Spiritual Hiccups - Shoots and Sprouts

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

I grew up "in the country," and we occasionally would thin out some of the heavily wooded areas near our house.  Once cut down, some types of trees were done.  The stump and roots begin the slow process of rotting away.  But others types will put out shoots from the trunk.  I have no idea if such shoots would ever grow into a full fledged tree, but that is the promise Isaiah makes regarding the nation of Israel, a nation that has become a shell of its former self.

We just finished packing Community Christmas Packages at my congregation.  It is truly a community effort.  Neighbors and people from other congregations, service groups, stores and local schools all contribute.  This year we packed almost 400 boxes full of food, a grocery store gift certificate, and presents for each child in any family receiving a box, about a 1000 presents in all.

For us this is a huge logistical operation.  Collecting all the food and gifts, wrapping presents, filling all the boxes, and organizing routes to deliver all the boxes tomorrow takes a lot of planning and work.  But none of us involved expect it to end hunger or poverty in the Columbus area, or even to make a big dent.  So why do it?

Our world worries a lot about goals and objectives.  In long range planning you are supposed to set goals that are difficult enough to challenge you, but not so difficult so as to discourage you.  And so no church congregation, no matter how big or with how many resources, would ever set out to end hunger.  But that is not our job.  Our job is to show signs of God's coming reign, to show hints of a day when no one is hungry and no one does without, and to call others to join in the move toward that day.

We are called to be shoots and sprouts, signs of a life that God promises will one day be a great tree.  And so we are not discouraged when our efforts alone don't produce the fulfillment of that day.

It is easy to look at the world and only see the dead stumps.  But we are called to point out the shoots and sprouts, to be the shoots and sprouts, trusting that in God's time, the earth will bloom in peace and abundance and life for all.

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