There are too many of them, they’re too tall and they grow too close to houses. If they were to fall, then they’ll damage the roof and, even if they don’t, then the roots must be undermining the foundations. They’re ok if they’re with their mates in a forest – or answer to the name of bonsai.
Of course, I’m talking about trees – and you’ve just heard the Gospel according to my wife June which I get every time she goes into our garden, or we drive up Walmersley Road.
In contrast, Jeremiah and the author of our Psalm today have a more life-affirming view of trees. If you close your eyes, then you can imagine the scene. A tree grows beside a stream… Despite heat and drought, the tree remains fruitful. And we’re told that a person who trusts in the Lord is just like such a tree.
Called by God
Trees are important throughout Scripture. The trees in the garden of Eden, the trees which made the ark, oak trees, fig trees, olive trees, cedar trees, trees which are fruitful and trees which aren’t, trees which are cursed and wither, the tree from which the Cross was made…
Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet whilst still young. Sadly, for him, his calling was to tell the people of Israel that they would fall to Babylon. He had to tell them that their whole known world would change. That wasn’t a particularly popular message and for his troubles he was accused of treason and sedition, beaten up, put in the stocks and imprisoned. He was thrown into an empty water cistern and left to die of starvation before eventually being rescued. Legend says that he died in exile in Egypt, stoned to death by exasperated compatriots fed up with what he was saying!
Jeremiah managed to make enemies of the government, the military, the clergy and the people. So pretty much a clean sweep. We even still have an old phrase ‘to be a Jeremiah’ when talking about someone who complains all the time.
Accurate
But his prophecy was accurate. Israel did fall. Jerusalem was destroyed. Everything they’d taken as being a certainty was turned upside down. And our certainties can be turned upside down too. Health, work, relationships, what we think about God… Jeremiah speaks just as much to us today.
Jeremiah didn’t stand there dispassionately dishing out his prophecies of woe. His whole heart, mind and personality are involved and gripped. Yet a prophet has both sympathy for God and concern for man. He stands in the middle, pleading and arguing the case of each to the other. And Jeremiah talks about restoration as well as destruction.
Wonderful
It’s easy to get caught up in his ranting and raging but amongst the laments we have some truly wonderful language in the book of Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart”; “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” and “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah wrote both poetry and prose – and his poetry is similar to the parables, because poetry, like parables, leaves things open-ended. With poetry you make your own interpretations, take away your own insights.
From our passage today we have this picture: “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes; and its leaves shall stay green. In the year of drought, it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit”.
It’s similar to Psalm 1: “Happy are those… whose delight is in the law of the Lord… They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”
Tumbleweed
Here in Jeremiah the image of a tree by a stream bearing fruit is used versus that of a bush in the wasteland from which nothing sprouts. Or in Psalms, it’s the chaff that blows away. Think of tumbleweed in a Western. We’re told that tumbleweed, the chaff, is like a person who trusts in man rather than in God. We have a similar contrast made in our Gospel reading today.
There are a number of quick points that struck me from these verses:
Firstly, Jeremiah was a realist. Even if we have deep roots, we will still face challenges and tough times. In the passage it says there will be times of heat and times of drought. Bad things will still happen to us regardless of our faith. Not everything works out the way we want. Many of us suffer bad health for instance. But those deeper roots do sustain you. They make it more likely you’ll find moisture and nourishment deep down when there’s little that’s obvious on the surface. Those roots give you greater anchorage when the storms and the winds come. And sometimes our world can be turned upside down. It helps if you have deeper roots.
Una Kroll
Secondly, some of you may remember Rev Dr Una Kroll. She had a very eventful life and she came to live in our parish in Bury late in her retirement. She authored a large number of books and one was entitled ‘Trees of Life’. The book talks about intercession and she uses the imagery of trees. In her introduction she says this…
For many years I’ve been reflecting on the significance of trees in relation to the Christian life. They are rooted in God’s earth from which they draw the water that sustains their life. Trees give delight through their variety. They grow at different rates and in myriad of ways. They bear distinctive leaves, flowers and fruit. Each has a specific purpose in God’s creation. Trees grow towards the sky; they stretch high to find the sunlight and air they need to live and do their work of glorifying God. I find in them attributes that echo within my own life and those of other people as they become rooted in Christ, grow through grace and reach toward heaven to find their glory.
Old age
Thirdly, as I get older, I’m increasingly drawn to this section of Psalms 92: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon… they will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.”
So, it’s good to trust in the Lord and be righteous. There will be fruit, there will be good things which come from it. We stay fresh and green, even into our old age. There’s hope for us all!
Lastly, it’s interesting to read on in Jeremiah to verse 13 of the same chapter: “Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.”
The spring of Living Water… Jeremiah also talks about it earlier: “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Here we have God described as a spring of living water. Does that ring any bells? In the Gospel of John, when talking to the Samaritan woman by the well, Jesus describes himself in that same way: “Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
A specific purpose
So, are you like a fruitful tree, with deep roots, planted near a stream of living water? To use Una’s words, we may grow at different rates and in myriad of ways. We each bear distinctive leaves, flowers and fruit. Each of us has a specific purpose in God’s creation.
Or are you more like tumbleweed or chaff with no roots, no base, no fruit?
As June could tell you, depending on the species, the roots of a tree can spread 4 times as far as the branches. How far do your roots extend? How much is going on beneath the surface that no-one can see apart from God, the God “who searches our heart and examines our mind”?
The good news, the gospel, is that it’s never too late for us. Even when our world is turned upside down, trust in Him, the stream of Living Water. And put some roots down, because he’s never far away. Indeed, with Jesus, that Living Water is inside us, welling up. And we have a promise that with that living water we can still be fresh and bear fruit… no matter what our age! Amen
‘A tree beside a stream’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St John and St Mark’s on Sunday 16th February 2025. It was based on Jeremiah 17:5-10 and Psalm 1