In the parable of The Giving Tree, a young boy would gather his favorite tree's leaves on mild autumn afternoons. He fashioned them into a crown for his head and played king of the forest. The tree was fun to climb, and he loved to eat its delicious apples. The boy enjoyed swinging from the tree's branches, and discovered a shady resting place beneath those same branches on hot summer days.
As the boy became a teenager, he visited the tree less frequently. He did stop by once to carve his initials, and those of his girlfriend, on the apple tree's trunk, framing them with a heart. As the boy matured and his interests changed, he found that he needed some spending money. So, he picked the tree's luscious apples and sold them at the farmers' market in town.
As an adult, he cut off many of the tree's branches to provide lumber for his young family's new home. During his middle years, he found himself with leisure time, and cut down the tree's trunk to fashion a sailboat's hull. Where a magnificent tree had once stood, spreading its leafy branches toward the heavens, all that remained was a stump. In his final years, the boy, now an old man, returned to the remaining stump to sit and rest his weary bones and to reminisce of days gone by.1
But, that stump wasn't the end of the memorable old tree. From stumps that have seemed long dead, new shoots can spring to life and become trees once again. God can make the dead come alive. God is making all things new, when an old stump is "reborn" into shoots of tomorrow.
As we stand at the threshold of a new church year on this first Sunday in Advent, we find ourselves waiting once again for the birth of a baby. Our prophets, among them Jeremiah, Malachi, Zephaniah, Micah, and Isaiah, join with shepherds, angels, Wise Men, and our gospel writers to retell the never-ending story of salvation. This is a season of preparation, of watching and waiting as we look to God for signs of hope and new life.
Prophets are people who speak for God. They hear God speak in this world, and then share with the rest of us what they have heard. The world is inhabited by many people who feel that God is far away, paying no attention to the things of our realm. Prophets are sent for folks just like that, for the multitudes who don't hear God speak, who don't see the wonders of God's presence. Prophets use their own eyes and ears for the sake of many others with ears that do not hear and eyes that fail to see.
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks a word of promise and hope to the people of Judah, and to us. Jeremiah has already announced a new covenant to be written on our hearts instead of on stone tablets. The people of Judah are suffering under an oppressive system of exile in a foreign country. They have lost almost everything — families separated, land plundered, homes taken, livelihood destroyed, temple plundered, and king gone.
Then, like the first hints of a spring thaw, Jeremiah's words warm the hearts of his listeners and give them hope that they will return home. King David's lineage is to be restored and the land repaired. Those days are surely coming, promises Jeremiah.
The future is in God's hands, a future that is redemptive, joyous, and just. God promises to "raise up a righteous Branch" who will govern properly and fairly. Redemption is drawing near.
From a budding branch, Jeremiah sees an image of hope — the promise of spiritual renewal, of a just society, and of peace on the horizon. The message of Advent has one recurring theme: Things are going to change!
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah." Maybe you have said similar words to your children:
"The days are surely coming when you will have children of your own and then your hair will turn gray, just like you're doing to me. The day will surely come, just you wait." And we admonish our children: "Stop wishing your life away," as they anxiously await Christmas, or their birthday, or the last day of school.
From the very beginning of scripture, the tree has been a symbol of life. The tree's "branch" became a biblical symbol for newness growing out of hopelessness, and was also a way of speaking about the expected Messiah (Jeremiah 23:5). Our earthly lives are branches that continue to grow and bear fruit. As we bear fruit, the kingdom's branches spread throughout the world.
Advent is the time of year when many trees have lost their leaves. Our deciduous trees can certainly pass for dead at this time of year. Metaphorically speaking, we also "lose our leaves" in the autumn of our lives, and it might be easy to give up hope.
In a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy looks up to see one solitary leaf clinging to a tree branch.
"Stay up there, you fool!" she orders. A gentle breeze lifts the lone leaf from its branch and Lucy watches as it spirals downward toward the ground. "Oh, good grief!" she exclaims. "You wouldn't listen, would you? Now it's the rake and the bonfire. You just can't tell those leaves anything!"
Jeremiah must have felt at times that the people of Judah were like the last remaining leaves on a tree, desperately hanging onto the branch. They were dried up and without sustenance or hope. And, like Lucy, he could not tell them a thing, not about covenants, or faith in God, or even worship. The hope of Judah seemed to be crashing down like a mighty tree. From the Tree of Life, each leaf must, in its own time, fall — all colors, shapes, and sizes, both the great and the insignificant. God then lovingly gathers each leaf and calls it by name.
