Da Vine Life...

Da Monkey Boy is, (as you might by now have guessed), a subscriber to a certain code of honor, behavior, and belief. As such, he will --from time to time-- ricochet off the walls of the suburban biosphere in minor diatribes of psuedo-philosophic drivel. Like this...

Anyone who's awake, aware, and alert will have noticed the fact that alot has been written in recent years about "Vine Life"...connectedness to Christ as the Author and Sustainer of all life, particularly the life of the soul.

Da Monkey Boy knows vines! And, since "vine life" is the raison d'etre* of Da Monkey Boy's nom de plume**, allow me to "hold forth" on the subject for a moment or two.

Two extremes seem to have emerged from the literary meanderings of the authors of the various books and articles on "vine life":

1) The first suggests that since the Vine (i.e. Christ) is the initiator of life, nothing else much matters. You did not decide to blossom from the Vine; you cannot decide to drop from the Vine. Christ, the Vine, holds you in a grip so deliberate and so powerful that even you --endowed as you are with free will-- cannot choose to break from Him.

2) The other view (just as extreme and injurious) holds that we --the individual branches-- hold all the power of determination over our destiny. The sovereignty of God is dispatched with a few, terse words on the (alleged) supremacy of individual free will and we are left with the distinct (but hauntingly alarming) impression that "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul".

View One leaves us believing that we are so secure we may live as we will. Temporal consequences may ensue, but no eternal repercussions need be feared. Far too many subscribe to this view as is evidenced by the swelling numbers of those who use the "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" pig-headedness as their moral compass.

View Two promises great freedom but delivers intense angst; for how, if all depends upon us can we ever be certain of our supply of the necessary resolution and fortitude to carry us through to a happy ending? After all, we can't even keep our New Year's resolutions past 1 o'clock AM of January 1!

To these extremes there answers a third way...a central way. St. Augustine is credited with giving us 'The Little Rule': "We must work as if all depends upon us; we must pray as if all depends upon God." That is very nearly what I want to say. Yet, allow me to attempt to One-Up Augstine.

I am secure. The branches come forth as a result of the natural work of the Vine. The branches are sustained by the flow of life from the Vine into them. The branches are secure.

BUT... These branches have moral power...they have been endowed with an ability to largely choose the outcome and result their gift from the Vine.

Should the branch become infected and threaten the life of the other branches or the pre-emergent branches, the Vine-dresser is free to prune or sever that branch...dependent upon whether that branch responds to the initial minor treatment or proves to be so obdurate as to require the ultimate work...removal from the Vine by the Vine-dresser.

Here is where Da Monkey Boy lands. I am secure from all external threats. But I am not secure against the work of the Vine-Dresser.

And, as Abraham once said, "shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25) And, of course, He will..."for we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ...So then every one of us shall give accounts of himself to God. " (Romans 14:10b, 12)

DMB

*reason for being
**pen name or pseudonym