One of the images Jesus uses for the church is that of the vine and the branches, with God as the vinegrower. This is such a powerful image because it reflects the necessity of we individual Christians being connected to Christ, through whom flow all the elements necessary for life, growth and fruit bearing. "Abide in me," Jesus says. Continue with, remain in, me...as a branch is connected to the vine, grown together from the inside out.

It is also an image of the gathered people of God, with many branches from the one vine, intertwined and supporting one another. I remember seeing vineyards on the hills of Italy. From a distance they looked like neat rows of individual plants. But up close, hundreds of them were connected. You could not separate out one branch without damaging many others. These were the branches that could bear heavy clusters of ripe fruit.