maturation of the soul. The purpose of life is the not accumulation of money, or information, or experiences, but the maturation of the soul.
Jesus said you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you to go and bear fruit that will last. In the context, what Jesus means by fruit of fruit of a godly character, or the fruit Spirit… described in the Bible as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control…
And God uses the seasons of our lives of spring, summer, fall and winter to enable to produce the fruit of his character… Though we’re moving into the summer, this morning we going to explore how God uses the season of winter and of pruning to make us fruitful…
On the night before Jesus went to die on the cross for our sins, he shared a final dinner with some of his closest students. And that night he apparently came across the moonlit tendrils of a grapevine and he spoke of how he was the vine and we were the branches and how God, the father, helps us produce lasting fruit…
If you have your Bibles please turn to John 15:1-5
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
This morning we want to explore how God, the father, works in us to enable us to produce the fruit of his character.
Jesus teaches here He is the vine and we are the branches. And who’s the gardener? Our Father in heaven (btw, some of us here especially on a day like today may have good associations with the word father and others may have bad associations with the word, but when we read about God the father in the Bible think of the ideal father, the perfect father).
When you come into a relationship with God, according to Jesus, God the Father becomes our gardener. Perhaps you’ve been at someone’s home and you’ve seen someone working in the garden and you say, I don’t think I’ve met that person. Who’s that? Your host says dismissively oh that’s the “help,” the gardener.
It takes a stunning humility for the God of universe to describe himself as our gardener, as our vinedresser.
If you move into a house with a garden and people start to ask you who does your garden? Think of the person who does (it may be you), but also think God, your father in heaven, who is also your gardener, your vinedresser.
Part of what it means for God to be our gardener, the caretaker of our vineyard is that he prunes us so that we will be even more fruitful.
Some time ago, Sakiko and I traveled to a vineyard. When we got to this vineyard, the manager told us that we had come during pruning season. She took us to the vineyard and we saw how all the vines were bare. We saw the men cutting almost all the branches. As we looked at these vines that had been pruned, they looked rather pathetic, they had no visible fruit of course, and they literally had had all of their branched removed expect two. The only branches that were left were the two branches near the centre of the vine, and they were in the shape of a cross. We were told by the manager that unless the vines were pruned and subjected to the cold of the winter, and a waiting period of hibernation, it would be impossible to produce good wine.
Unless, we are pruned and subjected to some of the harsh realities of winter from time to time our souls will not grow ripe with the fruit of the God’ Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.
In our society with its emphasis on “bigger is better” and “success equals more” when we are pruned, i.e. when something is cut back in our life we can feel like we’re failing. If are conscious of having a relationship with God, being pruned can feel like punishment from God.
When things get “cut back” in our lives, some of us look up to God and ask, “So, what did I do now?” “What did I do to deserve this?”
But Jesus teaches us that being pruned is not a punishment, but a privilege reserved for those who have a relationship with God. Someone has said, there is no time the gardener is as close to vine as when he is pruning it.
When we are being cut back, probably most of the time, we’re not even aware of God’s larger, good purposes (much like branch on a tree isn’t conscious of why a gardener is cutting it back) but if we trust the goodness of the gardener, the goodness of the Father then we will be able to face pruning with greater patience and courage.
Part of the reason we are pruned according to the text is so that, we can receive more of God’s energy and thereby more like God. As many of you would know from your own experience of gardening many plants, have “sucker branches.” Sucker branches are leafy and look good, but don’t produce any fruit. They sap the nourishment that would otherwise go to help produce fruit. So fruit growers, will prune back these sucker branches so that the tree can produce more fruit.
People with the most highly developed souls know how “loss” through either circumstance or choices can produce growth in the soul.
Monks (though sometimes dismissed as being extreme) have some things to teach us about the development of our souls… Monks understand the spiritual benefits of simplifying their lives through limiting their earthly possessions and by going into the dessert or wilderness to be alone. Monks know that in cutting back things in their life they can create space in souls for God.
Many of us view monks as “extreme” for giving up what they do to pursue God and to develop their souls… but you know that are lot of people we admire that go to “Monk” like extremes to achieve their goals.
If a person is serious about becoming an Olympic gold medallist, she will clear her life of certain things to be able to train for that goal, if a person wants a leading doctor in their field, they will have to clear certain things from their life to make that a reality, if you want to be outstanding partner to someone or Father or mother to someone, you’ve got clear your life of certain things.
If we want to become a person who deeply knows God, our lives must be free of certain things.
