Droughty shrub or vigorous tree?

Date: 3 July 2022 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: Jere­mi­ah 17:5–8
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

Jere­mi­ah pres­ents two opti­ons: to beco­me like a scraw­ny bunch of juni­pers in the desert or like a stur­dy tree by the water. Which way we go depends on who we rely on. Do we trust in our­sel­ves or in other peo­p­le or do we trust in the Lord? We can­not beco­me a strong tree by our own strength, but with the strength of our decisions.


 

Last Sun­day evening we once again sat under our wide­ly bran­ched cher­ry tree. Alt­hough the sun stung a litt­le poi­so­no­us­ly, it was very plea­sant under the cher­ry tree bio air con­di­tio­ner. The tree also pro­tects our house from unp­lea­sant over­hea­ting. Moreo­ver, it was hea­vi­ly hung with fruit. All you had to do was open your mouth and you would have had your fill. The tree pro­tects our house and makes our sea­ting area to the west opaque. The tree is a visu­al eye-cat­cher and worth its weight in gold in useful terms.

God’s crea­ti­on pro­vi­des images for our spi­ri­tu­al life. We are invi­ted to beco­me such a tree like our cher­ry tree.

Duerr shrub

«Thus says the Lord: Cur­sed be he who turns away from me and reli­es only on men or his own strength. He is like a puny juni­per bush in the desert, try­ing to grow on sal­ty, bar­ren ground – he will not have much luck» (Jere­mi­ah 17:5–6 NLB).

A person’s choices in life have an influence on whe­ther he beco­mes a puny juni­per bush in the desert or a stur­dy tree on the shore. The cau­se of such a mise­ra­ble exis­tence is to turn away from God and rely only on peo­p­le or one’s own strength. Sin­ce para­di­se, this has been the ori­gi­nal tempt­a­ti­on of man. Adam and Eve alre­a­dy dis­trus­ted God and trus­ted more in their own ways to hap­pi­ness. This is cal­led sin; put­ting one’s trust in some­thing other than God..

Many rely on peo­p­le. The say­ing goes: Whoe­ver reli­es on other peo­p­le is aban­do­ned. Such peo­p­le base their lives on the opi­ni­ons and phi­lo­so­phies of men. When peo­p­le have a grea­ter influence than God on my life, it shows in fear of man. What do my col­le­agues at work think when they find out that I am on a first-name basis with Jesus? You throw your con­vic­tions over­board just to look good with peo­p­le. You com­pro­mi­se so as not to be side­lined by your friends.

Others rely on their own strength. For many years of your life you think you are invul­nerable. A week and a half ago I got a call from a woman who­se hus­band had a car­diac arrest. At the latest in such moments you rea­li­se that lite­ral­ly every breath we take is given by God. «If you take their breath away, they die and turn to dust again.»(Psalm 104:29b NLB). Our lives are much more fra­gi­le than we think.

Whoe­ver trusts hims­elf or other peo­p­le more than God will have a mise­ra­ble exis­tence, spi­ri­tual­ly spea­king.. He «tri­es to grow in sal­ty, infer­ti­le soil – it won’t have much luck». Such a per­son sucks up ever­y­thing that pro­mi­ses hap­pi­ness. It melts away bet­ween his fin­gers. In essence, he is very self-cent­red. Ever­y­thing such a per­son can get, he needs for hims­elf. Not­hing is left for others. She has to see how she can sur­vi­ve in the bar­ren desert. Nar­cis­sism is a varie­ty of this mise­ra­ble existence.

Strong tree

«But bles­sings shall come upon him who puts all his hope in the Lord and trusts him com­ple­te­ly. This man is like a tree plan­ted on the bank. Its roots are deep­ly roo­ted in the stream­bed: even in scor­ching heat and months of drought, its lea­ves remain green. Year after year he bears abun­dant fruit» (Jere­mi­ah 17:7–8 NLB).

The pathe­tic litt­le shrub is con­tras­ted with a vigo­rous healt­hy tree. One opti­on for our life is to beco­me a strong tree. Such a tree has reser­ves and does not need all the sap of life to keep its­elf afloat. Its lea­ves are green. Year after year it bears fruit abundantly.

A per­son who has beco­me a powerful tree spi­ri­tual­ly offers ever­y­thing that our cher­ry tree is:

  • Bio­cli­ma­tic sys­temOther peo­p­le like to be in his pre­sence, the­re is a plea­sant cli­ma­te. Espe­ci­al­ly peo­p­le mark­ed by suf­fe­ring are attrac­ted and find peace for their souls.
  • Pro­vi­der: Trees at the water’s edge are not end users, but have left self-encir­cle­ment behind. Thus they them­sel­ves beco­me a source for others. Jesus descri­bes this: «[…] If anyo­ne thirsts, let him come to me and drink! He who belie­ves in me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water […].» (John 7:37–38 NLB).
  • Opaque: They do not flaunt the weak­ne­s­ses of others through iro­ny, but are tactful and cover other people’s shame, gran­ting them honour and dignity.
  • Beau­ty: A per­son who has beco­me such a tree radia­tes beau­ty. Not becau­se he has the right mass, clear fea­tures or sex appeal, no, he radia­tes a deeper and purer beauty.

