Preacher, Chris Ayers

Better Boys, Silver Queen & Kennebec

John 15:1-8

When I read our lectionary passage three images pop out. The first image is of my father. The Today’s English Version translation of John 15:1 has Jesus say "I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener." I know about having a father who is a gardener. As far back as I can remember my Dad has been a gardener.

When my family lived on Beechwood Circle in Winston Salem Dad used the backend of the lot to plant a garden. He tended 20 rows or so and I can still see him plowing with a tiller. I see its jerky motion and Dad stooping down to toss a rock aside that had been unearthed.

Later my family moved to Clemmons and owned and operated a little country restaurant that served fresh vegetables. In Clemmons Dad farmed, notice we jumped from gardened to farmed, Dad farmed a couple of acres, too much land for a tiller. I read John 15 and I see my father riding his old Red-belly Ford tractor. I see corn stalks standing eight feet tall---O.K. maybe they were seven, seven and a half. I see tomato vines waiting to be picked. I see, after my parents retired, retired that is from Restaurant work and being a mechanic for R. J. Reynolds, I see the Ford truck being loaded to take produce to sell at the farmer’s market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I hear Jesus say he is the real vine and his Father is the gardener and I see sweat rolling down my father’s brow. I see the smile of the gardener who has produced a great harvest.

The harvest. Tomatoes, "Better Boys" and "Pink Girls." Best tomatoes grown this side of the Mississippi! Corn, "Silver Queen." Cut it off, cream it and put it over homemade biscuits. Green Beans, yes the dreaded Green Beans, "white half-runners." Salt them heavy, throw in some fat back, and cook them to death. Squash, straight-necked. Nothing like squash: sliced thinly; dipped in a mixture of milk and egg and then self-rising flour (White Lilly of course) and corn meal (White Lilly of course for you slow learners); and then fried. Potatoes, "Kennebec." Never met a potato I didn’t like. Cantaloupe, "Rocky Ford." I don’t know what’s better, smelling the cantaloupe or eating it. Watermelon. The biggest one Dad grew weighed seventy-five and a half pounds. October Beans. Not as good as pintos. No they aren’t. I can’t tell you how many times my parents tried to slip October Beans by me telling me they were pintos. They weren’t pintos, but yes they were good. It was all good. Cucumbers, sweet bell peppers turnips, baby lima beans. My father grew it all and he grew it well.

I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener.

Let me tell you something about God. God is doing to us and with us what my Dad did with his garden.

That’s the first image.

The second image that pops up, that surfaces, when I read John 15 is of the 1neighbor who lives behind me, a retiree named Jack Umberger. Jack is a Robert Clark/Donna Johnson sort of person. Everyone at Wedgewood knows what I mean when I say that, but for the sake of Rev. Telfort and his congregation what I’m indicating is that Jack’s yard looks real nice, Garden of Eden effect. Immaculate, well-groomed would be an accurate description of it.

Anyway, I noticed Jack working out in his Martha Stewart backyard one day which is not hard to do because Jack works in the backyard just about every day. But one day I noticed, I noticed, Jack had this contraption, this piece of equipment in his hands, and I hollered, I yelled out, to Jack wanting to know what that thing was he had in his hands. Jack brought his friendly face to the fence separating our properties and told me it was a pruner, a tree pruner to be exact. And then he told me what I wanted to hear. He said I could borrow it anytime I wanted to. Which I did. Oh, I love equipment. And it was a nice piece of equipment. It was so nice I decided to go out and buy myself a tree pruner which I brought to church today to show you.

[Demonstrate pruner.]

The reason Jack Umberger pruning his trees pops up in my mind when I read the 15^th chapter of John is because the text talks about pruning. John 15, verse 2. "Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more, that it may bear more fruit."

This tells us two things. First, it tells us that God is removing, hauling off, the branches that are not producing fruit.

I ask you, What are the branches in your life that are bearing no fruit? What are the branches that are getting in the way? Where are your dead spots?

Does any of your life resemble this?

(Hold up dead branch.)

Be assured of this. If there is a non-fruitbearing branch, God is taking it away, hauling it off to the landfill. It’s getting in the way. It’s dead. It’s preventing you from living the life God wants you to live. Dead branches have no future.

 Yes, dead branches are being removed. Removed by God. Maybe this past week God was carrying off some of your dead branches. Did you sense God doing that?

A second thing the text tells us is that God also is in the pruning business. God finds areas in our existence that are bearing fruit and God gets out the pruning equipment. In other words, God wants us to have even more fruitful lives. God doesn’t look at us and say, "Well, you know Christian so and so is doing pretty good. Christian so and so has greatly reduced his or her dead branches and there’s actually been a good amount of growth. So I’m finished with this Christian. I think I’ll just move on to someone else." No, God keeps working with us even when we are producing fruit for the kingdom. God works with us to produce even more fruit for the kingdom of God.

Think for a moment about the things you have done for the kingdom of God during the past year. Now imagine that God is going to get you to do even more than that during the next year.

Every person in this church, every individual in the Christ Redeemer Haitian Baptist Church, needs to produce more fruit for the kingdom of God during the next year. Amen.

If I had my way, my say, we would do what Donna Beal’s father’s church does. Donna’s father was our Wednesday night program speaker and he related how the church at which he is a member requires, underline that, requires that every member pray about what mission God wants them to do and then they do it. They announce to the church what they are called to do and then the church says what can we do to help. Every person in the church has to produce some fruit for the kingdom or else, or else they have to find another church.

In most churches there are few if any expectations placed on church members. And in most churches a small group of power people sit around in long meetings thinking of a million reasons why such and such church member shouldn’t do something. So what ends up happening is nothing, no fruit is produced for the kingdom of God. 

I wish Wedgewood Baptist would require every member to do something for the kingdom. I wish Christ Redeemer Haitian Baptist Church would do that because---because churches and Christians ought to be producing fruit. Amen. Churches and Christians ought to be doing what Jesus did. Churches and Christians should be feeding the poor and working for justice and healing the sick and announcing the good news of the kingdom and letting the world know that it is loved. Churches and Christians ought to be producing fruit. Amen. And if we produce fruit we will get pruned and the harvest will be even greater.

Let tell you what I believe. I believe God already is using Wedgewood and Christ Redeemer Haitian Baptist Church. I believe fruit is being produced. But what our text tells us is that after being pruned every branch will bear even more fruit.

Which leads to a third and final image. Back to Clemmons, North Carolina. Beside what was my parent’s home in Clemmons is a creek. Across the creek were vines. Blackberry vines. Two rows of them. They extended for thirty yards. And these vines were loaded with blackberries, with enough blackberries to feed half the world.

My earthly father who was a vinedresser did a magnificent job. What a harvest. What a huge, delicious, harvest. What I preaching this morning is that our heavenly Father is working in us and through us and soon the vines are going to be so full, the harvest is going to be so great.

Would you commit yourself to the vinedresser this morning? Would you turn your life over to the Gardener? Would you step forward and say, I can no longer come to church and just throw some change in the offering plate and listen to a sermon and sing a few songs and go home? Is the spirit moving you to do something for the kingdom? Or, if you have a history of working for the kingdom maybe you are tired. Perhaps you are weary. Would you this morning present yourself to God to be pruned so that even more fruit will be produced?

Our hymn of invitation is Amazing Grace. Let God’s grace touch you, move you, transform you even as you sing.

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