In the wilderness a voice splits open the wind,
a hard cry—
REPENT
Even now the axe gleams,
lying at the root of the trees,
cold as truth,
waiting for the weight of a just hand.
Every tree that bears no good fruit
leans already toward its ending,
toward the fire
that hungers for what has hollowed itself.
Yet—
in the very place where trunks lie fallen,
in the silence of stumps long dead,
another word stirs:
A SHOOT SHALL COME OUT OF THE STUMP OF JESSE
No blaze, no blade—
only the small green insistence
of mercy growing out of what we thought was finished.
A branch finds its way through ash,
rooted in depths neither fear nor judgment can reach.
So the two voices meet:
one calling us to turn
before the edge descends,
the other whispering that even when the cutting comes,
life has a way of beginning again.
In the shadow of the axe,
hope still curls upward;
in the promise of the shoot,
truth still asks to be reckoned with.
And we stand between them—
trees failing to bear fruit worthy of light,
yet stumps waiting to feel the tremor
of unexpected grace. (1)
................................................................................
Trees are wonderful things aren’t they.
The tallest tree in the world is "Hyperion" – a Giant Redwood in California at 116m tall – In order to protect it they won’t let you take any actual photos of it – so here is a photo of another slightly smaller giant Redwood.
{show a picture comparing the hight of a giant Redwood with Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, and more normal trees}
The oldest tree in the world is Methusaleh – a Great basin Bristlecone pine at 4853 years old. Again in order to protect it we don’t have any actual pictures of the actual tree
So here are some pictures of the oldest tree in the UK
{show two pictures of Llangernyw Yew}
The oldest tree in the UK - Llangernyw Yew, Conwy, in the churchyard of St. Digain's Church – thought to be around 4000 years old.
Just turn in your small groups and discuss – what is your favourite tree? – a particular tree that is particularly meaningful for you in any way?
{take feedback}
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"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
…..
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
….for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious." (Isaiah 11:1-2,4, and 10)
Our first tree – and it’s a stump. You remember the shock a couple of years ago when the beautiful ancient tree of sycamore Gap was cut down – and how local people felt when all that was left was a stump?
Well – in our reading – hope itself has been cut down and all that is left is a stump. Our reading from Isaiah begins in 722 – the Northern Kingdom – ten of the twelve tribes – have been conquered by Assyria – and Isaiah throughout his writing predicts that because of the sin the Southern Kingdom of Judah is going to follow suit.
Jerusalem will be felled – the long line of kings going back to great David – felled.
Hope seems Gone.
But then Isaiah prophesies hope
Look at this picture of a tree stump
{show a picture of a dad stump with a fresh shoot coming out of it}
The stump was cut down and looked totally barren and dead – but then – after a pause – new shoots begin to emerge from what seemed dead. A whole new tree will eventually emerge.
You know the story how David was the youngest son of a man called Jesse- he himself was the runt of the litter – yet God picked him to slay Golliath and become the great King of Israel. Well now after Israel and Judah have been dragged off into exile – Isiah predicts that although all looks dead and desolate – a new king shall emerge from that line of Jesse, like a tiny shoot emerging from the stump of a felled tree
"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots."
A we sing in the carol
“O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here” - which for them in Isaiah’s time meant the physical exile of being dragged off and deported to Assyria or Babylon
The country has been punished because of corruption – the poor being judged unfairly instead of with righteousness. And people had turned to Baal a God who demanded Temple prostitution and even occasional child sarcrifice – all this instead of "Knowledge of the Lord"
“O come, thou Branch of Jesse's stem,
unto your own and rescue them!”
Hope seems Gone.
Yet Isaiah prophesies hope.
A hope of when things shall be put right; Baal worship shall be replaced by knowledge of the loving God; the poor shall finally see justice; and under a new king people dragged off to exile shall finally return to a land where things have been put right.
Isaiah prophecies hope.
But – like the winter before the dead looking stump produces a shoot – That HOPE is a long time sprouting.
…………......................................................................................................
Which brings us to our Second tree.
“Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matt 3:10) shouts the wild haired John the Baptist
So ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ (Matthew 3:2)
And then his radical assertion -
"This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” ’ (Matthew 3:3)
The collections of Prophecies that made up the book of Isaiah was finished in Babylon over 500 years before. And eventually a few stragglers came back to israel – but it never felt like a true return. Not the sort return that the Book of Isiaiah predicted. But now, John the Baptist says, that the Exile is TRULY about to over.
But for it to end – the things that caused God’s judgement must be over.
Baptism had long existed as a way for gentiles to become part of God’s chosen people – But now John calls on the Judeans to become God’s people afresh – to be filled with knowledge of the Lord – by being baptised.
Like Joshua who one and a half thousand years earlier led the Isralites across the Jordan into the promised land, John stands on the far foreign side of the Jordan, challenging Judeans to go down into the waters of baptism and symbolically enter Israel as if for the first time – enter the promised land.
And soon - a King – like the one predicted by Isaiah shall emerge as if from a long dead stump “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (v11) - to lead them into the promised land.
But first - repent – for “Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
………………………………………………….............................................................................................................
What is the promised land?
What was the Promised land?
The very first promised land – starts with a tree – or rather two trees – in the centre of a garden.The Tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
In beautiful poetic language Genesis 2 describes the creation of the world as like a garden with everything beautiful – and at its centre the Tree of Life.
Unlike Persian or Sumerian creation stories – which saw evil as part of the basis of creation- Marduk creates the world out of the corpse of the evil water dragon Tiamat – so rotting evil is there from the beginning.