Part of the way God opens up our lives to him is by pruning.
Pruning can happen through circumstance….
We might be pruned through the loss of relationship… Losing a relationship, as many of us know can be very painful… But, that loss can create a new space for in our lives God.
We can be pruned through the loss of some kind of opportunity we were hoping for: admission to a school, a particular job we were hoping for, a role we were hoping to fill.
My wife Sakiko’s dad is very close to retirement. Her has been the consummate corporate solider—he’s been working for nearly 50 years all consuming years for his company. As he retires, he loses status and income, and he with the loss of status and income he loses identity.
But, he says when I retire I may have time to consider Christianity. His life is being pruned and he will have more space for God.
Some times we are pruned by circumstance or a loss of something beyond our control and at other times we are pruned by choice.
Some times we experience a kind of pruning by choice: on micro level, some times we choose to prune ourselves of food, we fast in order to have more space for God in our lives. A lot of people tend to think that going without food will “kill us.” But it has been well documented that regular fasting, i.e., regularly going without food cleanses our bodies of certain toxins and brings health to our bodies. And fasting helps to open our mind and our schedules for God and can bring health to our souls.
I take time away each in summer for study and research. During 2 or the last 3 summers, I have thought seriously about pursuing another educational degree. But, for me—in this season in my life—pursuing another degree will push out more important things—like prayer! What would be point of getting a doctorate in spirituality and prayer, but have no time for prayer!
I know of people who’ve decided to either not pursue dating relationships or break them off because they felt God calling them to create space for him.
Have you ever sensed God pruning you either by circumstances or by choices he is calling you to make? It will always be painful, but less painful if we cooperate with the gardener. God will only remove things that would lose to keep and a gain to lose. (2x)
Pruning not primarily about losing something for its own sake, it’s not asceticism, but our father, our gardener, prunes us so that we can gain more life of Christ, the true vine.
Once we are pruned, we have a choice to use the new space to meet God or not.
The Somerset Maughmn, the famous author, had worked in a hospital and says that there is a school of thought that believes in the moral value of suffering. These people claim that suffering increases sympathy and opens the spirit to new avenues of beauty and strength and character, but I saw that suffering did not make people noble, but degraded people. It made them selfish, mean, petty, and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things. It didn’t make them more human but less.
Experiencing a loss can make a person not better, but bitter. But if we allow the space created in us through the pruning we experience as an opportunity to lean more fully into God, our souls will become more like God…
Following Jesus’ words on pruning, Jesus says, 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If we allow the pruning process that Jesus allows us to go through to enable us to abide more wholly in Jesus, to connect more directly with the life of vine, we will become more like Jesus and in becoming more like him we will fulfill the purpose for which we were born.
What does it mean to abide in the vine? Practically, how do we do this?
There are many ways, let me list two. A few years ago, I had the privilege of spending some time one on one with Dallas Willard, the philosophy professor at the University of Southern and the respected thinker on the spiritual life.
I said Dr. Willard you’ve written a lot on the spiritual life. Will you tell me what spiritual discipline or disciplines have been most helpful in your own spiritual growth?
He said early in my journey with the Christ the most helpful spirit discipline was solitude.
Every one of all the so-called great spiritual mothers and father knows the value of solitude whether in the woods, the mountain, the ocean or the anonymity of urban crowd.
So much of who we are and what we think is shaped by our daily interactions with people, by the media we regularly expose ourselves to, our routines—much of which causes us to turns us away from God--and in solitude we are become free of these things so we can meet on God and hear his voice, his word to us.
David Henry Thoreau was asked to give counsel to someone’s who’s inner life was failing. Thoreau, a secular thinker, said, “Read not the times, read the eternities.”
There’s something about solitude that can free from all the “tyranny of times”, from the “tyranny of the urgent, “the tyranny of the banquet” (My friend Elizabeth Archer Klein speaks of tyranny of banquet as the tyranny of the choices laid before us), solitude frees us “from the tyranny of “information smog” that has been created by the internet so that we can have the space to hear from God and abide in him.
Dallas Willard said as an early in his journey with God the most important discipline was solitude. He said the most important current discipline (and his answer surprised) was scripture memory (the text if my words remain in you).
I think that a lot people assume that memorizing Scripture is just for children in Sunday School or for people new to the Christian faith… It’s not. It’s something that can help all of us abide in the teaching and person of Jesus.
Jesus if you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will bear much fruit.
