Year A, Advent 2, Children's Sermon

Year A, Second Sunday of Advent

“Christmas Stumps?”

Isaiah 11:1-10

Object: gather around the Chrismon tree.

Have you decorated your Christmas stump yet?

A Christmas stump?  That really does sound silly!  We decorate Christmas trees; not Christmas stumps.

One of our Bible lessons today talks about a stump.  Isaiah tells us that a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse.  If we take a look at Jesus’ family tree, we learn that one of his ancestors was a man named Jesse.  Jesse was King David’s father.  When we read the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke, we learn that Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, was “of the house and line of David”, and if we go one back generation from David, it takes us to his father Jesse.  We can see that Jesus was the shoot, the young branch, that grew from the stump of Jesse.

When we think about tree stumps, we might think about something that is dead.  The tree has been cut down and all that’s left is a stump.

On the other hand, when we think about trees, we think about life.  We decorate our homes and churches with evergreen trees.  They stay green all year round. They don’t lose their leaves in the fall.  They look alive in every season.  For Christians, the evergreen tree represents life—eternal life—the gift God sent Jesus to give us.

Jesus came to make a big difference in our lives.  Something alive and life giving has sprung up from something that was cut down and considered as good as dead.  Jesus even taught that he came to give us life, an abundant life at that.  That sounds like a flourishing, evergreen life.  When we welcome Jesus into our lives, we move from death to life.  We have God’s promise of eternal life.

Decorating stumps sounds like a silly idea, but today we thank God for the life of Jesus that sprang up and gave us all life.

Dear God,Thank you that you are the Lord of life.  You give us eternal life through Jesus.  Because of his life, we are able to live differently in our world.  Please bless us to show signs of his life in our own.  Bless us to be generous.  Bless us to care for others.  Bless us to love one another as much as Jesus loved us.  It is in his name we pray.  Amen.