Christmas Stumps

A couple of weeks ago someone on their way into church said to me, "I really miss your tree."

"So do I"

The tree that once stood tall near our driveway was a great tree.

My kids played in it when they were little.

It provided shade in the summer, was beautiful in the fall.

Now it is just a stump.

The day it came down I watched as they pulled it down.

It came down with a mighty thumb and shook the church.

I wish it could still be there today.

I love trees and I am sad when they have to go.

But like all things nothing is forever.

All things have a impermanence.

The longer you live the more you understand that reality.

Christmas is like that.

It changes over time.

And then it repeats.

You go from being a kid and all the magic and wonder that it entails.

You become a young adult and it loses some of the magic.

And then you have your own kids and you recreate that magic for them.

You grow old and celebrate it through grand kids.

Or you celebrate it quietly with only a couple of people close to you.

Things change.

It is why I am obsessed this time of year with keeping traditions.

Because they give me the illusion of permanence.

Maybe you have your own that do the same thing for you.

What the Prophet Isaiah has been telling the people of Israel is that there state will end.

It will end for the same reason that all earthly empires end.

They become too big, too concerned about keeping power.

King Ahaz no longer believes that God will protect Jerusalem.

So he prepares for war.

This is the beginning of the end for Isaiah.

He already knows what is coming.

He knows that war will bring destruction.

He knows that the tree is about to get cut down.

And that at the end all there will be is a stump.

Amazing thing about nature is that it always finds away.

If you cut down a healthy tree it will want to live.

This week at Bible study someone told me this story.

She cut down a tree in her yard.

A little while longer and it started to sprout a shoot.

She cut that off.

And a little while longer it did it again.

Finally her daughter told her, "Mom that tree wants to live."

We planted a tree in front of the church in honor of our former organists June Iffland.

That first winter a piece of ice feel from the roof and cut it in half.

I thought for sure it was dead.

I thought we should buy and plant a new tree.

Someone on council said, "Pastor let's wait and see."

Sure enough it grew.

This summer it actually had something like a pear on it.

Amazing.

And so Isaiah tells the people of Israel that after the destruction all will not be lost.

There will be a shoot from the stump.

Life will go on, the people will go on.

Isn't that the promise of our faith.

Isn't that the promise of Christmas.

That in the middle of the darkest time of year.

When the sun is not shining.

When things seem bleak and lost.

In that moment God shows up.

In a manger.

In peace.

In love.

In hope.

That is what propels us forward this time of year.

That is the hope.

That out of the stump life will find a way.

That things don't seem like they are going well, but God is going to find a way.

We need that don't we.

No matter who you are, or what your station, I guarantee we are all working on something.

We have all had some sense of loss this year.

Maybe we have lost a loved one.

Maybe we lost a job.

Maybe we lost our sense of ourselves.

Maybe we lost a relationship.

Maybe we lost our sense of security.

Maybe we lost what makes the world make sense to us.

Whatever it is we have experienced loss, because that is what it is to be human.

To live all the time with that sense that things are impermanent.

That things will change.

Trees get cut down.

Lives are altered.

And all that is left is stump.

And then God comes along and tells us wait not all is lost.

There will be a shoot.

Something new is growing.

This message is not just about our individual lives.

Isaiah was not talking about individuals but the whole community.

The whole world.

And the same is true for us.

Not only do we individually need salvation and redemption, but we need it as a people.

Our country needs it, because we have lost our way.

Just the other day it was reported that a teenager died of the flu while in a detention center.

The Flu!

That should bother all of us.

It should bother us as if that was our own child and we didn't get them to the hospital on time.

We should want better for our neighbors.

We should want justice for them too.

And so we hope today for the stump to shoot a new tree that will grow.

That the one who comes to rule will be filled with love for the poor.

Will be filled with knowledge and fear of the Lord.

We hope for the day when things will be put right, and where teenagers don't die unnecessarily.

Because my redemption and salvation is tied to yours, and everybody else who shares this impermanent human life.

It is the season of hope.

We wait for the sun to return.

We hope that out of the stump will come a shoot that will grow and bring restoration for our lives.

We hope for Jesus Christ to come so that we might know justice, peace, and real life.

I miss the tree by our house.

I wish it was more than a stump.

But the stump reminds me of the impermanence of the world, and the hope that comes from God.

I hope this season for a new life that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as the one who is the shoot from the stump. 

 Amen