Fifth Sunday of Easter; 28 April 2024; Easter 5B (RCL); Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8.
The image of the vine is a guiding metaphor in the Old Testament for Israel. Psalm 80, a psalm of complaint in which Israel questions why God has not restored Jerusalem, speaks of Israel as a vine: You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations and planted it. Then after describing God’s care for the vine, the psalmist goes on to complain: Why have you broken down its wall, so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes. And then begs: Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted.
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