None Of Your Business

5 Easter B

April 28, 2024

M. Anthony Seel, Jr.

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

John 15:1-8

None of Your Business

Have you heard of Malcom McLean? Honestly, I had never heard of him until a few Wednesdays ago.

Malcolm McLean lived from 1913 to 2001. He revolutionized international freight transportation in ways that affect all our lives. Before Malcom McLean, cargo was transported on ships in containers of many different shapes and sizes. Each of those containers was handled by longshoremen and stored in vast warehouses.

Malcolm McLean invented the intermodal shipping container that created efficiencies that save every one of us significant money. Those containers of uniform sizes lowered the cost of shipping from $5.86 a ton to 16 cents a ton. That’s a savings of over 36 times.

Those containers can be stacked outside and easily put on trucks or trains without being opened or otherwise handled by longshoremen.

Why do I bring up Malcolm McLean and the containers he invented? Because God our creator made us to be containers for His Holy Spirit. That’s a crude analogy, but I hope it’s one you’ll remember. isays to us, “Abide in me,” and It is through the Holy Spirit within us that we can do that. Let’s spend a few minutes considering the first eight verses of chapter 15 of the Gospel of John.

Jesus says,

v. 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.”

Jesus is the true vine.

Vines are not strong and mighty wonders like a great oak, elm, or redwood tree. Vines are plants that require support. In the Old Testament, Israel was described as a vine that is planted and tended by God. In Psalm 80, the writer says to God, “You brought us out of Egypt as though we were a tender vine.”

Now, Jesus says that He is the vine. God His Father tends this vine, meaning that God Himself takes on the role that He once gave to the civil and religious leaders in Israel.

God’s role as the vinedresser is explained in verse 2.

“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

A pastor friend of mine, then living in Marion, Virginia, once told me about a film he had seen at a Rotary Club meeting. The film was on wine production and it showed the constant attention that a vinegrower devotes to his or her vines. The vinegrower removes dead branches and prunes the live branches. The fruit will not ripen properly if it doesn’t receive enough light, so the vinedresser cuts back the branches of the vine so that the fruit can bask in sunlight.

The vinegrower’s care of the vine is a beautiful picture of God’s care for us. God removes the dead wood in our lives and He cuts back the live wood that would block Christ’s love from shining upon us.

Jesus says,

v. 3 “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.”

God the vinedresser uses the Word of God spoken by Jesus His Son to cleanse those who belong to Him.

v. 4 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

Abide is used ten times in the first ten verses of John, chapter 15. To abide means to remain or stay. It can mean reside or dwell, as in a house. We are to be the place where God the Holy Spirit fills with the presence of Jesus Christ. We are to be the vessel or container of Christ’s presence. Abiding in Christ and Christ in us is the essence of the Christian life. We draw our lives from Christ, who lives within us.

We, the branches of the vine, cannot bear fruit apart from our attachment to Christ.

What is the fruit that we bear?

The fruit of abiding in Christ has been described as Christian character, virtue, the fruit of the Spirit as given in Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23, Christian conduct, helping others to come to faith in Jesus Christ, and anything else that is the result of our obedience to Christ.

Josh Houston says in The Abiding Life: A Book About John 15, “Disciples are in the abiding business, not the fruit-production business. Fruit, in the end, is not our responsibility, it’s the Father’s.”

Pastor Bill Dogterom had a saying: “Fruit is none of your business.” Dogterom was a mentor to Josh Houston. He would listen to Josh talk about the response to the sermons that Josh would diligently prepare and preach. After listening, Dogterom would say, “Fruit is none of your business.”