As a child, I used to visit a house on the cliff top at Broadstairs, where I grew up, which had a big conservatory with a vine growing in it.  For me it was a source of mild fascination - I was told that it was a ‘grape tree’, but I never actually saw any grapes! 

Maybe I visited at the wrong time of year?  Or, much more likely, it was simply that drafty conservatories on East-facing cliff tops in Southern England, are just not the right place for grape trees?

Since then, my knowledge of grapes has become fuller – for one thing, I’ve discovered that I like them best when they’ve been crushed and matured for a while and put in a bottle!  But also, I’ve learned that to be any good, they need to exist in the right conditions.

"I am the true vine," said Jesus.  "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."

Today’s Gospel is probably one of the most ‘preached on’ of all Bible passages (I’ve probably preached half a dozen different sermons on it myself over the years), as there is so much wisdom and imagery to ‘home in’ on! 

So today, I am going to concentrate on just one aspect – the lessons which can be learned from this passage about ‘connectedness’!  ". . . . neither can you, unless you abide in me."  Or put another way, “ . . . . without me, you’re useless!"

In any tree or shrub, the branch has an important role to play – to transmit nourishment from the soil, to the fruit, so that the fruit may grow. 

But the ability to thrive is dependent on the connection that exists between each of the constituent parts – if the communication line becomes damaged, the whole thing begins to die, and its ability to bear fruit is compromised! 

And Jesus talks harshly about the consequences of deadness in the branches which have lost this connectedness! 

It is vital for a church to have this connectedness:

• Connected with each other.
• Connected with the local community.
• Connected with the wider church.
• And, most important of all, connected with God through our relationship with Jesus!

In the life of the church, there is one thing that matters more than anything else – and that's remaining in the vine, in whichever way is right for us.  If we’re in the vine, then the spirit will flow and we will flourish and produce good fruit!

In this passage on the vine, the word "abide" occurs seven times.  According to my Thesaurus, there are a number of synonyms for "abide".  They are: ‘remain’, ‘continue’, ‘prevail’, ‘stay’, ‘last’, and ‘endure’. 

It’s interesting that many of those words have undertones of struggle - remaining in the vine might sound simple, but it isn't necessarily easy. 

Jesus is well aware of the difficulty of the task to which he's called us.  He knows that remaining in the vine will require endurance and a network of support from each other, because branches don't produce fruit in isolation.

And Jesus has called us, every one of us, to Christian ministry of some sort – because being part of the church means being a ‘minister’!  And I guess the reason he's called us to this difficult task is simply this, as it says at the end of this passage from John 15: so that the Father may be glorified through the joy of ‘bearing fruit’ in the making of new disciples!