A Hulking Monstrosity of a Tree: Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter – Year B

This passage in John’s Gospel about the vine and the branches
is one of the most beautiful in all the Gospels.
Jesus says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.”
It’s a beautiful image of life, growth, and relationship,
and it tells us a lot about how much the Father cares for us.

Now, I don’t know much about vines or branches or pruning,
but Brenda and I do have this huge maple tree in our back yard.
It’s a great tree, about thirty years old,
and it gives our southern exposed deck wonderful shade.
It just grows and grows,
and I guess maybe it’s gotten a little bigger than we realized.

We discovered just how big
a couple of weeks ago,
when we went to the Home and Garden Show
and we were talking with a company
about having them do some lawn care for us.
To give us an accurate estimate of how much it would cost,
they pulled up a satellite picture of our yard,
so they could measure it.
As they brought up the picture on their computer screen,
Brenda and I were shocked to see
just how massive our maple tree had grown.
It doesn’t look that big from below,
but when you look at it from above the house,
it’s this great leafy monster covering half of our yard,
stretching its gigantic limbs across the fence
into our neighbor’s yard,
and entangling itself in the power lines.
From our angle down on the ground,
we hadn’t noticed it had grown so huge.

I thought, How did that happen?
How did we let that beautiful tree grow so wild and out of control,
without even noticing?
If you’re a home owner,
you probably know what I’m talking about.
It’s expensive to have a tree pruned,
and there are lots of other bills to pay.
And life gets so busy with kids and jobs,
and all the other day-to-day responsibilities.
The time seems to pass by so fast,
and before you know it,
your nice shade tree is a hulking monstrosity.

As I was reading today’s gospel,
I thought about how what happens to trees
can happen to people, too.
We’re growing along nicely, stretching our limbs,
expanding our root systems,
but then slowly, over time,
things can grow out of control,
and before you know it,
life is cluttered with huge branches
that get in the way, throw us off balance, and weigh us down.
We get entangled, not in power lines,
but in bad habits, distractions, and sin.
And a lot of the time we can’t really tell it’s happening
from our view on the ground.

Jesus reminds us today,
that He is the true vine,
and his Father is the vine grower.
The Father has a perfect view of us from above,
not only of who we are, but of who we can become.

The Father prunes away what distracts us from Him,
removing what would harm us,
shaping us into something beautiful.
God is always taking care of us,
tending to us, nurturing us.
Our creation didn’t stop on the day we were born.
God continues to create us from moment to moment.

This passage from John’s gospel is about the goodness of God,
the love of God, for each of us.
Even if there are sufferings in our lives,
God can turn them into something helpful.

This is what he did with St. Paul.
The first time we meet Paul in Scripture,
he is supervising, consenting to, the death of St. Stephen.
We read how he persecuted Christians,
how he entered house after house,
dragging men and women out,
and handing them over for imprisonment.
He even admits in one of his epistles
that he was trying to destroy the Church.

Paul couldn’t see from his vantage point
that he was becoming as wild and monstrous
as that maple in my back yard.
He couldn’t see it.
But God could see who Paul was,
and also who he could become.
God kept tending to Paul, pruning him and shaping him,
finally revealing Jesus to him on the road to Damascus.

That moment wasn’t easy for Paul, being struck blind.
It wasn’t easy having to admit he had been wrong,
it wasn’t easy having to earn the trust of the disciples.

It’s not easy for us, either,
trying to love each other not just in word or speech,
but in deed and truth.
It’s painful to admit we’re wrong, to give up bad habits,
to seek forgiveness.
But we have the promise
that the Father will continue to take care of us,
perfecting us, shaping us so that we can bear fruit.
God never forgets us, or leaves us on our own.
God is constantly forming us more and more in his own image.

When I think of that maple tree in our back yard,
I am so thankful that God is not as neglectful as I am.
I’m happy to report that Brenda and I have scheduled an arborist
to come and prune our tree this week,
and restore it to its normal healthy self.

As we all do our spring yard work in the coming days,
mowing our lawns, trimming our weeds, and pruning our trees,
let us also use that time to thank God
for pruning us, shaping us,
for taking such good care of us,
often in ways we don’t even realize.