A day late, an apple short

Acts 8:26-40 + John 15:1-8

     Somewhere between 5 am when I first stirred and 5:10 when I actually started to roll out of bed I had a short dream. In my dream a movie was showing and the scene was an intense close up of a contorted face (which actually looked a bit scary). I was viewing this along with a director friend who in the dream looked a lot like Dick Van Dyke. Dick's response to watching this film unfold was a panicked critique, a motion to an imaginary cameraman to pan out! not so much of a close up! It looked terrifying in a way. What a way to wake up with this fresh on my mind.

     And as I sit with coffee brewing I am thinking about this. I wish I'd had this dream yesterday instead of today, perhaps my writing yesterday might not be what I recall as more of a diatribe that a reflection on being a holier, better person. But what a dream, eh?

     I was thinking of yesterdays readings now and about that vine and branches. The vine, that main trunk is what caught my attention. It can be viewed by us as so many things. Us as individuals, as a people, as a religion and someday no doubt as humans in a universe with other creations beckoning us. So the question is, do we accept ourselves as a branch or do see ourselves as the main vine?  None of us are the main vine, only God is that main vine. We are the branches however you view it personally or otherwise. When we do put ourselves as the main vine, it gives a very contorted , ugly and unrealistic view of things like in my dream. We are branches that require pruning and loving if we are to produce a bountiful and beautiful yield.

        A Roman Priest I know had occasion to give a homily that I recall to this day. It really was a bit snooty and arrogant when I think about it. The congregation applauded. In due course he went through a litany of religions and when they had been created. Methodism, 1868; Latter Day Saints, 1830; Lutheranism, 1517 and so on until he came to the trunk as Roman Catholicism: 33 AD.  Isn't that rude?  Is that the beginning of God's revelations to man? What of Islam, Judaism and quite a few other religions wherein God attempts to reveal to us Her mighty love for us. It really is the arrogance of thinking ' I am the vine'.  It is isolationist, elitist and really, to my mind, heretical.

         The other reading today is about an Ethiopian eunuch who is baptized as a Christian.  I am accustomed to stories of Jesus welcoming and embracing the outcasts of society for his time, women, tax collectors, prostitutes, gay Centurion. Now we have a a black eunuch. Wow! What a revelation! How cool!  To all those that think male and female is it, that that construct is the 'vine' of creation, perhaps guess again. Look around, God has created a multitude of examples in creation to show us otherwise. What more do we want?  We should love and appreciate it all, we are all branches, all worthy of blossoming and producing fruit. How beautiful.

          Not only are we called to know that we are not the main vine, we are a branch among many branches. Can we see, appreciate and love that we are all branches hopefully producing a fruit that God created especially in us as individuals?  What a magnificent garden God created indeed. I hope we do not think we are 'the Apple' lest we repeat our sin.