“by Hanging Him From a Tree…”
Let us love the trees,
to us the trees are good.
Within their shoots of green
streams God’s own living blood.
Once the wood did harden,
so Christ hung thereupon.
To nourish us with new food
eternal flow’ring was won.
(Albert Steffen 1921)[i]
HOLY WEEK AND TREES
Trees permeate Holy Week. On Palm Sunday branches are torn from trees (Gk: den’-dron) and placed on the road into Jerusalem (Mt 21:8). On Monday the fig tree (soo-kay’) is cursed, on Tuesday it is dead (Mk 11:13, 20). Also on Tuesday, in his apocalyptic discourse, Christ says: “Observe the fig tree and all the other trees (den’-dron).” (Lk 21:29).[i] On Thursday he refers to himself as the vine (essentially a water-laden prostrate tree) (Jn 15:1-5). On Good Friday Christ says: “…if they do these things when the wood (or ‘tree”) (xoo’-lon) is full of water (or “green”), what will happen when it is dry” (Lk 23:31)[ii]
The Future Initiatives Group has been a beehive of activity throughout 2010. The current members, Ann Elizabeth Barnes, Fiona Gold, Cindy Hindes, Carol Kelly, Patrick Kennedy, and Oliver Steinrueck, were joined by two new members, Anna Claire Novotny (Spring Valley) and Eileen King (Washington DC), who has agreed to join us at our next meeting. The group has been meeting twice a year, most recently in Los Angeles, CA and Spring Valley, NY, and has had numerous teleconferences during the year. And like bees in the winter that exchange sing song, much discussion was had, and like bees in the summer, scouts have been flying all over North America searching for nectar. Funny how searching for future directions brings you smack, kerplop into the present. Here is a summary of projects to date. If you have extra energy, ideas and enthusiasm sparked by any of these projects, please get in touch with anyone on the Future Initiatives Group.