Juneteenth Is Near | Freedom Comes Through Faith in Action

Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom Documentary

Celebrate Juneteenth
and how Jesus brings
ultimate freedom

Now the Lord is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.

It is for freedom
that Christ has set us free.
You, my brothers and sisters,
were called to be free.

But do not use your freedom
to indulge the flesh;
rather, serve one another
humbly in love.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because He has anointed Me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free.

+ 2 Corinthians 3:17;

Galatians 5:1, 13; Luke 4:18

Let's get ready for Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States that began on June 19, 1865. Now a national holiday, more and more people are learning about what happened in Galveston, Texas when slaves learned of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the initial announcement by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862.

Juneteenth History Timeline

If you want to learn more about Juneteenth,

watch this powerful documentary:

Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom

A Documentary (75+ Minutes) 

In this 2022 film, you will learn how Scripture inspired the faith of enslaved people, travel to the church where America’s first Juneteenth celebration took place, and uncover why newly liberated men and women credited God for their freedom. With special guests Ms. Opal Lee, Lecrae, and more, you’ll journey to Galveston, Texas to discover a faith stronger than suffering. 

Sho Baraka songs are featured throughout the documentary, including "Their Eyes Were Watching" and "Myhood, U.S.A., 1937".

Juneteenth also reminds us of how Jesus secured our freedom in the past, and continues to send people to various corners of the earth to proclaim to those who are enslaved to darkness and death that they have been emancipated and are free.

Complementing the Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom documentary, Rishmawy's "The Cross Between the World and Me" introduced me to connections between faith and freedom by telling more of the story behind the cover of Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. 

How does faith help lead to freedom?
How do justice and mercy meet?
How does forgiveness
transform into freedom
for the forgiver and the forgiven? 

The Wales Window given to 16th Street Baptist Church

Look at the powerful stained glass above.
Then seep in some of Rishmawy's
potent words below. 

The artwork above is the stained glass image of the "Wales Window" given to the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was donated as a gift from the people of Wales after the 1963 Klan bombing that rocked the church and robbed the life of the four little black girls in their Sunday best, a horrific scene captured in the recent 2014 film, "Selma." 

The stained glass is striking. In it, we see Christ, arms outstretched. According to the artist, the two arms outstretched are doing different things. The one is thrust out, stiff-arming the powers of death and injustice, while the other reaches out, offering forgiveness for the world. 

The central mystery of the Christian gospel is the Holy God who out of the fullness of His own perfect life stooped, became incarnate, identifying Himself with the whole of humanity, and, as the Creed has it, suffered under Pontius Pilate. 

The Savior is the Divine Son who knew no suffering, yet assumed human flesh, a Body in midst of a dominated people to suffer on our behalf and rise again. God became a gendered, embodied Jew in the 1st Century, heir to hundreds of years of political oppression at the hands of colonizing invaders (Babylonian, Persian, Greek), mostly recently of an empire, Rome, that stood as the chief political, economic, social, and religious power the world had ever seen. He grew up under the eye of the soldiers of a people who prided themselves as superior to every other people; a people who used subject nations and cultures to prop up their own; a people who threatened anyone who crossed that system with torture and death. And eventually it was under the administration of their laws, their justice, that His body hung naked, exposed, broken, shamed on a cross, tossed on the garbage heap of history, scorned even by the elite of His own people. 

I cannot do justice to the multifaceted character of Christ’s death, but the thing we must say is that the death He died, He died willingly for sin. He died in order to wipe us clean from the sins we commit as well as deliver us from the Sin we are enslaved to. He died in order to atone and liberate. He died to do justice, to ensure that forgiveness is not offered on the cheap. But for Christians, death is not the concluding word, and in His resurrection, Jesus actively and powerfully breaks the power of Sin, the World, and Death, by showing that despite appearances to the contrary, it does not have the final say of things. 

Jesus is the Resurrected One! Hope for reconciliation, both personal and cultural, comes after we’ve truly reckoned with the nature of the rupture of the Cross, confessed, and repented. This is one of what I take to be the glories of the Christian Gospel: it forces you to see the truth about the world, about yourself, about your neighbor—both the grime and the glory—and it is precisely there where the God with a broken body meets us and resurrects us. Soli Deo Gloria! 

+ Derek Rishmawy, "The Cross Between the World and Me"

God continues to free people across time and across continents to reconcile with each through the revelation that Jesus is for all of us as our Repairer of Broken Bridges (see Isaiah 58:6-12), our Liberator and King of justice and peace.

