Sermon: "A Little Shoot" (Isaiah 11:1-10)

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.

"Preparing for Peace" (Isaiah 11:1-10)

It seems like there is always some part of the world in conflict, doesn’t it? Iraq. Afghanistan. Palestine. Pakistan. Congo. Korea.


We don’t even have to go that far, do we? Warfare takes place on the strees of L.A. and even Long Beach, as gangs fight over turf.

But we don’t even have to go that far. Many of us have known or know even today of conflict within our homes, of relationships torn apart, of animosity and resentment and even hatred. I have little doubt that there is someone here today for whom such conflict has even been violent.

Members of the Hatfield/McCoy feud are on my family tree, so I know this is true. We live in a culture of violence and conflict.

However, I also know that the vision that is presented in scripture over and over again is a vision of peace.

Oh, how we cling to that vision.

We cling to it, but it seems so hard to hold on to. It slips through our hands like find grains of sand; so we reach down and scoop it up again, only to have it slip away again.

But peace is more than just an absence of conflict. A cease-fire does not mean there is peace.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the people who stood by a river and noticed babies floating down the water. Clearly, without someone to rescue them, they would die. So the people jump in and start pulling the babies out.

But one of the people there gets out of the river and starts running. “Where are you going?” he is asked. He replies, “I’m going upstream to see who’s throwing all these babies in the river.”

Maybe a more fitting paraphrase of the story would be to imagine that a stream of airplanes are flying over a city, one after another, dropping bombs. In order to protect the city, the people of that city start shooting down the planes. This stops the bombs from falling, but there still isn’t any peace. Not until someone goes and finds out where the planes are coming from, and why, is there a possibility of peace.

And even then, it may be tempting to just attack the people who are sending the planes. But even then, peace will not occur. For real peace, we must ask why they feel the need to send the planes in the first place.

I wish we lived in a world that glorified and honored peacemakers at least as much as it glorifies and honors warmakers. It’s the warmakers who make the headlines. It’s the warmakers who are featured in video games. The peacemakers – they’re out there, but they do their work with much less publicity.

Nevertheless, their stories are out there for those who search for them.

Greg Mortenson is one of them. I’ve talked aboug Greg Mortenson before. He is a mountain climber, who – some years ago – was in Pakistan climbing some of the tallest peaks in the world. But he got lost, and ended up in a remote mountain village.

Exhausted, Greg stayed in the village for some time as the people of that village nursed him back to health. He learned that, though they were very poor, they were content, mostly. But one thing they desperately needed for their children was a school. So Greg vowed to return to that village one day and build a school.

Greg didn’t know what he was getting into. Greg himself had very little money. He had no idea how to raise money or build a school. He had a lot to learn.

Through a mixture of failures and successes, Greg Mortenson finally returned to build the school, only to be told by the village that in order to build a school, he would first have to build a bridge in order for the supplies to be carried into the village.

Eventually, though, the school was built. Greg Mortenson then decided to build another school, then another and another. Hundreds of schools have now been built in Pakistan and Afghanistan by the organization he eventually founded.

And with each school Mortenson builds, he is waging peace. That’s because the people in those villages are desperate for education for their children. For many of them, the only schools available are run by terrorist organizations. They are desperate for education, so they are willing to let their children be educated by the Taliban. Mortenson is providing an alternative. Greg Mortenson is providing a path of peace.

It’s not always easy. There are those who criticize Mortenson’s work. There are those who don’t like the fact that the people he builds schools for are Muslims. If I recall correctly, he has even received threats from people who are hateful or intolerant of other religions. But Greg Mortenson continues his work, despite the risks and challenges that come to those who are peacemakers.

This week, I read the story of another peacemaker in a book called “Tattoos of the Heart.” Father Greg Boyle is a Catholic priest who works in the poorest parish in Los Angeles. In his time there, he has presided at the funerals of over 170 victims of gang warfare.

