Thriving in the Vineyard: Connection, Growth, and Justice

1) "Jesus talks about pruning. He talks about in our lives, there are some things that are not very much like Jesus. So he says, you know, if we go and we prune those things, those parts of ourselves that are not productive and not healthy, then the rest of us can grow to be very healthy and can produce very good fruits. So Jesus says this lesson about pruning is pretty important. It's an important thing because it helps us to focus and it helps us to make decisions about things that we should do, those things that we shouldn't do, those parts of our lives that need to be there, and then those parts of our lives that don't need to be there because they don't please God." [18:55] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "The images of vines and vineyards and grapes and wine are used all the time. They're all over the place in Scripture. And they always point to several themes. Similar themes. They're always talking about life, prosperity, joy, and blessing. The symbols, these images, when they're used in Scripture, they're always talking about the good life. And whatever that is in your situation, whatever that looks like, if you find a passage and it's talking about vineyards, or it talks about wine, it's talking about the good life. For the people who experienced it then and continue to experience it today. So these images of vineyard and wine and grapes and branches, this is all talking about prosperity in some way. In the kingdom of God." [39:50] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "The building of a community, the building of a society, the building of a culture that leaves no one out. Where peace has a place to grow. Where peace can rule and can reign, so that no one is left out. That's what Isaiah is saying that the God expects of the culture then, and I think we'll learn about that and we'll see here in a moment that Jesus is talking about the same thing. Through passages like this and others in Old Testament, the Jewish people saw themselves as vineyard people. You can see that they were defined by vineyards and vines to the point where the temple, where they went to church, had on its, above the doors, had this great elaborate carving that was gilded of a vineyard of vines that they would literally walk through whenever they went into the temple." [44:22] (71 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Jesus draws on that in our passage today. He's pulling from that imagery and that history and that tradition that the people had, but he's changing it a little bit. He's drawing on it, but instead of saying this is going to be a great nation, he's making this a metaphor that's focused on, he's focused on the individual. He's focusing in on us and in so doing, kind of makes it more challenging for the individuals to hear. No longer is it a general statement, oh, everybody should be good, everybody should, I've hit the wrong button, I'm sorry. Can you put it back? I did that too. Instead of saying that everybody in general should be good or should follow God, it's a movement that says you as an individual are called, to be a vineyard person." [45:34] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "The expectation in this passage is that we will bear fruit. And it is only possible then to produce that good fruit by being connected to the vine. And that for that vine to be as productive as possible, there needs to be some pruning every once in a while. And so we're going to walk through each of these bullet points that are Dave's kind of synopsis of John. But we'll walk through it together now. First of all, it's God's vineyard. Jesus is the vine that grows within it. The phrase that we are, very familiar with, I am the vine. See the words I am that are there. The name of God, the famous name of God, I am. Jesus is making a statement when he says I am the vine. He's making a statement of his divinity and about his representation of God." [47:16] (73 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "The way we stay connected is through our prayer to God. We do that through the church. I have these cards. We've got them out in the lobby with cards that I've asked us as St. Matthews to pray together. There's a prayer for every day of the week that I've asked that we include in our prayer time, whatever that looks like for you. Would you, on Mondays, include our bishop and cabinet, the other clergy, in your prayers? On Tuesdays, would you pray for the community that surrounds the church? On Wednesdays, would you pray for the ministries of the church? Thursdays, pray for those things you see in the news. And not just the events and the policies and the disasters, but the people who are affected by those things, the people who suffer because of them." [55:16] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Something else Jesus makes clear here in John is that pruning is needed. Sometimes pruning seems like a negative kind of thing, but it's really, if we think about it, it's meant to focus us. It's meant to focus us on the fruit that is being created. It's meant to focus us on the way that God is alive within us and the way that we are being changed and the way that we are growing. Pruning means that we take those things that are in our life that are not producing good fruit, those parts of us that are hindering us from being as fruitful as we could be, and we prune those." [57:42] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)