A per­son as strong as a tree is not frigh­ten­ed even in the face of death, but approa­ches it con­fi­dent­ly, calm­ly and trus­tingly. I recent­ly expe­ri­en­ced this with a per­son who knows that her life is han­ging by a thin thread.

You can decide

«But bles­sings shall come upon him who puts all his hope in the Lord and trusts him com­ple­te­ly»(Jere­mi­ah 17:7 NLB). The con­di­ti­ons for a per­son to stand like a vital tree are: to put one’s hope in the Lord and to trust Him completely.

Many years ago I was on a deman­ding clim­bing tour in the Ber­gell in tow of my moun­tain gui­de col­le­ague Mar­tin. When I loo­ked at mys­elf, every step was too much of a chall­enge. To the left and right, it felt like hundreds of met­res of almost ver­ti­cal des­cent. My hope was that I could secu­re mys­elf with Mar­tin and that he would give me cou­ra­ge through his calm, cer­tain and com­pe­tent man­ner. His expe­ri­ence was based on the fact that he had alre­a­dy gui­ded dozens of guests safe­ly to the sum­mits and back to the valley.

The Hebrew word for Trust says Secu­re in. Trus­ting the Lord com­ple­te­ly means secu­ring one’s life with Him. He is com­pe­tent, good, knows us and knows what He can expect of us. Life with God is an adven­ture like moun­tain clim­bing. Secu­red in God, we can climb rocks wit­hout fear that we would never mana­ge on our own. And God is good. He has alre­a­dy led thou­sands of peo­p­le safe­ly through life.

We can­not beco­me a healt­hy and strong tree by our own power, but with the power of our decis­i­ons we can beco­me a healt­hy and strong tree.. «Today I pre­sent you with a choice bet­ween life and death, bet­ween bles­sing and cur­se. Hea­ven and earth are my wit­nesses. Choo­se life, so that you and your des­cen­dants may live!» (Deut. 30:19 NLB). We have a choice. Do I want to put my trust in God or in peo­p­le? You can­not demand trust, you have to give it to someone. When trust is bro­ken in a mar­ria­ge through unfaithful­ness, it takes a very long time and many good expe­ri­en­ces to rebuild it. Jere­mi­ah says in the name of the Lord: «Cur­sed be he who turns away from me and reli­es only on peo­p­le or his own strength.» The oppo­si­te is to turn to God. Again and again. That is how trust grows.

How can we beco­me peo­p­le who put all their trust in God? The Psalms also out­line the way in which a per­son can beco­me a tree by the water. «Hap­py is he who desi­res the law of the LORD and thinks about it day and night.»(Psalm 1:2 NGÜ). In the Bible we see and expe­ri­ence how trust­wor­t­hy God is. In Him the­re are no shadows, only light. No one else in this world is so faithful, so good, so full of inte­gri­ty. Put­ting your trust in this won­derful God invol­ves no risk. The gain is gre­at: beco­ming like a tree plan­ted by streams of water. In rea­ding and medi­ta­ting on God’s Word, our trust in God grows. If you wash a red sock tog­e­ther with a white shirt, the shirt gets a red tint. In the same way, when God’s word is read and che­wed, God rubs off on us.

Peter Hah­ne wri­tes: «He who kne­els befo­re God can stand upright befo­re men.» Whoe­ver reli­es on God beco­mes a strong tree that does not easi­ly bend befo­re men. We can­not beco­me a strong tree by our own power, but with the power of our decis­i­ons we can beco­me a strong tree.. The con­se­quence of rely­ing on peo­p­le is fear of man. John Beve­re says: «You will ser­ve what you fear. If you fear God, you will ser­ve Him. If you fear peo­p­le, you will ser­ve peo­p­le. You have to deci­de.» The decis­i­on is ours.

Next to the cher­ry tree, the­re is a spring in our gar­den. Crys­tal clear water runs con­ti­nuous­ly. Befo­re every meal we fill a jug and enjoy it. In the visi­on of see­tal chi­le, too, a spring forms the cent­re. Jesus invi­tes us: «[…] If anyo­ne is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!»(John 7:37 NLB). The decis­i­on whe­ther we want to drink from the source of Jesus is ours. The water is a sym­bol of the Holy Spi­rit (v.39), which is given to all who trust Jesus Christ. And this Spi­rit brings about in us what we can­not do our­sel­ves: to beco­me a vigo­rous tree!

 

 

Questions for the small groups

Read Bible text: Jere­mi­ah 17:5–8; John 7:37–39

  1. Whe­re do you see the dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween a scraw­ny shrub and a strong tree – in a direct and figu­ra­ti­ve sense?
  2. In what does it show that I rely on mys­elf or on other people?
  3. What does it mean con­cre­te­ly in ever­y­day life to rely com­ple­te­ly on the Lord and to put one’s hope in Him?
  4. What are the con­se­quen­ces of such a life?
  5. Do you know peo­p­le who you would say have the qua­li­ties of a strong tree? Whe­re do you see your own beginnings?