BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED

The world will tell you that blessing means favorable circumstances, but blessing in the biblical sense means God's favor in any circumstance, no exceptions, because there is no where God does not belong. A message about trees and people thriving in unlikely places, today on The Lutheran Hour. I'm Mark Isher. Thanks for making time to include The Lutheran Hour in your day, and thank you for your support. To learn how your gifts and prayers help in bringing Christ to the nations and the nations to the church, go to LutheranHour.org. Now with a message titled, Bloom Where You're Planted, here is our speaker, Dr. Michael Ziegler. Pat Smith says that she'll never forget when she first moved to Greensburg in 1958. Her husband said to her, see, there's the courthouse tower, and it's got the tree on it. I'm told that everyone who has ever lived in Greensburg, Indiana has had some version of that very conversation. There's the courthouse, there's the tree growing out of it. It's a long story that goes back to sometime around the end of the American Civil War. That's when residents of the town first noticed a tree growing where it shouldn't, that is, through the roof of their 10-story courthouse tower. And over 150 years later, a tree is still there today, perched high up 100 feet, growing through a hole in the roof. You can see it if you zoom in using Google Earth, or just take the Greensburg exit off of I-74 when you're passing through. Nobody is sure how it got there. On the wing of a bird or a gust of wind, the first tree was removed in 1870 for fear it would damage the tower. But in 1875, another appeared. And in 1888, at least four additional trees were cut down from the roof.

But others grew in their place, and have continued to grow there, through droughts and storms, recessions and wars. Eventually, the town just owned it. They couldn't get rid of it, and then they didn't want to be rid of it. They accepted it as some strange, obstinate, providential gift, one that they hadn't asked for and hadn't earned. Today, they're on somewhere around tree number 11, and the clock tower tree has become part of the town's identity and inspiration, a mascot of sorts, a symbol of growth, and the source of some bad jokes, like the one about how the tree is watered by the springs of the clock, of course. Puns notwithstanding, Greensburg's tree seems to give people hope, hope for blooming wherever you happen to be planted. Bloom where you're planted was counsel I was given as a young person. I was just beginning to serve in the military, in the U.S. Air Force at the time, and it was good advice. In the military, you can give your assignment preferences, you can fill out your wish list, but the wings and winds of the Air Force assignment system are going to send you where they send you, unasked and sometimes unearned. And maybe that's why I'm a sucker for a story of a tree thriving where it should not be, in what seem like impossible circumstances. I get why Greensburg has made a mascot of an unlikely tree protruding from the shingles of their town's tower. There is something deeply human that longs to see life even in the most austere environments. Tiny green tendrils springing from decayed mortar joints of a condemned building or creeping from narrow caverns and cracked sidewalks or peeking through the trough of a neglected house rain gutter. These sights are a symbol of the seeds of life, not usually in a hurry, but generally they'll find a way. Maybe your life isn't subject to the whims of an assignment system. Maybe you've lived in the same place all your life.

Maybe you've been blessed with support from family and friends, teachers and mentors. But also, you've been through seasons of drought and storm, and you know just how few supports would need to break loose before your growing conditions would seem much less favorable and much more precarious or hopeless. It may not feel like being a tree on a roof, but maybe a fiddler, as Tevye the milkman saw himself and his town in that fiddler, just trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. No matter how sure things may appear, it doesn't take much to see how insecure your perch in this world is. There's an old story from the Good Book that Tevye read, the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, as Christ followers call it, an ancient account that rings with this truth. It's about a young Hebrew man named Joseph. He was his father's favorite, and his nine older brothers knew it, and Joseph knew it. Good-looking, well-built, at age 17, life for Joseph seemed as secure as can be. But then his brothers had had enough of him perched up there on that pedestal, so they took him down a few stories. They sold him as a slave, and made up a story that he'd been mauled by a bear or something and sold that to their father. Meanwhile, Joseph ends up as a slave in Egypt, bought by a guy named Potiphar. Joseph's a good worker. He does well there. Even though the assignment wasn't on his wish list, his place started to seem relatively secure again. But then he's wrongfully accused of trying to sexually assault his boss's wife and get sent down a few more stories, down into the dungeon, locked up in prison. Like most accounts in the Bible, Joseph's story works on many levels. There's always an element of hope, but first, a dose of reality. The reality is that on our own, wherever we're planted, none of our situations are as sure as we think they are. It's a long story about how the world got to be this way.

