Abide with me; fast falls the eventide:
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:
when other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
help of the helpless, O abide with me.
[Henry Francis Lyte 1793–1847 alt. Reproduced with permission Together in Song 586]
Abide with me. It’s a powerful hymn: a plea for God’s presence in the transitions of life, and particularly in the transition from mortal life to eternal life. Rightly, it’s a popular hymn for use at funerals; and, of course, it is used at most Anzac Day services. There are several stories about its origin. Henry Lyte probably wrote the words at the time of the ending of his active ministry; and William Monk, the tune Eventide, after the death of his first child, a daughter, at the age of 3. According to Monk’s widow, they were “watching the beauty of a sunset” together at this “time of great sorrow” and Monk wrote the tune as twilight fell (Companion to Together in Song). Abide with me, O God—be with me, stay with me, watch with me, O God. It’s a hymn of great comfort—a powerful plea for strength.
But that’s not the abiding that our Gospel reading for today is concerned with. The Gospel reading for today is not our plea to God to abide with us; but Jesus’ plea to us to abide in him: “Abide in me as I abide in you.” Abide in me as I abide in you. I’m already in you, with you, around you; now tell me where you are and, more than that, live it.
And the image used for abiding in Christ is a powerful one: the vine and the branches. The vine is one of the great biblical symbols for Israel. It occurs frequently in the writings of the Prophets and in the Psalms. Isaiah says, “Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines [God] planted” (Is. 5:7 TEV); Ezekiel, “Your mother was like a grapevine planted near a stream” (Ezek. 19:10 TEV); Hosea, “The people of Israel were like a grapevine that was full of grapes” (Hos. 10:1 TEV); and Psalm 80, “You brought a grapevine out of Egypt; you drove out other nations and planted it in their land” (Ps. 80:8 TEV). Jeremiah has God saying, “I planted you like a choice vine from the best seed” (Jer. 2:21 TEV).
And now here in the Gospel of John, Jesus says: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.” Now I’m imagining that this was a pretty provocative statement in its time. “I am”—you’ll recall that that’s code for God, for Yahweh, the great I am who I am, the great I was who I was, the great I will be who I will be. And Jesus is equating himself with the vine, the real Israel, the real people of God, God’s chosen ones; and simultaneously with God’s very self. In this very short statement, the locus of the realm of God is shifted from a chosen nation to God’s very self and to God’s chosen and sent one, Jesus. God is the vine, God in Christ is the vine and the people of Israel, the emerging Church, are merely branches—branches which should bear fruit, must bear fruit if they are really a part of the vine—if they are really abiding in Christ, and branches which are subject to pruning. Abide in me because this is who you are; if you do not abide in me you are nothing and you will produce nothing.
It’s a fairly forthright passage—a clear call to right relationship with God; and when the context of the vine passages from the Hebrew Scriptures are taken into account, it’s a fairly clear warning against losing touch with the vine. Isaiah’s “vineyard of the Lord Almighty” was “expected… to do what was right, but their victims cried out for justice” (Isaiah 5:7 TEV). Ezekiel’s grapevine was uprooted and thrown to the ground (Ezek. 9:10, 12 TEV). Hosea’s “grapevine that was full of grapes” turned out to be a “people whose hearts are deceitful” (Hos. 10:1,2 TEV). And the Psalmists “a grapevine out of Egypt” was “set … on fire and cut … down” (Ps. 80:8, 16 TEV). Even Jeremiah has God saying to the “choice vine from the best seed”: “look what you have become! You are like a rotten, worthless vine (Jer. 2:21 TEV).
The passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus affirms himself as the “true vine” shifts the whole frame of reference. No longer is it the people as the grapevine who must bear fruit on their own; but rather the people are called simply to abide (that is, to tabernacle, to tent, to dwell, to live) in the one true vine, the living God, the God made present in Jesus; and, by abiding in that vine, to bear much fruit.
And this image of abiding is a powerful one. The branches abide in the vine. Now I ask you where does the vine begin and the branches end. This is a very close relationship—a symbiotic relationship—an intimate dwelling together of very different organisms—God the great Creator and the people of God, the created ones; Jesus the great Redeemer and the Redeemed Ones, the ones who cannot redeem themselves and who apart from Christ are nothing. Without Christ we are nothing; and yet as part of Christ we are integral—we are Christ’s body.
It is interesting that Ezekiel connects the imagery of the grapevine with the imagery of motherhood. The relationship depicted between Christ and the disciples of Christ is depicted as being as close as that between a mother and the child in her womb, joined by an umbilical cord and surrounded with her very body—literally dwelling inside, tabernacling with Christ. You can’t get much closer than that; and yet this is what Jesus invites of us, demands of us; what discipleship requires of us—simply that we abide, we tabernacle, we dwell in Christ; and by that dwelling bear much fruit.
We are reminded of this intimate imagery, this demanding call to dwell, every time we celebrate the meal of Christ—every time we are invited to the table to share in the body of Christ as the body of Christ—we are reminded that we are called to abide in Christ, to live in Christ, to be the branches of the true vine, integral to the vine and thereby to bear the fruit which the vine will and must bear. As branches we have sprung from the vine and through the vine we are fed. If we do not remain connected, we will wither and die; but if we do remain a part of the vine, the promise is that we shall bear much fruit to the glory of God. And all this comes to us from Christ the true vine and from God the vinedresser.
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