To close this post, David Rosa Jr.'s potent word provide a call to action for Jesus' Church:

 

Juneteenth—the day when word of freedom
finally reached Galveston, Texas,
more than two years after
the Emancipation Proclamation.

Freedom had been declared,
but it hadn’t yet been delivered.

And in that gap between
the legal breaking of chains and
the actual walking out of freedom,
people waited, prayed, survived.

That gap still shows up.

Even in the Church.

We preach unity.

We quote Revelation 7.

We celebrate that Jesus
tore down the dividing wall.

But if we’re honest,
there’s often a long delay
between the declaration of unity
and the lived reality of it.

The early Church felt that too.

In Jerusalem, Jews and Gentiles
were baptized into the same Spirit.

But it was in Antioch
—a diverse, complex, tension-filled city—
where the Church finally started living
what had already been proclaimed.

Different cultures, different classes,
different languages,

One Church, one Lord, one mission.

And it’s not lost on me
that it was from that kind of church,
not from Jerusalem,
that the first city movement was launched.

Antioch wasn’t perfect, but it was pivotal.

It was the space where partial unity
gave way to full participation,
where division began to break
all the way down,
where the Church stopped
just being gathered
and started being sent.

Juneteenth reminds us that
freedom delayed isn’t necessarily
freedom denied,

but it’s still a burden to carry.

And unity delayed isn’t
unity denied either,

but it’s still a call to press in,
to move closer, to build something real.

If we want to see
gospel movements in our cities,
we can’t settle for surface-level unity.

We need Antioch-level community.

Where collaboration is deep,
leadership is shared, and
mission is launched
from the margins and the middle,
not just the center.

The dream is alive.

But the delay is real.

And the Church has a decision to make.

Will we settle for proximity,

or will we press into
the kind of unity that
births robust gospel movements?

Happy Juneteenth.

Let’s not just remember the delay.

Let’s respond to it.

Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom

Book Recommendations:

Crowned with Glory

+

Yonder Come Day

by Jasmine Holmes

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Trinity Sunday | Wonder, Mystery & Some Curious Thoughts

Holy Trinity Line Art

When Jesus dives into our world,
the whole Trinity is involved.

Jesus is sent by the Father,
as the "Word become flesh"
in "the power of the Spirit."

Jesus arrives not as a new thing,
but as the eternal Son of God to do a new thing.

Jesus doesn't just point us to the Father; 

He is the action of the Father in our world.
The Father is acting through His Son
and in His Spirit
for the salvation of the world.

+ The Pursuing God

In the past year or so, I have had some friends and family inquire about the wonder and the mystery of the Trinity. Perhaps one with confusion, another with skepticism, another with curiosity; and on such a journey of discovery, all of us experiencing all of the emotions above along the way.

I have loved exploring considerations of the Trinity myself, whether throughout the Story of God in all the Scriptures, in Jesus' Church's history including artwork like Rublev's Icon and the "Lakota Trinity," and more. I've also enjoyed Rev. Dr. Tim Mackie from the Bible Project (ex. "How Is God Both One and Three at the Same Time") discussing the Trinity in the video, "The Trinity, Hermeneutics & Doctrinal Development" (particularly from the 32-minute mark: From Judaism to Trinitarianism until the end).

The post below is meant to provide some brief glimpses into what I've learned and experienced. The Trinity has opened me up to more of God's beauty and love in how the triune God exists and creates in love apart from me, yet chooses to love me, befriend me, and save me. And I'm thankful for the humbling consideration that God continues to send Emmaus City Church into the world to provide glimpses of God's unity in community and community on mission.

 | 1 | 

Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity 

in Love, Worship & Creativity

The Trinity was, and is, a totally self-sufficient community of love and glory. The Trinitarian community is, in a sense, perpetually beholding one another with love and amazement.

Before the world began, there was love.
It flowed
– perfect, complete, and constant –
between the three persons of the Trinity.
This love was an unending appreciation,
a perpetual beholding and rejoicing
in the goodness and perfection

of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   
We're able to peek through the windows
on that love in the Bible,
where we see the Son worship the Father,
the Father adore and exalt the Son,
and the Spirit being both celebrated
and celebrating the others. 

