Molly's Multiplication of Trees

5 Easter    B  April 29, 2018

Acts 8:26-40  Psalm 22:24-30

1 John 4:7-21  John 15:1-8

Lectionary Link

  I would like to tell you story about Molly.  Molly was a wonderful little girl who liked to help her mom.  She used to watch her mom do all kinds of things.  She watched her cook in the kitchen and she watched her work in the garden.

  Molly liked to help her mom and do special things for her.  One day she watched her mom plant a small tree in the yard.  It was just a small tree, but it had four branches on it with leaves.

   Molly thought she would like to help mom and surprise her.

   She thought, “Mom loves trees.  What if planted more trees for her?”

Do you know what Molly did?  When mom went to the store, Molly decided to surprise her.  She went out to mom’s tree and she broke off the four branches.  And she planted each of these branches in the ground.  And she was very excited because now mom would have five trees and not just one tree.

  When mom came home from the store, Molly went out to see her and she was excited to tell her about a special surprise.  She said, “Mom, you planted just one tree, but now you have five trees.”

  And mom asked, “How did you do that Molly?”  Molly took her out to the yard and showed her how she had broken four branches from the tree and planted them in the ground.”

  Mom did not want to disappoint Molly, so she said, “You will have to remember to water your new trees.”  And so Molly watered her new trees every day, but they did not grow.  In fact, the leaves on the trees turned dark and they became brittle and soon the wind blew them away.

  Molly was disappointed that her trees would not grow.  She decided to pull one of them out of the ground and she saw that it was just a dead stick.

   Molly asked her Mom, “What happened?  Why didn’t my trees grow?”

   Her mom told her, “The branches can only grow if they stay attached to the trunk of the tree.  The roots of tree suck up water and plant food in the ground and makes a tree blood called sap.  And if you cut the branch off, the branch no longer gets the tree blood called sap and it dries up and dies.”

   Jesus told his friends, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  The branches can live because they stay attached and connected to the vine.  They get the plant blood called sap.

  Jesus used this riddle to teach a lesson.  He said that we needed to remain connected to him.

  How do we do that?  We pray.  We learn.  And we find within ourselves the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is like the sap that flows through a plant.  It keeps branches alive, connected and attached to the vine.

  So too, the Holy Spirit deep inside of us keeps us connected to Christ.  And if we remain connected to Christ, we have the ability to have the fruits of the Spirit.  What are they?  Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, self-control and humility.

  The lesson for us today to remain connected to Christ so that we can grow the fruits of the Spirit.