Father Boyle began reaching out to gang members. He built relationships. He didn’t condemn them, but instead let them know that each of them was a child of God, loved by God, and that God had a better vision for their lives.

He asked them what they needed, and overwhelmingly, they told him: they needed jobs. He tried persuading various businesses to hire gang members and ex-gang members, to keep them off the streets, but met with limited success. So he and his parish started their own business, Homeboy Industries, which actually is not that different from Homie Accents, one of our Alternative Christmas vendors today.

Father Boyle and his parish opened a bakery. They opened other businesses. Not all of them were a success, but some were. (You gotta be willing to fail if you want to succeed.)

Not everyone was happy, though. People complained about what he and his church were doing. Death threats were sent in from people who believed that the only thing to be done with gang members was to lock them up. Again, we see that it is risky and challenging to be a peacemaker.

One night, the bakery burned down. The fear was that it was arson. As the embers died down, a fire inspector asked Father Boyle if there was anyone who might want to set fire to the bakery; after all, he said, it was located in an area filled with hoodlums. Father Boyle responded that his bakery only hired hoodlums, and it wouldn’t have been one of them.

The next morning, one of the workers arrived for his shift. When he saw the destroyed bakery, he fell down and wept. His job at the bakery had been what saved him. It was what had taken his broken, fragmented life, and made him whole. It was what had turned his life around.

The bakery was rebuilt. The cause of the fire, as it turned out, was not arson, but an electrical short. At the time the book I’m reading was written, the young man who fell down and wept worked there still.

So there is a path to peace. It is a path that has nothing to do with deterrence, or locking up the hoodlums, or destroying the enemy. So much of our idea of peace is based on destroying the enemy, but where does Jesus ever say that the path to peace is destroying one’s enemies?

What Jesus did was reach out to them. This one whom God sent to earth to show humanity a better way spoke to his enemies of God’s love for the world. He spoke to them of God’s love for them personally, and he showed them that love, by engaging in table fellowship with them – essentially marking them as members of his family – when no one else would associate with them. He provided them healing so that they could reclaim their place in society, when everyone else sought to remove them from society. And when others challenged him on his methods, sending him death threats, he loved them and extended to them the same welcome he extended to everyone.

The United States has a Department of War. For as long as the United States has been a nation, there have been calls for the creation of a Department of Peace. From signers of the Declaration of Independence, to a group of family members of those killed on September 11; from noted Americans like Walter Cronkite to current congressmen like democrat Dennis Kucinich and republican Wayne Gilchrist, people have recognized the need for a cabinet-level Secretary of Peace and a Department of Peace, which would recognize the importance of things like schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and jobs in the inner city, and countless other efforts that would help make our world a more peaceful, safer place to live.

In 1984, Bixby Knolls Christian Church officially declared itself a shalom congregation. That means that we take seriously the call to peace, and the importance of seeking and making peace in our world. We can do that. It is our calling.

And it starts with God. In his book, Father Boyle mentions that it all starts with letting God love you, and letting others know that God loves them.

For some, especially those who are not proud of their past, that’s not easy. Actually, most of us find it challenging. Yes, we accept the truth that God is love. We know that God loves the world, and since we are part of the world, God loves us as well.

But for many of us, it seems that God has to love us. It’s God’s job to love us. God may not want to love us, but God loves us anyway, because that’s God’s job.

That’s what many of us think. And if we don’t think that in regards to ourselves, then we think it in regards to someone else. God has to love those gang members.

But you know what? God doesn’t have to love anyone. God chooses to love. God chooses to love you. In fact, as Father Boyle says, it is God’s greatest joy to love you.

If you can grasp that concept – if you can, as one of Father Boyle’s homies says, bring that idea into your heart and let it marinate there for awhile – your life will be changed.

And if you can share that idea with those around you: let them know that God loves them just the same, that it is God’s greatest joy to love them, no matter what mistakes they’ve made in the past – then the world will be changed. Wolves and lambs will live together in peace. And God’s vision for a kingdom of shalom will be made real on earth.