The word worship comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which combines two words meaning 'ascribe worth.' The Trinity can be said to be always at worship because the three persons of the Godhead perfectly behold the worth and wonder of one another. As Fredrick Lehman fashioned for a world-renowned hymn:

'Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made,
were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above,
would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky.'

+ The Love of God

(See also
"Love Beyond Telling"

for more history behind the hymn.)

It's out of the overflow
of this endless love
that God created the world.
The whole Trinity is present
at creation's dawn
as the Father speaks,
the Son – who is the Word –
carries out the creative work,
and the Spirit fills the creation
with heavenly presence
(Genesis 1:1-3).

Creation was made out of the overflow of God's own effusive and loving being, a reflection of the way the persons of the Trinity live in harmony, love, and community with one another.

+ Mike Cosper,

Rhythms of Grace

At the center of the universe is the spinning dance of the communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit in this selfless, giving, sacrificial orbit of Oneness.

Before even the first shimmer of flaming star danced across space, an all-fulfilled, all-relational triune God, fully complete in the spin of the selfless, giving dance of communion, chose to create a world for the singular purpose of us sharing in His communion, orbiting in His selfless, giving love.

Love is commitment set in motion.

The triune God came for more

than making us right with Him.

He came to make us one with Him.

What the triune God has joined together,

let no way of thinking, dreaming, or living,

tear asunder.

+ Ann Voskamp,

Waymaker

 | 2 | 

Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity

in Embracing Friendship

By virtue of making us like Him, God in creation expanded the circle of friends.

The fundamental truth of friendships
is not that love is limited
but that love is infinite.
We know this because the friendship

of the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit
did not generate less love but more love.

Jesus now calls us His friends,
and by saving us, 

He invites us into the dance of the Trinity.
The circle of love is open and expanding.

The nature of true friendships is not to shut the outsider out, it is to draw them in. Opening outward is the truest direction of friendship. The circle grows. Here one plus one equals three or even four. The circle is complete, but it is somehow still open. Love defies mathematics and geometry.

In a culture of loneliness and individualism, 

there is no better witness to the Trinity 

than embodying a counterculture 

of real friendship.

If friendship is a practice that reminds us of what the Gospel is, it is also a practice that puts the Gospel on display to the world.

+ JWE,

Habits of Purpose

 | 3 | 

Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity 

at the Cross of Christ

The atonement drama has only two actors:
the one triune God and us.
And it is God who bears in Himself
the consequences of our sin.

God puts Himself in our place on the cross. He does not "punish somebody else instead." It was God's self-substitution in our place through His own Son. "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Bible sometimes expresses this with balancing statements, and we need to take both side of the balance seriously.

So, for example, we know that the cross was God's will (Acts 2:23). Yes, but Jesus also said, "My food (will) is to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 4:34, emphasis mine). Isaiah 53:6 says that "the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Yes, but Peter also adds, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross" (1 Peter 2:24). John tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son" (John 3:16, emphasis mine). Yes, but Paul adds, "The Son of God ... loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, emphasis mine). The Father's plan and the Son's actions go together in perfect harmony.

The book The Cross of Christ
by John Stott is a classic.
In one section, he discusses exactly this point:

We have no liberty ...
to imply either that God
compelled Jesus to do what
He was unwilling to do Himself,
or that Jesus was an unwilling victim
of God's harsh justice.
Jesus Christ did indeed bear
the penalty of our sins,
but God was active in
and through Christ doing it,
and Christ was freely playing His part
(e.g. Hebrews 10:5-10). ...
We must never make Christ
the object of God's punishment
or God the object of Christ's persuasion,
for both God and Christ were subjects
not objects, taking the initiative together
to save sinners.
Whatever happened on the cross
in terms of "God-forsakenness"
was voluntarily accepted by both
in the same holy love
which made atonement necessary. ...
The Father did not lay on the Son
an ordeal He was reluctant to bear,
nor did the Son extract
from the Father a salvation
He was reluctant to bestow.
There is no suspicion anywhere
in the New Testament of discord
between the Father and the Son. ...
There was no unwillingness in either.
On the contrary, their wills coincided
in the perfect self-sacrifice of love.

Never separate the Father and the Son in your understanding of the cross. They were as one in Christ's death as they were one in His life.

+ Christopher J.H. Wright,

To the Cross

The Father, Son, and Spirit
remain sovereign
through the event of the cross. 

