"Running on empty." That's how you could describe the disciples when the Lord Jesus spoke to them the words of today's Gospel. They had followed Christ for three years. They had witnessed His signs - like the turning of the water into wine and the feeding of the multitudes with a few loaves of bread and a handful of fish. Just days before they were at the cemetery in Bethany as the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead. They had heard His words - words which carried the gift of eternal life, and yet, words that were so hard for some to receive. But the paths that these men had traveled with their Lord had not been easy. Discipleship is a rugged life of adventure when you are following the One who has no place to lay His head. All along the way, Jesus spoke of His going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter especially never seemed to catch on. He was not at all eager to have His Lord and Master wash His feet. And when Peter boldly promised to die for Jesus rather than deny Him, he had to be told that he would that very night deny Jesus three times before the crow of the rooster announced the dawn.

The disciples were in turmoil and confusion. Their hearts were troubled because Jesus had been speaking very cryptically of His going away, His going to the Father, and how they would not be able to follow Him now to the place where He was going. Whatever could Jesus mean? His words of course, pointed to the cross and the sacrifice that He would render there for the sins of the world. But for these worn-out disciples, the future was dark and foreboding. If Jesus is to leave them, what is left but chaos? Disconnected from Christ, their lives are wasted.

It is against this backdrop that Jesus says, "I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser." Only as branches are attached to the vine can they bear fruit. The point of our Lord's analogy is clear. He is the vine and we are the branches. Branches get their life only as they abide - remain in - the vine. The disciples do not have life in themselves; their life comes from Christ the genuine vine.

How are they to stay connected with Jesus? Five times in this brief passage Jesus speaks of "abiding" in Him. To abide in Jesus is to live in Him. Literally, it is to be at home in Him. That is why in the New Testament we so often read of our being "in Christ." Paul uses that phrase some 500 times in his letters. To abide in Christ is to be located in Him. That is where our Baptism puts us for, as the Scriptures tell us, we are baptized "into Christ." That is what happened this morning with Nicholas Martin. Remember what we sang in the hymn: "We praise you, Lord, that now this child is grafted to the vine, is made a member of your house and bears the cross as sign." By the very Word of Jesus Christ joined to water, Nicholas Martin has been cleansed from the stain of sin and made a living member of Jesus Christ. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." It the very word of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes the ordinary water of Baptism a bath of cleansing and regeneration. What the Lord's word did for the disciples, it has done for Nicholas Martin and it has done for us. By His word we have been made clean.

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." Our locatedness is in Jesus. Apart from Him we are dead and rotting branches only fit to be sliced off and thrown into the fire. There is nothing in us that can make us fruitful. Our fruit comes from the life that is in the Vine, life that pulsates in us because we are connected to the vine.

How do we stay connected to the Vine and so bear the fruit of a living faith? Jesus gives the answer: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." The union and communion between the Lord Jesus and His people is through His words. His words abide in us. His words find a home in our ears and in our hearts. His words are the connecting point between the Vine and the branches. The Lord's words glue us to Himself and mesh our lives with His life. His desire for us now becomes what we desire and ask for.

A branch is not autonomous. A branch does not live simply as an individual branch unto itself. It lives in the vine and by the life that comes from the vine. That is exactly the way it is for us Christians. We are not simply a bunch of singular branches each living for himself or for herself. The only life we have is in Christ the Vine.

We have come to the end of another academic year. Most of our undergraduates have already left for the summer. There are graduations to attend and good-byes to be said. Commencement addresses provide graduates with all kinds of advice for successful and fruitful living. Jesus gives us more than advice or principles for a successful life. He gives us Life itself. He gives us His own life, eternal life, life with God. That is the life that God wants us to have. Life that comes not from ourselves, but from the One who is the source and author of Life. That life is found only in the Vine, Jesus Christ.

It is the life that He won for you on the cross. It is the life that He established for you by dying in your place, by pouring out His very blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Everything that Jesus did for you on the cross, He now gives to you in His words and with His body and blood. You stay connected with Him as in faith you draw your existence from these holy gifts. Rooted and grounded in Him you will bear fruit, fruit that is cultivated by Christ Himself, and that fruit will remain and bring glory to the Father for all eternity.

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.