Fruitful (Easter 5)

John 15: 1-8, Acts 8: 26-40

Perhaps, like me, you were brought up with the song “he is the vine & we are the branches..”.

I think of it whenever I hear that reading from John’s gospel – where Jeus says “I am the vine..”. 

And yet actually what Jesus says next is not ‘You are the branches, but “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”.

So it seems that Jesus is wanting to explain to his disciples how they are connected to him, live in him, rely on him.

But that is not an end in itself: as disciples we are the branches, joined to Jesus, abiding in Jesus – but for the purpose of bearing fruit.

So what does ‘fruitfulness’ look like?

What does fruitfulness look like in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch?

The Ethiopian eunuch (we are never told his name) is a person of great importance – he is in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia – but he also a person of great faith. He has had to make the decision to travel all the way to Jerusalem to worship, many hundreds of miles. He must have been a very determined and loyal pilgrim, because when he reached the temple in Jerusalem, as a foreigner and as a eunuch he would not be permitted further than the very outer court.

And he is wrestling with the Hebrew scriptures, reading from the book of Isaiah – perhaps from a scroll he has bought in Jerusalem – as he travels home in his chariot.

He has to be prepared to listen to Philip, to become enthused by what Philip tells him, and to give up his dignity to be baptised, there in the desert.

Meanwhile Philip has to listen to prompting of Spirit to be in the right place. He has to get alongside the Ethiopian – literally! – catching up with the chariot.

He has to listen to what the Ethipiopian is reading, then he has to respond to the invitation to climb up into the chariot and share what he knows about Jesus.

He helps the  Ethiopian to respond to the good news he has told him – by responding to his request by offering him baptism.

And then he has to leave the Ethiopian & his joy & go where God wants him to go next.

This week our Synod ‘Ministries’ committee met – we encourage and support worship leaders, elders, local church leaders, ministers and others.

We started our meeting by listening to the story of Philip and the Ethiopian and asking what “ministries” we saw there. We came up with quite a long list – persistence, evangelism, teaching, learning, discerning, helping, breaking open the word, listening, baptising, encouraging, developing, leaving to get on with it…

It seemed to us that in everything Philip did he was showing God’s love in Christ in action – it certainly produced fruit – and brought the Ethiopian, who was faithful and attentive -  to faith in Jesus.

The eunuch travels off, out of the story of Acts, and yet we are told he goes on his way with great joy. Some legends say that he reported his conversation with Philip to his queen and that she too became a Christian, and that in due course Ethiopia became the first Christian nation. From the Ethiopian’s pilgrimage and Philip’s service of Christ, stirred by the Spirit, come great fruit indeed.

But what about us? How can we be fruitful?

One of our smaller churches in the Synod, in Muddiford in North Devon, have been asking themselves that question using the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity course “Fruitfulness on the front line”.

They have produced a great little video of what they have learnt – you can find it on Youtube if you look up "Fruitfulness on the frontline at Muddiford URC" . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I94KXcbGMDs

The course taught them that the ways to be fruitful were to remember the 6 Ms:

Modelling Godly Character – showing the fruits of the Spirit day-by-day

Making Good Work – seeing how our tasks and work can be done with and for God

Ministering Grace and Love –those we interact with on our frontlines

Moulding Culture –helping other people flourish more

Being a Mouthpiece for Truth and Justice –speaking up when necessary

And Being a Messenger of the Gospel –growing in confidence in talking about Jesus with people we meet.

They concluded that the places they were called to be fruitful – their ‘frontlines’ were the places they were in their normal week:

At work in the school kitchen

Volunteering in a national trust property

Doing the garden for people

Just drinking coffee with neighbours.

Where are you going next week? Where can you be fruitful for God? Where can you communicate God’s grace to others? Where can you speak of the love, truth and justice of Jesus Christ?

And where are you going to find the courage and eloquence and grace to do those things?

A few years ago I lived in a house with a vine growing up the back of it. It was a South facing garden and the vine grew really well.  Just before one harvest festival I went into the church as the flower-arrangers were finishing their work of decorating the church. It looked great, but I noticed that the pulpit looked rather bare. I had a great idea – I nipped home and snipped off some of the branches from my vine, and then I went back to the church and wove them around the top of the pulpit – it looked great!

The next morning when I arrived at church I was seriously disappointed: overnight all the vine leaves had wilted and shriveled. Now I knew just what Jesus meant when he said “I am the vine – you are the branches – apart from me you can do nothing”.

If you’re going to be fruitful, people of God, you need to stay joined to Jesus Christ the true vine – “apart from me you can nothing”.

I pray that this time of worship has helped us, like Philip, to be aware of the Spirit’s prompting, and that filled with Christ’s grace, we might be united in him abide in him and go out to share the good news of God’s love.

To God’s praise and glory

Amen.