The Son is sovereign over the grave, 
even as He lies dead in it — 
because the Father and Spirit 
will be faithful to raise Him. 

The Father is sovereign, 
even as His Son marches toward Golgotha — 
because Jesus will not join humanity's rebellion 
and will be faithful unto death. 

The Spirit is sovereign, 
even when entering the grieving 
and groaning of creation to apply
the work of Jesus to our broken world, 
because the Father and Son 
will receive the world He brings.

The hope of the world is God's sovereign love. The Father is, through the Son and in the Spirit, reconciling the world. 

As pastor and author Tim Keller observes:

 
"God did not, then,
inflict pain on someone else,
but rather on the Cross
absorbed the pain, violence, and evil
of the world into Himself."

In the words of theologian Adam Johnson,

 
"through Jesus Christ the triune God
brought the reality of sin
into His own proper life,
that He might deal with it
in and through Himself."

The cross and resurrection
most powerfully reveal the Trinity
because the Father, Son, and Spirit 

display faithful love to one another 

amid our darkest depths.

The Father, Son, and Spirit
take in our suffering, shattering, and death
in order to overwhelm it
with the life, light, and love
the Father, Son, and Spirit 

share as the one God.

Alson, in Light from Light:

One might summarize
a theology of the cross as follows. 

The Son of God went to the limits

of alienation from God

so that even as the worst sinner

runs with all their energy 

away from the Father,

they finds themselves running

into the arms of the Son.

Here we can see the deep

soteriological implications

of the Trinitarian doctrine.

It is only because God can,

so to speak,

open Himself up,

become other to Himself 

while remaining one in essence,

that He can embrace all of sin,

even the most thoroughgoing rebellion.

God wants to do life with us. We are invited to enter the life of God. In Christ, Peter tells us, we become "participants of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4). This doesn't mean we become God — we are still creatures, not Creator. But it does mean we participate as creatures in the very life of our Creator: the Spirit of God dwells inside us, binding us in union with Christ, and bringing us through Christ into the embrace of the Father.

This is our salvation: to be indwelt by God within us (the Spirit), united to God before us (the Son), and embraced within the life of God surrounding us (the Father). Our salvation is none other than the very life of God.

Caricature:

The Trinity is an abstract doctrine

with no relevance for today.

Gospel: 

The Trinity changes everything

– the Father, Son, and Spirit

are a holy communion of love

who invite us to participate in eternal life.

+ JRB,

The Pursuing God

 | 4 | 

Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity

in the Mission of God

The first thing we see the Father do in relation to Jesus is love the Son, breathing out His Spirit on Him (see baptism of Jesus, Mark 1:9-11). Doing as His Father does, Jesus breathes out the Spirit on His disciples (see after the resurrection of Jesus, John 20:21-22). In fact, Jesus had already said to them: "As the Father loved Me, so have I loved you" (John 15:9). The Father sends the Son; and doing as His Father does, Jesus thus sends His disciples by the Spirit.

The truth is that God is always on mission:

in love for the other, 

which is why the Father sent His Son

and His Spirit.

It is the outworking of His very nature.

This means that when we go out and share

the knowledge of God's great love

we reflect something very profound

about who God is.

When Jesus sends us, He is allowing us

to share the missional, generous,

outgoing shape of God's own life.

The Spirit-caused enjoyment of the fellowship, the increasing love for the Father and the Son: it turns us to share God's outgoing love for the world. We become like what we worship. The Spirit shares the triune life of God by bringing God's children into the mutual delight of the Father and the Son — and there we become like our God: fruitful and life-giving.

+ Michael Reeves,

Delighting in the Trinity

The only way to be the greatest in Christ's Kingdom is to be the last, to have the least left in your own ego and self-will, to pour out your whole self for others as He did for you.

It is a very strange Kingdom that this King invites us into, because it is the Kingdom of God, and God is very strange.

God is love; God is agape,
and that means that God 

is the total gift of self
from each of the the three persons

of the Trinity to each of the other two.

In inviting us into His Kingdom of agape,

Jesus is inviting us into theosis,

which means not imitation 

but participation,

the sharing in the very life of God,

who is the source of everything real

and true and good and beautiful

and joyful.

This truth about God is also a truth

about us because we were designed

and created in God's image.

We were designed to only run

on the fuel that God runs on,

to live only with God's life.

That's why we get joy only

by giving joy;

we find ourselves only

by losing ourselves;

we live only by dying to our

natural selfishness.

