For this morning's exercise I want you to imagine that there are three tea cups in a line on your kitchen bench. Two of the tea cups are very close to each other, in fact they are touching each other. The other is some 6 inches or more apart from the other two. Got it? OK. Just hold that image in your brain.
Now in this morning's gospel Jesus highlights the intimacy and relationship that He has with His Father. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower.” This is not the only time Jesus highlights this closeness with his Father. “The father and I are one”. “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began”. In fact John 17 pretty much oozes with this companionable, loving unity. It seems that Jesus and his Father are inseparable.
So the two tea cups that are placed very close to each other on your shiny kitchen bench are the Father and Jesus.
Now…Lets have a look at the rest of the gospel.
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
“The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.”
“I am the vine, you are the branches”.
So the third tea cup is… you. And the very good news is that the intimacy, the closeness, the companionability, the unity and the love that the Father and Jesus enjoy…. is the very same delicious companionability and unity and love that Jesus wants to enjoy with us. So shuffle your imaginary 3rd teacup close to the other two that are nestling together. Next in the gospel there is a fairly salutary lesson about producing fruit. It does not happen, it cannot happen, unless our tea cup is placed very close to the other two and stays there or in the imagery of the vine we cannot bear fruit, unless we are grafted into Christ and stay there. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Him. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”And while our tea cup might slide away a bit, we keep on coming back each Sunday to re-establish that connection which to us might seem flimsy, flawed and fragile but from the Masters point of view we are always close.
This is good news for us and it is good news for the world. The Master wants to have, longs to have, aches to have, craves the same inseparability of relationship with you, as he effortlessly does with His Father. And its when we allow that to happen, that fruit does ultimately blossom. Sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes the fruit is not voluminous; always the growing is hidden from us and always it is to his glory. We are outrageously and undeservedly privileged if we glimpse from time to time, the growth of new fruit. Sometimes too, it is the most unlikely vine dressers that produce the most fantastic fruit.
A little story from a long time ago to finish with. Once upon a time I used to take tours around Seppelts Great Western. It was a fabulous job and my first authentic 9 - 5 work a day week experience. It taught me much.
In the blithering cold of a Great Western winter, when the rain was chucking it mercilessly down, I used to catch the odd glimpse of the invisible people who would be out in the vineyards doing the pruning. I still think of them whenever I read this bit of St. John’s gospel. Sometimes it seems as though everything is agin the work of God. That we labour in vain in the most appalling of situations and climates and nothing much seems to happen. Very much like those workers at Seppelts. But come February, March when the harvest happened, there was a buzz and activity and joy and sunshine. It seemed that we had waited a long time for this and the abysmal situation in the middle of June was a distant, dissolving night mare.
Sometimes we simply just have to do the hard yards, the praying in the freezing cold with no apparent result. But what do we say to ourselves and to others when this is the case. When it all seems too hard and you cannot do it any more, or you simply don’t want to do it any more. Then you might remember the invisible people in the vineyards of Seppelts. Or if it is easier, you might just remember the three cups on your kitchen bench and nudge yours a little closer to the other two where it belongs and revel in the closeness that is yours for the enjoying.