Jeanette Renouf

Dear friends,
 
I love this reading from the Gospel of John, especially the version in The Message. It is so evocative of vineyards I have visited at one time or another: Napa Valley, California; Burgundy, France; Sicily, Italy; and Israel. Often, we had a picnic or meal at the vineyard. Always so lush and well cared for. What an image of God’s love and care for us so that we might care for others. Pruned, fed, cared for in whatever way will produce the best harvest, the most delicious and abundant.
 
Wine made from the grapes of these vineyards are clearly an important symbol in the Bible whether the water made into wine at a wedding in Cana or the wine of Christ’s blood served at the last supper and at our Church tables. A symbol of God’s love and abundance. St. John is clearly telling us, through Jesus’ teaching, that if we make our home with Christ, become a follower of Jesus, we will be a blessing to one another and to God.
 
This Easter season of resurrection is a good time to rededicate ourselves to Christ’s call to us. Where are we to serve, to be God’s love in the world? Sometimes it means leaving behind something we have done well, a pruning, and taking on a new way of being. Sometimes it is nurturing and tending the mature vine and helping ourselves to be even more productive of that love in the world. This is a good time of year to nurture gardens. May we all be about tending to the garden God has planted in us.
 
Jeanette Renouf