DAY 13

"Morning Mist" by Steve Lacy

Terebinth Trees
 
Jesse Tree Symbol: a Crown and/or Slingshot

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A Greeting
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust;
I am not afraid.
(Psalm 56:4a)

A Reading
God is our refuge and strength,
   a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
   though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
   though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
   God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the Lord;
   see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
   he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
   he burns the shields with fire.
‘Be still, and know that I am God!
   I am exalted among the nations,
   I am exalted in the earth.’
The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.
(Psalm 46)

Pistachia terebeintha flowers by Abrahami

Music

 
Meditative Verse
Like a terebinth I spread out my branches,
and my branches are glorious and graceful.
(Sirach 24:16)
 
A Reflection
The celebrative psalms of thanksgiving and hymns powerfully express experiences of reorientation. The reorientation is always a surprise and a gift. It always comes to us just when we thought it not possible, when we could not see how it could be wrought in the present circumstance. The reorientation is not an achievement coming from us. It is not an automatic "next stage" ordained in our body, but it is something we receive when we did not expect it at all. Life falls into patterns of wholeness where we did not think it could happen precisely and only because God is at work.... Sometimes in a world where the circumstances are hopeless, then a promissory word is all that stands between us and the chaos. Then it is important to pray and speak and sing and share that word against all that data. For such a word stands like a barrier thrown up against a sea (see Jeremiah 5:22). And we do know that in our most precious friendships, sometimes there is only a word between us and misery, between us and death. But that word is not a fantasy. It is, rather, a precious gift on which we will stake everything. Thus as the psalms of complaint are acts of painful relinquishment, so celebrative psalms are acts of radical hope.
- from "Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the LIfe of the Spirit
by Walter Brueggemann

Verse for the Day
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.
(Psalm 72:19-20)

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Jesse Tree image by Eric Westra

In Elah, where the young David famously fought the Philistine Goliath, the valley is filled with Terebinth trees. Elah, is a Hebrew word for 'terebinth'. Despite that there are separate Hebrew words for 'oak' ('alon') and 'terebinth' ('elah') modern translators often mistakenly name them interchangeably (the NRSV, most especially). The Tanakh and other Jewish translations are careful to distinguish them because the oak and the terebinth have distinct characteristics. (The terebinth, for instance, has small red blossoms.) In Judges 6, Gideon receives a visit from an angel under a terebinth and eventually builds an altar there. Because they were tall, both the oak and the terebinth were believed to possess divine power and strength: both trees have the word for God ('el') in them. As a result, both trees were used for idol worship and this is why Jacob buries the idols of Laban in Genesis 35, under a terebinth. Both trees when cut down, regenerate very quickly.

It was most likely from a terebinth tree that David, the youngest son of Jesse, fashioned a slingshot. The conquest begins the narrative of one of the most profound figures in the bible.
A king, a warrior, a lyricist and musician, the author of a substantial part of the book of Psalms, a very human and flawed man who nonetheless became an icon of righteous leadership, David became the inspiration for generations of Israelites. Falling at exactly the halfway point of Advent, the David symbol of the Jesse Tree begins the descent from Jesse himself, toward Jesus. Isaiah's prophecy that a shoot will come out from Jesse, marks the beginning of the House of David. Most importantly, David's kingship and his contribution to the psalms point us all toward God. "Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice." (Psalm 105:3)
 

"Pistacia Terebinthus" by Manuel M. Ramos

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LC† The Trees of Jesse is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto.
Join our Facebook page. Follow us @LuTConnect.

DAY 2

"Almond Plantation" by Uzi Yachin (Israel)

Seed-Bearing Fruit Trees of Every Kind

Jesse Tree Symbol: The Earth 
 
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A Greeting
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
 (Psalm 73:25)

A Reading
Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: 
plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth
that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so.
The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed
of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit
with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
(Genesis 1:11-13)

Music

Meditative Verse
"Come to me, you who desire me,
and eat your fill of my fruits."
(Sirach 24:19)

A Poem

Lord, purge our eyes to see
Within the seed a tree,
Within the glowing egg a bird,
Within the shroud a butterfly,
Till, taught by such we see
Beyond all creatures, Thee
And hearken to Thy tender word
And hear its "Fear not: it is I" 

- from "Judge not according to the appearance"  

by Christina Rossetti

Verses for the Day
Wisdom praises herself, 
and tells of her glory in the midst of her people:
Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me,
and for all the ages I shall not cease to be.
(Sirach 24:1, 9)

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Jesse Tree image by Eric Westra

The second Jesse symbol is most often the planet earth, and marks the beginning of the story of the ancestors. The first ancestor is God himself, who created the heavens and the earth. The opening of John's Gospel reminds us that Jesus was also there as the Word. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God."
 
On the third day of creation, after the formation of the heavens, the waters and the dry land, but before any form of creature -- God creates the seed-giving plants and the fruit-bearing trees. The vegetation is abundant, signaled by the first instance in Scripture of repetition as a form of emphasis. Over the next weeks, some of the fruit trees will be explored on their own, but the image of "fruit trees" appears frequently in the biblical story, often associated with God's continued provision of abundance which never ends. It is also offered as a sign of consolation in times of restoration as when God promises in Ezekiel 36 that there will be fruits of the tree after the famine of the nations, or when in Joel 2, He reassures the soil and the animals and the children of Zion that life will be renewed for them. It is out of the promise of abundance that the obligation to tithe fruits is born: Leviticus sets the stipulation and Nehemiah offers a reminder. Fruit trees in the New Testament are mostly symbolic, acting as a metaphor for righteousness and the lack thereof (see Matthew 7). The exception is Revelation, where fruit trees form an essential part of the vision of new creation. 

"Fog near Beit Jann-3" (Olive Trees) by Uzi Yachin

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LC† The Trees of Jesse is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto.
Join our Facebook page. Follow us @LuTConnect.