The Hospitality of Trees
March 23, 2025 Third Sunday in Lent
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Isaiah 55:1-9 Luke 13:1-9
“The Hospitality of Trees”
Courtney Chandler
Growing up we had a ton of trees in our yard. We would refer to them as “the woods” next to our house. Being in Georgia, most of those trees were sticky pine trees. Pinecones and pine straw littered most of our yard, but we also had other trees. We had many dogwoods that would bloom this time of year with their pink and white blooms peaking through the green pines. We had a huge magnolia tree in our yard with the largest, shiniest leaves I have ever laid my eyes on. There was an apple tree that occasionally produced tiny green apples, and a cherry tree that had the most beautiful pink blossoms that danced in the wind. We also had many other trees of the oak and maple variety. As a child I loved spending time in those trees. I still love trees. So it should come as no surprise that I have always wanted a treehouse.
Did any of you ever watch the show, “Tree House Masters?” Pete Nelson was the star of the show and the architect who built and designed tree houses. His team of builders would go to different locations across the country to build these magnificent treehouses. I always wanted to visit one of his treehouses. I learned there is one at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park in Lampe, Missouri…I may need to make a trip this spring to visit. Of course; if I go, I have to take my son, Liam along with me. When he was little he loved watching Pete Nelson build these treehouses. One year for his birthday, I sent Pete an email. I was so disappointed when I never received an email response. Then, on Liam’s birthday, he received a big envelope in the mail with a letter written to him by Pete himself, encouraging him to always look to the trees and to never lose his sense of adventure. Along with the letter was an autograph picture and lots of Tree House Master memorabilia.
Pete would always say on his show, “To the trees!” And the reason for that is because trees are so good for us, not just physically, but mentally and maybe even spiritually, depending on how you want to look at them.
Trees provide shade and shelter. They can reduce the need for air conditioning on a hot day. Trees purify the air and help with pollution. They provide homes for wildlife and protect soil and our water. Studies have even shown that spending time in the trees can have a calming effect on us and help with our mental well-being. I have always found that when I spend time among the trees I feel God’s presence as I see God’s thumbprint on all of creation.
I believe this text, along with the text Barbara read from Isaiah, is, at the end of the day, about Radical Hospitality. Radical hospitality is a concept that goes beyond simple politeness, emphasizing a deep, transformative welcome and acceptance of others, particularly those who might be marginalized or different, fostering a sense of belonging and shared humanity. Radical Hospitality requires looking inward and coming to grips with our own biases and judgementalist attitudes and brings us to realize that we are all part of God’s beloved creation and helps us to view one another in ways that allow us to open our hearts and minds to being a place where God is found and seen over and over in both our words and deeds.
The Isaiah text is a call for all to come and eat and drink and enjoy life…despite who you are or where you come from. Our call is to produce the fruit of welcome through making certain that no person feels like an afterthought or left out, because God loves us all equally and when we welcome others, we are welcoming Christ…
But, unfortunately, we find ourselves sometimes missing the mark on making sure all are included and welcomed and that all are given the love and attention God requires of us.
That’s unfortunate because hospitality is at the heart of God’s kingdom…it is where all are welcome as they are…and as the church we should embrace those on the journey, wherever they are on the journey. Instead we find we sometimes are judgemental of others…
Did you see what she was wearing?
Did you hear what happened to him at his job?
Did you know they got a divorce? I wonder what she did? What he did?
Did you know their child has financial troubles? Troubles in school? Trouble with the law?
He is so weird, he doesn’t have any friends.
She is such a strange person.
They don’t look like us.
They don’t act like us.
They don’t drive the right car.
They are too fat or too thin.
They don’t fit into the financial bracket.
And my St. Louis favorite, “They didn’t go to the right high school.”
This judgmental attitude is nothing new to us humans. We have been doing it…well…always. Jesus is even addressing this judgement from the beginning of our text in Luke. He is trying to straighten out the false belief that bad things happen to people because they deserve it.