An actor who played Jesus in one of the Jesus movies, was asked, “What impact did playing Jesus have on you?” He said, playing the role of Jesus, I had to memorize all the recorded words of Jesus… After doing this whenever I faced a problem in my life, I found myself responding with the words of Jesus… the wisdom of Jesus… That’s life…
One of the ways we can learn to abide in Jesus is through solitude. Another way we learn to abide in Jesus is through the word. (And by the way there are many other ways to learn to abide in Jesus and one of summer teaching series here at Tenth—led by our staff will focus on some of the ways we to connect to Jesus.)
The goal of life as is not the accumulation of things, information, or experiences, but it’s about become a certain kind of person, a person who reflects the character of God, the character of Jesus.
Do you remember the author Robert Fulghum? He wrote the popular book some years ago All I really need to learn, I learned in Kindergarten. Robert Fulghum liked to bring people together to listen to speakers to talk about various life themes and these “talks” would to be followed by a Questions and Answer time After the talk and Q and A Fulghum would also ask the speaker, “Tell us what is the meaning of life?” Everyone would laugh and get up and go home. One time this man invited a Monk from Cyrpus to speak. After this Monk had given his talk and the Q and A was done he asked the him as a joke, “Tell us, what is the meaning of life? Everyone laughed. But the priest, said “I’ll tell you the meaning of life.” He pulled out a small mirror that he kept in his wallet. And the monk said this mirror reminds me of the meaning of life. He said as boy I use to play with mirror by catching the light of the sun and re-direct it. The monk said the meaning of life is to catch the light of God like a mirror and then to reflect his light to others.
The purpose of our lives is to catch the light of God and to reflect his light through our character to others. In order for to fully to do this, there are times when God has to clean our mirror, to prune us so that we can more fully catch His light and reflect it to others.
Prayer: You are the vine, we are the branches—keep us abiding you.
Jesus said 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a woman or a man remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Go and learn what this means.
The Life of The Vine John 15:1-5
In one Tolstoy’s unforgettable short stories, Pahom, an ambitious peasant of central Russia is seeking a fortune east of the Volga River. Shrewd Bashkir tribesmen offer him a deal he is eager to accept: 1,000 rubles for as much land as he can walk around in a day. Pahom sets out at dawn walking and would have gotten a rich estate. But for his greed for more and more land causes him to run and run and run… He does manage to return to his starting point before sunset, but only to collapse on the spot with blood trickling from his mouth. Pahom is dead. The story ends with the question, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
How much land does a person need? How much money does a person need? How much such information does a person need? How many “groovy experiences” does a person need?
Many in our culture would say more, more, more…
Alxndr Solzhenytsyn has said the purpose of life is not accumulation of material goods but the maturation of the soul. The purpose of life is the not accumulation of money, or information, or experiences, but the maturation of the soul.
Jesus said you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you to go and bear fruit that will last. In the context, what Jesus means by fruit of fruit of a godly character, or the fruit Spirit… described in the Bible as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control…
And God uses the seasons of our lives of spring, summer, fall and winter to enable to produce the fruit of his character… Though we’re moving into the summer, this morning we going to explore how God uses the season of winter and of pruning to make us fruitful…
On the night before Jesus went to die on the cross for our sins, he shared a final dinner with some of his closest students. And that night he apparently came across the moonlit tendrils of a grapevine and he spoke of how he was the vine and we were the branches and how God, the father, helps us produce lasting fruit…
If you have your Bibles please turn to John 15:1-5
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
This morning we want to explore how God, the father, works in us to enable us to produce the fruit of his character.
Jesus teaches here He is the vine and we are the branches. And who’s the gardener? Our Father in heaven (btw, some of us here especially on a day like today may have good associations with the word father and others may have bad associations with the word, but when we read about God the father in the Bible think of the ideal father, the perfect father).
When you come into a relationship with God, according to Jesus, God the Father becomes our gardener. Perhaps you’ve been at someone’s home and you’ve seen someone working in the garden and you say, I don’t think I’ve met that person. Who’s that? Your host says dismissively oh that’s the “help,” the gardener.
It takes a stunning humility for the God of universe to describe himself as our gardener, as our vinedresser.
If you move into a house with a garden and people start to ask you who does your garden? Think of the person who does (it may be you), but also think God, your father in heaven, who is also your gardener, your vinedresser.
Part of what it means for God to be our gardener, the caretaker of our vineyard is that he prunes us so that we will be even more fruitful.
