Faith takes the doer and makes him into a tree, and his deeds become fruit.

First there must be a tree, then the fruit.

For apples do not make a tree, but a tree makes apples.

So faith first makes the person, who afterwards performs works.

– Martin Luther, commentary on Galatians 3:10

Beloved of God,

If you’ve ever ventured to the town of Lahaina, Hawaii, on the west side of Maui, it’s impossible to miss: outside the old courthouse is a banyan tree that stands 50 feet tall, is nearly a quarter of a mile around and has over than 10 trunks that anchor it into the ground.  Brought from India as an 8 foot sapling in 1873, it was planted there by William Owen Smith, the sheriff of Old Lahaina Town to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Lahaina’s first Christian Mission.  When our family visited Maui in 2008, we all took turns climbing on those mighty branches, while an art show unfolded beneath its prodigious shade.  The banyan’s properties are unique, for the tree grows by the roots which hang from its branches. These roots, which begin above ground, are like soil-seeking drills, and when enough of them reach the soil, they thicken and provide another trunk to support the tree’s mass.[1]

The world’s greatest banyan tree, located in a botanical garden near Kolkata, India, is over 250 years old and looks more like a forest than an individual tree: the foliage encompasses nearly 5 acres of land!  It has 3772 aerial roots reaching down to the ground as a prop root.[2]

When Luther used a tree as an illustration in his commentary on Galatians, he was thinking of an apple tree, not a banyan tree.  Had he been familiar with the properties of the banyan tree, I wonder what use he would make of it? The communal and interdependent nature of our vocation comes to mind.

Theologian Anne Burghardt points out that “When Luther spoke out in the 16th century on God’s redeeming love, he was not thinking about the environment. Ecological challenges were not in the forefront at that time. However, today many parts of the world face critical environmental challenges.”  Were Luther alive today, would he address our collective failure to adequately care for God’s good creation?  There’s no doubt in my mind.  Again, Burghardt:

“Luther’s intervention at the time of the Reformation reminds us that there are aspects of life on this planet which, for the sake of both earthly and eternal life, should not be commodities and should never be for sale. That includes the good creation God has given us to watch over.”[3]

This month we will once again observe a three-week Season of Creation.  Our goal is to  lift up God’s good creation in ways that help us see it in all its beauty, intricacy, and connectedness; as well as to affirm that this creation is not a commodity for sale but a unique web of relationships upon which all life—including ours—depends.  Like the Great Banyan Tree, God’s good creation maintains its strength and resilience through deeply rooted principles which both anchor and hold up its branches. When we acquire the attributes of a tree, as Luther suggested, we become well equipped to bear fruit.  The kind of fruit, or good works, which the world needs from us at this time in history is fruit that opens our eyes to the devastating effects human choices are having on Earth, our planet home, and fuels a deeper love and devotion to understanding and nurturing community which is sustainable over the long haul.

The decision of President Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords is a decision which may well bear fruit—but that fruit will be of the diseased and rotten kind. Addressing climate breakdown—and the myriad substantive environmental issues which flow from it and are already making deep impacts around the world—requires a cooperative and international approach. Gaining the ears of our leaders requires a long and sustained effort.  But alongside that effort we begin with our own lives, taking inventory, making personal and communal choices each day which will bear the kind of fruit which allows life to grow and flourish, as God our Creator intended. Our first vocation, according to Genesis, is Earthkeeper.  Never has that vocation been more important and needful than now.

Pastor Erik

[1] For more about this tree, follow this link: http://www.lahaina.com/content/banyan_tree.html

[2] For more about this tree, follow this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Banyan  You can also read about it in Cynthia Barnett’s book: Rain—A Natural and Cultural History.  (New York: Broadway Books, 2015)

[3] From materials published for the Lutheran World Federation’s 2017 Assembly in Windhoek, Namibia, under the theme: Creation is not for Sale.