The Righteous Branch
Stories
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Contents
"The Righteous Branch" by Sandra Herrmann
"As for these things that you see" by Frank Ramirez
The Righteous Branch
by Sandra Herrmann
Jeremiah 33:14-16
We have a problem: a tree that keeps insisting that it will grow under the fence that borders our driveway. It’s a maple tree, and is quite pretty. The only problem with it is that it’s in the wrong place. I took a saw to it four years ago, and cut it off level with the driveway. Before fall arrived, it had regrown from the root. All around the trunk were slender shoots, and each of the shoots grew quite lovely leaves that turned bright red after the first frost.
A neighbor came over when I was standing there, contemplating the fact that something quite pretty can be a terrible nuisance. “Try cutting it back now,” he offered, “and it won’t have time to recover. That might kill it.”
A visiting friend shook her head. “Maples are actually the weeds of the tree family. If it’s decided to grow here, you’ll probably need to dig it out.”
I pointed out that the tree now has grown branches on both sides of the fence. Some of those branches are literally twisted through the chain links. If I want to be rid of the tree, I’ll have to have someone come out and uncouple the chain link mesh from the posts on either side of the tree. I could not do this heavy work myself, and it would cost more than I could afford at the time. We both sighed. It was a puzzle we could not figure out at the time.
The next year, an ex-farmer I know came to visit. I showed him the stump and asked his advice.
“Yeah,” he said, “maples are a problem to get rid of. I’d guess the roots are firmly established under the driveway by now. But you know, you have a valuable commodity here.”
He has a way of pulling my leg, so I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Really? What’s valuable about this stump?”
“Well, back in the middle ages, these branches growing out of the stump were called withees. They were what people used to make baskets, or to weave walls for carts or houses, or for woven chair seats. You cut them low on the branch and peel the bark and since they’re green, they bend nicely as you weave, and dry in place. Makes a nice, firm weave.”
“Oh. Well, I used to weave cloth, but I’ve never woven with branches. I suppose they would work like rushes?”
I cut off all the withees and put them in a deep bucket filled with water. It might be fun to weave them, I thought. But we had a sudden cold snap, and the bucket of water turned into ice for a few days. When the man who does yard work came around, he was of the opinion that they wouldn’t work too easily, being frozen. So I let him throw them away.
A few days later, a neighbor asked after the withees. She had a friend who re-canes chairs, and was disappointed that the withees were gone. She’d had the thought that her friend could make good use of them. We mourned the loss of a unique gift for her friend.
Winter came and went and the stump again put forth new shoots.
“What a pain!” my sister said. I agreed. “You going to hire somebody to dig out that stump this year?”
“No. It’s too expensive. Next year I hope to be able to afford having a new driveway poured, so as they break up the concrete and haul it away, I’m going to have them uproot that tree. Maybe I can get this done without tearing down the fence to get at it.”
Of course that was fruitless, just as every other attempt we’d made to get that stump out of there had been. Yes, the driveway crew chopped at the stump, and yes, it had put out roots under the driveway. But it had also put out roots under the lawn. After they worked at it for about half an hour, the foreman came to me and said that they couldn’t put any more work into the tree removal without charging extra for their time. I tossed my arms into the air in futile exasperation. Obviously, the tree was here to stay.
Fall and winter came and went, and in the early spring I checked to see if the maple was putting out new branches. None. Well, it looked as though we’d won! Tree 3, homeowners 1, but victory was in our grasp. I put the saw away and gloated. But you’ve probably guessed already that this was not the victory we’d hoped for. June came, and up from the stump came new shoots.
“Admit it,” my spouse said, “the tree wins.”
“I should have known,” I nodded. “After all, it’s the promise of God through Jeremiah!”
“Huh?”
Wait for it. . . .
“Well, God promised Jeremiah that He would cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and even though it took 500 years, Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise. So I should have known the tree would win!”
Sandra Herrmann is pastor of Memorial United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Wisconsin. In 1980, she was in the first class ordained by Bishop Marjorie Matthews (the first female United Methodist bishop). Herrmann is the author of Ambassadors of Hope (CSS); her articles and sermons have also appeared in Emphasis and The Circuit Rider, and her poetry has been published in Alive Now and So's Your Old Lady. She has trained lay speakers and led workshops and Bible studies throughout Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana. Sandra's favorite pastime is reading with her two dogs piled on her.
* * *
As for these things that you see
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 21:25-36
"As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." (Luke 21:6)
The Jewish War, which lasted from 66 to 73 AD, was the disastrous revolt on the part of the Judean forces against the might of the Roman Empire that ended in the destruction of the Second Temple and indeed seemed to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus that within the lifespans of some of those who heard, “...not one stone will be left upon another....”(Luke 21:6)
There was unimaginable suffering and death. The exact numbers are unknowable, though some estimate that in addition to as many as 20,000 Roman troops and fifty thousand Jewish combatants (some of whom fought each other because of religious differences) died in battle. However, far more non-combatants died. The Jewish Historian Josephus suggests that over a million perished, some because fanatic forces destroyed Jerusalem’s food supply while they were besieged by the Romans. No one is sure, but it must have been at the least hundreds of thousands who were killed by the sword or starved to death during the siege.
