"I am the true vine, my father is the vinedresser. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every branch that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit."
In has been 11 months since I became pastor. I have been working here in cure, meyersville, and westhoff.
When I arrived, 11 months ago, it was the middle of the summer and we were right smack dag in the grip of what has been a long long drought.
Due to the previous pastor being out a few weeks before my arrival and my vacation plans being right around when I was starting my new assignment, and no one to oversee the grounds at the churches, the landscaping took a beating.
Hedges were being burned up. Flowers were wilting. Needless to say it needed some attention really quick.
I got a friend to come in survey the place. As I gave her the grand tour of the place and was informing her what i wanted to see happen, I remember laying down this one rule.
I told her my schedule would be busy and hectic. Therefore, I informed her that I wanted her to create a maintenance free landscaping environment. I wanted her to incorporate all the labor saving devices possible.
After I had my spill, She looked at me. She told me that I needed to recognize one thing. This was her rule for me.
She said, for lack of better words, "Father, without a gardener, there can be no garden."
In other words, there was no such thing as a maintenance free landscape.
If there is no gardener, there can be no garden.
Jesus, reminds us in the gospel this past sunday that we have a gardener, the Father is the vinedresser. This of course that God is invested in our well being. He is not of the philosophy, "maintenance free" spirituality.
He wants a hand in it.
How often I hear people speak of being spiritual but not religious. For this means they want to believe in God but they don't want God to have a say in the matter. Eventually they want to be their own little gods of their own little world where they get to make up their own rules of engagement.
This is called delusional. There is medicine for that. IT certainly isn't healthy spirituality.
God wants to be part of our growth.
In fact, as soon as JEsus introduces God as the vinedresser, the gardener, then quickly he also mentions the knife.
HE will cut away the dead branches and he will prune the others that they may bear more.
Pruning doesn't sound fun but nonetheless it is a part of the journey. IT is reality check time.
God wields his pruning shears daily in our life. When ever we feel the rub, then we should think to ourselves here is the gardener doing his thing. Think of all those cutting moments in our lives. We don't like them, we try to avoid them, but they are necessary.
Rose are cut way back so that i t he year to come their blooms will be more plentiful and more fragrant.
How much more is God wanting us to bloom abundant that the kingdom can break through more clearly through our lives and how we relate.
Pruning is essential.
As the second reading reminds us, "Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them."
As Jesus points out in the gospel, "you have already been pruned because of the word that I spoke to you."
Daily God wields those heavenly shears and we should be thankful lest like the hedges and flowers our lives burn up and wilt away.
He cares. We are part of his concern. Be grateful for ever cut and snip along the way for the fruit will be worth it.
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