Who does the Lord prune?

While explaining yet again the Gospel for Easter 5B and the work of the Father in pruning the vine, I came to realize that the focus is almost universally on the individual Christian and God's work to prune away distractions from the faith, evil thoughts and desires, and creature comforts.  It occurred to me that this must also apply to the Church.  For if God loves the Christian enough to prune and care for them, then surely the Lord loves the Church enough to do the same thing.

We do not tend to think in those terms but perhaps the end result of a year of pandemic, liberalism masquerading as Christianity, and sexual whim that now defines desire and gender is that pruning.  If the Church is smaller -- at least we know the number of those gathered around the Word and Table of the Lord weekly has dwindled -- is the Lord working through these things to help His Church produce more fruit?

Most of us would prefer to think of the glory of every sermon reaching thousands and of churches in which pews are packed and altar rails are full but that has not been the norm of history.  Things have always moved up and down for a variety of reasons but surely some of them involve times of temptation, apostasy, and the Lord's pruning work.

I would not presume to explain away the troubles we have endured and chalk it all up to the Lord's work but the Lord works all things for good for those who love Him.  He can use a pandemic and a host of other things to make the Church both more faithful and more fruitful.  And if that is the outcome, then thanks be to God!  

Churches have struggled for a host of reasons but not in the least because the faithful have not been, well, as faithful in living out what they say they believe, passing the obedience of faith to their children, and showing forth both the desire for and the pursuit of holy things.  Yes, the Church has always labored with clergy who are sinful and unclean just as the people in the pews but in this social media age doubts are cast forth more than confidence and the preachers tempted even more by what they think than what God says.  There is enough blame to go around.  But if the Lord is working behind what is happening to prune away what is dead or what is foliage for looks instead of fruit, we ought to be thankful.  The Lord's act of pruning is driven by love for us and for the fruit created by the Spirit's work in us and in His Church.  So if this is a time of pruning and sifting, may the Lord work even harder that we might believe more deeply and pursue what is holy with even more urgency.  And, I pray, that in the end we will be more faithful and more fruitful -- in our individual lives as Christian people and in the Church as a whole.