The massacre the people are asking Jesus about most likely took place in the temple in Jerusalem. Pilate ordered some Galileans to be killed while they were in the act of slaughtering their sacrifice to God. Surely, the people think, their sins must have been awful for them to have been slain in this way. Jesus says no, that the Galileans who died, doing what was required to atone for their sins, did not get what they had coming to them. Indeed they were no worse than the 18 who were probably working on the tower near a spring or aqueduct when it fell, killing them all. Surely the sins of those slaughtered in the temple were no worse than any others in all of Jerusalem, despite the fact they were Galileans and not Israelites. Jesus says no, those who were killed while at the temple to worship God, were still part of God’s beloved creation. God’s grace is bigger than what the people can fathom.
Jesus says to his audience, the way to work through all this turmoil that is happening…all the political upheaval and separation and despair that was happening in his day, the way to get through it and to make change and to be true to God…is to repent. The Greek word for repent is, “Metanoeo.” It doesn’t just mean to be sorry for something. It literally means to change one’s mind, to change one’s heart…to turn around. It means for those of us who follow Christ, that we are to listen to what God is saying to us: through scripture, through prayer, through how God is speaking to us on the daily. Metanoeo means we recognize the ways we have turned our backs on God and God’s people and how we have failed to follow Christ. And then we work and we change our hearts so that we can turn back towards God and towards living a life of Christ-like behavior. It means doing the hard work and letting go of our judgemental attitudes and prejudices that keep us from seeing God in others…that give us permission to exclude instead of include others. It’s the work we do to remember that God calls us all to the welcome table. It’s when we remember that in God’s house there are many rooms and there is room for all.
This is how we produce fruit, it comes from a place of radical love and radical hospitality, because God is a God of radical hospitality and unconditional love. Jesus warns us by saying we have to bear this fruit or the tree, the tree gets cut down. But first, there is a year of grace given to the tree.
We don’t know if the year of grace in this parable brought about fruit…that’s not the point…the point is, God desires for us to be the bearers of the Good News…to live in the light of Christ and to open our hearts and arms as a place of welcome. And God grants us grace to keep trying until we can get it right.
This is why we must listen and try to understand how God is speaking to us. We turn inward to ask ourselves where and how we lack this show of hospitality to those in our world, because we know to judge others and to be inhospitable is to be unwelcoming to Christ himself.
When we do the hard work on ourselves we see others in a new light. When we begin to see ourselves as made in the image and likeness of God, when we love ourselves as God loves us, we can then return that love to God and neighbor because it is then we stop the judgements and see Christ within all we meet.
Turning our hearts and minds back to God and away from the things which harm us and hold us back from living a life of radical welcome and hospitality and love instead of a life of fear and loathing is how we produce the fruit of the tree. And it begins by taking a good long look in the mirror.
Clarence Heller is a poet and artist and spiritual director. In his poem titled “Together” he says:
It’s our mutual expectation that we won’t connect that irritates me so,
That you won’t get my soup order right, and that I won’t make my soup order clear.
Of course you will let the door slam on me, unaware,
And when our paths cross, we will be in each other’s way.
I want the world to be different, to be positive.
I want today to be different, to be uplifting.
And I know, although I hesitate to admit it,
That any change must start with me.
If anything is to change, it must start with me.
For lent this year I decided that instead of giving up something I wanted to do two different lenten practices. I have been practicing breath prayer every day. I sit and breathe in and exhale thoughts about God, or scriptures. This forces me to be still, to breathe and to just be with God. It forces me to listen. And as I listen I am reminded that I am loved and radically welcomed into God’s family.
The second thing I am doing is sending positive affirmations to my family. I want those I love to let go of what society says they have to be or need to be. I want those I love to let go of the negative thoughts in their heads that hold them back. I want them to know they are beautiful, strong, and uniquely and holy made. I want them to know they are unconditionally loved by God, by me. I want them to begin to see themselves as I see them, because I know when they begin to truly love themselves, they will become better citizens of the world as their love for others and God will continue to grow. I want them to know and I want YOU to know that God’s grace is huge and you are welcome into God’s tribe. I want my family and I want YOU to know that you are so loved and that God wants for you to bear fruit. God knows that you are human and for that reason God grants us grace and patiently waits for us to turn our hearts away from those thoughts and things that separate us from loving God, neighbor and ourselves as we are commanded.
