The Tree of Life

This week, the lectionary invites us on a journey into the Holy City, where we can reflect on the infrastructure and ecology of peace, the peace the gospel text testifies to as Jesus invites his disciples to breathe and believe into the peace he shares with them. Both texts build a bridge together in witness to the peaceful, joyful love of God’s regenerative kin-dom.

As recounted in Revelation 22:1-2, John saw a resplendent tree growing in the heart of the city, along both sides of a sparkling river flowing from the seat of power God shares with the Christ-Lamb. This generous tree produces twelve types of fruit, while the leaves “are for the healing of the nations” (22:2). John’s vision resonates with another ancient prophecy (Ezekiel 40-47) of trees growing along the sides of the river, with fruit ripening each month and “their leaves for healing” (47:12). With Ezekiel, life-giving water flows as a river from the Temple. But in John’s vision, years after the Temple’s destruction, the whole city reveals the divine residence. God has become “all in all” (1 Cor.15:28).

Revelation 22 also resonates with the hopeful future Isaiah prophesied as God’s invitation for “the nations” to come drink clear water flowing freely from the temple mount. (Is. 55:1-5). The welcome signifies that for these prophets, the New Creation signifies not a return to the Eden of Genesis (2:9), but a cosmopolitan hope. As Catherine Keller observes, “John was dreamreading a new multiplicity of nations, finally at peace in their differences…[T]he nations here branch into a healthy planetary life."[1] Yet, John of Patmos observed that the “unclean” (21:27) remained outside the city. Inside, the “glory” of the “nations” and “kings of the earth” became subsumed into the immanent, omnipresent God-light, like a vast solar energy source (22:24).

In reflecting on the apocalyptic text, we will want to consider John’s prophetic imagination seriously, but not literally. John’s vision taps into the roots of an ancient archetype and cultural symbol. Across religious and philosophical traditions, the tree of life shows up again and again, signifying wisdom, kinship, nourishment, and abundance. Often, great trees mark historic places of treaty-making and shared peace commitments. They mark a point, a cosmic center from which peace flows into the world. Similarly, in our gospel text (John 14:23-29), Jesus invited his followers to share in a relationship where peace flowed, like his very breath, into them and out into the world (John 14:27). As we believe into Christ, we are drawn to the very ground of peace, sustained on the generosity and grace of God. The eighteenth-century pastor Richard Hutchins imagined the nurture of this relation in a poem he titled, “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree."[2]

Revelation’s tree of life, with its nourishing fruits and healing leaves, can remind us of the ancient wisdom spoken anew today by Indigenous writers regarding food as medicine. Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and Citizen Potawatomi member, explains “Plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away."[3] White Earth activist Winona LaDuke explains the Anishinaabe wisdom of healing: “The recovery of the people is tied to the recovery of food, since food itself is medicine; not only for the body but for the soul, for the spiritual connection to history, ancestors and the land."[4]

The connection between trees and healing can be seen further in the role trees play in photosynthesis, where leaves draw carbon dioxide and water from the atmosphere to produce various carbon-based sugars necessary for growth. Every part of a tree stores carbon, from the trunks, branches, leaves, and roots. Recent studies show how mature trees extract more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than young trees, locking it into new wood. So, while planting new trees serves as a natural climate solution, protecting large, established trees provides greater potential in addressing the drawdown needed for climate targets.[5]

After they fall, decaying leaves enhance soil health, prevent erosion, and provide mulch that protects plants, retains moisture, and offers habitats for insects, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds. While they grow, leaves release fragrances with chemical compounds that can calm our minds and boost our moods. Instead of consigning leaves to landfills as waste, where they rot and produce methane, leaves can be reclaimed as valuable for earth’s natural, sustainable cycles.[6] Maybe John of Patmos was on to something we see more clearly now through our sciences–leaves are for the healing of nations, especially in our time of great environmental precarity!

SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS/CALL TO ACTION

(Note: Please confirm all appropriate copyright and licensing information, and provide necessary attribution before using these images in your worship setting.)

2. Peace Trees in World Religions and Human History

Across continents and civilizations, trees have served as sites of significant events, rituals, ceremonies, and treaties. Introduce the congregation to one of the following magnificent trees. Then describe and share the significance of a remarkable tree in their bioregion.