Some time ago, Sakiko and I traveled to a vineyard. When we got to this vineyard, the manager told us that we had come during pruning season. She took us to the vineyard and we saw how all the vines were bare. We saw the men cutting almost all the branches. As we looked at these vines that had been pruned, they looked rather pathetic, they had no visible fruit of course, and they literally had had all of their branched removed expect two. The only branches that were left were the two branches near the centre of the vine, and they were in the shape of a cross. We were told by the manager that unless the vines were pruned and subjected to the cold of the winter, and a waiting period of hibernation, it would be impossible to produce good wine.
Unless, we are pruned and subjected to some of the harsh realities of winter from time to time our souls will not grow ripe with the fruit of the God’ Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.
In our society with its emphasis on “bigger is better” and “success equals more” when we are pruned, i.e. when something is cut back in our life we can feel like we’re failing. If are conscious of having a relationship with God, being pruned can feel like punishment from God.
When things get “cut back” in our lives, some of us look up to God and ask, “So, what did I do now?” “What did I do to deserve this?”
But Jesus teaches us that being pruned is not a punishment, but a privilege reserved for those who have a relationship with God. Someone has said, there is no time the gardener is as close to vine as when he is pruning it.
When we are being cut back, probably most of the time, we’re not even aware of God’s larger, good purposes (much like branch on a tree isn’t conscious of why a gardener is cutting it back) but if we trust the goodness of the gardener, the goodness of the Father then we will be able to face pruning with greater patience and courage.
Part of the reason we are pruned according to the text is so that, we can receive more of God’s energy and thereby more like God. As many of you would know from your own experience of gardening many plants, have “sucker branches.” Sucker branches are leafy and look good, but don’t produce any fruit. They sap the nourishment that would otherwise go to help produce fruit. So fruit growers, will prune back these sucker branches so that the tree can produce more fruit.
People with the most highly developed souls know how “loss” through either circumstance or choices can produce growth in the soul.
Monks (though sometimes dismissed as being extreme) have some things to teach us about the development of our souls… Monks understand the spiritual benefits of simplifying their lives through limiting their earthly possessions and by going into the dessert or wilderness to be alone. Monks know that in cutting back things in their life they can create space in souls for God.
Many of us view monks as “extreme” for giving up what they do to pursue God and to develop their souls… but you know that are lot of people we admire that go to “Monk” like extremes to achieve their goals.
If a person is serious about becoming an Olympic gold medallist, she will clear her life of certain things to be able to train for that goal, if a person wants a leading doctor in their field, they will have to clear certain things from their life to make that a reality, if you want to be outstanding partner to someone or Father or mother to someone, you’ve got clear your life of certain things.
If we want to become a person who deeply knows God, our lives must be free of certain things.
Part of the way God opens up our lives to him is by pruning.
Pruning can happen through circumstance….
We might be pruned through the loss of relationship… Losing a relationship, as many of us know can be very painful… But, that loss can create a new space for in our lives God.
We can be pruned through the loss of some kind of opportunity we were hoping for: admission to a school, a particular job we were hoping for, a role we were hoping to fill.
My wife Sakiko’s dad is very close to retirement. Her has been the consummate corporate solider—he’s been working for nearly 50 years all consuming years for his company. As he retires, he loses status and income, and he with the loss of status and income he loses identity.
But, he says when I retire I may have time to consider Christianity. His life is being pruned and he will have more space for God.
Some times we are pruned by circumstance or a loss of something beyond our control and at other times we are pruned by choice.
Some times we experience a kind of pruning by choice: on micro level, some times we choose to prune ourselves of food, we fast in order to have more space for God in our lives. A lot of people tend to think that going without food will “kill us.” But it has been well documented that regular fasting, i.e., regularly going without food cleanses our bodies of certain toxins and brings health to our bodies. And fasting helps to open our mind and our schedules for God and can bring health to our souls.
I take time away each in summer for study and research. During 2 or the last 3 summers, I have thought seriously about pursuing another educational degree. But, for me—in this season in my life—pursuing another degree will push out more important things—like prayer! What would be point of getting a doctorate in spirituality and prayer, but have no time for prayer!
I know of people who’ve decided to either not pursue dating relationships or break them off because they felt God calling them to create space for him.
Have you ever sensed God pruning you either by circumstances or by choices he is calling you to make? It will always be painful, but less painful if we cooperate with the gardener. God will only remove things that would lose to keep and a gain to lose. (2x)
Pruning not primarily about losing something for its own sake, it’s not asceticism, but our father, our gardener, prunes us so that we can gain more life of Christ, the true vine.
