Jesus said: I am the vine.

Easter V Jesus said: I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in me.

In one of a series of "I am" statements, Jesus illustrates for us the nature of God and of humanity.

Last week, Jesus revealed that God is the Good Shepherd who cares for us as the shepherd cares for his sheep. God as the Good Shepherd reveals a very personal quality to the relationship between the human and the divine.

This week, the revelation of the relationship between the Divine and the human becomes even more personal and more essential. Jesus actually tells his students, and us, apart from me you can do nothing. Apart from me you wither and die.

Jesus reminds us of the essential quality of life. All life is dependent. For the first 9 months of our existence we are totally dependent on our mothers for life. For close to twenty years following our birth we grow and mature to the place were we become interdependent. We achieve the ability to take care of our physical needs. And, we discern how inter related we are with our families, friends and society for our emotional and psychological needs.

The poet/priest John Donne once wrote: No man is an island. No one of us has the power, the knowledge or the resources to live alone and apart from the wider human community. Isolation is the great enemy of the human race.

Last week Jesus reminded us that a lone sheep will not survive separation from the flock. The Good Shepherd seeks out the lost sheep in an effort to save it from its own foolish behavior.
This week, the metaphor is even more intense. Jesus states that he is the vine and we are the branches. Separation from the vine is death.

Within the context of the metaphor, it is the branch that cuts itself off from the vine. At first, the branch may not notice any difference. It may even relish its new experience of independence. What the branch fails to appreciate, at first, is that it has separated from the very source of its life.

That is the image Jesus uses to describe the human condition. All humans choose separation from God. All humans experience separation from God as the branch experiences separation from the vine. Of course, we are not plants. The human experience of separation is more complex and convoluted than that of a branch that is cut off from the vine. The process is different. The end result is the same.

The drying out of the branch is similar to the dessication of the human soul. For people, this dessication may last decades. It may be attended by moments of pleasure and power. But the process is inexorable.

The branch dries out because it no longer takes in nourishment. It loses the vital capability to convert sunlight, water, earth and air into new life. The drying out is the dying off
An ironic epitaph illustrate this. John Smith. Born 1949. Died 1967 age 18. Buried 2029 age 80. We die spiritually long before our bodies stop functioning.

The soul experiences the process of drying our over a much longer period of time than the branch of a plant. The plant has it easier. The soul endures decades of existence apart from the life it rejected.

The apostle John understood very well that God the Father created all people to be in a loving life giving relationship with God the Son, through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.
As Jesus tells us he is the vine he also reveals he is life itself. There can be no authentic, enduring and dynamic life apart from Christ. Apart from Christ, the soul experiences existence with ever diminishing capacity for vitality.

The separated soul can still reason and feel and choose. But, its choices become narrowed and reactive. It’s path forward is mired in fear, frustration, confusion, anger, pride and despair. It may for a time obscure the problem by diverting its attention away from its separated state. Diversions may include both pleasures and pain, activity and passivity, entertainments and boredom. The soul that is cut off and lost in separation cannot find its way back to wholeness. And, it defends its original choice through rebellion, pride and spite.

God provides the solution to this terrible problem of separation. God provides the solution to the drying out of the separated soul. The solution is Jesus Christ. The solution is in the word Jesus himself uses: Abide.

To abide in Jesus Christ is to receive the gift of reunification. To abide in Jesus Christ is to live in communion with the very source of life.

We abide in Christ through regular worship, Bible Study, prayer, the sacraments, fellowship with other believers and service to people in need. To abide is to live. To abide is to be refreshed and filled with living waters daily, hourly, in each vital moment of the eternal now.
As we make a different choice we begin to cut ourselves off from the vine. As we chose to separate from worship, Bible Study, prayer, the sacraments, fellowship with other believers and service to people in need, our souls dry out. We become spiritually parched, dry, dessicated, brittle. God does not withdraw from us. But, we can make a choice to withdraw from God. We exchange eternal life for endless existence.

Separation from Christ is separation from life. We continue to exist. We may even for a time achieve our short term goals for pleasure, possessions, prestige and power. We do so at the cost of our own souls. We are like the branches that separate from the vine. We are neutralized as fully self actuating mature people. We exist from the place of reaction. We exist from the place of rebellion and separation.

The Good News is that in this life its is never too late to be restored. It is never too late to ask God to graft us back into the vine and re discover the fullness of life Jesus not only offers but in fact is.

Life in Christ is life in a series of relationship. Existence apart from Christ is existence in a narrowing spiral of isolation. The choice is always ours. If there were no choice Jesus would never have had to come to this planet. He came because we can make a real choice to say yes to life. We can make a real choice to say yes to love. We can make a real choice to say yes to wholeness. We make that choice when we say yes to Jesus Christ.

Every day of our lives other people are testing us. Every day of our lives our culture is seeking to separate us from God. Every day of our lives the Enemy, Satan, seeks to deceive us to make any other choice other than Christ. Any choice is fine, as long as it is not Jesus.

Jesus says, Abide in me. Make the choice to live in Christ. To live in Christ is to be reunited with Eternal Life. To live in Christ is to find the fulfillment of your deepest longings and desires. To abide in Christ is to rediscover your first love is your eternal love who is the source of your eternal life here and now.

As the vine, Jesus is the source of life. As the vine, Jesus gives us the choice to live or to exist. The choice is eternal. It’s consequences form the soul for greater experiences of love and growth or for greater levels of isolation and disintegration.

Jesus’ words to us today are words of promise, invitation and life. I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in me. Choose wisely. Choose Jesus.