But not so in Genesis – In Chapter 1 God breathes over the waters and creates a world where “Behold it is Good” “Behold it is Good” “Behold it is very Good”
The second creation story in Chapter two depicts a beautiful garden where all is at peace with itself. And at its centre the Tree of life.
That’s how it all began
………………………………..............................................................................................
What was the promised land?
What will the promised land be?
“And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2)
The book of Revelation ends with a picture of everything put right again. Just like it had been in Eden.
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants* will worship him; 4they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 22:1-5)
For 500 or more years – the people of Israel had lived without truly a fulfilling of Isaiah’s prophecies – but John’s vision promises them that it will all be put right again -
It shall be as Isaiah 11 says:
" The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:6-10)
…………………………….................................................................................
And yet – we don’t live in that garden. Not yet.
Well I guess many of you know what it is like for Hope to be cut down like a tree being felled. Perhaps that’s not where you are now – but maybe you have come through that in the past? Or if not – well we certainly know people out there (point to the community beyond the church’s walls) who feel overwhelmed, with little to hope for.
Like the Israelites who had been 500 years “in exile drear” and it still did not feel like they had come home – how do we get from the place of despair where all that is good feels like a felled stump – how to we get from that to seeing the first shoot emerge from its side.
The world can feel very broken.
So how do we get from the Brokenesss of world today – and the brokenness of our own lives and the cost of living crisis and job anxieties and relationship anxieties and health anxieties – and new stories about atrocities in Al Fascia or Ukraine – or flood in Jamaica and the Philipnes –
to the place where the lion lies down with the lamb and the leaves of the Trees are for the healing of the nation.
How do we get back to the garden and its tree?
………………………………………………….........................................................................................................
"‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:7-10)"
A tree cut down.
Like the stump that Isaiah talks about. But while Isaiah was talking about the monarchy and the nation, john the Baptist makes that personal. John the baptist calls his hearers to confront their own sin. John the Baptist calls us to confront our own sin.
Isaiah told us: exile comes from sin –
Imagine an Ambulance hurtling down the road, blue light flashing and siren roaring. It’s a bit scary and every car on the road rushes to get out the way.
But then imagine your next door neighbour is having a heart attack – and you have called 999 – and after what seems like an agony – you hear the siren roaring, then you see the Blue Light – then the ambulance appears. For you the ambulance isn’t scary. For you it represents hope.
The bible teaches that God made the world – and it was good – but that our human sinfulness messed it up. If we look in the mirror, we know that all within us is far from perfect. John the baptist’s challenge makes us realise we have a problem.
Which brings us back to:
………….
The Hope of a tree from the stump.
People hearing this in Isaiah’s time would imagine that very quickly after the Exile a new king would emerge to bring them back to the promised land.
But 500 years later – though stragglers had come home – all was still not right. Judea was still ruled by a foreign power and by a corrupt King Herod not of the line of David – and the world was anything but a new Eden.
And they looked for the coming of a Messiah – “one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “ (Matthew 3:10)
At Christmas we await that coming of the Little Child who shall lead them – but we also know that the hope is not yet fully fulfilled – so in Advent we also await the second coming of Jesus at the End of Time – when all shall finally be put right and “the wolf shall lie down with the lamb” (Isiaiah 11:6)
But there is something in between – because we can reach the tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations – Well, John had identified the problem – sin – but despite our best efforts we still fail to surmount it – and we need a solution – which brings us to one last tree:
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a Tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:13-14)
We can’t do it all on our own – but the little child born at Christmas – is the God -Man who will die to bear our sins.
And so – by this Advent - John the Baptist calls us to take stock and turn around. Repent. And that little child offers us the way home.
The theologian Rudolph Bultmann once said, “Within each one of us is a faint recollection of Eden calling us home.” By letting Jesus take the weight of our sin, the weight of our wrong doing, the weight of our mistakes off us – we can have hope of that future to come where "the lion lies down with the lamb" and "the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations"
Not through being Abraham’s children, or by having parents or grandparents who went faithfully to church – or living in a Christian country– but by turning personally to Jesus and accepting this gift of forgiveness from him through his tree of death we can look forward to eternity around the tree of life.
"O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,
unto your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o'er the grave.
O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe for us the heavenward road
and bar the way to death's abode."
………………………………………………………..
In the wilderness a voice splits open the wind,
a hard cry—
REPENT
Even now the axe gleams,
lying at the root of the trees,
cold as truth,
waiting for the weight of a just hand.
Every tree that bears no good fruit
leans already toward its ending,
toward the fire
that hungers for what has hollowed itself.
Yet—
in the very place where trunks lie fallen,
in the silence of stumps long dead,
another word stirs:
A SHOOT SHALL COME OUT OF THE STUMP OF JESSE
No blaze, no blade—
only the small green insistence
of mercy growing out of what we thought was finished.
A branch finds its way through ash,
rooted in depths neither fear nor judgment can reach.
So the two voices meet:
one calling us to turn
before the edge descends,
the other whispering that even when the cutting comes,
life has a way of beginning again.
In the shadow of the axe,
hope still curls upward;
in the promise of the shoot,
truth still asks to be reckoned with.
And we stand between them—
trees failing to bear fruit worthy of light,
yet stumps waiting to feel the tremor
of unexpected grace. (1)
............................................................................................................................................
(1) the poem was prompt egineered via Chat GPT after giving detailed instructions about the bible passages and the theology of this sermon.
......................................................................................................................................
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