Sumus Arbores - We Are the Trees

By Lance Lewis, Guest

Good morning. I've chosen two scripture verses for a focus today. And the first one is Jeremiah, chapter 17, verses 5 through 10.

And it is, those who trust in the Lord are like trees. Thus says the Lord, Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals. And make mere flesh their strength. Whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert. And shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness. In an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord. Whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree. Planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when the heat comes. And its leaves shall stay green in the year of the drought. It is not anxious and does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else. It is perverse. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, test the mind and search the heart. To give to all according to their ways. According to their fruit. And according to their doings.

And the second focus verse is Psalm chapter 1.

And that is the two ways. The ways of the righteous and the ways of the wicked. Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked. Or take the path that the sinners have tread. Or sit in the seat of scoffers. Their delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water. Which yield their fruit in its season. And their leaves do not wither. In all that they do they prosper. The wicked are not so. But are like the chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment. Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the ways of the righteous. But the ways of the wicked will perish.

I'm from Nebraska. It's a very interesting state. There's two geographical regions in Nebraska. There’s the central lowland, which is the same region of the nation as Maryville, Missouri, where I am at the moment. It's got farmlands and orchards and thickets and groves. All that fun stuff.

And then there's also the Great Plains in Nebraska. And that is where the prairie is. And it's very flat, very desolate. There's a lot of grassland. There are some farms. And what I liked when I was out there to visit the Great Plains is you could see the curve of the earth. It is a really beautiful sight to see. Really amazing. And it really used to bring me a lot of humbleness to see that. I'm just this one little speck on this huge, beautiful earth that was created. There are many great places in Nebraska. But I'll come back to that here in a little while.

So when I started doing this post here, I started out my exegesis with a prayer. And that came back to saying, “Well, you know, you've got to follow KISS, Lance. Keep it simple because you're stupid.” That is true. I am. I'm not the smartest person I know.

So here I am. And to keep it simple, I said, “Well, let's start with the simplicities. Let's start with the basics.”

We're Christians. We follow Christ. And as a Christian who follows Christ, we're supposed to be like a little Christ. We're supposed to emulate Christ. And what did Christ say to do? To help out, to have a healthy community, to love unconditionally, to be of service to our fellow human beings, and to be humble.

Now how did Christ live his life as an example for us? Christ walked in prayer. He stayed in communion with God. He talked with Him. And Jesus did this, according to Scripture, during His entire life. During the good, the bad, and the ugly. And He cared for others. He washed their feet. He healed the sick. And He gave salvation to one of the other people on the cross when He was being crucified on Golgotha. And Christ removed the us and them labels that was so prevalent in His day in society.

Then I was doing a little bit more exegesis. Went back to prayer. And then I went to Lectio Divina.

I love Lectio Divina. I don't know if you are familiar with it. It's when you open the Bible and you read a passage and then you sit and meditate and you read the same passage. And then the Spirit will start to speak to you. So that's how I came to this, was through the Spirit speaking to me. What stuck with me, and what spoke to me the most through Spirit, was both of the passages referenced trees.

When I was a kid, I loved to go out to the thickets. I loved to go out to the wooded areas in my town and just explore, just go out and have fun. And I think that's probably why trees stuck with me when I was reading this. Or it could be that I'm from Nebraska.

Up in Nebraska City, there's a place called Arbor Lodge. If you're not familiar with it, Nebraska City is about an hour and 15, hour and 20, from Maryville. If you go the speed limit, it's probably an hour and a half. It's also in the same region of the nation as Maryville, the Central Lowlands. And it's the home of Arbor Day, as I said. J. Sterling Morton is the founder of Arbor Day and he founded it on April 10, 1872.

Now, why? Why did he found Arbor Day? For conservation. Conservation is looking towards the future. Having what we have now, making sure that it is able to be used in the future, for the future generations. He planted a lot of heirloom fruit trees, a lot of heirloom nut trees, and they're still growing there on his property. Really neat place to go if you've never been.

Another reason why J. Sterling Morton started this was to help clean the air of the pollution, to help clean out the waterways, and to provide cooling shade. This is 1872. I was not alive then, but I'm imagining air conditioning did not exist.

It was also to provide safety and living places for wildlife. Trees make healthier communities all the way around. And the kicker with this is, J. Sterling Morton was being a tree. He was being the tree that we mentioned.

