Sermon Preached by the Rev. Sam Frazier, Vicar

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Haw River, NC

May 10, 2009

5^th Sunday of Easter, Year B
The images in today’s Gospel passage are so vivid and so fresh that they have a dramatic impact on the reader and a dramatic impact on you and me.  Their message is clear and simple.  The images stand right up confronting us with a truth that we cannot avoid or accidentally overlook.  In other words, we cannot run from the truth of the Gospel.

There is a hierarchy of representation in the Gospel passage: the vinegrower and owner of the vineyard is God the Father; Jesus is the vine, and the disciples, including you and me, are the branches.  It is clear that those involved know what they are doing.  The correct farming techniques are used: the vines are weeded and watered.  The branches are pruned to cause them to bear more fruit, and the dead and unproductive branches are also pruned and then burned, because they may have some kind of plant disease.

The chief concern of this story, and the chief concern for you and for me is that we bear fruit.  You see, bearing fruit is the purpose of the grapevine and bearing fruit is your purpose and my purpose as we progress through our life journey.  But just what exactly does “bearing fruit” mean?  It does not mean production, doing so called good things.  That kind of assembly line approach to life is not what God has in mind for us.  Rather, God wants us to grow our spiritual lives.  He wants us to make the best of life.  He wants us to feel good about ourselves.  He wants us to be creative and make life more than it was when we first encountered it at our birth.

“Bearing fruit” means not giving up.  It is so easy to get discouraged and feel let down by ourselves, and let down by others.  This attitude quickly leads to depression, and we all know that leads to nowhere.  There quicksand will enslave us and the only way we may be able to free ourselves may be with the help of a psychiatrist and/or certain drugs that he or she may prescribe.  So nip it in the bud.  Be determined, be determined to continue your life journey, no matter what.

“Bearing fruit” means to be constantly involved in spiritual exercises.  And we all know how easy it is to be lazy and let our spiritual lives slide.  And the sad part is that there is no outward sign of the inner decay in our lives.  It is so silent and so insidious that we may never know that our spiritual death is imminent.  The great English writer, Oscar Wilde, wrote a novel which he entitled The Picture of Dorian Gray. When Dorian was young, he had his portrait painted by a famous artist of the day.  For several years, he hanged the portrait in a prominent location in his London home.  But then something happened to him and he began to change his behavior.  He was becoming meaner and meaner and less and less interested in others – only in himself.  For some reason, the portrait of himself became more and more objectionable.  Finally he could stand it no longer – he took the painting down and stored it in his attic.  That act seemed to release him to embrace a life of debauchery – a life of alcohol and drugs and sex and all night parties.

The years passed, but oddly Dorian Gray did not seem to age.  There was no physical evidence of the terrible and unhealthy life he was living.  After years had passed, he was as young and handsome as he was when his portrait was painted.  It was hard to believe!  It was strange, to say the least!

Then one day, he had a terrible urge to go up into the attic and see his portrait.  He climbed the stairs, opened the attic door and turned on the light.  There over in the corner was his portrait covered with a cloth.  He removed the cloth and stood back to look.  He was horrified – the painting had changed.  It had become a painting of an old sick man with a terrible mocking leer on his face.  The portrait had become a picture of his spiritual self that had become so deformed and so unbecoming!  And that, my friends, can happen to you and to me if we let things slide in life and do not address the important issues that meet us every day.

“Bearing fruit” means being who you were created to be.  It means living up to your potential and not wasting your life, as so many people around us do.  Look around, you can see these people.  They are everywhere.  It means finding satisfaction in your life and being content with the things that really matter, and not making material possessions and money the lord of your life.  It means being comfortable with yourself.  It means loving yourself.

“Bearing fruit” means loving your neighbor.  We share this planet with so many people of many different persuasions, religions and cultural practices.  It means being willing to accept others for who they are and for what they believe, and not trying to force them into a mould which is comfortable to us.  It means helping our neighbor when he or she emotionally hurts, when he or she is physically sick, when he or she is hungry, and when he or she tries to make a better life for themselves.  Jesus said it best: “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me.”

“Bearing fruit” is a standard, a standard by which we are called to live our lives.  It is the way we are called to live.  This standard was clearly articulated in the epistle reading this morning from I John:  “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God…if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

Thanks be to God!  AMEN.