It's not an ideal; it's a fact.

It's what we are,

what we are made for.

+ Dr. Peter Kreeft,

Food for the Soul

 | 5 | 

Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity 

in Being Jesus' Church

The intention of Jesus' Church is to be a "community for the community": a multi-generational, life-transforming, unwaveringly Christ-centered community of people who, together, worship the Triune God, proclaim and demonstrate the Good News of God,
and provide every person: 

a people to belong to in the family of God,
a people to grow with in Jesus Christ,
and a people to serve alongside
by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit.

Since the very essence of the Trinity

is the shared, interrelated communion of love

between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

then the "essence" of the Church

reflecting the Trinity is
the unity of its members' love for one another
(John 13:34-35).

For if "God is what God is in interrelatedness,"

then human transformation is

both dependent upon and realized in

a similar interrelatedness.

While God is by nature a communion of Father, Son, and Spirit, human persons enter into covenantal commitment to effect the kind of interdependence necessary for transformation (ex. baptismal vows offered as a community). And as the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-26) attests, relational maturity is virtually indistinguishable from spiritual maturity, and the spirituality of a community is defined by the quality of the relationships formed. As we do so, we demonstrate a quality of living that the world is yearning for and through which

humans have been created to thrive.

+ Tod Bolsinger

It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian

 | Bonus | 

Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity 

in Oneness, Unity & Peace

Richard of St. Victor (1100s A.D.) shared that if God were just one person, God could not be intrinsically loving, since for all eternity before creation, God would have had nobody to love. If there were two persons, Richard went on, God might be loving, but in an excluding, ungenerous way. After all, when two persons love each other, they can be so infatuated with each other that they simply ignore everyone else — and a God like that would be very far from good news. But when the love between two persons is happy, healthy and secure, they rejoice to share it. Just so it is with God, said Richard. Being perfectly loving, from all eternity the Father and the Son have delighted to share love and joy with and through the Spirit.

It is not then that God becomes sharing;

being triune, God is a sharing God,

a God who loves to include.

Indeed, that is why God will go on to create.

His love is not for keeping but for spreading.

Created male and female, in the image of God, and with many other good differences between us, we come together valuing the way the triune God has made us each unique.

Oneness for the triune God means unity.

As the Father is absolutely one with His Son,

and yet is not His Son,

so Jesus prays that believers might be one,

but not that they might all be the same.

There are different kinds of gifts,

but the same Spirit. ...

If the whole body were an eye,

where would the sense of hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear,

where would the sense of smell be?

But in fact God has arranged the parts

in the body, every one of them,

just as He wanted them to be.

If they were all one part,

where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts,

but one body.

(1 Corinthians 12:4, 17-20).

So it is not just that the Father, Son and Spirit call us into fellowship; God shares heavenly harmony that there might be harmony on earth, that people of different genders, languages, hobbies, and gifts might be one voice, we might cry: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Revelation 7:10).

And that is what the family of God — by its very existence — makes known to the world: that the God of harmony is the hope for world peace; that He can and will unite enemies, rivals and strangers into one loving family under His fatherly care.

+ Michael Reeves,

Delighting in the Trinity

Trinity Knot Scripture: Ephesians 4:3-6

Gloria Patri

4th Century Church 

Adapted by New Life, 

2022 A.D.

How lovely all creation shines,

How glorious from sky to sea.

All beauty is a blazing sign

To God the Everlasting.

Glory to the Father, 

Glory to the Son,

Glory to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, 

As it is right now,

And will be forever,

World without end. 

Amen.

The glory of Almighty God,

The centerpiece of all that is.

The selflessness of triune love,

Demands our highest worship.

(Chorus)

Amen, amen, amen,

World without end, 

Amen.

When we behold the radiant Son,

The shadowlands will fade away.

At last the One who is to come

Will rule the new creation.

He’ll rule the new creation.

(Chorus)

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

are certainly not modifications 

of the substance of "God,"

for that would compromise

the divine simplicity;

and yet they are not separate beings,

for that would result in tri-theism.

compromising the divine unity.

They are, we are forced to say, 

"pure" relations subsisting as relations.

Thus, the Father is Father only in and as

a relation to the Son;

the Son is Son only in and as 

a relation to the Father;

and the Spirit is Spirit only in and as

a relation to the Father and the Son.

