Way up on a ridge extending was from Cahuenga Peak, not too far from the famous Hollywood sign, there is a tree. Just one tree.
I grew up in the city of Burbank, on the other side of Cahuenga Peak. That tree wasn’t there when I was a child. But at some point, probably around the time I was just learning how to shave, someone planted a tree near the top of Cahuenga Peak.
It wasn’t until I was an adult, and came back home to visit, that the tree was big enough for me to notice. It looked so funny up there, that one tree, all by itself, rising up on top of a peak that had never had a tree on it before… but it’s there, even now, growing larger and even more conspicuous with each passing year…
There is a rumor that it is an old Christmas tree that someone bought, then planted on top of the mountain. Others say that many trees were planted, but that this is the only one that survived on that dry mountaintop.
Today, this tree has a name: people call it “The Wisdom Tree.” You can’t help but notice it, standing up there all by itself.
The tree has been through a lot. In 2007, a wildfire ravaged Cahuenga Peak, but the Wisdom Tree survived. In fact, with the surrounding vegetation burned away, it only made the Wisdom Tree even more conspicuous.
Then, a few years later, developers wanted to build luxury houses on the side of Cahuenga Peak. People were shocked to realize that the land was privately owned, and that houses were going to be built there, so near the Hollywood Sign and the Wisdom Tree. A fundraising campaign was started, and the land was purchased, and it is now officially part of Griffith Park, preserved forever.
At the base of the tree, people leave notes. Some are serious, some are not. One person wrote: “I came here to die, but now I leave here to live.”
Very few people hiked to this spot before the Wisdom Tree. Back then, hikers only wanted to see how close they could get to the Hollywood Sign. But now, the tree itself is a popular hiking destination. The trail is short, but steep. Or long, but not so steep. (There is more than one way to get there.) But one way or another, people are finding their way to the Wisdom Tree.
And every time I go back home to Burbank, or visit Universal Studios, I look up and wave to the Wisdom Tree. And three times now I’ve made the hike to visit the Wisdom Tree and say hi in person.
The Wisdom Tree is not the only tree I feel this connection to. At Loch Leven, there is a giant oak tree, and often in my life when I would get stressed and need to picture in my mind a calming scene, I’d remember sitting near the stream, beneath that giant oak, its twisting branches rising above me, its leaves providing me with cool shade on a hot summer day.
In recent years, that tree has also been given a name: Mr. Majestic. And now, using rope harnesses, kids who go to camp can climb 60 feet up into that tree, and experience it in a whole new way.
Another tree I’ve been to is old. Really old. It’s over 1,000 years old.
This tree is called the Wally Tree, and it grows on top of Mount Baden-Powell near Wrightwood. And although the Wally Tree is the coolest-looking tree up on Mt. Baden-Powell – and it’s right next to the trail – other trees on that mountain are even older. Some are estimated to be 2,000 years old!
Once upon a time there was a tree known as Jacob. It grew many branches. It became a great nation. It was much loved.
And on that tree were all the kings and all the glory of Israel. And the greatest king, the one with the most glory, was King David, the son of Jesse.
But not long after King David, that great, glorious tree was chopped down.
And the people were devastated.
If Wally, or Mr. Majestic, or the Wisdom Tree were ever chopped down, I would be sad. Very sad. But my sadness wouldn’t even come close to the level of sadness experienced by the people of Israel when their tree fell.
Their nation, their glory, their very identity: it was all centered on that tree.
Their hopes for the future, for a future of peace, were centered on that tree.
Now, it was just a stump.
The end had come for Israel.
They were discouraged. They had given in to despair. I’m sure you can understand how they felt. We’ve all known and experienced times and situations when all that we had hoped for came crashing down. Times when the path we envisioned into the future is suddenly met with a roadblock, or a dead end. Times when life deals an unexpected blow, and we’re thrown into a pit that we don’t think we can get out of.
And all we can do is stare at the stump, and mourn what once was.
But look at the stump. What do you see? Look closely…
A tiny shoot is starting to grow, a small branch springing up from the roots of that old tree trunk… Can that tiny shoot amount to anything?
Never underestimate the power of a tiny shoot.
Redwood trees are the tallest trees in the world; and they often reproduce through shoots and sprouts coming up from the roots. This can happen in living trees if conditions are right, or in trees that have been damaged or cut down.
The tallest tree in the world: yet it often begins from a tiny shoot.
Never underestimate the power of a tiny shoot, a tiny branch.
I saw a video recently of musician playing on a subway platform in Chicago. The crowd was stunned by the beauty and artistry of this music performer. Hundreds of people had their moods lifted because of the music this one person provided. And perhaps among those hundreds, there was one or two who really, really needed their mood lifted that day. They may have been in such a bad place that – who knows – they might have been contemplating something drastic to end the pain they were in. Yet that song lifted their spirits enough that they decided to keep on going.
Just a little shoot, but with the power to bring life and wholeness…
We’ve seen the unarmed native protestors at Standing Rock… Giant oil companies want to build a pipeline through ecologically sensitive land that is also sacred to that land’s original inhabitants.
This, while nearly every day, there are reports of pipelines spilling oil or even exploding somewhere in North America. A few months ago, a spill in Ventura sent 45,000 gallons of oil flowing into the sea. Another oil spill in Canada sent 250,000 liters of oil flowing right into the North Saskatchewan River.
Oil corporations have money, power, and the ability to influence law enforcement, while the nonviolent protestors have just themselves. They are so small in comparison. Yet the world is watching, and a great swelling of awareness and action on behalf of the earth is underway. Those protestors, those protectors of land and water:
Just a little shoot, but with the power to bring life and wholeness…
These days, threats are increasingly being directed at vulnerable communities. Hate crimes have spiked over the past month in America, particularly against Muslims and members of the LGBT community. Right here in our own neighborhood, the Long Beach Islamic Center has received threatening letters.
But the voices of individuals like you and me declaring that we will not sit quietly while the rights of our Muslim brothers and sisters are taken away… or while the rights of the LGBT community are threatened… can make a huge difference.
On our own, we’re not big; but if we join our voices with others in demanding justice, freedom, and equality for all, we will be heard.
The call for justice rarely comes from large institutions of society. The call for justice almost always arises from lone individuals banding together. The call to support and strengthen the weak and the vulnerable is not going to come from the mightiest trees in the forest. It’s going to come from the seedlings and the saplings, from individual shoots and branches.
So do not lament that you are not strong and mighty.
Do not lament that Bixby Knolls Christian Church is a small congregation.
We may be just a shoot, a tiny branch springing up from the roots or the stump of a once mighty tree.
But we have the power of Christ within us, the power that can move mountains…the power that first manifested itself in the form of a tiny baby born in a manger…
Good things really do come in small packages.
That child that was born was filled with the power of the Spirit. That child prepared a pathway to peace.
And that child bestows that same power to us. The power that brings life and wholeness to the world.
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