Homily of the Rev. Dr. David A. Killian
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 10, 2009
John 15:1-8
I
Today, we remember and honor our mothers and give thanks for all that they have given to us. When I remember my mother who passed away five years ago, the image comes to mind of holding my mother's hand when she walked me to first grade. It's the image of a mother leading her child to learn and discover something new, giving her child courage to change and step in new directions. I think also of laughing and playing with my mother on days we went on Sunday outings to the Mississippi River. We were living then in northwestern Wisconsin about 40 miles from the Mississippi. Dad would load up the car with fishing gear. Mother would make a picnic lunch. At the river, Dad would fish from the shore for walleyes, bass, perch, sunfish and northern pike. He would help me bait up my hook and taught me how to pull up the line when the bobber went down. After I caught a few fish and tired of fishing, I would wade in the water under my mother's protective eye. Those were happy days. Mother also taught me about God. We prayed at meals and said our prayers before falling asleep at night. In many ways my image of God is derived from my experience of my mother.
II
I grew up in a time when we addressed God only as "He." I am most grateful that scholars and theologians have made us more aware of the many Biblical references to God as Mother. For example, Isaiah presents God as a woman in labor, a mother who does not forget the child she nurses and a mother who comforts her children (42:14; 49:14-15; 66:12-13). The Book of Numbers shows God as a mother suckling her children (Num. 11:12). In Hosea, God is a mother who calls, teaches, holds, heals and feeds her young (Hosea 11:1-4). Hosea compares God to a Mother Bear, a fierce image associated with the profound attachment of a mother to her cubs (Hosea 13:8). In Nehemiah, God is a seamstress making clothes for Israel to wear (Neh. 9:21). Psalms and Isaiah show God as a midwife attending a birth (Ps. 22:9-10a, 71:6; Isa. 66:9) and as a female bird protecting her young (Ps. 17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 91:1, 4; Isa. 31:5; Dt. 32:11-12). In Exodus, God tells us, "I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself," (Cf. Ex. 19:4; Job 39:27-30). In Matthew, Jesus compares himself to a mother hen: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings" (Mt. 23:37).
These images of God as Mother, as well as images of God as Father, are beautiful and they help personalize our relationship with God. However, no one image can capture the grandeur and mystery of God. In today's Gospel Jesus gives us an even deeper image of our relationship to God when he says that he is the vine and we are branches. God as Mother and Father are images that are exterior to us. Vine and branches describe something interior. Even in the womb, a child is a separate being from its mother, connected to her blood by the umbilical cord, but that child is a distinct being with its own heart beat and nervous system. However, a branch does not have a separate nutrient system from the vine. The branch is a part of the vine. Jesus the vine and we the branches share the same life.
III
If I had a sense that my life was the same life as that of Jesus, I would evaluate things not only from my accustomed way of judging reality. If I saw myself as one with Jesus, I would see how aspects of my life needed to change, how dysfunctional habits needed to be pruned away. I would see that I can be the free and loving person that God created me to be only when these dysfunctional traits are pruned away.
For years, a daughter tried to convince her parents to buy a new living room couch. Year after year, their old green couch grew shabbier and shabbier. Finally, it was not longer safe to sit on. Embarrassed, she told her father that she had ordered a new couch from Macy's by phone. She was sending them a photograph – if they liked it, the new couch would be delivered on Friday.
On Saturday, she called her parents. How did the new sofa look? Dad hesitated a moment, then confessed that he had cancelled the order. Why? Because he didn't know what to do with the old couch. She suggested calling Macy's and asking them if they would take the old one away. No, he said, their Macy's store didn't do that. How about the Salvation Army? Apparently, they only took away things they could sell. Who would want this broken old couch? Her heart sinking, the daughter suggested looking in the yellow pages for someone who does hauling. But her father didn't want a stranger to know how to get into his house.
The conversation ended. Her father, unaccustomed to letting go of anything, could not find his way to accepting his daughter's generous gift. One night, some time later, the old couch collapsed on itself. And there it remained in the living room until Dad died and Mom came to live with her daughter.(1)
Christ the vine challenges us to prune away the excess and the useless, the dysfunctional and the broken, to experience the life of God in its most enriching, fulfilling, and joyous possibilities. Once we let go of the old debilitating behaviors, the Christ-life flows more rapidly in us. It's like unblocking clogged arteries, breaking up a log jam. Then we find within us the power to act generously and lovingly.
A volunteer at a telephone hotline for shut-ins regularly checked on callers who needed a little extra cash because of chronic health needs or sudden unexpected expenses. One of her "regulars" was an elderly woman struggling on a fixed income. In their conversations, she learned that this woman desperately needed a new overcoat.
Wanting to help, the volunteer withdrew $200 from her bank account and sent it anonymously to the woman with a simple note, unsigned: "For a new coat."
The next time the volunteer called, the woman was very excited with her good fortune. "Someone sent me money for a new overcoat," she said. "I don't know who it was, but it was $200." "Did you get the coat?" the volunteer asked. "Oh, yes," she replied. "I found a beautiful warm coat – but it was only $150. "You've all been so nice to me, I'm sending the extra $50 to you at the hotline center so you can help someone else." (2)
When we realize that we are grafted onto Christ like a branch to a vine, we want to act with the same heart as Christ. We want to see beyond our own needs to embrace opportunities to share our abundance with others. Jesus teaches that we share his life and that we are united to one another. In the spirit of Easter, may we be transformed into the living energy of the Vine who gives life to the branches.
Amen.
(1) From Kitchen Table Wisdom, by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
(2) From Guideposts.