God's Gift of Growth

Jesu Juva

Ezekiel 17:22-24                                                                           

June 13, 2021

Proper 6B            

 Dear saints of our Savior~

          When is the best time to plant a tree?  Do you know?  Some say fall.  Others say spring or summer.  But I’ve got a friend in the landscaping business.  You might know him.  And he likes to say that the very best time to plant a tree is forty years ago.  But don’t despair, because the next best time to plant a tree is right now.

          Tree planting takes patience and persistence because trees grow very slowly.  Anybody can drop a few seeds in the ground and grow radishes or peas.  Within about seven days those seeds are bursting up through the soil like nobody’s business.  Germination, pollination, and within about ten weeks, you’re slicing and dicing radishes, right from the garden.  Growing snap peas is a snap!  But trees—trees grow slowly, almost imperceptibly.  It takes a good decade just to get a sliver of shade.  That’s why planting a tree takes patience and persistence and perseverance.  In fact, planting a tree is an act of faith and hope.

          Faith and hope were in short supply by the time Ezekiel let loose the prophecy we heard in today’s OT reading.  Since the days of King David, a descendant of David had ruled on the throne in Jerusalem.  In fact, the Lord had promised that the line of Davidic kings would have no end.  One of David’s descendants would rule forever and ever.  But by the time of today’s reading from Ezekiel, the Babylonian chain saw was about to lay waste Jerusalem, level the temple, and cut down King Zedekiah.  King Zedekiah was the end—the last of the Davidic line.  Only a smoldering stump would remain.

          But just as faith and hope were dissipating like smoke in the wind, God’s prophet preached and proclaimed the planting of a tree.  With nothing visible except death and destruction, Ezekiel cast a magnificent vision of things green and growing: Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of

the cedar and will set it out.  I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.  On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar.  And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.”

          Beloved in the Lord, this was much more than just a tale about a tree on a mountain in Israel.  It signaled that God’s promise of a Messiah from the line of David wouldn’t die when Zedekiah died.  God’s promise of deliverance and life for His people would never expire, despite destruction, captivity, and exile.  God was at work!  God was at work over the long-haul for the life of His people.  God was planting something new.  God’s power and God’s purposes would only unfold slowly and gradually—and almost imperceptibly—like the slow growth of a cedar tree—through silent centuries and years of tears.  Until a new and final King from the house and lineage of David was born of a virgin in the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.

          Today Jesus Christ rules and reigns from the Father’s right hand forevermore.  A descendant of David who shares in our humanity—He is king of kings and Lord of Lords.  And of His kingdom there shall be no end.

          But the Lord still operates in this world with all the “speed” of a Sycamore tree.  His power unfolds slowly—so slowly you can barely see it.  His purposes come to fruition only gradually.  He is patient and persistent; and we are not.  Do you want to see God’s power made manifest?  Would you like to see His plans and purposes unfold before your very eyes?  Well, you might have more success watching the Maple tree grow in my front yard.  Because God’s plans and purposes, generally speaking, don’t register on the Richter scale or streak across the sky.

          In fact, right now God’s power and purposes in this world sometimes seem downright imperceptible.  Right now the power and purposes of God’s enemies seem to prevail.  Right now it seems like the Babylonians are at the gate.  Only these Babylonians come sowing and planting a different kind of destruction.  They sow hatred between the races.  They sow hatred for God’s gift of life in the womb.  They sow the destruction of marriage and the division of families.  They despise God’s Law and they do not believe His promises.  And on all fronts, so it seems, their agenda is advancing.  Their plans and purposes are writ large for all to see.  That’s why it’s so easy today for Christians to despair.  It is easy to be fearful and discouraged.  It is easy to lose hope and faith, and give up in this darkening world.

          But today’s tree metaphor is much more than a pretty illustration.  Today’s tree metaphor is designed to train you in the way of faith.  Jesus never planted a tree that we know of.  But He did tell a parable about a mustard seed—a seed which starts out among the smallest of all the seeds—so small that it’s nearly impossible to hold just one of them between your thumb and forefinger.  But that microscopic seed, it grows up to become the greatest of all the plants in the garden—topping the tomatoes and dwarfing the zucchini.  Jesus tells us that His kingdom is like that mustard seed.  His reign and His rule in this world may not look like much . . . but you just wait!  You just wait for God to give the growth!  Don’t go by what you see with your eyes. Walk by faith, not by sight.  Don’t object to Jesus!  Don’t give up on His promises!  Don’t despair over the Babylonians at the gate.  Don’t be afraid!  Live in hope.  Trust Jesus.  Be of good courage. 

          Or, just maybe, plant a tree.  Plant a tree and let its slow yet steady growth remind you that God is at work in your life—and in His church—for all eternity.  Someone once asked Martin Luther what he would do today if he knew that tomorrow was the last day—Judgment Day.  Luther said if the world ended tomorrow, then today he would plant a tree.  I hope that answer is beginning to make sense for you today.

          Our ultimate confidence—our sure and certain hope—comes not from any tree that you or I might choose to plant.  Ezekiel foretold of a magnificent tree that the Lord God would plant on a lofty mountain in Israel—a tree with branches spread out wide—a tree producing fruit—a tree providing safety and security for nesting and resting and shade.  What Ezekiel could only look ahead to with imprecise vision, we can look back and see clearly:  God planted Jesus and His cross on the top of Mount Calvary.  At just the right time, for all of our sin and faithlessness, Jesus stretched out His arms and hands on Good Friday like mighty branches of a great and glorious tree. 

          And beneath the Savior’s outstretched arms we find forgiveness for our sins, and life that lasts forever.  Beneath the tree of the cross, we find a shady place of rest from all the assaults of the devil, and the world, and our own sinful nature.  By that tree and by the corpse it carried, we know—we know just how much you are loved.  We know just how precious you are.  We know that nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We know:  God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting our trespasses against us.

          The tree of the cross is long gone, of course.  The actual wood on which the Savior shed His blood for us has been lost except perhaps for a few relics.  We can’t go to the cross; but we don’t have to.  For Jesus Christ brings the blessings of His cross right here.  Through time and space, by the power of His Word and Spirit, Jesus feeds you here and now with the bread that is His body and with the wine that is His blood.  The forgiveness and life Jesus earned at the cross, He gives away and distributes from this altar.  The fruit of the tree of the cross is here.

          And through these gifts, God is giving growth in you—growth in faith, in love, in hope.  Walking by faith, receiving God’s gifts, you yourself become like a tree—planted by streams of baptismal water, always bearing the fruit of good works, always green, always full of sap and life—even into old age.

          Last Sunday after the service one of our youngest members wanted to know why the paraments had changed to green—a great question which I didn’t answer with much eloquence.  But today we know for sure why the paraments are green, don’t we?  Green is for growth.  Green is for life.  Green means God is at work.  And green means go—go forth in good faith, drawing deeply from God’s good gifts.

          In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.