Have you ever tried pulling apart a mess of Christmas lights that haven’t been put away properly? That mess of cords can be just that…a mess! And in haste, it may be tempting to start pulling at whatever end you happen to find. But, as many of you likely know, to do so often just makes the problem worse. It creates even more knots in the cords that also has the potential to break wires and bulbs.
There’s potential for damage when we just start yanking on an entangled strand of lights. And, in the same way, if we were to just start yanking on an interwined vine, the same would happen. Putting added stress on the vine, and trying to pull away from the other branches would actually damage the vine as a whole, and would inhibit the vine from bearing fruit.
This past weekend, we heard Jesus use the illustration of a vine as he addressed his disciples on the eve of his death. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” Jesus said (John 15:5). Often, we focus on our connection to Jesus (which is completely valid!) But as people connected to Jesus, then we are also connected to one another. Like it or not, we are not the only ones on the vine. And, within the church, we aren’t the only disciples, or the only body of Christ, that is a part of God’s vineyard.
So rather than pulling away from fellow believers, and rather than pulling away from other communities that proclaim the message of Jesus, what would it be like to lean into our interconnectedness? And what would it be like to rely on one another – putting our fate and our success into the hands of one another?
To connect ourselves in such a way might seem as though we’re becoming an entangled mess. But as people abiding in Christ, we are also called to abide with one another in the vine as we live out our shared purpose to bear fruit: fruit that will last.
So this week, consider who is around you. How could you lean into the interconnectedness you share with others rather than pulling away? And, how might we as the church lean into our interconnectedness rather than trying to exist on our own? It might take a bit of practice, but in doing so, we might find life we might otherwise would’ve never known.