Jer.33:14-16
PS.25:1-9
I Thess.3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Advent I C RCL
HE 2B/Ser.
10:00

THE LEAVES OF THE TREE

Credit: Pulp.Resource 12/85
Previous: 85

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"Look at the fig tree and all the trees: as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near."(Luke 21:29-31) -from the Gospel.

Trees are used throughout the landscape of the Bible to illustrate spiritual truths, and of course the tree is a traditional Christmas symbol in our homes and churches. Some of our Advent readings center on trees, and this year I plan to offer a series of sermons on trees on these four Sundays before Christmas.

Trees are a lot like human beings. Trees eat and drink and breathe and reproduce. Trees also talk. Listen to trees the next time you walk somewhere and hear leaves in the wind. Someone (Thomas Hardy) once wrote that fir trees sob and moan, while ash trees hiss and beech trees rustle. Trees also have healing powers: a scar will usually heal as long as the tree is alive and growing. And finally, a tree sleeps. In the winter months, trees lose their leaves and evergreens very much slow down their growing processes. In that way, a tree gets its rest.

It is this last characteristic that Jesus is referring to in today's Gospel when He uses the awakening processes of a tree to illustrate the alertness and anticipation necessary to know that the Kingdom of God is near. "Look at the fig tree and all the trees: as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So when you see these catastrophic events taking place, you know that the Kingdom of God is near."

Two thoughts come to mind as we think of the leaves of a tree, thoughts that point us to Advent themes of anticipation and renewal. The first is that as budding leaves announce the awakening of a tree to another season of growth and productivity, so you and I are awakened in this Advent season to spiritual growth and productivity. Secondly, as leaves turn to the sunlight so necessary for conversion of feed from soil and water and air, into food for the tree, so Advent is a time for us to turn our spiritual "leaves" towards the light of Christ in order to grow and flourish in spirit. It is remarkable how leaves will actually turn towards the light, and some leaves will keep twisting and turning themselves all day, to point their surface towards the sun. Humans need to do a bit of twisting and turning in order to find the light in a world that is spiritually darkened.

When leaves appear on the trees, we witness one of nature's breath-taking performances, a phenomenon that points to the existence of an infinite intelligence. Advent, like a budding tree, calls us each year to God's breathtaking action in Christ, an event that points us to the existence of His infinite love. It is a season of spiritual renewal as we turn our "leaves" to the light; our spiritual antennas need to be turned to the light as a TV antenna is adjusted to the right direction to pick up the program's signal.

We really do need the Advent season anyway, at this time of year. Not only is it naturally a dark time of year, but it is spiritually dark December is the month of tarnished dreams, a newspaper reporter once wrote. The year brightly begun in hope finally comes to the last month of the year with many of the dreams dashed to pieces. Businesses have struggled and failed. Marriages have ended, loved ones have been buried, children have rebelled and disappointed their parents, and parents have let down their children. Illness has hit and run, leaving behind it weakness end low spirits. Temptations have taken their toll. The year brightly begun in January comes beaten and weary in December.

Perhaps that is why Advent is needed so much in this final month of the year. The "leaves" of our lives that have fallen during the year can bud again in this season. And the new leaves that follow can turn to the Light of Christ to renew, restore and refresh our lives.

This leads us again to Advent. What we have on this first Sunday of Advent is a bud, a promise, a beginning of something that can enlarge and gradually unfold into the glory of Christmas. For many people, this will happen, but for some it may not. That is, the mild stirrings of anticipation which come into bud at the start of Advent will seem to die out, perhaps because of extraneous pressures of the season - the busyness, the demands, the loneliness. These keep the bud in check and the blossom locked up.

This is not to say that we must grit our teeth and try harder to force the bud to open. But rather, we take a lesson from the leaf bud on the tree, and just let the spiritual forces have their way, and not hold back the Spirit of God which can and wants to work through and into our lives in this budding Holy Season.

I think of the child baptized here last week. She is like a bud which may develop into a leaf or blossom, if we let the spiritual forces have their way and do not hold them back or put obstacles in their way. The job of parents, Godparents and Christian friends is to help the child learn to turn like a leaf towards the sunlight of God's love in the Church or wherever else that love is shown.

It is still a battle, as we all know, for us to open to our fullest potential, to blossom into our fullest glory as the person God wants us to be. But we believe that by Baptism, the balance has changed, and that God is on our side in the battle, and that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God which He has shown us in Christ Jesus. As a spiritual force, that is worth turning towards, and it is worth helping our children to find and turn towards as well. The message of Advent and of Christ Himself is that as buds come forth from wood that seems all but dead, so human life can be renewed and raised and born again, and bloom into glory in the light of God's never failing love.