I told you about the trees at my home where I grew up, but I also spent a lot of time with my grandmother and she also had all kinds of trees. One of those trees was a fig tree in her backyard. That fig tree produced lots of fruit. There were always fig preserves. These were given to family and friends and visitors at church. Some years, especially as my grandmother got older, when the fig preserves didn’t get made, it was a lot of work, my grandmother would take me, my brother, and all my cousins out to the tree and tell us we needed to eat as many figs as we could before the crows ate them all.
Why she didn’t just tell us to pick them and take them home is beyond me. And why we did not suggest that is an even bigger mystery. Maybe she just wanted to see us enjoying the fruit of the tree. I will never know, but because she told us to, we would stand out there and eat figs off the tree.
I always think of that fig tree when I read this text. That fig tree fed my grandmother’s family. The preserves were gifts. And that tree served as a host to many kinds of birds, not just the crows. And yes, it fed the birds. As the fruit fell to the ground it became compost thus feeding the soil. When I think about that fig tree I understand why Jesus chose a fig tree for this parable.
If only we can be more like the trees. If only we could produce the fruit of radical hospitality and welcome and love and acceptance to all of God’s creation…how different would the world be? How much more loving and kind? How many of our problems would be solved if we showed more love in this life? If we were shown more love in this life? From others? From ourselves? What if we produced the fruit of grace for one another? For ourselves? What if we let the light of God shine through us every single day so that the power of light could overcome the power of darkness? What if we lived into the reign of God, showing compassion and mercy and hope to all? What if we remembered that it was a tree who first housed the infant Jesus in a manger and it was a tree that held him up as took his last breath? What if we remember that the story doesn’t end with the final breath, but instead is a stepping stone to the empty tomb where hope resides and love conquers all? What if? What if? What if? How different we would be if we looked inward and asked ourselves these questions so we can be more like the trees.
Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Isaiah 55:1-9 Luke 13:1-9
“The Hospitality of Trees”
Courtney Chandler
Growing up we had a ton of trees in our yard. We would refer to them as “the woods” next to our house. Being in Georgia, most of those trees were sticky pine trees. Pinecones and pine straw littered most of our yard, but we also had other trees. We had many dogwoods that would bloom this time of year with their pink and white blooms peaking through the green pines. We had a huge magnolia tree in our yard with the largest, shiniest leaves I have ever laid my eyes on. There was an apple tree that occasionally produced tiny green apples, and a cherry tree that had the most beautiful pink blossoms that danced in the wind. We also had many other trees of the oak and maple variety. As a child I loved spending time in those trees. I still love trees. So it should come as no surprise that I have always wanted a treehouse.
Did any of you ever watch the show, “Tree House Masters?” Pete Nelson was the star of the show and the architect who built and designed tree houses. His team of builders would go to different locations across the country to build these magnificent treehouses. I always wanted to visit one of his treehouses. I learned there is one at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park in Lampe, Missouri…I may need to make a trip this spring to visit. Of course; if I go, I have to take my son, Liam along with me. When he was little he loved watching Pete Nelson build these treehouses. One year for his birthday, I sent Pete an email. I was so disappointed when I never received an email response. Then, on Liam’s birthday, he received a big envelope in the mail with a letter written to him by Pete himself, encouraging him to always look to the trees and to never lose his sense of adventure. Along with the letter was an autograph picture and lots of Tree House Master memorabilia.
Pete would always say on his show, “To the trees!” And the reason for that is because trees are so good for us, not just physically, but mentally and maybe even spiritually, depending on how you want to look at them.
Trees provide shade and shelter. They can reduce the need for air conditioning on a hot day. Trees purify the air and help with pollution. They provide homes for wildlife and protect soil and our water. Studies have even shown that spending time in the trees can have a calming effect on us and help with our mental well-being. I have always found that when I spend time among the trees I feel God’s presence as I see God’s thumbprint on all of creation.
