Good though it is, however, that is not what this text Abide in me is all about. It is about being fruitful in living the life of a disciple of Jesus. To abide in him is stay in communion with the Lord of life. Such a faithful trust and continuity of commitment is the very opposite of alienation. Jesus was addressing something very basic in who we are and how we live.
Alienation is the bane of the post-modern world.
Yet belonging and identity are so keenly sought. People who were separated from their origins, who had lost their roots and were seeking new identities were highly vulnerable to exploitation. Today the situation is more complex and difficult, in ways which need to be explored to overcome alienation from the church and from the source of life. The church is sometimes called the new Israel, and it is worth noting that when Jesus spoke of himself as the true vine people would still remember that the nation of Israel had previously been likened to a vine. Restoration of the abandoned unfruitful old vineyard was the work of God in the coming of the Messiah.