Sermon for the Reaffirmation of Marriage Vows
and Commitment Promises
St. Philips In The Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse, Saturday, February 15, 2014
For Readings,
click here - Colossians 3:12-17 and John
15:9-12
I speak to you in the name of one God+, loving Creator,
redeeming Christ, and sustaining Spirit. Amen.
Today is a special
day for y’all!
It is your
day; you have lived in covenant with each other
and revealed your
love
as a reflection of
Christ’s love for the Church.
Today is also our
special day,
as members of your
faith community!
We gather to
witness the reaffirmation of marriage vows
and the commitment
promises that y’all have made.
What is unique
about today is that God has called you
to re-make these
vows,
to re-member them,
to re-call that day
when you first said “I do”.
So, this makes it a
very special day for God, as well.
One of my favorite
love poems by Rumi
sets the tone for
today’s celebration.
“The minute I
heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,
they're in each other all along.”[1]
The Gospel reading
today captures this sense of
“being in each
other all along.”
In these short
verses, part of
Jesus’ Farewell
Discourse offered to his disciples,
he says,
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you;
abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments and
abide in his love.
Jesus invites the
disciples to be in him, to abide in him,
as an example of
God’s mutual love for Jesus.
Leading up to this
passage, Jesus used the
familiar-to-his-hearers
imagery of vine and branches,
which of course
abide in each other.
There, God was
gardener and Jesus himself was the vine,
with his disciples
as the branches.
In this vine-and-branches
metaphor,
Jesus intertwines
their agricultural lives (tending grapevines)
with theological
language.
He does so to
highlight the intimate and intricate nature
of the relationship
between Jesus and his followers
– and so, between God and us.
*pause*
It turns out, you may know, that it is very complex[2]
to grow fruit-bearing grapevines.
(Not unlike tending to sacred relationships!)
Grapes are very labor-intensive and
the Tucson
area provides
an especially challenging environment for growing grapes.[3]
“…Like roses, they require a lot of care,
such as proper pruning, feeding, insect control
and training…
most grapevines require a… winter chill
to produce good crops…
Grapes need good air circulation…,
something to grow on…good soil….
and regular water to produce fruit.”
For the first three years,
a grapevine is not allowed to produce fruit.
It is pruned extensively to direct all the nutrients into
the vine.
After that time, grapevines constantly require tending
to prevent wild vines.
These wild vines will strip the fruit-bearing
branches
of the water and nutrients it needs.
Without pruning, the small grapes are of poor
quality.
So, the vine grower, the Gardener,
has an important role of constant care and
nurturing.
Knowing a bit about grapevine growing
helps us understand the power of this allegorical
vine and branches illustration
that Jesus used with his disciples and it informs us
today,
because it is complex to grow fruit-bearing
relationships.
They are labor intensive.
They require pruning, feeding, insect control.
They sometimes need a winter chill to bear tasty fruit!
Fruit-bearing relationships need constant care and
nurture – you know that!
Where God is the gardener and vine-grower,
Jesus is the central vine stock
through which the branches are nurtured.
We, as followers of Jesus, are the branches –
as are these relationships, branches of Jesus’ love, that
are
nurtured, interconnected and growing alongside each
other.
We ALL are connected and growing out of that central
vine.
The result of this intimate arrangement?
The production of good fruit,
as we heard in the reading from Colossians,
“compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience…”
As well as forgiveness, harmony and gratitude.
You know what it takes to have a fruit-bearing relationship. You
know to be mindful about “pruning” –
about constantly caring and nurturing your
relationship.
You know that Gardener God is faithfully providing nutrients
through the central vine of Jesus.
*pause
Jesus said to his
disciples,
“I have said these
things to you
so that my joy may
be in you, and
that your joy may
be complete.”
He’s not mincing
words to his 21st century disciples,
here gathered!
Jesus nurtures your
love relationship
so that your
joy to be complete.
Jesus calls you to
abide in him individually
and in your
relationships.
Jesus finds joy in
your joy –
such complete joy
that it displaces any competing realities
or wild vines that
rival the centrality of Christ in your lives.
That’s how Gardener
God is active in your lives!
Imagine!
God loves you
through the vine of Jesus,
who offers his life
so that your joy
may grow fruitfully and abundantly.
Just as Gardener
God loves Jesus,
So Jesus loves you. Remember,
“Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere,
they are in each other all along.”
Therefore, you are
in union – communion –
with Christ in the
sacramental marriage and covenantal vows.
Friends, God’s love
abides in you,
in your love for
each other,
in this faithful,
vibrant and alive community of faith.
And that is reason
enough for joy joy joy!
Amen
[1] Coleman Barks,
translator, The Essential Rumi, (San Francisco, HarperOne, 1995)
[2] Portions inspired from The Rev. Todd B. Freeman’s
sermon, “Lessons Learned from Grapevines,” May 10, 2009 cited at http://collegehilltulsa.org/documents/05-10-09_Lessons_Learned_from_Grapevines.pdf on February 13, 2014
[3] Sunset Western
Garden Book, Sunset Publishing Corp. 2001, from http://www.examiner.com/article/plant-of-the-day-grapes cited on
February 13, 2014
