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Location: Quincy, Massachusetts, United States

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Pruning...

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 15:1-6
Psalm 122: 1-5
John 15:1-8


My father-in-law has as wonderful garden in his backyard. This year he has planted some fruit trees as well. While visiting this past Sunday he was telling me about how the fruit trees have to be pruned. Specifically, he explained that one must always and without exception prune the branches that grow straight up or vertically. He said that if these branches were not pruned they would not bear fruit. My thoughts immediately turned to the image of God the Father pruning branches (disciples) on the vine (Jesus) in order that they "bear much fruit".

Today's first reading is from Acts. I read how Paul and Barnabbas got into a serious disagreement with some Christians who were visiting from Judea over the need for circumcision. The Judean Christians were telling the Antiochian gentile Christians, "Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved."

It is interesting to note that the act of circumcision is not unlike the act of pruning. In both cases, you are removing a piece of biological matter from a living being. This got me thinking about how circumcision was viewed by Jews in the first century. It is clear from scripture that some Judean believers firmly thought that it was necessary for salvation to be physically circumcised. They might have argued that before Christ came, it was necessary to be circumcised to be a member of God's covenant people, why not after? Was not Jesus a Jew, circumcised in accordance with the law? Did he not tell us explicitly that not on jot or tittle of the law would pass away? Did he not keep the whole of the Law perfectly? Is a disciple greater than his teacher? When did Jesus every verbally condemn the practice? The gospel accounts are silent. We neither see Him coming out in favor of or against the practice. If you were a first century Jewish Christian, what would you think? I would probably argue against Paul, too.

So, where did Paul get the idea that Gentiles did not need to be circumcised in order to be saved? Simple, he knew the Old Testament better than the Judeans. It is clear from several Old Testament texts that the physical act of circumcision was meant to signify something much deeper than simply membership in the chosen people – it was meant to signify a choice to “befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” Deut 10:19. How do I know this? Because just three verses before this the Moses tells the Hebrews, “Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked.” It is a wonderful testament to Paul’s wisdom that he could see the connection between “befriending aliens” (gentiles) and circumcision of the heart, not the flesh. There is also a verse in Jeremiah that speaks to this:

“If you wish to return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things out of my sight, and do not stray, then you can swear, "As the LORD lives," in truth, in judgment, and in justice; then shall the nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him. For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the LORD: Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns. For the sake of the LORD, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; Lest my anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds.”

There is a clear connection here between men of Judah circumcising their hearts and a time when “nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him.” The gentiles who were disciples in Antioch certainly used God’s name in blessing and gloried in him. This is because Jesus has grafted them onto Himself, the true vine.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus explains how the Father prunes every branch on the vine so that it bears more fruit. It is easy to see that this pruning process is akin to the circumcision of the heart. Through the process of pruning, the Father strips us of all that does not sanctify us. We are then able to produce a bountiful harvest of good works, as we love “the alien”. It is by this spiritual circumcision of the heart that believers are grafted into the community of believers, Christ’s body, the Church. As St. Paul would so succinctly say years later in his epistle to the Romans, “One is not a Jew outwardly. True circumcision is not outward, in the flesh. Rather, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter; his praise is not from human beings but from God.”

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