I believe this text, along with the text Barbara read from Isaiah, is, at the end of the day, about Radical Hospitality. Radical hospitality is a concept that goes beyond simple politeness, emphasizing a deep, transformative welcome and acceptance of others, particularly those who might be marginalized or different, fostering a sense of belonging and shared humanity. Radical Hospitality requires looking inward and coming to grips with our own biases and judgementalist attitudes and brings us to realize that we are all part of God’s beloved creation and helps us to view one another in ways that allow us to open our hearts and minds to being a place where God is found and seen over and over in both our words and deeds.
The Isaiah text is a call for all to come and eat and drink and enjoy life…despite who you are or where you come from. Our call is to produce the fruit of welcome through making certain that no person feels like an afterthought or left out, because God loves us all equally and when we welcome others, we are welcoming Christ…
But, unfortunately, we find ourselves sometimes missing the mark on making sure all are included and welcomed and that all are given the love and attention God requires of us.
That’s unfortunate because hospitality is at the heart of God’s kingdom…it is where all are welcome as they are…and as the church we should embrace those on the journey, wherever they are on the journey. Instead we find we sometimes are judgemental of others…
Did you see what she was wearing?
Did you hear what happened to him at his job?
Did you know they got a divorce? I wonder what she did? What he did?
Did you know their child has financial troubles? Troubles in school? Trouble with the law?
He is so weird, he doesn’t have any friends.
She is such a strange person.
They don’t look like us.
They don’t act like us.
They don’t drive the right car.
They are too fat or too thin.
They don’t fit into the financial bracket.
And my St. Louis favorite, “They didn’t go to the right high school.”
This judgmental attitude is nothing new to us humans. We have been doing it…well…always. Jesus is even addressing this judgement from the beginning of our text in Luke. He is trying to straighten out the false belief that bad things happen to people because they deserve it.
The massacre the people are asking Jesus about most likely took place in the temple in Jerusalem. Pilate ordered some Galileans to be killed while they were in the act of slaughtering their sacrifice to God. Surely, the people think, their sins must have been awful for them to have been slain in this way. Jesus says no, that the Galileans who died, doing what was required to atone for their sins, did not get what they had coming to them. Indeed they were no worse than the 18 who were probably working on the tower near a spring or aqueduct when it fell, killing them all. Surely the sins of those slaughtered in the temple were no worse than any others in all of Jerusalem, despite the fact they were Galileans and not Israelites. Jesus says no, those who were killed while at the temple to worship God, were still part of God’s beloved creation. God’s grace is bigger than what the people can fathom.
Jesus says to his audience, the way to work through all this turmoil that is happening…all the political upheaval and separation and despair that was happening in his day, the way to get through it and to make change and to be true to God…is to repent. The Greek word for repent is, “Metanoeo.” It doesn’t just mean to be sorry for something. It literally means to change one’s mind, to change one’s heart…to turn around. It means for those of us who follow Christ, that we are to listen to what God is saying to us: through scripture, through prayer, through how God is speaking to us on the daily. Metanoeo means we recognize the ways we have turned our backs on God and God’s people and how we have failed to follow Christ. And then we work and we change our hearts so that we can turn back towards God and towards living a life of Christ-like behavior. It means doing the hard work and letting go of our judgemental attitudes and prejudices that keep us from seeing God in others…that give us permission to exclude instead of include others. It’s the work we do to remember that God calls us all to the welcome table. It’s when we remember that in God’s house there are many rooms and there is room for all.
This is how we produce fruit, it comes from a place of radical love and radical hospitality, because God is a God of radical hospitality and unconditional love. Jesus warns us by saying we have to bear this fruit or the tree, the tree gets cut down. But first, there is a year of grace given to the tree.
We don’t know if the year of grace in this parable brought about fruit…that’s not the point…the point is, God desires for us to be the bearers of the Good News…to live in the light of Christ and to open our hearts and arms as a place of welcome. And God grants us grace to keep trying until we can get it right.
This is why we must listen and try to understand how God is speaking to us. We turn inward to ask ourselves where and how we lack this show of hospitality to those in our world, because we know to judge others and to be inhospitable is to be unwelcoming to Christ himself.