Not long before the war began the leader of the Jerusalem Christians, James the Just, the brother of Jesus and author of the Letter of James in the New Testament, was murdered According to the Christian historian Hegesippus, whose writings have disappeared but who is quoted by other ancient Christian historians, the Christians in Jerusalem selected another relative of Jesus -- his cousin Simeon -- to lead them. Simeon was the son of Clopas, who is mentioned as the husband of a Mary who stood by the cross during the Crucifixion (John 19:25). Clopas is remembered by early Christian historians as the brother of Joseph. This made Simeon the cousin of the Lord.
Not much is known about the relatives of Jesus. According to one story, years after the destruction of the Temple the Emperor Domitian questioned two of Jesus’ nephews. He first asked how much money they owned and was surprised to learn that they were very poor. Their main resource was the land they owned. He was also shocked to discover they grew their own food and worked to support themselves. According to Eusebius, the Christian historian, “Then they showed their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies and the callousness produced upon their hands by continuous toil as evidence of their own labor.” The historian goes on to relate that the emperor dismissed “them as of no account” and let them go.
Simeon, no doubt hard-working like the rest of the relatives of Jesus, was the leader of the Jerusalem Christians when the war broke out. Until then Roman authorities don’t seem to have differentiated between Jews and Christians, but saw them as different factions of one faith. But something happened that probably sealed the break between the two great faiths of Judaism and Christianity. As the story goes:
“But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation vouchsafed to approved men before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella.” (Eusebius III, V, 3)
Pella is a city beyond the Jordan, in Gentile territory. According to the historian Epiphanius it was an angel who spoke to the Christians. Regardless, the record is clear that before Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed, and temple left with seemingly not one stone left upon another, “those that believed in Christ has come thither from Jerusalem,” living in Gentile territory. They had seen the signs and responded to revelation, and saved themselves from the destruction that followed.
Simeon lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and twenty, according to the ancient records, at which time he suffered martyrdom through crucifixion at the command of the Emperor Trajan, no doubt one of the last of those who had seen Jesus in life.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, November 29, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"The Righteous Branch" by Sandra Herrmann
"As for these things that you see" by Frank Ramirez
The Righteous Branch
by Sandra Herrmann
Jeremiah 33:14-16
We have a problem: a tree that keeps insisting that it will grow under the fence that borders our driveway. It’s a maple tree, and is quite pretty. The only problem with it is that it’s in the wrong place. I took a saw to it four years ago, and cut it off level with the driveway. Before fall arrived, it had regrown from the root. All around the trunk were slender shoots, and each of the shoots grew quite lovely leaves that turned bright red after the first frost.
A neighbor came over when I was standing there, contemplating the fact that something quite pretty can be a terrible nuisance. “Try cutting it back now,” he offered, “and it won’t have time to recover. That might kill it.”
A visiting friend shook her head. “Maples are actually the weeds of the tree family. If it’s decided to grow here, you’ll probably need to dig it out.”
I pointed out that the tree now has grown branches on both sides of the fence. Some of those branches are literally twisted through the chain links. If I want to be rid of the tree, I’ll have to have someone come out and uncouple the chain link mesh from the posts on either side of the tree. I could not do this heavy work myself, and it would cost more than I could afford at the time. We both sighed. It was a puzzle we could not figure out at the time.
The next year, an ex-farmer I know came to visit. I showed him the stump and asked his advice.
“Yeah,” he said, “maples are a problem to get rid of. I’d guess the roots are firmly established under the driveway by now. But you know, you have a valuable commodity here.”
He has a way of pulling my leg, so I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Really? What’s valuable about this stump?”
“Well, back in the middle ages, these branches growing out of the stump were called withees. They were what people used to make baskets, or to weave walls for carts or houses, or for woven chair seats. You cut them low on the branch and peel the bark and since they’re green, they bend nicely as you weave, and dry in place. Makes a nice, firm weave.”
“Oh. Well, I used to weave cloth, but I’ve never woven with branches. I suppose they would work like rushes?”
I cut off all the withees and put them in a deep bucket filled with water. It might be fun to weave them, I thought. But we had a sudden cold snap, and the bucket of water turned into ice for a few days. When the man who does yard work came around, he was of the opinion that they wouldn’t work too easily, being frozen. So I let him throw them away.
A few days later, a neighbor asked after the withees. She had a friend who re-canes chairs, and was disappointed that the withees were gone. She’d had the thought that her friend could make good use of them. We mourned the loss of a unique gift for her friend.
Winter came and went and the stump again put forth new shoots.
“What a pain!” my sister said. I agreed. “You going to hire somebody to dig out that stump this year?”
