John 15:1-17

Towards a Rainbow Community.

John 15:1-17 poses challenging questions to the contemporary Christian community about its self-identity. What does it means for the church to live as branches of Christ the vine? What would “church” look like if it embraced this model for its corporate life?

1. Individualism Vs Inclusiveness. The image of community that emerges from 15:1-17 is one of interrelationship, mutuality, and indwelling. In a wine, branches are almost completely indistinguishable from one another; it is impossible to determine where one branch stops and another branch starts. All run together as they grow out of the central vine. This vine image questions the individualism and proposes a community where no-free standing individuals. The branches are encircled one another completely (interrelationship). The fruitfulness of each individual branch depends on its relationship to the vine. In Christ we give up individual status to become one of many encircling branches.

The community envisioned in the vine metaphor raises a strong challenge to contemporary models of individual autonomy and parochialism. The act of love means to bear fruit. Live in Christ means have indiscriminate love and corporate fruitfulness. Bearing fruit is also a corporate act.

Here we have to raise the questions of casteism, economic disparity, patriarchy, etc which divides our society. Domination always destroys the nature of the community which talks in this passage.

2. Indiscriminate love challenges the hierarchy. The metaphor of the vine suggests a radically non-hierarchical model for the church. This metaphor challenges the extra privileges of any community or individual in our church and society. Gardener always shapes the branches to enhance the fruitfulness. All branches are same before God. There is neither status nor rank among the branches. Hierarchy among the branches of the vine is challenged here. All branches grow out of the one central vine and are treated equally by the one gardener.

The church is a community where all kind of hierarchy is absent. The very nature of creation is that all are equal in front of God. The creation of hierarchy is against the will of God and it is sin. Men don’t have ‘power’ over women. White do not have upper hand over Black. Upper caste people cannot oppress Dalits by saying that they are inferior.

God’s image talks about a just relationship where the society is not built on power to oppress or subjugate.
This is the community which we have to envision today as a church.

3.A Community with an inbuilt reciprocity. The Johannine metaphor undercuts any celebration of individual gifts. In the true community there is no importance to the personality of particular person, self projection and self expression. When church live as the branches of Christ, individual distinctiveness would give way to the common embodiment of love. The mark of a faithful community is how it loves, not who are its members. There is only gift, to bear fruit, and all other gifts are there to enrich the fruit bearing nature of our life. Reciprocity is an inbuilt nature of a true community.

This has to be discussed in relation with the importance we are giving to particular persons and gifts. Church is a community which grows beyond personal glorification of a particular person or a group. We are supposed live in mutuality with others and this nature. Any ideology or action is against this has to be considered as Satanic. We are called to fight against all these satanic forces.