In downtown Austin, Texas, the five-hundred-year-old Treaty Oak stands as one of the last of the fourteen Council Oaks, a gathering place for Indigenous peoples in the region. The oak was also where tribal leaders met Stephen F. Austin to sign a treaty for territorial boundaries. Many Texans consider the Treaty Oak a symbol of strength and endurance. But in 1989, a person was charged and sentenced for poisoning the historic tree. In the process, two-thirds of the Treaty Oak died, and half of its canopy had to be pruned. Still, the tenacious tree survived. In 1997, city workers gathered and germinated the first crop of acorns from Treaty Oak since its trauma, then distributed the seedlings throughout Texas to grow into a new generation of oaks.[7]

We can also think of the Great Tree of Peace, the eastern white pine, associated with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy[8] or the Bodhi Tree, meaning “Tree of Awakening,” in Bihar, India, where Siddhartha Gautama meditated and experienced enlightenment, becoming the Buddha.[9] We can recall the ancient cedars of Lebanon, mentioned in Hebrew scripture (Psalm 92:12), still surviving today, though smaller in number. Or the Sahabi Tree (The Blessed Tree) in Jordan, where the monk Bahira, told the child Mohammed that he would become a great prophet.[9] Sacred to the Shinto tradition, the three-thousand-year-old giant camphor tree at the Takeo Shrine in Japan protects the spiritual beings (kami) living deep within its roots.[10]

In Europe, many churchyards encircle yew trees, much older than the churches themselves. In Perthshire, Scotland, the Fortingall Yew, thought to be the oldest tree in Europe, is between 3000-9000 years old and may have been an ancient gathering place for Druids.[11] St. Brigid founded her famous monastery under an oak tree in Kildare Town in the fifth century, hence the name Cill Dara, Church of the Oak.[12] So many amazing, diverse, and wonderfully strange trees in God’s Creation–among them the baobab, banyan, quaking aspen, and Norway spruce, a species that claims the world’s oldest tree–“Old Tjikko”--whose clonal root system is more than 9566 years old.[13]

Image Source: https://ies.bio/world/the-phenomenality-of-sacred-shinto-trees/.

2. The “Tree of 40 Fruit”

The “Tree of 40 Fruit” was grown by Professor Sam Van Aken, an associate professor of sculpture at Syracuse University. In 2008, while looking for specimens to create an art project of a multicolored blossom tree, Van Aken came across a three-acre research orchard closed due to budget cuts. So, beginning with a stock tree, Van Aken grafted buds of the orchard’s stone fruit trees from more than 250 heritage varieties–many carefully cultivated and brought to the United States by missionaries or immigrants from China, England, France, Spain, and Syria. Over five years, the tree accumulated grafts from forty different "donor" trees, including varieties of almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, and plums. Van Aken chose the number forty because it resonates across religious traditions as a sign of generational longevity and perseverance. Each spring at Syracuse University, the tree blossoms with a mix of varying shades of red, pink, and white, with fruit ripening sequentially from July to September.

Professor Van Aken continues his arboreal artwork across the U.S., with new projects incorporating local heritage tree varieties no longer commercially produced or available. The projects serve as a work of agricultural history and cultural preservation. Van Aken hopes the multigrafted trees lead to creative thinking about the connection of food security and biodiversity.[14] Currently, Van Aken is working on a project called the “Open Orchard” on Governors Island, growing more than one hundred multigrafted fruit trees, all connected with the place, history, and cultures of New York City and the First Peoples of Pagganck, the Lenape.[15]

Here is an artist's rendition of what a Tree of 40 Fruit will look like in ten years. Image courtesy of Sam Van Aken from the Smithsonian Magazine online, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/a-tree-grows-40-different-types-of-fruit-180953868/.

3. Peace Parks with Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe

United Methodist Earthkeeper Shamiso Winnet Mupara saw how, over decades, colonization and commercial logging of teak and mahogany trees deforested the land in her community of Marange, Zimbabwe. The region is now one of Zimbabwe’s driest, where severe droughts have led to hunger, disease, and violence. In 2013, Shamiso founded Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe (EBZ) to replant native food forests and help solve the region’s lack of food resources. In her culture, the roots, leaves, fruit, or bark of many trees are consumed for health and medicinal purposes. Gumtrees, lemon trees, guava, monkey bread, and Terminalia trees are useful for concocting teas with honey to treat common colds, coughs, and flu. Fruits from baobab, bird plum, mobola, and marula trees all contribute to household nutrition for better diets and good health.

Shamiso first began her eco-ministry by sinking a sixty-five-meter water borehole and then planting food forests with edible and medicinal trees and plants. The deep tree roots resist drought, with leaves and blossoms providing a shaded understory for wildlife and food for bees. EBZ’s work is now part of the global Peace Parks Initiative, which aims to establish eighteen trans-frontier, sustainable conservation areas in seventeen countries.