When we do the hard work on ourselves we see others in a new light. When we begin to see ourselves as made in the image and likeness of God, when we love ourselves as God loves us, we can then return that love to God and neighbor because it is then we stop the judgements and see Christ within all we meet.
Turning our hearts and minds back to God and away from the things which harm us and hold us back from living a life of radical welcome and hospitality and love instead of a life of fear and loathing is how we produce the fruit of the tree. And it begins by taking a good long look in the mirror.
Clarence Heller is a poet and artist and spiritual director. In his poem titled “Together” he says:
It’s our mutual expectation that we won’t connect that irritates me so,
That you won’t get my soup order right, and that I won’t make my soup order clear.
Of course you will let the door slam on me, unaware,
And when our paths cross, we will be in each other’s way.
I want the world to be different, to be positive.
I want today to be different, to be uplifting.
And I know, although I hesitate to admit it,
That any change must start with me.
If anything is to change, it must start with me.
For lent this year I decided that instead of giving up something I wanted to do two different lenten practices. I have been practicing breath prayer every day. I sit and breathe in and exhale thoughts about God, or scriptures. This forces me to be still, to breathe and to just be with God. It forces me to listen. And as I listen I am reminded that I am loved and radically welcomed into God’s family.
The second thing I am doing is sending positive affirmations to my family. I want those I love to let go of what society says they have to be or need to be. I want those I love to let go of the negative thoughts in their heads that hold them back. I want them to know they are beautiful, strong, and uniquely and holy made. I want them to know they are unconditionally loved by God, by me. I want them to begin to see themselves as I see them, because I know when they begin to truly love themselves, they will become better citizens of the world as their love for others and God will continue to grow. I want them to know and I want YOU to know that God’s grace is huge and you are welcome into God’s tribe. I want my family and I want YOU to know that you are so loved and that God wants for you to bear fruit. God knows that you are human and for that reason God grants us grace and patiently waits for us to turn our hearts away from those thoughts and things that separate us from loving God, neighbor and ourselves as we are commanded.
I told you about the trees at my home where I grew up, but I also spent a lot of time with my grandmother and she also had all kinds of trees. One of those trees was a fig tree in her backyard. That fig tree produced lots of fruit. There were always fig preserves. These were given to family and friends and visitors at church. Some years, especially as my grandmother got older, when the fig preserves didn’t get made, it was a lot of work, my grandmother would take me, my brother, and all my cousins out to the tree and tell us we needed to eat as many figs as we could before the crows ate them all.
Why she didn’t just tell us to pick them and take them home is beyond me. And why we did not suggest that is an even bigger mystery. Maybe she just wanted to see us enjoying the fruit of the tree. I will never know, but because she told us to, we would stand out there and eat figs off the tree.
I always think of that fig tree when I read this text. That fig tree fed my grandmother’s family. The preserves were gifts. And that tree served as a host to many kinds of birds, not just the crows. And yes, it fed the birds. As the fruit fell to the ground it became compost thus feeding the soil. When I think about that fig tree I understand why Jesus chose a fig tree for this parable.
If only we can be more like the trees. If only we could produce the fruit of radical hospitality and welcome and love and acceptance to all of God’s creation…how different would the world be? How much more loving and kind? How many of our problems would be solved if we showed more love in this life? If we were shown more love in this life? From others? From ourselves? What if we produced the fruit of grace for one another? For ourselves? What if we let the light of God shine through us every single day so that the power of light could overcome the power of darkness? What if we lived into the reign of God, showing compassion and mercy and hope to all? What if we remembered that it was a tree who first housed the infant Jesus in a manger and it was a tree that held him up as took his last breath? What if we remember that the story doesn’t end with the final breath, but instead is a stepping stone to the empty tomb where hope resides and love conquers all? What if? What if? What if? How different we would be if we looked inward and asked ourselves these questions so we can be more like the trees.
Amen.
Recent
Archive
2025
March
2024
January
March
June
July
August
September
October
November
No Comments