Editor’s note: Deliberately Diverse represents the individual thoughts of a group of Taylor friends who never completely agree about anything but enjoy diverse discussions.
I have a friend who had a vine planted on a trellis next to her house. The trellis was not attached to the house. The vines produced beautiful yellow flowers, something like what we call in Texas yellow bells.
The trellis fell recently. The startling thing is the falling trellis didn’t uproot the vine.
When my friend went to trim the vine, she discovered it was so entangled, and the branches were so much a part of the vine and intertwined, that it was hard to discover where one branch ended and another began.
Jesus said, “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.” John 15:5 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, or NRSVue.
Diana Butler Bass, a favorite theologian, highlights the image of agricultural connection – “Jesus was the vine; they were branches. That’s so intimate, so entangled. Aren’t the ‘branches’ of a grapevine part of the vine? Aren’t they vines, too? Vines have branches that, in turn, themselves vine.”
Abide means to stay or remain; but it is also a derivation of the Greek word for dwelling place.
“Make your home in me as I make my home in you.” John 15:4 Even without its trellis, my friend’s vine was able to make its home in the soil.
The image of abiding is associated with the vineyard images – images from the Hebrew Bible where God’s people are God’s vineyard.
Because the Father has raised Jesus from the dead, this Word of God now become flesh among us has an abiding and lasting presence – now continues to dwell among us.
In the imagery of the vine that presence is underscored as abiding, lasting and permanent. The Word of God is the vine and we the branches. This is not a promise of some future presence, of a heavenly end. This is the promise of today – that God abides in us through the word, Jesus … and we are invited to abide in God.
If we love one another, God lives in us.
If we love one another, God dwells in us and we dwell in God.
Bass introduced me to another idea related to the vine. The word “terroir” is a French word that describes the characteristic taste and flavor imparted to wine by the environment in which it is grown.
The soil of a place produces a unique fruit which bears the taste of the ground itself.
If we dwell in God and God dwells in us, we will have within us the unique fragrance and flavor of God and we will impart that fragrance to the world.
Pierce is the vicar of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Taylor and can be reached by email at ministry@ stjamestaylor. org.
