When I read the words, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches’, I usually start to think about how I myself connect to the vine. Later on, Jesus says, ‘just as the father has loved me, so have I loved you’- and I feel comforted by those words.
English doesn’t differentiate between you singular, and you plural, like so many other languages do, like French, Spanish, Greek. To twelve-year-old Georgie, this seemed like more of a faff, because I had one extra set of endings to learn.
But it tells you so much more: Jesus doesn’t speak in the you singular in John 15:1-17- it’s always the plural.
It was only at the Parish Away Day last Saturday that I realised how much I was thinking about the passage on an individualistic basis- about me, rather than us.
One of my favourite moments from my past ten months that I’ve been here, was the time at Bread for the World was when I knew the name of everyone I served the wine to in the Eucharist. I realised I had found myself in another community.
Thank you for welcoming me, including me, and showing me it’s about us.
Georgie Illingworth
