The Need to be Productive
What is the best thing anyone has ever done for you?
How did it make you feel? Were you surprised, embarrassed, or did you feel like someone special?
So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. - Romans 11:20-21
In today's reading, we are reminded that the place God makes for us in his kingdom may have nothing to do with what we have done, but our reaction to His grace may keep us from enjoying the benefits of that grace.
The message then may be, don't mess up.
It is easy to say, but how do we know we are doing the right things? How do we know we aren't messing up?
The analogy used in this letter is of the vine keeper who prunes and grafts the branches of the vine to produce the best harvest.
It is not the kind of job in which we may have experience, so the power of the message is lost on us. We do not view God as one who selects some of us and cuts us off so others may be added.
It is not like giving up our seat for someone on the subway. It is more like being kicked off the train while it is moving so someone may enter at the next stop.
Or it is like being fired so someone more productive can take our place.
That is a situation we may understand better than being a branch on a vine. But it sounds cruel. It doesn't sound like the Father we have come to know through Jesus, does it?
It is the root that supports the branches. It nourishes them and keeps them alive, not the vine keeper. It we are using up resources, taking in our share of the nourishment from the vine, or receiving our pay from the company, in our more modern example, shouldn't we have to produce something worth that price?
I think we have forgotten that there is a reason we are here and that reason is greater than us alone. We are not employed to be comfortable. We are employed to be productive.
So it is with the body of Christ. We are grafted on the vine to produce a plentiful harvest that will enrich and nourish the lives of others.
The most successful programs that educate and assist people in need are the ones that require the participants to accomplish something, to be productive in exchange for their place on the vine.
We can be proud that we have been accepted into the program, but that is only the beginning. Once we are there, we need to show that we are capable of fulfilling the expectations we should have of ourselves.
What we learn from the example of the vine keeper is that no one is denied access to the root. we don't have to prove we will be productive before we are grafted onto the vine. But we do have to be of value once we are there.
So it is with God's grace. We don't have to do anything to deserve it. But we will be judged based on what we do with it when we accept it.
That's something to think about. Am I proudly sitting on the vine and failing to produce a harvest?
More to come...
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