The grapevine as a metaphor for the course of our lives
By Raymond Caldwell
'There is one essential gift available to us while we are yet alive and still able to think and make choices, and that is GRACE.'
Christ True Vine, Russia, 19th century, icon, unknown artist
Jesus taught that His Father takes away (cuts off) fruitless branches that have borne no "fruit" (could this also mean cutting off branches which have borne bad fruit?) Obviously he is referring to "good" fruit (although this parable would specifically mean grapes). He makes this distinction between good and bad fruit in Matthew 12:33.
In Matthew 7:1 5-20 Jesus also said that by their fruits you will know them (good or bad).
In all honesty, in the parable of The True Vine, Jesus simply says that He is the True Vine and that through welcoming Him into our lives (receiving Him) and by building our lives on His teaching, we would bear fruit, much fruit. (Fruit being a metaphor for useful and effective service for the Kingdom of God). Obviously He is referring to a specific kind of good fruit that will endure through to eternal life.
Think of it: a lifetime with no regrets, a lifetime to find joy in completing at the last breath and heartbeat.
Now on to the sermon!😇
God has given us free-will (to choose from infinite possibilities or restricted possibilities). The questions are, how meaningful do we want our lives to be, and what ultimately is meaningful?
I suggest that work activity that supports humanity (global humanity) and our Planet Earth is potentially meaningful and will lead to a joyful end to our life. Whereas destructive activity that harms others and our Planet Earth will lead to regret. God created Laws to help us differentiate between this positive activity and negative activity.
This principle is also well-expressed in the sobering text of the Dhammapada (119;120): A man may find pleasure in evil as long as his evil has not given fruit; but when the fruit of evil comes then that man finds evil indeed. (This was written about 2,500 years ago but less than 100 years ago this truth was real enough in the 2nd world war-crimes tribunals).
A man may find pain in doing good as long as his good has not given fruit; but when the fruit of good comes then that man finds good indeed.
Spiritually life-changing decisions
Is dedicating our working life to making or selling weapons of war a meaningful Service to God and humanity? Or constructing A-bombs in a factory? What about becoming a soldier leading to death on a battlefield? At our last breath and heartbeat, it will be too late to ask for more time. The choices and decisions that we made during our lifetime will be our personal history: that is who we were and what we did in our lifetime.
Decisions that we make in the course of our lifetime may at the time seem relatively unimportant and significant but can shape the content of our entire life.
I recently watched a short Youtube video made by a Russian soldier on his cell-phone in the jungle. He said that he had not eaten or drank anything for three days. His suffering came over - it was heart-rending.
He was lost, desperately thirsty and his comrades killed or wounded. He was actually crying. He said, 'Don't sign the contract' (meaning that you cannot foresee the future hell you may be letting yourself in for when you choose to join the army.) He had not soul-searched before he chose his life's work.
Decisions that we make in the course of our lifetime may at the time seem relatively unimportant and significant but can shape the content of our entire life.
I recently watched a short Youtube video made by a Russian soldier on his cell-phone in the jungle. He said that he had not eaten or drank anything for three days. His suffering came over - it was heart-rending.
He was lost, desperately thirsty and his comrades killed or wounded. He was actually crying. He said, 'Don't sign the contract' (meaning that you cannot foresee the future hell you may be letting yourself in for when you choose to join the army.) He had not soul-searched before he chose his life's work.
It is true, as C. T. Studd (1860-1931) wrote: ‘Only one life, 'twill soon be passed’.
Our human free-will and God's divine grace
I tried to define 'lifetime'. I came to the conclusion that it is a window of free-will, from the date of our birth until the date of our death. Free-will means the freedom to choose for yourself. When we die we will no longer exist in this lifetime with the freedom to choose from a myriad of choices.
There is one essential gift available to us while we are yet alive and still able to think and make choices, and that is GRACE. This means that if we choose a course of enterprising business which expands, develops and consequently bears unwanted or harmful fruit (goes "pear-shaped") we have GRACE available: GRACE to reconsider and change, to break off that branch and take a new node using the metaphor of the grapevine.
The process of starting fruitless enterprises, or worse, enterprises that deliver unhappy, unmeaningful and unsatisfying consequences, could happen several or many times in our lifetime. We could make, for example, a choice of a new enterprise every decade, each of which bears bitter fruit.
For example: a failed relationship producing emotionally hurt children; a business idea that collapses causing suffering in a family; substance experimentation that develops into addiction; even choosing the life of a soldier that culminates in the carrying out of terrible and cruel actions which in retrospect bring on heavy guilt, remorse and regret; or perhaps just setting your expectations too low and compromising one's lifetime, having forsaken opportunities which you passed by. (‘I bargained with life for a penny’).
GRACE is the opportunity inside space-time consciousness, to soul-search before or after things have gone wrong and when the choices we have made have not brought happiness to ourselves or others, or have even caused suffering and harm.
GRACE is an opportunity limited to time and space (our lifetime) because only in this lifetime are we consciously alive to contemplate what is really meaningful for us to work at and what we want to have done by our last breath.
We can, thanks to the GRACE of God in Jesus Christ, cut off all those branches of our life that bore no or bad fruit (maybe decades of wasted investment and effort), completely put it behind us, and start again.
These lifetime opportunities for GRACE were illustrated by Jesus in the parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11-32, who came to his senses: the prodigal son was able to reflect and come to understand that he had made a rash or careless choice, and that that choice had borne bad, unwanted fruit or consequences.
