Tomato Sandwiches
John 15:1-8
I don’t know a lot about vines and grapes. I once had a neighbor that had some. He was making wine in his garage. That was pretty aggressive for a guy in Birmingham Alabama.
The first year he had the vines I don’t guess he got any grapes. In the fall after his 2nd year I thought he had given up. I noticed a big pile of vines out by the road. I could see up on the hill that the vines were cut back to practically nothing.
As for me, I guess I am plant challenged. I have never had any luck with any vegetables or flowers except one year I had a couple of rose bushes that did well until they died over the winter.
I don’t know how many of you know anything about grapes, but I know that some of you know tomatoes. I have family that knows them very well. They are able to plan their tomato year so that from early in the summer to fairly late in the fall they have fresh ones always coming in. You can go by there any time in the summer and have a fresh homegrown tomato sandwich.
When I tried to grow tomatoes, I thought I was doing well. The plants shot up, they were so green. They must have been 4 feet tall. They really grew lots of branches and leaves. They looked so healthy. But they did not seem to want to actually make many tomatoes. In fact we only got a hand full of small, puny, hardly even red pieces of fruit, or vegetable… So my experience was that I had lots of green and not much red.
After my failure my in-laws gave me lots of advice.
I was told, when the plants are transplanted you need to nip off the lowest leaves and plant them in deep. Just the top leaves showing.
As they grow, the little suckers that grow at the junction of the main branches and the stem need to be taken off. This is the same type of techniques a pruning. It is to keep the plant from wasting it’s resources on extra foliage.
They also told me about mysterious invisible creatures called nematodes and ways of dealing with them. I almost sat outside all night waiting to catch those little guys.
The folks were my in-laws and I started to worry they were pulling my leg.
Nanny told me you need to prune a little all summer long and then just before the first frost, something you find in the farmers almanac and a feeling in your bones, you need to prune the plant for the last harvest. She said that the secret of pruning, is to trick the plant into thinking that it is dying so it will produce great amounts of fruit.
Stripping the leaves off the plant makes the rest of the small tomatoes suddenly grow and mature.
I didn’t know so much was involved in getting tomatoes for a few sandwiches. There is a lot of stuff you have to know. Stuff you have to do right in the first place and along the way. And then at the end of the growing season, you gotta practically kill the plant to get the fruit to grow and mature fully.
The vinedresser in our scripture today has a lot going on. A vinedresser is taking care of a whole vineyard or a big field of tomato plants.
But where are we in this scripture? What are we supposed to be doing?
At first glance it seems like we are to produce fruit. If that is the first thing that came to your mind you have been affected by this world. You have bought in to the produce or get out of the way mindset of this world.
Most people believe success is proven by the growth of the company or club or Church.
It is really easy to get pulled in by the world. We have moved into an instant society. Instant coffee, instant popcorn, instant pudding, all comes down to the life style of wanting it now.
Do some of our remember the first microwaves and how things tasted a little strange when cooked in one. Things we cooked did not look as good because there was no browning of the appearance. Mom had one but was sure it would never really take off except to heat liquids and reheat leftovers. Now that is about the only appliance that she uses to fix dinner and I can’t say my family is any different.
We have stopped noticing that things taste different, primarily because we want it fast. We have stuff to do, and the world had produced products that fill our demands for convenience.
How about the instant messenger craze with kids and some adults. Some of you may not know what I am talking about. It is a way to talk to people with a computer. I remember when I tied up the phone line at home talking to my girlfriend. It was a one on one conversation, “when we talked.”
Now the phone line is tied up but it is with the computer. Instead of one on one conversation there might be 15 people talking/typing at once. I am told that they enjoy having a lot going on. I don’t think I could keep up.
Our instant world tends to keep us busy going a bunch of different ways. Things move fast so we have more time to do things. For us to appear successful to our friends we have to be busy.
Our scripture today suggest a different focus, not instant, not pro duce produce … push push…..
So if producing fruit is not the point here, What is?
I believe a hint can be found in the use of one word in today’s scripture. 8 times in the section I read today, we hear the word “abide”.
Webster defines “abide”
1 : to wait for
2 a : to endure without yielding b : to bear patiently
3 : to accept without objection
The world teaches to get ahead and be productive you have to do something … Right!
It has become unnatural for us to wait for anything. How does abiding result in fruit? How can sitting around give us results?
It doesn’t, and we are not just talking about sitting around. We are talking about taking time to be connected to God, through our relationship with Jesus.
In our busy world when we are working so hard to produce, a lot of the production is just leaves and stems. They are like my tomato plants, they looked great but there was no reward to me the worker or for the plant.
Our lives get filled up with a lot of stuff that just drains off the energy, the nutrients and lives for today. For Jesus to work in our lives we have to be connected to him. He is the main vine; all the nutrients and growth come from him.
Jesus teaches that waiting, abiding and open to the connection between ourselves and Christ will give us the results, the production of fruit.
So what is being connected to him? It means taking the time to be with God, not just punch the time clock at church on Sunday. All we “the plants” need to do is allow the Gardner to tend us and everything else comes naturally.
So how do we abide in Christ, how are we tended?
How about listening to Christian music in the car. Just like secular music there are several styles they you may like, but you have to listen a little, before you will know.
How about using a daily devotional like the Upper Room or some other book that will guide you in an interesting topic in the bible. How about coming to our Sunday worship service with Jesus on you mind and not just to punch your time card.
Abiding is an intentional act. It means we set some of our day to grow our understanding and relationship in Christ, to grow and mature and wait for the Gardner that will prune away the unnecessary parts of our lives and allow us to effortlessly develop fruit.
The tomato plant does not just grow instantly out of the ground and while only inches tall have fruit in just days. It takes time for it to receive the water and nutrients.
As Christians we have to be open to the tending, the information the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide our development. Sometimes that tending will make us think we are dying, the hard times. Other time we will have energy to spare, a mountain top experience.
If we are abiding in Jesus we will really develop under God’s plan for us. We will automatically produce fruit. That is what we are designed to do.
--The next spring, it was not long before my neighbor was guiding his grape vines along the stakes and trellises that last years vines had occupied. I guess the well-developed roots from the first two years were able to provide all the things needed for rapid growth. Growth for the vines as well as the production of fruit.
I want to encourage you to consider your connection to the vine, are you taking time to make sure you are receiving what you need through that connection?
All Glory be to God!
