Zeph.3:14-20
Cant.9(Is.12:2-6
Phil.4:4-7
Luke 1:39-55

Advent 3 C RCI.
HE 2B/Ser 10:00

THE PURPOSE OF THE TREE

Credit: Pulp. Resource 12/15/85
Previous: 85

*********

Today we continue the series on trees - trees are mentioned in several ways in the Bible readings of the season. Two weeks ago we spoke of the leave of the tree. Budding leaves announce that a tree is about to wake up for the spring. "Wake up" is one theme of Advent: wake up, for Jesus is coming. Leaves turn towards the sun, and it is our task to turn our lives towards the spiritual sunlight of God's love in Christ. Then last week we spoke of the fruit of the tree, and noted how much of the Bible has to do with bearing fruit: the fruits of righteousness, the fruits of the Spirit, as a result and outgrowth of our commitment to Jesus as the Lord of our lives. And that brings us to the third in our series, the purpose of the tree - what the tree is for.

Have you stopped to think how truly wonderful a tree is? Or are you one of those unfortunate ones who just take trees for granted?

If we were to lose every tree, the consequences would be worse than those of any economic depression or war, and life would be far more difficult than ever before - that is, as long as life continued at all.

The first effects of a treeless world would probably take place in our rivers and streams. First they would become muddy as a result of soil erosion, soil normally controlled by the roots of trees that held the soil in place. Then the dirt carried by the rivers would eventually be deposited in the beds of important harbors and in shipping lanes. Take the Hudson River in New York, for example. Without forests upriver in the mountains, the mighty Hudson, with New York City at its mouth, would become so shallow that one of the busiest thoroughfares of shipping and commerce would be damaged beyond repair. As important as it is, New York Harbor would have to be closed to the many large ships that it serves, since it would be impossible to keep the waterway dredged. The same would happen in Boston Harbor, with four rivers flowing into it.

Without trees, electric power would also be affected - electric power which is so vital to homes, hospitals and industries. New branches of rivers would form along those eroded river banks; so the speed of the main rivers would be cut down,and electric generators would no longer turn.

In the springtime, no trees would mean floods and in the summertime, most rivers would dry up because of the intense heat.

Drinking water would also be affected. Watershed areas would no longer have a protective covering from the sun, and the spongy floor of the forest, which helps to store water, would dry up. Eventually, wind would blow away large amounts of dried-up soil, and terrible floods would complete the damage.

All this would add up to just one climax: the birth of one great desert and the possible extinction of life. You think this is not possible? Look at the Sahara Desert in Africa. There is good evidence that it was comparative fertile and well-populated, till about 4000 years ago.

Trees also purify the air we breathe and are a source of many foods and supplies that fill our everyday needs. From trees come fruits and nuts and syrups and sugar, edible leaves and roots, timber for building homes, wood for furniture, pencils and charcoal, paper for your daily newspaper, rubber for tires and shoes and garden hose, turpentine for painting, and scores of other products we take for granted. And it is old forests long buried, which end up as petroleum, the source of thousands of other products we take for granted. So trees have a purpose.

II. Human beings also have a purpose. That is the implication of what John the Baptist says in this week's Gospel: "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Luke 3:9). That statement was issued to the family tree of Israel, which sprang from the seed of Abraham:. If that tree would not fulfill its purpose - as magnificent a tree as it was it would be cut down, thrown into the fire spiritually speaking, and its ashes would fertilize future generations that would serve God's purpose on earth. Produce or perish! Fulfill your intended purpose, or risk getting the axe, John the Baptist preaches.

III. Advent, which points to the start of a new year in the Christian calendar, is a time to look purposefully at one's life. What is your purpose? Can you locate it? In the endless round of daily living, what is the purpose of that daily living? We get up out of bed, dress and eat and go to work or study, loaf, shop, watch television, gossip, read the paper, go to bed ... Where is the purpose? Pleasure, pain, sorrow, loneliness, emptiness, futility, and finally death - for what? Advent is a good time to reflect on this.

It is well-known that there is no time of the year when emptiness and lack of purpose are more felt than the Christmas holiday season. People get the blahs, and try to drown them in drink or choke them on food, or drive them away in parties. A much surer formula is to be found in going deep into the meaning of the Season, to discover what Christmas is all about, and how it affects life and revitalizes it.

The famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung quoted one of his patients as saying, "If only I knew that my life had some meaning and purpose, then there would be no silly story about my nerves." Jung then commented, "The central neurosis of our time is emptiness, lack of purpose." And someone else has written that "the secret of a person's being is not only to live, but also to have something to live for." (Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)

The One whose birth we are about to celebrate and commemorate, knew His purpose. Even as a child of twelve in the Temple, Jesus was aware of His mission. And near the end of His life, before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the Truth (John 13:37) - the Truth about God and man and the relation between them. You and I, who say we want to graft our lives to the Living Vine of Jesus Christ: by that very grafting we assume the purposes of Jesus Christ - to bear witness to the truth about God, about humanity, and about the relation between them. Or as St. Paul told the Christians in Ephesus, "In Him, according to the purpose of God, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory" (Eph.1: 11,12).

Advent is a change of pace, and a chance to reflect on these things, just as the weekly day of rest, Sunday, is a chance to reflect on these things. It is possible to become so taken up in the daily routines that we forget what their purpose is - to become so close to our lives that we lose perspective. Advent, and every Sunday, are for us to get off a little from our lives and restore the perspective so that we can again see the purpose for which we are here.

This picture has been nicely summed up in a little poem I have had close by me for years:

If you hold your nose to the grindstone rough,
And you hold it down there long enough,
You'll soon forget there's any such thing
As brooks that babble and birds that sing.
These three will all, your world compose:
Yourself, the stone, and your old nose.
("Simeon Stylites" (Harold Luccock?) in Christian Century, 2/12/1958)

The birth of Christ into the world has been interpreted as God revealing a purpose and reason for the world - a means by which love and good will break forth and perspective is restored. Advent then becomes a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to see a human life that can direct us in our own pilgrimage from birth into life. The journey only starts at Advent. That's what Advent means - a start and a beginning. The pilgrimage continues as an ever-growing experience in Christ, leading to new discoveries, new resources, new truths, an new victories.