Graduation is upon us and we've just today sent off the graduating class of 2012 from Southwestern College. I had an opportunity to give a short "charge" to the seniors and their families at the Baccalaureate service this morning. Here is a portion of the words that I shared.
While
the journey of education and preparation for a career has been different for
each person with whom we celebrate today, I think that we could find some similarities
in the stories of everyone. Each
graduate, and even their loved ones, have learned many lessons. You have certainly learned more about
psychology, or education, or business, or religion. But I would
speculate that you have also learned some practical lesson, such as how long
you can wait before laundry becomes a critical need. Or, how to buckle down and do work that you
don’t really want to do. And I hope that
you’ve learned to get along with people who have a different background than
you. And you may have, without even knowing
it, learned a basic lesson about horticulture.
If not, I hope to teach it now.
Our scripture tells us this basic word about horticulture, and it is this: simply put, a branch that doesn’t bear fruit
should be cut off, and that which does bear fruit should be pruned, so as to be
even more fruitful. While this may not initially
seem terribly profound, it is a
lesson that while you maybe didn’t learn it in class, you will need to learn in life.
In
order to be fruitful in life, we must learn to prune, to let go of some
things. We are usually pretty willing to
let go of things that are hard (like reading a challenging book, or staying up
late to work on a paper), but the kind of pruning that Jesus is referring to in
this passage goes beyond simply letting go of things that we didn’t want
anyway. He is referring to branches that
don’t bear fruit. Things like: small
ideas, preconceived plans, grievances toward one another. We must let go of things that tie us down to
the ways of the world in order to be freed up for higher things like commitment
to our mission, service to our world, and following after God’s purposes.
The
pruning doesn’t always involve simply lopping off the unfruitful things in our
lives. It also involves pruning that which
is good, in order to grow that which is great.
Just after college, I read an article that brought the truth of this
idea to life. The author was talking about
priorities. He told the story of a wine
company that advertized their product by saying “We cut off some of the good
fruit, so that you can have only the very best.” Their
point was that they were less interested in producing a higher quantity yield than they were in
producing a higher quality yield. As I translated this into my own ordering of
priorities, if I wanted to produce the very best in my life, I would need to
cut off some things that were simply “good.”
Committing to too many good things prevented me from saying yes to that
which would enable me to do the hard work that would lead to greatness later
on.
Pruning
is painful—it requires discernment to know what to let go of, but pruning is
purposeful. It reminds us that what may
seem like a sacrifice in the short-term, will yield long term benefits.
Learning
how to prioritize by pruning is not the only word that John 15 has for us this
morning. The trajectory of this text is
not about the letting go process, but actually about the remaining connected
process. Jesus’ words identify that in
order to bear any fruit, a branch must remain connected to the vine. The flower bouquet that you may give to your
loved one as you celebrate today is beautiful, but the flower will not continue
to grow. In order for that beauty to continue
to grow, the flowers must stay planted.
Graduate,
you are beautiful today with your diploma and your cap and gown and the glow of
accomplishment. But, unless you remain
connected to the life-giving vine, the beauty will fade, the vibrancy will diminish,
the growth will cease. So, stay
planted. A fruitful life is one that
continues to bloom, season after season, year after year. Remain connected to God, the Life-Giver. Surround yourself with others whose lives show
the fruitfulness that is a result of rootedness. Allow yourself to be nurtured, even as you
nurture others. While pruning is about
letting go, remaining in God is about staying connected.
So
graduate, it is time to prune. Cut off
those things that prevent you from living out the higher purposes to which you’ve
been called. And be willing to give up
some of the good things so that you might be able to harvest the truly great
things. You’ll do this by remaining
connected to the true Life-Giver. You
think that you’re beautiful now? Just
wait. May your life show the evidence of a plentiful harvest that is beautiful
beyond all comparison. And in that
harvest, may you find the fullness of life.
Amen.
