The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I make to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David: and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.' Jeremiah 33:14-16
Several years ago, in the dead of winter, I arrived at the church early for a meeting and had forgotten my church keys. Dina keeps telling me I need to get a set of keys made and keep in each car ... after six years, I still haven't gotten around to it. There had been a snow that week, and it still covered the ground. Not wanting to sit in my car, I walked up to the entrance of the cemetery ... where the snow was still untouched. All was quiet, so quiet; you can hear the icicles creak, glassy pins dropping to the snow-white comforter below. The billowy quilt spread out across the ground, around every trunk, flung carelessly ever gray tombstones as if to warm every grave. Only one color imposes itself against the backdrop of that white and fray hued canvas. Small evergreen trees (fir?) dotted green across the white quilted ground like comforter knots, reminders that their roots were still very much alive, gently tossing and turning beneath her frozen covers.
Should it be any wonder that imaginative human beings for thousands of years have seen something profoundly meaningful in trees that can stay green in the dead of winter and be chopped down and grow new shoots?
Jeremiah uses the lesson of a tree branch to teach and early Advent lesson. He tells of a future time when the stump of Judah, cut down and carted into Exile, would sprout again as a "righteous branch." The New Testament writers saw this promised branch to be none other than Jesus Christ, Tree of Life, cut down, buried in a wintery grave, rising in resurrection life three days later.
When we enter the bleak mid-winters of our lives, we should look to the Tannenbaum, the evergreen tree, gracing the snow-covered gravestone and know htat resurrection life is near and at hand. In this season of Advent, at the height of the winter solstice, even as the days are shorter and the nights are colder, may we behold in every evergreen tree, a Christmas tree, our advent sign of hope.
Advent blessings ~ Pastor Todd