All three persons, 

since they share the 

singular divine essence, 

are utterly simple in their 

manner of existing.

Yet, these dynamics do indeed indicate

that something like giving (or offering)

and receiving,

breathing in and breathing out,

obtains within God.

+ Thoughts on the Trinity

shared in Light from Light

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
mean that the mystery beyond us,
the mystery among us,
and the mystery within us
are all the same mystery.

Thus the Trinity is a way
of saying something about us
and the way we experience God.

The Trinity is also a way
of saying something about God
and God's inner nature;
that is, God does not need the creation
in order to have something to love,
because within God's being love happens.
In other words, the love God
is love not as a noun,
but as a verb.
This verb is reflexive as well as transitive.

If the idea of God
as both Three and One
seems farfetched and obfuscating,
look in the mirror someday. 

There is
(a) the interior life
known only to yourself
and those you choose
to communicate it to
(the Father).

There is 

(b) the visible face,
which in some measure
reflects that inner life
(the Son).

And there is
(c) the invisible power
you have that enables you
to communicate that interior life
in such a way that others
do not merely know about it,
but know it in the sense of its
becoming part of who they are
(the Holy Spirit).

Yet what you are looking at
in the mirror
is clearly and indivisibly
the one and only you.

+ Frederick Buechner

in Beyond Words

Other Reading Recs:

A Window into the Heart of God

The Pursuing God

Jesus, I Have My Doubts

The Ache for Meaning 

Living Curiously with Wonder

Be a Goldfish ... ?

A Love Supreme

A Good End

Next Post:

+ Room for Good Things

With presence and peace in Christ,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Earth Day | The Story of God in Nature During Eastertide

Artwork by Josh Nadeau

What is the Bible, then,

if not a story of God

meeting humanity's need

for a Savior

to reunite us to His Tree of Life?

+ Dr. Matthew Sleeth,

"What Trees Teach Us

About Life, Death, and Resurrection"

In Article 2
of the Belgic Confession (1561 A.D.),
it reads:

We know God by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: God’s eternal power and divinity ... Second, God makes Himself known to us more clearly by His holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for God’s glory and for our salvation.

On Earth Day, April 22, it is good for us to recognize again that the Creation is a beautiful book before us about the God of heaven and earth whose story is found in the Bible. And one of the keys to understanding the Story of God, from the beginning of His creation with humanity to His fulfillment of new creation, is found in the trees of our planet.

Below you can see part of the "Tree of Life" mural in Saint Clement Parish in Chicago.

There are many things to notice in this historic work of art, including some of what Saint Clement Parish highlights in their description of the dome:

" ... The centerpiece of the Tree of Life is the glorious cross, the throne from which Christ reigns and from which springs a vast acanthus vine. The cross is rooted in the earth and reaches to the dome of heaven ...  The acanthus vine is an allusion to Christ and the Church, based on the words 'I am the vine, you are the branches' (John 15:5). ... The curling tendrils of the vine terminate in stylized flowers and oil lamps, baskets overflowing with food, and vessels of oil and wine, symbolizing the richness of life in Christ. ... The streams that flow from the foliage at the base of the Tree are symbols of the rivers of the Garden of Eden, which are associated by tradition with the four Gospels, baptism, and the Holy Spirit flowing from Christ to evangelize and nurture the world. ... "  

So let's take a moment to think more about the connection of the Tree of Life to the Cross to the New Creation during this Eastertide season of celebrating death trampling over death and the resurrection of Jesus. To help us do so, Dr. Matthew Sleeth, author of Reforesting Faith: What Trees Teach Us About the Nature of God and His Love for Us, provides a walk through the Story of God in the Bible with the Tree of Life and God's love of trees in view.

Through a tree
we were made debtors to God;

so through a tree
we have our debt canceled.

+ St. Irenaeus of Lyons

The Story of God: Creation, Crisis, Covenant, Christ, Church, (New) Creation

Creation | God Loves Trees

Other than people and God, trees are the most mentioned living thing in the Bible. There are trees in the first chapter in Genesis 1:11-12, in the first psalm in Psalm 1:3, and on the last page of the Bible in Revelation 22:2. As if to underscore all these trees, the Bible refers to wisdom as a tree in Proverbs 3:18. Every major character and every major theological event in the Bible has an associated tree. The only exception to this pattern is Joseph, and in Joseph's case the Bible pays him its highest compliment: Joseph is a tree (Genesis 49:22). In fact, the Psalmist and the prophet Jeremiah urges all believers to be like a tree (Psalm 1:1-3; Jeremiah 17:7-8). The only physical description of Jesus in the Bible occurs in Isaiah. "Want to recognize the Messiah when He arrives?" Isaiah asks. "Look for the man who resembles a little tree growing out of barren ground" in Isaiah 53:2 (paraphrase mine).

