This Week

This week at praxis...You are da vine and I am da branches

Jesus said:  I am the true vine, and 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.  
You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.  
Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit 
by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  
I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in 
them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.  
Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; 
such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, 
and it will be done for you.   My Father is glorified by this, 
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.  	
-John 15:1-8


Although there are many kinds of vines, 
the usual reference in sacred art and symbolism is to the grapevine.  
This was preeminently an incarnation of Dionysus, or Bacchus, 
in his role of sacrificial savior.  His immolation was likened 
to the pruning of the vine, necessary to its seasonal rebirth.  
A Syrian form of Dionysus was the "beautiful youth", Ampelus, 
who was sacrificed to sacred bulls and then "turned into a vine" 
(reborn in the grape harvest).

In Syria and Babylon the vine was a sacred tree of life.  
Old Testament writers adopted it as an emblem of the chosen people, 
and New Testament writers made it an emblem of Christ.  
When accompanied by wheat sheaves in sacred art, 
the vine signified the blood (wine) and body (bread) of the 
savior: an iconography that began in paganism and was soon adopted
by early Christianity.
-The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, 
Barbara Walker
 
Jesus proclaimed himself the true vine and warned that mankind, 
the separate branches, could not bear fruit unless they remained in him.  
Unless the individual did so, he or she was withered, cut off and 
cast into the fire...the Gospel writers made the vine a symbol of the 
Kingdom of God and its 'fruit' the Eucharist...

Cultivation of the vine was traditionally held to have been 
comparatively late in Ancient Greece by comparison with corn cultivation.  
Thus it was not the domain of some ancient goddess such as Demeter, 
but belonged to Dionysos, who worship acquired growing importance, 
associated as it was with the knowledge of the mysteries of life after death.  
It was because Dionysos was linked to the mysteries of death, 
which are also those of rebirth and of knowledge, that the vine also 
became a funerary symbol, a part which it continued to play in Christian symbolism.

Just as the vine was the plant kingdom's expression of immortality, 
so in ancient tradition alcohol remained a symbol of eternal youth 
and of immortality.  Both the French eau de vie and the Gaelic and 
Irish uisgebeatha (whiskey) mean 'water of life', 
while the Persian maie-i-shebab means 'beverage of youth' and the Sumerian geshtin, 
'tree of life', and so on.
-The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, 
Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant

It is crucial that we be rooted
in someone, if not somewhere.
Pilgrim people on the move
root in relationships.
I am the vine, said Jesus,
extending himself through time and space
to graft us as branch.
To claim that continuity
we must submit to pruning,
sinking ourselves unconditionally
into the will of him in whom
we live and move and are.
-Miriam Therese Winter

 

Questions:


	How does the vine imagery of Jesus make fit with your understanding of 
	Jesus and your faith? What parts of the image resonate with you, and 
	which parts don't? Is this a comforting image or a scary one?
	Do you think that the early Christians borrowed some parts of 
	the vine imagery from myths and legends?  
	If so, which parts? Does this make the symbol more powerful, or less?  Why?
	What does the wine part of the symbol mean for you?
	What does bearing fruit mean to you? How does Jesus help you bear fruit?
 
	How have you known pruning?