Fruit That Will Last

Homily for Sunday, April 28, 2024: the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter:

Acts 9:26-31

1 Jn 3:18-24

Jn 15:1-8

I remember reading a piece many years ago, about a church committee working on hiring their new pastor. The process stretched on and many candidates were considered and rejected for one reason or another, and nobody seemed quite good enough for the committee.

So one day one member presented a letter of application.

The applicant has been a leader in many churches. He has not remained more than three years at any one church; in some cases he has been forced to leave after his preaching caused riots and disturbances. He has not gotten along well with other religious leaders and has on occasion been physically threatened and attacked. He has been in prison a few times.

The committee of course was horrified by these credentials and wondered what sort of pastor would think of applying with such a resume.

The committee member replied, it’s Saint Paul the Apostle.

Our first reading today tells us that when Saint Paul – who at that time was named Saul - when Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him.

And to be quite honest, who can blame them?

If we look back to the beginning of this same chapter, we read that:

Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.

Very shortly after this Saul will have one of the more dramatic conversions recorded in Scripture. He has a vision of the Risen Lord which knocks him to the ground. He is struck blind, then healed, then baptized, and now his soul is on fire to do the Lord’s work.

Still, we might understand why the disciples would be suspicious of this sudden change of heart.

Fortunately, Barnabas is willing to give him a chance.

Maybe he had heard rumors out of Damascus. Or maybe it was the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Either way, Barnabas saw to it that Saul was welcomed into the Christian community. Welcomed, and given the chance to do all the work that Saint Paul achieved for the early Church – spreading the Gospel into the Gentile communities, writing almost a quarter of the New Testament, and laying the theological groundwork for our understanding of Salvation through Christ.

Jesus says whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit. And by his fruit we can see that St. Paul was an asset to the Christian community. Once they got past their fears and welcomed him in.

Because they were a community, united as branches on the vine that is Christ. Just as we, now, are branches on that same vine of Jesus Christ. We are here to bear fruit, Christ’s fruit, for our Church, for our world, for the Kingdom of God.

But as Jesus reminds us today, it takes some pruning.

We are pruned through prayer, through our spiritual practices; we are pruned in the Sacraments, and through coming together in worship. We are pruned through coming into closer relationship with Jesus.

Paul needed a lot of pruning to go from breathing murderous threats against the disciples to becoming the Apostle to the Gentiles.

And the Jerusalem community needed some pruning to accept him, to make room for him to bear his fruit.

Even while each of them, each branch, each individual of the community, would bear their own fruit.

Because there is a lot to be done in the Kingdom of God, and none of us can bear all the fruit by ourselves.

That’s the point Jesus is making in the Gospel reading. The vine has many branches. Each branch, each of us, bears the fruit that is ours to bear. And there are other branches to bear the rest of the fruits.

Jesus tells us too that The Father takes away every branch that does not bear fruit. That’s the Father, not us. If it had been left to the Jerusalem community, Saint Paul might never have been welcomed into the Church.

We’re all in this together. St. John reminds us in our second reading, that God’s commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.

We are, each of us, branches on the same vine. We are all bearing fruit for God’s kingdom. Our job is to welcome and to love.