Shamiso shares a recent account of EBZ’s regenerative work of “sowing seeds of hope” in Zimbabwe’s Chiadzwa region, an area known for destructive diamond extraction. In collaboration with other environmental groups, EBZ planted seventy-two fruit trees at the Mukwada Adventist Secondary School:

This endeavor aimed not only to engage children in nurturing trees for their future but also to address the prevalent issue of food insecurity exacerbated by recurrent droughts. By introducing fruit trees, the project sought to diversify the rural diet and bolster the local economy, offering sustenance and economic opportunities to Chiadzwa’s residents…

Tree planting serves as the cornerstone of environmental revitalization efforts in Chiadzwa, offering multifaceted benefits that extend far beyond mere aesthetics. By regulating temperatures and fostering biodiversity, trees play a pivotal role in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and promoting ecological resilience in hot and vulnerable communities like Chiadzwa…

Through collaborative action and a steadfast commitment to sustainable development, the tree planting initiative in Chiadzwa serves as a beacon of hope, heralding a future where environmental integrity and human flourishing converge harmoniously. As the saplings take root and flourish, so too does the promise of a brighter tomorrow for Chiadzwa’s children and generations yet unborn.[33]

Five-year-old Munyaradzi Mushonga, a student at The United Methodist Church’s Murewa Central Primary School in Zimbabwe, holds her tree tightly after learning of the importance of trees for food, income, and the environment. Students helped plant more than 400 trees as part of an ecumenical project funded by the All Africa Conference of Churches. Photo by Kudzai Chingwe, UM News, https://www.umnews.org/en/news/joint-church-effort-in-zimbabwe-addresses-climate-change

Rev. Nancy Victorin-Vangerud, Minneapolis, MN (ancestral homeland of the Dakota peoples), is a retired elder in the Minnesota Annual Conference. She is part of the Worship Team of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement and is a UM Earthkeeper.

1. Catherine Keller, Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy and Other Last Chances (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2021), 182.
2. "Christ the Appletree,” Hymnary.org, https://hymnary.org/text/the_tree_of_life_my_soul_hath_seen.
3. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis, Minnesota; Milkweed Editions, 2013), 10.
4. Winona LaDuke, Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming (Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2005), 210.
5. University of Birmingham, “Mature Forests Are Vital in Frontline Fight Against Climate Change, Research Reveals,” PHYS.org (August 12, 2024), https://phys.org/news/2024-08-mature-forests-vital-frontline-climate.html?ai=
6. Brooke Franklin, “This Fall, Leave the Leaves!” US Department of Agriculture (October 17, 2022), https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2022/10/17/fall-leave-leaves#:~:text=Leaves%20create%20a%20natural%20mulch,overwinter%20in%20the%20fallen%20leaves
7. Kelsey Thompson, “Historic Treaty Oak Tree Vandalized in Downtown Austin,” (March 14, 2024; updated March 15, 2024), KXAN, https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/historic-treaty-oak-tree-vandalized-in-downtown-austin/.
8. "The Great Tree of Peace,” Indigenous Values Initiative, https://indigenousvalues.org/haudenosaunee-values/great-tree-peace-skaehetsi%CB%80kona/.
9. "Bodhi Tree,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_Tree.
10. "Sabahi Tree,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahabi_Tree.
11. Elizabeth Sok, “Takeo Shrine,” Gaininpot Travel, https://travel.gaijinpot.com/takeo-shrine/.
12. "Fortingall Yew,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortingall_Yew.
13. "Kildare,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kildare.
14. "Old Tjikko,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko.
15. "Tree of Forty Fruit,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_40_Fruit;
    Manoush Zomorodi, Chloee Weiner, and Sanaz Meshkinpour,https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/ted/2024/07/20240703_ted_d3aa4231-3963-433d-8316-983c3cd6bb40.mp3?d=358000&e=g-s1-7145&sc=siteplayer&aw_0_1st.playerid=siteplayer “How Forty Different Fruits Grow from One Single Tree,” Ted Radio Hour (July 5, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/07/05/g-s1-7145/how-40-different-fruits-grow-from-one-single-tree.
16. Sam Van Aken, “The Open Orchard,” Governors Island, https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-open-orchard.
17. Shamiso Winnet Mupara, “Sowing Seeds of Hope: Rejuvenating Chiadzwa’s Environment Through Tree Planting,” Environmental Buddies, Zimbabwe (March 11, 2024), http://www.ebztrust.org/sowing-seeds-of-hope-rejuvenating-chiadzwas-environment-through-tree-planting.