The Jesse Tree

What is a Jesse tree This is meant to be used during Advent It is a way of preparing for the coming of Jesus into our world. At the beginning of Mathew’s Gospel there is a very long list of the ancestors of Jesus. It seems a very boring way to start a book but Mathew was writing for the Jewish people A lot of the names on the list are Jewish prophets. These prophets talked about the coming of the messiah and what we needed to do to get ready for his coming. Mathew wants to make the point that Jesus is the Messiah the one who was promised

The Jesse tree is a way of remembering these prophets, of how they lived and of how they asked people to change It is a reminder that Christians today also need to do something to get ready for Jesus. They too need to change

Why the name? The prophet Isaiah said, “a shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse and a branch out of his roots.” This is a poetic way of saying the Messiah will be a descendant of Jesse so that’s why it is called a Jesse Tree.

Creating the Tree To create the Jesse Tree you first need to decide who you are going to put on it. You need one person for each day of Advent. You then create a symbol for each person based on their life Each day we hang one symbol on the tree and remember the life of the person.

These are some symbols another group made Any ideas who the people they represent might be?

So exactly what is a prophet? Remember: A Prophet is Someone who sees the problems in the world and understands how God wants people to behave. They answer God’s call to help by reminding people of the right way to live and show people by what they say and do what this means They risk everything to speak God’s word

What qualities do you think a prophet should have?

We have already looked at some people from the Old Testament Jonah for example Can you remember the story?

From the list of qualities you picked out for prophets which ones did Jonah have? Was he an unusual choice? As you consider some of the other people on the Jesse Tree think about the qualities they had and if they were good choices. What do you think the stories teach us about being called by God?

Prophets Today? Jean Vanier He is a Roman Catholic He was born in Canada 1928 and joined the navy when he was just 13 years old During World war 2 he and his family were in Paris and they had to flee before the Germans invaded

He met survivors of concentration camps and this had a big effect on him Eventually he left the Navy because he felt God was calling him to do something different He met people with disabilities and realised that their lives were made worse because of the way people treated them He believed that God was present in everyone and that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect

He founded the community of L’Arche where people with and without learning disabilities share life together He had a vision of building a community where everyone could belong and be treated equally He believes we have to help people become the most they can be Today there are 147 L'Arche communities in 37 countries around the world

The words of Jean Vanier "The fundamental principle of peace is a belief that each person is important. Do you believe you are important? Do you believe-do we believe-that we can do something to make this world a better place? Why is the gap between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless growing? There can be no peace unless we can become aware of where this growing gap comes from". What do you think Vanier would want us to do in Advent?