There is one essential gift available to us while we are yet alive and still able to think and make choices, and that is GRACE. This means that if we choose a course of enterprising business which expands, develops and consequently bears unwanted or harmful fruit (goes "pear-shaped") we have GRACE available: GRACE to reconsider and change, to break off that branch and take a new node using the metaphor of the grapevine.
The process of starting fruitless enterprises, or worse, enterprises that deliver unhappy, unmeaningful and unsatisfying consequences, could happen several or many times in our lifetime. We could make, for example, a choice of a new enterprise every decade, each of which bears bitter fruit.
For example: a failed relationship producing emotionally hurt children; a business idea that collapses causing suffering in a family; substance experimentation that develops into addiction; even choosing the life of a soldier that culminates in the carrying out of terrible and cruel actions which in retrospect bring on heavy guilt, remorse and regret; or perhaps just setting your expectations too low and compromising one's lifetime, having forsaken opportunities which you passed by. (‘I bargained with life for a penny’).
GRACE is the opportunity inside space-time consciousness, to soul-search before or after things have gone wrong and when the choices we have made have not brought happiness to ourselves or others, or have even caused suffering and harm.
GRACE is an opportunity limited to time and space (our lifetime) because only in this lifetime are we consciously alive to contemplate what is really meaningful for us to work at and what we want to have done by our last breath.
We can, thanks to the GRACE of God in Jesus Christ, cut off all those branches of our life that bore no or bad fruit (maybe decades of wasted investment and effort), completely put it behind us, and start again.
These lifetime opportunities for GRACE were illustrated by Jesus in the parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11-32, who came to his senses: the prodigal son was able to reflect and come to understand that he had made a rash or careless choice, and that that choice had borne bad, unwanted fruit or consequences.
The Prodigal Son Feeding the Pigs by Michiel Ciognet II (1618-1663)
He had GRACE to figure out through his own soul-searching what the best course of action would be, which was to eat humble pie, go back and seek the support of his father, who was sound in mind.
The prodigal son made a good decision: he perhaps could have chosen to offer himself as a mercenary or tried to join a mafia gang.
Responding to God's grace
The prodigal son made a good decision: he perhaps could have chosen to offer himself as a mercenary or tried to join a mafia gang.
Responding to God's grace
GRACE is available in our space-time-conscious existence so that we can soul-search and call upon God, to admit the truth: that we made a poor decision that bore bitter fruit.
Well did Jesus inform us to build our homes on solid rock and not on shifting sand, Matthew 7:24-27. In meaning, this refers to the significance and importance of working out beforehand what is really or most important in life, before we start out on a path which will have consequences, perhaps for our entire lifetime. What person do I want to have been at my final breath and heartbeat?
Perhaps at the end of your life you reflect back and decide that you have embarked on failed enterprises throughout your life? If you are still breathing and conscious, you can still come to your senses. You can still cut off those branches. Is there a node left on the vine that is your lifetime, in your old age? Don't despise that one, tiny node - it has the potential to grow into a huge grapevine, which then has the potential to produce more and more grapevines. This is GRACE!
But soul-search and make no error this time: build on solid rock. Make sure the last node of your life will be dedicated to a new branch of your life that you will never regret, even on your deathbed!
I also recently viewed a Youtube video of one of those horrific prisons full of violent mafia gang members who were serving multiple life sentences.
Who are they? Why did they choose an anti-social life-style culminating in this dreadful and horrific reality? Why did they fail to see their ultimate reality when they visualised their future of riches and pleasure?
Probably they grew up in dire social conditions and poverty, where it appeared opportunity was absent and the odds of success were stacked against them.
Well did Jesus inform us to build our homes on solid rock and not on shifting sand, Matthew 7:24-27. In meaning, this refers to the significance and importance of working out beforehand what is really or most important in life, before we start out on a path which will have consequences, perhaps for our entire lifetime. What person do I want to have been at my final breath and heartbeat?
Perhaps at the end of your life you reflect back and decide that you have embarked on failed enterprises throughout your life? If you are still breathing and conscious, you can still come to your senses. You can still cut off those branches. Is there a node left on the vine that is your lifetime, in your old age? Don't despise that one, tiny node - it has the potential to grow into a huge grapevine, which then has the potential to produce more and more grapevines. This is GRACE!
But soul-search and make no error this time: build on solid rock. Make sure the last node of your life will be dedicated to a new branch of your life that you will never regret, even on your deathbed!
I also recently viewed a Youtube video of one of those horrific prisons full of violent mafia gang members who were serving multiple life sentences.
Who are they? Why did they choose an anti-social life-style culminating in this dreadful and horrific reality? Why did they fail to see their ultimate reality when they visualised their future of riches and pleasure?
Probably they grew up in dire social conditions and poverty, where it appeared opportunity was absent and the odds of success were stacked against them.
Instead of correctly and deliberately embracing faith in God and themselves, exercising faith in the opportunities available in their country and understanding that there are infinite choices available in any given moment - one door of opportunity once passed through, leading to more - they chose a SHORT-CUT, by-passing God's requirements for honesty, respect for others, sobriety and peaceful means.
Sometimes the correct choice (as made by the prodigal son) may mean forgiving those responsible carers in our childhood who failed to give us the quality of upbringing that we needed, and resolving not to visit those sins upon our own children.
AMAZING GRACE!
Sometimes the correct choice (as made by the prodigal son) may mean forgiving those responsible carers in our childhood who failed to give us the quality of upbringing that we needed, and resolving not to visit those sins upon our own children.
AMAZING GRACE!
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