To go back to the beginning, by highlighting every sentence containing a tree in the first three chapters of Genesis, one can get a pretty good sense of what God thinks about trees. Nearly a third of the sentences contain a tree. In Genesis 2, God makes two things with His own hands. First, He forms Adam and blows the breath of life into His nostrils (Genesis 2:7). Then, before Adam can exhale, God pivots and plants a garden (Genesis 2:8). It is here, under the trees, that God lovingly places Adam, giving him the job of "dress(ing) and keep(ing)" them (Genesis 2:15, KJV). And the trees have their divinely established tasks to accomplish, too. God charges them with keeping humans alive (Genesis 1:29), giving humans a place to live (Genesis 2:8), and providing food to sustain them (Genesis 2:16). Scripture also continuously portrays trees as things that communicate. They clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12), shout for joy (1 Chronicles 16:33), and even argue (Judges 9:7-15). In the last two decades, tree scientists have discovered something fascinating about trees: They really do communicate. They count, share resources, and talk with each other using a system dubbed the "Wood Wide Web" (you can read a little more about this Wood Wide Web in the post, "Withward: Forestry, 'Ubuntu,' and the Expansive Family of God" w/ AJ Sherrill).

Like us, God thinks trees are beautiful. Genesis 2:9 declares that trees are "pleasing to the eye." This aesthetic standard does not waver throughout the Bible. Whether God is instructing His people on how to make candlesticks (Exodus 25:31-40), decorate the corbels of the temple (1 Kings 6), or hem the high priest's robe (Exodus 28:34), the standard of beauty is a tree and its fruits. 

Crisis, Covenant, Christ, Church 
Getting Back to the Tree of Life

There were two trees at the center of the Garden of Eden. One, the Tree of Life, represented humanity's connection to the divine and the eternal. The other, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, represented human agency and possible rebellion. When Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, they tried to cover up their crime by undressing the very trees they were charged with "dressing" (Genesis 2:15; 3:7). Their next move was to run and hide behind the trees (Genesis 3:8). Chapter three of Genesis concludes with Adam and Eve banished from the Garden. What is the Bible, then, if not a story of God meeting humanity's need for a Savior to reunite us to the Tree of Life and communion with God in His Garden?

The connection and collection of trees in the story of God continues throughout the Bible. Without trees, the waters of Marah would have forever remained bitter (Exodus 15:25), the Giant of Gath would have not been thrown off his game (1 Samuel 17:43), and David would have missed his call to battle (1 Chronicles 14:15). Deborah would have been without a place to judge Israel (Judges 4:5), and God wouldn't have called His people to be trees of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3). Job wouldn't have uttered his famous line about trees and resurrection (Job 14:7), and there would have been no almond tree grove for Jacob to fall asleep in and dream of a wooden ladder that connects heaven and earth (Genesis 28:10-19). 

Later, Jesus of Nazareth would tell His disciple, Nathaniel (whom He saw under a fig tree in John 1:48), that he would see the ladder made from a tree that Jacob dreamed of long ago in Jesus Himself: "You will see 'heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending' on the Son of Man" (John 1:51). A rescue plan involving trees had been unfolding in time. So it is no surprise that Jesus spoke of His disciples bearing fruit (John 15:8) as they abided in Him, becoming fruit-bearing branches connected to a life-giving vine (John 15:4-6). 

And yet, the only thing that could harm this carpenter from Nazareth was a tree. Why? Because He who is hanged on a tree is cursed (Deuteronomy 21:23, Galatians 3:13). The cross is really a tree of life chainsawed down by man's sin, and Jesus' blood caused a dead tree used as a Roman torture instrument to grow into the symbol of life everlasting, the Tree of Life. This incredible image  and transformation gives reason why, if we reach back more than a thousand years, we will find in one of the oldest pieces of English literature, The Dream of the Rood (translation in Modern English), the story of the Passion of Christ told from a tree's point of view. 

