Vintage Stuff

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday May 10, 2009, the 5th Sunday in Easter.

Much of the information about trimming fruit trees came from this link:
Video featuring Roger Cook from Ask This Old House.

Acts 8:24-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The next time you’re out on Highway 62 going to Harrison, take a look at the apple orchards on the east side of Green Forest. Think about big, full, lush apple trees laden with fruit and you will notice something different about these trees. They are neither big nor full nor lush. They are kind of spindly looking. There are leaves on the branches, but lush isn’t the word to describe them. They will qualify as “laden with fruit” though. There is an important lesson to be learned here, a tree can be ornamental or it can be fruit producing, not both.

Pruning a fruit tree is relatively easy.[1] It takes a few hours and the right tools to do the job. To prune a fruit tree, you’ll need a set of hand pruners, a pruning saw, and some bypass pruners to do the bulk of the work. You’ll also need a set of long-handled loppers to take care of the top of the tree. Using long handles is preferable to a ladder, because it’s harder to fall from the ground than it is from a ladder. You’ll also need a coat, warm hat and some gloves because pruning is best done in the winter when the tree is dormant.

You’ll also need to know about the tree. You’ll need to identify the central leader, the main trunk of the tree. You don’t want to lop off the central leader, that’s the spinal column of the tree. You will need to identify the flowering buds and the vegetative buds. You will want to keep the flowering buds because that’s where the apples will come from at harvest. But if you have say a foot long branch that has only vegetative buds, buds that just produce leaves, you can remove that. After all, the leaves don’t produce fruit.

You’ll need to do some shaping, making sure to leave the canopy branches remain intact. You will need to remove branches that are rubbing on one another. You will also want to remove small sucker branches. It goes without saying, but you need to cut out the dead branches too. They’re just trouble waiting to happen if they break and take down good branches.

Doing this, you reduce the number of branches that produce leaves, and you increase the amount of sap to flow to the branches that produce fruit. Whether you are running an orchard or you want the tree in your back yard to produce more and better fruit, you want more sap flowing from the central leader to the branches that produce fruit. That’s what pruning accomplishes.

One other thing is very, very important to know about pruning. If you are pruning an established fruit tree for the first time, there will be a lot of branches that need to be removed to optimize fruit production. This can’t be done all at once. This should be done over three consecutive winters, or else you will shock the tree. Bad pruning will hurt the tree more than it helps. It can even kill the tree if too much is taken at once.

Of course you will need to continue to prune the tree year after year. But with these techniques and after three years of hard pruning, it will be a breeze.

When finished, you will have a tree that produces a bounty of wonderfully plump and juicy fruit. But remember, the tree which produces the best and most is probably not very pretty. That’s just the way of life for a tree in the orchard. Glory is in fruit production; you can’t sell or eat pretty.

You know where I’m going with this. Jesus says, “My father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” In the day, the people knew vines and dressing vines. They knew far more about viniculture than we do. Since dressing a vine is not so dissimilar from pruning a fruit tree; I hoped this would bring us all up to speed on what it means to prune.

What does this mean for us today? Let’s use what we are given in John’s gospel. There is the Father who is the vinegrower. There is Jesus the vine. There is the branch and that’s us. The fruit, well, that’s a wildcard isn’t it. John’s gospel leaves that one alone, not saying what the fruit is. Let’s just say that whatever the fruit is, it’s valuable and desirable.

Let’s begin with the fact that pruning involves cutting out what is unproductive and leaving what is. Let us also remember that pruning for productivity means cutting out things that may be very pretty, but add nothing to the harvest. As the branches in the tree of life in Jesus, we come off of the central leader. We are the branches off of the vine of Christ. The pieces that sport only vegetative buds have to go so the flowering fruit buds will get more and better nourishment.

Something that often catches our attention at this point is verse six where Jesus tells the people “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” This is a disturbing image because we hear Jesus talking about fire and really unsettling images come into our heads, not without good reason. The thought of being burned alive with all of the requisite screaming is seared into our imaginations.

But our reading from 1John teaches us that the pruning the Father does is done in love. Fear has to do with punishment, but pruning is not punishment, it is shaping us to bear much good fruit. This is done in love.

Still, what about the branches that don’t abide? Branches that aren’t a part of the vine will wither and die. Dead branches don’t feel the pain of the burning. Dead is dead and the dead branches have all ready felt the burning of death. The burning fire causes no further pain. Pruning smarts, and don’t let anyone tell you that it doesn’t. Pruning cuts out things that we have become accustomed to, things we might actually like, things that are pretty. That’s the hard part.

Burning is just disposing of what is no longer useful. Now living branches burning, we’d feel that, but those are two different things. It’s like comparing apples and a dead branch—two completely different things.

The French have been making wines seemingly since the creation of the grape. The French system of grading vineyards, le grand cru, is meant to continue the quality of vineyard. The grading system for wines begun in 1855 strives to guarantee that great wines continue to thrive.

Much of the wine purchased is named after the French regions where they were first created, including Burgundy, Chardonnay, Bordeaux, and of course, Champagne. Great wines come from great regions because of the great grapes grown on great vines. Did you know that in France it is illegal to call a wine by the name of a region unless it is in fact produced in that region? Champagne produced in Italy or in California is not by definition Champagne. It’s sparkling wine, in Italy it’s spumanti. This system prevents inferior wines from being called by superior names.

Let me not despair the American wine industry. Many of the original American wine growers were French transplants who came to the US bringing French vines to be more experimental with grapes and wines. Free of the 1855 restrictions and le grand cru, these new growers have created many wonderful wines, even great vintages, from a fusion of grapes and techniques.

But the production of all great wine is rooted in one foundational principle: “Great wine is always a reflection on the particular vineyard.”[2] Great wine will never be made from a vine that is not tended and pruned by the vinegrower. To bear the good fruit and produce great vine, the vines face ongoing pruning.

As the church, the people of God, to bear the good fruit of the perfect vine, we face continual pruning. There is always a season of trimming and weeding. By this, we are able to bear much fruit.

Remember what Jesus said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” The tree which produces the best is probably not very pretty. Remember those trees outside of Green Forest, fruitful does not mean pretty in appearance. That’s just the way of life for a tree in the orchard. Glory is in production. You can’t sell or eat pretty.

Remember too, pruning happens and cutting can leave marks and scars; and beware, cutting that is not done well produces big scars and can hurt more than help.

As such, the church of Jesus Christ will never grow unless we are pruned with care and grace by the great vinegrower. God wants to tend the finest vineyard, the one that takes the ultimate prize for le grand cru. May we, as disciples of Jesus, the true vine, embrace our role as branches—channels for God’s grace, so that when the world samples the fine vintage of God’s love and grace, they will want to know the winemaker![3]

[1] How To Prune A Fruit Tree, Ask This Old House, http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20053952,00.html, retrieved May 7, 2009.
[2] Much of this part and this quote in particular come from “How to Be a Branch, HomeliticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93040454, retrieved April 22, 2009.
[3] Ibid.