The Bible reveals how we had become like trees cut off from our water source, like branches who didn't think we needed the vine, creatures at odds with our Creator. As the prophet Jeremiah put it, See, we broke faith with our Creator. God designed us to live forever by trusting in him, and God gives us his word and his spirit to create that bond of trust. But if we stay separated from our source, we might go on precariously living for 80 or 90 years or more, but eventually reality catches up. There's more to Joseph's story, though. Joseph isn't just any guy who's been betrayed and wrongfully condemned and left in a hole to rot. Joseph is part of the family of the promised seed. The seed is how God, in the Bible's book of Genesis, describes his plan to restore our faith in him, to replant and regrow humanity's roots in God's life. God began again with Joseph's great-grandfather, Abraham. God promised Abraham that in his family, in his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And Abraham trusted God. And so, even though Abraham's family, and especially his great-grandson Joseph, would be planted in some of the most inhospitable climates, in slavery and in prison, and eventually when their nation collapsed and they went into exile and death, even then, nothing could uproot God's promise. Because generations later, this seed, this family, would be gathered into one person. Abraham's greatest descendant, Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, revealed to be the eternal Word of God in person. And Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, revealed to be the eternal Jesus was planted where nothing should grow. He was betrayed, falsely accused, nailed to a cross, and they left his dead body in a hole to rot. But God began again and raised his Son from the dead.

And today, two thousand years later, Jesus is the most fruitful tree that has ever been. And the seed of his promise was already present centuries earlier with Joseph. Listen to how it goes, recorded in Genesis chapter 39. Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, after he had been sold by his brothers into slavery. And a man named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, an Egyptian, had bought Joseph from the hands of the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. And the Lord was with Joseph. And he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his Egyptian master. And his master saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and that the Lord caused everything he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his master's eyes. And Joseph served him. And his master put him in charge of his house. He entrusted all that he had into Joseph's hand. And from the time that he put Joseph in charge, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in his house and his field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge. And because of him, Potiphar, his master, had no concern about anything except for the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome. And in the course of time, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. And she said to him, come to bed with me. Joseph refused. He said to his master's wife, look, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house. And he has put me in charge over everything. No one is greater in this house than I am.

And my master has not withheld anything from me except you, because you're his wife. So how could I do this great evil and sin against God? Yet she kept on talking to him day after day. But he would not listen to her, to go to bed with her or be with her. One day, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and there were no other servants in the house, she caught him by his cloak and said, come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. As soon as she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called to her household servants and said to them, look, he has brought this Hebrew among us to make sport of us. He tried to get into bed with me, but I screamed. And when he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. And she kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. And then she told him the same story, saying, that Hebrew slave you have brought to be among us came to make sport of me. But when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran from the house. And when his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your slave treated me, he burned with anger. And Joseph's master took him and put him in the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were kept. And he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love. And the Lord gave Joseph favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. And whatever was done there, it was Joseph that did it. And the warden paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with Joseph. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. Genesis chapter 39. This weekend, U.S. Americans celebrated America's 250th birthday.

Some people tell a story of America as a failed experiment, planted in bad conditions, created by privileged white men who didn't want to pay their taxes. Others tell a story of America as unique, exceptional, or even God's chosen nation, planted to be an oak of righteousness. for the world. The Bible, however, gives us another story in which to see America. It is one more place where the Spirit of God is carrying the seed of God's blessing, the crucified and risen Jesus, to all places. And followers of Jesus, we can bloom here, also, like Joseph did in Egypt. Whatever the conditions, we can grow here, not for ourselves, but for others. Because this story is not about me, or you, or America, or any other political entity. The story is about Jesus, His love for God, His Father, and God the Father's love for the world. No exceptions. So much so that He gave His only Son, that whoever trusts in Him would be truly blessed. But sometimes, as Americans, or Canadians, or from wherever you happen to be hearing this, we get turned around on what it means to be blessed. The world will tell you that blessing means favorable circumstances, but blessing, in the biblical sense, means God's favor in any circumstance. No exceptions. Because there is no where God does not belong. And with God, forgiveness, and life, and resurrection, and reconciliation, and new creation will always find a way. But not usually in too much of a hurry. I was looking through scanned copies of old newspapers from the Greensburg Daily News, the town with that exceptional tree growing from the roof of its clock tower. One article from 1990 describes the tree as a most peculiar providential gift that symbolizes a community that is steadfast and determined to grow and thrive under any circumstances. Another article from 1929 reports how a certain Mr. and Mrs. Swartz of Chicago motored through Greensburg on their way back home from Florida, and after viewing the tower for themselves,