With God, we know to look past the falling leaves and stark branches of winter. Within each tree, there is dormant new life. Beyond winter, the rebirth of spring awaits. Life within that old stump is ready to spring forth and sprout anew. In death, there is resurrection. People again will have hope for new life from God. Winter has not officially arrived, and already Jeremiah is looking toward spring, when leaves begin to sprout and buds burst into bloom. Jeremiah has told of a day when God will again plant and build (31:28). God will cause a new shoot, a new king, to spring from the cut-off stump of the lineage of Jesse, David's father.
Many of us are familiar with the Advent Calendar, used in counting the days until the Messiah arrives. The Jesse Tree is another option for numbering these days. The Jesse Tree, the family tree of our Messiah, illustrates many of the people and events that God uses over time to bring Jesus into the world. Resplendent in its colorful symbols, the Jesse Tree grows and branches out as the Nativity of our Lord approaches, bringing hope and light into our winter bleakness.2
The children of Israel had always gathered to tell and retell the Jesse Tree stories of how God brought them from slavery in Egypt to the promised land. Generation gaps shrank as they shared their common life through their old, old stories. They would begin with Adam and Eve, the gardeners, and relate the story of Noah, the boat builder, and the rainbow. Abraham and Sarah are travelers who journey to a distant new land to make a home for God's people.
Isaac has a close call, but God always keeps promises and comes through for us. Jacob's own sons trick him, the trickster, as his favorite son, Joseph, becomes a missing person. Moses is a basket case until a burning bush calls him to deliver the slaves from Egypt. The Israelites walk through the Red Sea and God lays down the law at Sinai. Joshua takes over where Moses leaves off, and the wanderers finally settle down.
Little Samuel grows up to anoint kings, and King David proves himself a good shepherd to God's people. God calls prophets to remind the people of who they are and whose they are, but the people have become deaf. Their land is invaded and defeated by other countries, and they are scattered to the four winds. Prophets offer comfort and hope, again reminding God's people that they are God's people.
God has spoken of a time when God will cause a new shoot, a new king, to spring from the cut-off stump of the lineage of Jesse. The new king will rule with compassion, bringing justice to the world. The prophet Jeremiah relates God's message: "Someday I will appoint an honest king from the family of David, a king who will be wise and rule with justice. As long as he is king, Israel will have peace, and Judah will be safe. The name of this king will be 'The Lord gives Justice' " (Jeremiah 23:5-6 CEV).
With the great interest genealogy has generated today, tracing our roots and getting to know our family trees seems more important than ever. Your family tree includes parents, grandparents, and ancestors as far back as you can track. Our biblical family tree stretches back through centuries.
The Israelites are the family tree of Jesus. This "family tree" that God planted and raised was chopped back to a stump. But repeatedly, God restored it to life. The Jesse Tree is our story, too, of how we are at times our own worst enemies. It is the story of how God chooses to bring life once again even to those who take too much pleasure in chopping life down.
This Advent season, as we prepare for the birth of a Savior, we await the event Jeremiah and the people of Judah waited and hoped for. We also prepare our hearts and minds for Christ's "Second Advent." The season of Advent is not just to prepare us for Christmas. It is to prepare us for eternity.
Once Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, addressed an audience of priests, explaining the difference between Christians and Jews. "We all await the Messiah. You believe he has already come, while we don't. I propose that we wait for him together. When he appears, we can ask him if he was here before. And I hope I'll be close enough to whisper, 'For the love of heaven, don't answer.' "3
The Messiah is still branching out into human history today. As a branch of Jesse, Jesus enters our lives through our baptism. We continue to grow in him through word and sacrament.
Once again, hope is blossoming in Bethlehem. The days are surely coming when Christ will return in glory. We wait in eager anticipation of the kingdom of God. Christ has come. Christ will come again.
1. Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1964), pp. 6-56.
2. For suggestions on making a Jesse Tree, see Dennis Bratcher, "The Jesse Tree," The Voice,
http://www.cresourcei.org/jesse.html [Accessed September 1, 2005].
3. Elie Wiesel, All Rivers Run to the Sea (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1996), pp. 354-355.