Christ the Apple Tree - September 19
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 75, 76; PM Psalm 23, 27; Esther 2:5-8,15-23 or Judith 5:1-21; Acts 17:16-34; John 12:44-50
This coming Sunday, two of our choir members will sing a beautiful piece called Christ the Apple Tree. The text is from a poem from the late 18th century and the music is a Scottish Folk song. I love the lyrics and here are two verses:
“I’m weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.”
The author sees the Incarnation as a part of creation. This is not necessarily a new idea but has been lost for much of Christianity. We want to make the sacred, simply Jesus, but if God has created everything that is, our faith should compel us to see the sacred in everything. I read recently that St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) taught that to learn to love God, we begin at the easiest and simplest place and move up. Richard Rohr suggests a literal practice of this by claiming “Don’t start by trying to love God, or even people; love rocks and elements first, move to trees, then animals, and then humans. Angels will soon seem like a real possibility, and God is then just a short leap away.”[1] So there is something beautiful to me about seeing Christ in the Apple Tree and how our faith can be kept alive by the rest and fruit it provides.
In the 17th chapter of Acts, Paul is standing just below the large hill in Athens, Greece, where several statutes of different gods reside. He gives his famous sermon from Mars Hill where he reminds the people how religious they are and then he points to an altar in the city which is to the unknown God and casts a vision to the Greek people to see in their lives how the God who created the universe is already worshiped in their midst. He gives language and credence to what is already there and expands the Greek’s understanding of God. Evangelism 101.
We live in a very religious world, but I wonder sometimes if many who consider themselves ultra-religious lack imagination. Does Paul invite us to go deeper and look beyond what has been named? How can we see what many others have missed, and name it as something much more? Maybe Jesus Christ the apple tree. How can we be people who proclaim God’s infinite blessing and embeddedness in what others have cast away?
“I’m weary with my former toil, Here I will sit and rest awhile: Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.” Finding rest, finding renewal, finding healing and hope, may be as simple as learning to see God Incarnate all around. May we follow the way of Paul and put a name to what we see.
- John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: How do you imagine the Incarnation? Is it easy to imagine God in another person? What about an inanimate object? Why?
Daily Challenge: Find a quiet place to sit outside for a few minutes. Calm your mind and practice Rohr’s reflection. Start by considering God in the easiest and simplest and in the words of St. Bonaventure, “move up.”
[1] Rohr, Richard. UNIVERSAL CHRIST: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for, and Believe. Convergent, 2019, page 57.