they announced that they were now convinced that the tree was really there. The tower trees of Greensburg have garnered a lot of attention for this small Indiana town. And from a certain perspective, we could say it's a story about an exceptional town with an exceptional gift. But from another perspective, the story isn't about Greensburg at all. It's about the resilience of plants. The Greensburg tower trees are just one of countless examples of plants being plants, thriving in circumstances and places we thought impossible. Like the fig tree that grows upside down from a crack in a cave in Naples, Italy. Or the most photographed 70-year-old willow tree that grows all alone in the middle of a large lake in Wanaka, New Zealand. Or the little saplings seen growing from a neighbor's chimney. Or the potatoes that sprout from your countertop. Just being what God created them to be. If you don't know God's promise for you, I invite you into this abundant life, planted in Jesus and with his people. And if you do know Jesus, I invite you to send down your roots more deeply. In Jesus, we can continue to celebrate the unique gifts God has given to our native lands, to our towns, and families, and to each of us as individuals. But the story we tell, the story we live by, is not of the greatness of our nation, nor of our town, nor of ourselves. It is of the singularly exceptional seed who came back from the dead when they cut him down so that he could give us life, unasked, unearned, and by human measures, impossible. The risen and ascended Jesus sends us into all the nations to sow the seed of God's Word, to bless all people, to become what God made them to be, and he promises to be with us always, wherever we happen to be planted. Would you pray with me? Dear God, make me like a tree planted by streams of living water, bearing fruit in season and out of season.

Through your Word, Jesus, and by your Holy Spirit, and for your glory. Amen. You're listening to The Lutheran Hour. For free online resources, archived audio, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold, I freely give the living water, thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank all of that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say, I am this dark world's light. Look unto me, your morn shall rise, and all your day be bright. I looked to Jesus and I found in Him my star, my sun. And in that light of life I'll walk till traveling days are done. I'll walk till traveling days are done. I'll walk till traveling days are done. I'll walk till traveling days are done. If you will trust the Lord to guide you, placing your confidence in Him, He will be always there beside you, giving you hope and strength within. All those who trust what Jesus knows, build on the rock that will not move. Patience, patience in the wait that's left, and shepherding all with heart content. Accepting what in fear and pleasure God's wisdom and His law have said. And do not doubt what I know, to Christ who chose you for His own. Sing, pray, observe God's wisdom to me. Offer your service faithfully. Trusting His word, you'll walk easily. You'll find His promises true to be. God never will forsake Him be. The souls who trust Him will indeed. This amid all sadness, Jesus, sunshine of my heart, By thee are given the gifts of heaven, Thou the true Redeemer art. Our souls Thou breakest, our bonds Thou breakest, Who trusts Thee surely, has built securely, And stands forever, Alleluia. Our hearts outpining to see Thy shining, Dying or living, to Thee our cleaving, Not us can sever, Alleluia.

Since He is ours, we fear no powers, Not of earth or sin or death. He sees and blesses in worst distresses, He can change them with a breath. Wherefore the story tell of His glory, With hearts and voices all heaven rejoices, In Him forever, Alleluia. We shout for gladness, triumph for sadness, Love Him and praise Him, And still shall raise Him at His forever, Alleluia. Now Dr. Ziegler leads us in praying the Lord's Prayer. Taught by Jesus and trusting in His promises, we are bold to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen. The Lutheran Hour is made possible through the support of faithful listeners like you. To learn how your prayers and gifts can extend the worldwide outreach of the Lutheran Hour, go to LutheranHour.org. Join us again next week when Dr. Ziegler talks about our struggle against unseen spiritual forces. I'm Mark Isher. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries. Lutheran Hour Ministries www.lutheranhour.org