I struggle today with ancient metaphors–The Vine and the Branches.  My last encounter with a grapevine was on  a ladder in the front yard of Dave & Ruth Koch’s home.  David was his latter days and Ruth, nurturing, nourishing, fufilling what Jesus is talking about in this Sunday’s second lesson on love–fearlessly loving David as he awaited the call of his Lord to “abide” in Jesus in a whole new way.  

Their house was wrapped in vines and the aroma of the grapes greeted you as you walked through the gate. So we four–two Ransdells and two Hincheys climbed the ladders and plucked the grapes. I remember pushing my fingers through the complicated web of wood and leaf, juicy fruit and stem. It was entaglement.  So that’s what Jesus means when he says, “I am the Vine and you are the branches.”   It’s a statement about our relationship with him, of course, but with one another as well–all enmeshed, mixed up, entangled in a messy sort of way.  St. Paul will talk about the church as body–neat, clean, self-differentiated;  but Jesus is a bit more messy–a tangled web of branches popping with fruit. Kind of like church, isn’t it?