Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.00 at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "Be Still for the Presence of the Lord"

Today's Gospel

John 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples, ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 

Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Reflection

I really like today’s Gospel passage because it is so rich in imagery and meaning. It opens with the words, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower”.

This is one of the ‘‘I am’ statements that Jesus makes in His teachings. Other ‘I am’ statements include; “I am the Bread of Life’ [John 6:35], ‘I am the light of the world’, [John 8:12]  I am the resurrection and the life, [John 11:25].   

Jesus uses these statements to point His people towards the reality of His true identity as the Son of God the Father and He is also to point to His earthly mission.

Jesus also used the analogy of the vine. The vine carried significant symbolism to the Jewish people, and is mentioned in several places in the Hebrew scriptures, not least Psalm 80 where the Israelites are described as the vine that God brought out of Egypt, planted it and let it thrive so that their nation filled the lands.

 

But now, Jesus is describing Himself as the vine and His disciples are the branches of the vine. He is moving the narrative away from one where God will tend the vine and look after His people to one of building a deep and loving relationship with God through Jesus. 

God is still the vine grower but we are sustained and nourished by being connected through Jesus the True vine. Jesus is one with God, interconnected in every way, and Jesus’s message is that we can be just as connected to God when we follow Him and become true disciples.

The words that jump out this passage most for me are, ‘’Abide in me as I abide in you’ . There is a real sense of interdependency in this. Jesus wants to be as much a part of us as we want to be with Him. One scholar suggested we replace the word ‘abide’ with ‘believe’ to read; ‘Believe in me as I believe in you’. This emphasises a mutual love as we truly embrace Jesus by believing in Him as He believes in and loves us. 

 

It is though that loving relationship with Jesus that we can allow ourselves to be pruned by Him and bear the fruit He desires. 

But what does that pruning entail? For some it might sound quite scary. It obviously is not a physical pruning. No one is going to cut bits off our bodies. 

Rather it is a spiritual pruning and Jesus has already told His disciples how this is done. It’s done by abiding in Him and in His word. 

If we follow His example and teachings we will be shaped and pruned by the Word of God as spoken to us by Jesus. 

The shaping and the pruning may not always be easy or pain free. As we spend more time doing things that nourish and develop ourselves, it may mean that we have to put aside some of the busyness in our lives that distract us. Some of those things may be precious to us such as watching that favourite programme on TV but other things might be just junk that we allowed our lives to be filled up with.

 

To be honest, when I started on my path of training and the college told me how much studying and other commitments would be involved, I was convinced there would be no way of fitting it in alongside everything else I had going on. But after a fair bit of thinking I was surprised just how many things I was doing that were not as important as I thought they were.  Obviously, there are some things I miss, but on the other hand there are also many things that I’ve gained. For example I have a whole new cohort of friends through college and I am enjoying many of the new subjects I am studying, although some of them make my brain hurt. But that’s probably a good thing as well.

As we are pruned back by faith in Jesus and as we abide in Him, we allow Him to remove the bits of our lives that are not absolutely necessary and instead focus on what is good and right. We allow the new growth in our lives through Jesus as we let Him to make us more Christlike. 

As Christians we are called to be a fruitful presence in the world. We can do that by how we interact within that world and love one another, even those we don’t know. We can be fruitful when we pray to God, worship God and when we share the Good News of the risen Christ. 

As we grow and develop we are constantly expected to change, and part of that change is being pruned by the one who loves us. We are moulded into His image in ways that enable us to become the people we were created to be, as we put into practice how we obey Jesus’s commandment to love one another. 

For the followers of Jesus, fruitfulness relies on their dependence on the vine. We are the branches; we cannot bear fruit by ourselves - we have to rely on Jesus; listening to the words of the Gospel, putting them into practice in our daily lives. We also have to rely on each other - vine branches are all interconnected, part of each other, feeding off the same stem, out of the same soil, but growing in different and unique directions. We share a common life, and within that we become our own unique, distinctive selves.

Like a plant that always turns to face the light of the sun, we too are also expected to turn to the light of the Son – The Son of God. When we turn to Him, when we trust in Him and believe in Him, we will bear the fruit that God wants.  Bring on the sun!       Paul

Our Prayers

Father Almighty, we pray that we may follow the call of Jesus,

to be branches of His true vine and abide in Him.

Creator Lord,

We ask you to mould and shape us according to your will.

By your Spirit,

produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, 

and patience in us for others to taste and enjoy.

AMEN

Todays final hymn is "I am the Vine, You are the Branches"

Notices

Next Sunday we have just one service in Leesfield Parish - 10 am at St Thomas' Church. Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting follows immediately after the service. This is where we review the reports from the previous year and elect our new Churchwardens and Parish Officers for the coming year. There are several vacancies for PCC members and also a Churchwarden, so if you are interested in any of these (or other) posts in the Parish please collect nomination forms from the back of church.