Alone we are cut down in judgment;

with Him we are raised and

bloom into new life.

Every single tree you see 

is a reminder, a 

sign of the promise.

+ Claude Atcho,

Rhythms of Faith

New Creation | A New Kind of Door

As a carpenter, Jesus would have known how to craft a door from wood from a tree, as well as hang it. A door is topped by a header, or, as the Bible puts it, a door has two side posts and is topped by a lintel (Exodus 12:22). The Passover Lamb's blood was applied to these three boards to showcase God's provision and protection. At a Passover celebration more than a thousand years later, Jesus made a new and very strange kind of door, a narrow door. Unlike all other doorways that require three boards, this door uses only two: a vertical piece and a horizontal one. When Jesus' blood is applied to these two crossed pieces of wood, the doorway to heaven opens and an even more powerful and eternal Passover occurs for all of God's people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Along with the tree that helped make the cross, other trees are also essential to the resurrection. On Easter morning, when Mary went to the tomb, her eyes were raw from crying. She looked up and saw Jesus ... and she mistook Him for a gardener (John 20:15). Yet this was no mistake. He is the new Adam, back on the job where the old Adam failed, dressing and keeping the garden. His invitation to us in the Bible's last chapter is to keep His commandments and meet Him at a tree, the Tree of Life before God's throne, with branches that flower and bear fruit in every season and leaves that heal the nations (Revelation 22:2, 14).

As we live now on this earth until that future day, we can also look back to the first person in the Bible to plant trees, Abraham. At the time, Abraham owned not a square foot of land and was on the move, so scripturally, tree planting started as an unselfish act of faith. "And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God" (Genesis 21:33, KJV). By virtue of the way that trees work, Abraham's act would make the earth a better place for generations to come even if he would never receive the benefit. Today, we understand a tree's role in the global oxygen, carbon, and water cycles. But all that was unknown to Abraham during his day. Nonetheless, Abraham's grove is part of his first faith-filled practices of being a blessing to all the families of the world (see Genesis 12:3). Abraham planted for the next generation of people and the next phase in God's story of His creation. And as children of Abraham by faith (Galatians 3:6-7), we can do the same, bringing creation care to the trees of the world for future generations in view of our Creator and worshiping Him with them until Jesus returns. 

What might such worship look like? King David danced and shouted for joy when the ark of the covenant containing the story of God (up to that point), a jar of manna, and Aaron's staff (a branch from an almond tree that was blooming) was moved into the royal city. His celebration included writing a song of thanksgiving to celebrate the occasion in which people look forward to the coming Messiah and the trees join in the celebration: "Let the trees of the forest sing, let them sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth" (1 Chronicles 16:33). Trees are invested in God's future, and trees are God's investment in humanity's future. Only God knows when Jesus will return. In the meantime, we plant trees that will grow after we die for the sake of other. And until that day, we share about the Good News of Jesus' first coming to die on a tree to atone for us, and look forward to His second coming to bring the Tree of Life that will heal those who believe in Him when heaven and earth reconcile.

+ adapted from Dr. Matthew Sleeth's
"What Trees Teach Us About
Life, Death, and Resurrection"

Bonus Quote by My Wife:

I was thinking as you spoke that the very physiology of trees reveals their essential life-giving nature. God made them to take in our toxic gas/waste (carbon dioxide) and breathe out life for us all (oxygen). We wouldn't be able to exist without the waste-consuming, life breathing quality of trees. So, when Jesus is compared to a tree and vine, it reminds me of His taking on our toxic waste (sin), redeeming us and breathing His life into our souls. From this Earth Day on, I think I'll always look at tree respiration in a new light.

Also, for another reflection on God's care for His creation through His Church, as well as how this creation care witnesses to His promised restoration, also read National Geographic's "Ethiopia's 'Church Forests' Are Incredible Oases of Green." The stunning article showcases a powerful, bold, and beautiful witness to the conservation of creation, as well as the promised restoration by the One who loves what He has made, calls it very good, and promises to answer its groans for redemption. 

And as a bonus to complement the written story above, I would highly recommend checking out the recent Bible Project video for a beautiful visual representation of these themes: BP: Tree of Life Video (4:51 minutes).

Scene from Bible Project Video: Tree of Life

Other Story of God posts

Heaven and Earth

Hell
The Gospel of the Kingdom

Kindness, Justice, and Righteousness

Immanuel, God with Us

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

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