So now the how. How are we going to be trees?

Well, according to our scripture, we grow our roots deep. And for that, we need to engage within our communities. We need to practice not having the us and them mentality. That's difficult for a lot of us. Myself included.

We need to be cleaning up our environments now. When I saw that in my readings, I said, “Oh, that's kind of neat.” And there was a 50 cent ACT word called synergize. I did not know what it was, so I looked it up. Synergize means the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. That's a pretty fancy 50 cent ACT word. I like it. I think I'm going to try and get that stuck away in my vocabulary.

Another way that we can be the trees is we provide life. We invest in our community. We interact with our community. We synergize with other people in our community. That way, we are working for a better present and a better future.

Then I said, “Okay, Lance, well, that's great. But now, you told us how to be the trees, but how are we going to be the trees? Be the trees, how?”

For that one, I looked at Matthew 5 and Luke 6 for some guidance. And Matthew 5 is when Jesus was on the mountain giving the Beatitudes. Luke 6 is when he was in the field talking about the blessings and the sorrows. And both of those homilies of his talked about the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the meek, the outcast, and the “other.” And he also said, “What will they have?”

Well, they're going to inherit the kingdom. They're going to have food. They're going to have joy. They're going to inherit the earth. They're going to have community, et cetera.

And I said, “Okay, well, that's great. I've been hungry before, and I did not find it a big blessing.” I did not find that, you know, times when I was living in poverty and food was scarce as a blessing. It was not a blessing for me. And I said, “Well, maybe it was.”

With that, thought, it reminded me of a quote from Pope Francis. “You pray for the hungry, and then you feed them. That is how prayer works.”

And I said, “Yes, that is how prayer works. That is how blessings work. That's how we are the trees. We pray, and we provide.”

We are also the trees when we honor and follow the mantle of Christ, when we are being like Christ, when we practice being a little Christ in the world today. Then I went back for my exegesis to try and figure out where I was going with all of this.

I spoke with a friend of mine, Chaplain Crystal Dooley. She is a chaplain down in St. Joseph. She's an amazing spiritual leader, an amazing person called by God. She's a very sweet woman. And I was going over my notes and talking to her about it. And she said, “Hmm, that reminds me of Boys Town. Out in Boys Town, there's a statue that says, ‘He ain't heavy, he's my brother.’”

And I'm just like, “I am from Nebraska. Boys Town is in Nebraska. Thank you, Spirit. Thank you, Spirit. Thank you, Crystal, for reminding me of my Nebraska roots.”

So a little bit of history of Boys Town. It used to be a separate town until Omaha grew and swallowed it. It was founded by a man by the name of Father Flanagan, an Irish priest. He immigrated to the United States in 1904 and while he was here, he became a social reformer. He saw the social ills at the time. He spoke out against them. And by doing that, he was moved to found Boys Town.

Early in Boys Town, their motto was, “There is no such thing as a bad boy, only a bad environment, only bad modeling, only bad teaching.” And if you've been to Boys Town, you will see that poked around through places there, paying homage to Father Flanagan.

Then in 1918, Father Flanagan was there, and he was doing whatever he was doing as a leader of Boys Town. But he stopped a boy. He stopped a boy by the name of Reuben Granger. And he looked at Reuben, and he goes, “You're carrying this young man up the stairs, down the stairs, all over campus. Isn't it difficult to carry a young man who has polio? Isn't it difficult to do that?”

And Reuben replied, “No, it's not difficult. He's not heavy. He's my brother.”

At that moment, Reuben was a tree. He provided for the now for his fellow student. He provided for the future of his fellow student. He provided safety and sanctuary and shade. The quote from the young boy, the quote by Reuben, symbolizes the spirit of Boys Town. For decades, it's been on the bottom of a statue. The message comes down to caring for each other. Having someone care for us is what it's all about. Sumus arbores, we are the trees.

J. Sterling Morton, he was a tree because he provided trees. Father Flanagan was a tree because he provided shelter and safety. Reuben Granger was a tree because he provided legs and mobility.

A businessman, a politician, an immigrant, and a child. They're all trees. Being a tree knows no boundaries.

We can all be trees in our lives and in our communities. Being a tree is the importance for caring for your fellow man, for caring for your community, for investing in your fellow man, investing in your community, and building a positive, building a happy, building a worthwhile future for your communities and for your nation and for the world. Summa arbores, we are the trees.

Amen.