Once we are pruned, we have a choice to use the new space to meet God or not.
The Somerset Maughmn, the famous author, had worked in a hospital and says that there is a school of thought that believes in the moral value of suffering. These people claim that suffering increases sympathy and opens the spirit to new avenues of beauty and strength and character, but I saw that suffering did not make people noble, but degraded people. It made them selfish, mean, petty, and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things. It didn’t make them more human but less.
Experiencing a loss can make a person not better, but bitter. But if we allow the space created in us through the pruning we experience as an opportunity to lean more fully into God, our souls will become more like God…
Following Jesus’ words on pruning, Jesus says, 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If we allow the pruning process that Jesus allows us to go through to enable us to abide more wholly in Jesus, to connect more directly with the life of vine, we will become more like Jesus and in becoming more like him we will fulfill the purpose for which we were born.
What does it mean to abide in the vine? Practically, how do we do this?
There are many ways, let me list two. A few years ago, I had the privilege of spending some time one on one with Dallas Willard, the philosophy professor at the University of Southern and the respected thinker on the spiritual life.
I said Dr. Willard you’ve written a lot on the spiritual life. Will you tell me what spiritual discipline or disciplines have been most helpful in your own spiritual growth?
He said early in my journey with the Christ the most helpful spirit discipline was solitude.
Every one of all the so-called great spiritual mothers and father knows the value of solitude whether in the woods, the mountain, the ocean or the anonymity of urban crowd.
So much of who we are and what we think is shaped by our daily interactions with people, by the media we regularly expose ourselves to, our routines—much of which causes us to turns us away from God--and in solitude we are become free of these things so we can meet on God and hear his voice, his word to us.
David Henry Thoreau was asked to give counsel to someone’s who’s inner life was failing. Thoreau, a secular thinker, said, “Read not the times, read the eternities.”
There’s something about solitude that can free from all the “tyranny of times”, from the “tyranny of the urgent, “the tyranny of the banquet” (My friend Elizabeth Archer Klein speaks of tyranny of banquet as the tyranny of the choices laid before us), solitude frees us “from the tyranny of “information smog” that has been created by the internet so that we can have the space to hear from God and abide in him.
Dallas Willard said as an early in his journey with God the most important discipline was solitude. He said the most important current discipline (and his answer surprised) was scripture memory (the text if my words remain in you).
I think that a lot people assume that memorizing Scripture is just for children in Sunday School or for people new to the Christian faith… It’s not. It’s something that can help all of us abide in the teaching and person of Jesus.
Jesus if you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will bear much fruit.
An actor who played Jesus in one of the Jesus movies, was asked, “What impact did playing Jesus have on you?” He said, playing the role of Jesus, I had to memorize all the recorded words of Jesus… After doing this whenever I faced a problem in my life, I found myself responding with the words of Jesus… the wisdom of Jesus… That’s life…
One of the ways we can learn to abide in Jesus is through solitude. Another way we learn to abide in Jesus is through the word. (And by the way there are many other ways to learn to abide in Jesus and one of summer teaching series here at Tenth—led by our staff will focus on some of the ways we to connect to Jesus.)
The goal of life as is not the accumulation of things, information, or experiences, but it’s about become a certain kind of person, a person who reflects the character of God, the character of Jesus.
Do you remember the author Robert Fulghum? He wrote the popular book some years ago All I really need to learn, I learned in Kindergarten. Robert Fulghum liked to bring people together to listen to speakers to talk about various life themes and these “talks” would to be followed by a Questions and Answer time After the talk and Q and A Fulghum would also ask the speaker, “Tell us what is the meaning of life?” Everyone would laugh and get up and go home. One time this man invited a Monk from Cyrpus to speak. After this Monk had given his talk and the Q and A was done he asked the him as a joke, “Tell us, what is the meaning of life? Everyone laughed. But the priest, said “I’ll tell you the meaning of life.” He pulled out a small mirror that he kept in his wallet. And the monk said this mirror reminds me of the meaning of life. He said as boy I use to play with mirror by catching the light of the sun and re-direct it. The monk said the meaning of life is to catch the light of God like a mirror and then to reflect his light to others.
The purpose of our lives is to catch the light of God and to reflect his light through our character to others. In order for to fully to do this, there are times when God has to clean our mirror, to prune us so that we can more fully catch His light and reflect it to others.
Prayer: You are the vine, we are the branches—keep us abiding you.
Jesus said 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a woman or a man remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Go and learn what this means.
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