“No. It’s too expensive. Next year I hope to be able to afford having a new driveway poured, so as they break up the concrete and haul it away, I’m going to have them uproot that tree. Maybe I can get this done without tearing down the fence to get at it.”
Of course that was fruitless, just as every other attempt we’d made to get that stump out of there had been. Yes, the driveway crew chopped at the stump, and yes, it had put out roots under the driveway. But it had also put out roots under the lawn. After they worked at it for about half an hour, the foreman came to me and said that they couldn’t put any more work into the tree removal without charging extra for their time. I tossed my arms into the air in futile exasperation. Obviously, the tree was here to stay.
Fall and winter came and went, and in the early spring I checked to see if the maple was putting out new branches. None. Well, it looked as though we’d won! Tree 3, homeowners 1, but victory was in our grasp. I put the saw away and gloated. But you’ve probably guessed already that this was not the victory we’d hoped for. June came, and up from the stump came new shoots.
“Admit it,” my spouse said, “the tree wins.”
“I should have known,” I nodded. “After all, it’s the promise of God through Jeremiah!”
“Huh?”
Wait for it. . . .
“Well, God promised Jeremiah that He would cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and even though it took 500 years, Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise. So I should have known the tree would win!”
Sandra Herrmann is pastor of Memorial United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Wisconsin. In 1980, she was in the first class ordained by Bishop Marjorie Matthews (the first female United Methodist bishop). Herrmann is the author of Ambassadors of Hope (CSS); her articles and sermons have also appeared in Emphasis and The Circuit Rider, and her poetry has been published in Alive Now and So's Your Old Lady. She has trained lay speakers and led workshops and Bible studies throughout Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana. Sandra's favorite pastime is reading with her two dogs piled on her.
* * *
As for these things that you see
by Frank Ramirez
Luke 21:25-36
"As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." (Luke 21:6)
The Jewish War, which lasted from 66 to 73 AD, was the disastrous revolt on the part of the Judean forces against the might of the Roman Empire that ended in the destruction of the Second Temple and indeed seemed to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus that within the lifespans of some of those who heard, “...not one stone will be left upon another....”(Luke 21:6)
There was unimaginable suffering and death. The exact numbers are unknowable, though some estimate that in addition to as many as 20,000 Roman troops and fifty thousand Jewish combatants (some of whom fought each other because of religious differences) died in battle. However, far more non-combatants died. The Jewish Historian Josephus suggests that over a million perished, some because fanatic forces destroyed Jerusalem’s food supply while they were besieged by the Romans. No one is sure, but it must have been at the least hundreds of thousands who were killed by the sword or starved to death during the siege.
Not long before the war began the leader of the Jerusalem Christians, James the Just, the brother of Jesus and author of the Letter of James in the New Testament, was murdered According to the Christian historian Hegesippus, whose writings have disappeared but who is quoted by other ancient Christian historians, the Christians in Jerusalem selected another relative of Jesus -- his cousin Simeon -- to lead them. Simeon was the son of Clopas, who is mentioned as the husband of a Mary who stood by the cross during the Crucifixion (John 19:25). Clopas is remembered by early Christian historians as the brother of Joseph. This made Simeon the cousin of the Lord.
Not much is known about the relatives of Jesus. According to one story, years after the destruction of the Temple the Emperor Domitian questioned two of Jesus’ nephews. He first asked how much money they owned and was surprised to learn that they were very poor. Their main resource was the land they owned. He was also shocked to discover they grew their own food and worked to support themselves. According to Eusebius, the Christian historian, “Then they showed their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies and the callousness produced upon their hands by continuous toil as evidence of their own labor.” The historian goes on to relate that the emperor dismissed “them as of no account” and let them go.
Simeon, no doubt hard-working like the rest of the relatives of Jesus, was the leader of the Jerusalem Christians when the war broke out. Until then Roman authorities don’t seem to have differentiated between Jews and Christians, but saw them as different factions of one faith. But something happened that probably sealed the break between the two great faiths of Judaism and Christianity. As the story goes:
“But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation vouchsafed to approved men before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella.” (Eusebius III, V, 3)
Pella is a city beyond the Jordan, in Gentile territory. According to the historian Epiphanius it was an angel who spoke to the Christians. Regardless, the record is clear that before Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed, and temple left with seemingly not one stone left upon another, “those that believed in Christ has come thither from Jerusalem,” living in Gentile territory. They had seen the signs and responded to revelation, and saved themselves from the destruction that followed.
Simeon lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and twenty, according to the ancient records, at which time he suffered martyrdom through crucifixion at the command of the Emperor Trajan, no doubt one of the last of those who had seen Jesus in life.
Frank Ramirez is a native of Southern California and is the senior pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren near Nappanee, Indiana. Frank has served congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennie share three adult children, all married, and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing, reading, exercise, and theater.
*****************************************
StoryShare, November 29, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
