Advent 1 (Advent Sunday) - 029/11/09

The Jesse Tree

BIBLE READING

Jeremiah chapter 33 verses 14-16 (printed here in the text from the Jerusalem Bible, which specifically uses the words, 'I shall make an upright Branch grow for David'.

PREPARATION

There is quite a lot of preparation this week, as the suggestions for collective worship over the rest of this term centre on the making of a Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree, with its religious symbols, is a more useful focus for thinking about the message of Advent and Christmas than is the traditional Christmas Tree.

• You will need to cut or find a bare branch which is a good shape. The size will depend on where you are going to display it. It will look more seasonal if you spray it gold, silver or white. Put it in a pot large enough to hold it upright with some sand or soil.
  

• You will also need a model of a harp, the symbol of King David; a rose or lily flower to represent Mary the Mother of Jesus and a picture of an old man with a beard lying down asleep. If you would like to have pictures of the characters to go with the symbols (i.e. a picture of Mary and a picture of David) you will need to make these too.

• 18 little scrolls made out of gold card, just large enough for the names of prophets to be written on them.

• You could have other things to go on the tree to make it brighter at the end - some stars or paper flower buds.

• You will need to ensure that you have a way of hanging all the above on the tree - cotton loops or hooks made out of florist's wire or something similar.

INTRODUCTION

At about this time of year we start to think about Christmas trees. But if you put up a real Christmas tree too early it will be dead by Christmas day - all the needles will be in the vacuum cleaner and the branches will all be bare.

We are also doing lots of other things to start getting ready for Christmas. (You could ask about the kind of thing that people are involved with at present…)

MESSAGE

Last Sunday was Advent Sunday, the day when Christians start the countdown to Jesus' birth. And one of the ways that we can do this is with another sort of tree - we could call it an Advent Tree because we use it in Advent so that we can save up our Christmas trees until it is really Christmas.

The Advent Tree reminds us that we are getting ready for the coming of Jesus. It reminds us that there were lots of people who were waiting for Jesus to come. We can hear stories about some of them in the Old Testament of the Bible. Can you think of the names of any people that we have heard of in the Old Testament?

To make the Advent Tree, we have to remember certain people especially - and each one has a sign (or symbol if you have explored that word before) to remind us of who they are. Here is one sign of a person that we read a lot about in the Old Testament and who has a very important place on this Advent Tree. (Produce the model of or cut out picture of a harp). Does anyone know who this reminds us of?

(The harp is a symbol of David because he was said to be a great musician and the composer of many of the psalms.)

King David was said to be one of Jesus' ancestors. In St Matthew's Gospel there is a long list of Jesus' ancestors and King David is there in the list. So King David has a place on our Advent Tree. It's a bit like a family tree. If it is Jesus' family tree, who else should we have on it? . . . Mary, the mother of Jesus goes near the top. Mary has all sorts of signs - sometimes a rose, sometimes a lily - so we can put a sign for Mary somewhere just below the top of our tree.

But there is someone else who is quite important who needs to go on the tree. It is someone that you may not have heard of - but let's see. He is the father of King David. He is mentioned in the Bible - there just might be someone who knows his name.

King David's father was Jesse (pronounced Jessy). (It probably sounds a bit like a girl's name to most of you!) He had lots of sons and David was the youngest one. They couldn't believe that the youngest son was the one chosen to be the king - but he was. On the Advent Tree, Jesse is always shown as an old man asleep - with the tree growing out of his middle. So let's put him at the bottom of the tree now. Because he is first person on this family tree Jesse actually gives it his name: the proper name for an Advent Tree is actually a 'Tree of Jesse'. People put them in churches that they were building long ago and you can still see them today - every day of the year, not just in Advent. You can see them carved in stone or wood and some of the most beautiful ones are in stained glass windows, where of course, you can see all the people in bright colours.

The reading from the Old Testament this week is about the Jesse Tree.

(Perhaps a child could read this from a Bible - or from a sheet of paper.)
`Look, the days are coming, the Lord declares, when I shall fulfil the promise of happiness I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah: In those days and at that time, I shall make an upright Branch grow for David, who will do what is just and upright in the country. In those days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name the city will be called: the Lord is our Saving Justice.''

The tree is still a bit bare isn't it? The idea is that as Christmas gets closer, more and more things appear on the tree to help us see that Christmas is approaching and the coming of Jesus is getting nearer.

What else do you think we ought to have on the tree? Remember we don't want Christmas things yet - but things that will remind us that Jesus is coming and we are getting ready for him. On the Jesse Trees you see in churches, they usually show some of the prophets in the Old Testament who looked forward to Jesus coming. There are 18 books of Prophecy in the Bible. Here are 18 gold scrolls: maybe people can look in a Bible and find the names of the prophets and write their names on the scrolls and hang them on the tree, then it will begin to look a bit fuller and we shall know that we are getting closer to Christmas.

We could also put stars on or flower buds, a few at a time so that by the time Christmas comes the tree will look as though it has burst into flower.

PRAYER

(This is the Common Worship post-communion prayer for Advent Sunday.)
O Lord, our God, make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear, he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service and joyful in his praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen