Question:  Dear Greg,

            I would greatly appreciate your comment on my understanding of John 15:1-3.

Jesus said, “every branch in me that bears no fruit, God the Father takes it and throws it away.  Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes it that it might bear more fruit.”  Did Jesus mean each individual or was he talking about a group of believers or both in the sense of being a part of him?  If we are the branches that bear fruit, then we are of one true vine, which is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, every denomination that bears fruit, God will ensure that the church will grow and bear much fruit.

            We as Catholics believe that we are the one and only church which Christ started.  But if you think about it, most denominations believe that they are doing the right thing and that theirs is the one true church.  How are we to know the truth?  I believe that each church and every denomination that teaches the word of God is the Church of Jesus Christ—which is the one and only church.  The word catholic simply put means universal.  The point I am trying to make is this: God our father will multiply every branch that bears fruit and that means whether we are Catholic, Baptist or whatever denomination as long as we are fruitful.  Are we to question that which God does in his infinite wisdom?

            Thanks,

            Milton

Answer:  Dear Milton,

            I very much agree with the theme and force of your comments.  A few extra thoughts: John 15 is best read with what the old covenant vine—the nation of Israel—was to have been.  We can find many references to this allegory in books like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Psalms.

            This passage talks about a vine and its branches.  No denomination is mentioned.  We make a mistake when we read a “middle-person” like an organized church into John 15—Jesus is talking about how we can be a branch of him.  He is the true church, and we can be, by God’s grace, a branch.  There are branches in many churches.  This does not mean that everyone who goes to a church is a branch because merely attending and sitting in a church does not make one a child of God.  And there are also those who do not, for whatever reason, have a formal membership in a humanly incorporated church who belong to God.

            At the time Jesus spoke, the Jews felt that they were the only true people of God.  He told them a few chapters earlier in another biblical picture of the sheep and the shepherd, that he had “other sheep” (John 10:16) that were not of their particular sheep pen.  Powerful words for all Christians today.  May we not sink into the all too easy sin of condemning other Christians because they do not belong to our particular denomination.

            May God bless you.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht