Lift up Your Hearts

The readings we use in church this Sunday include the description of Abraham greeting three men at the Oak of Mamre. The pronouns are strange, moving between the plural and the singular, and the men bring to Abraham and Sarah the promises of God. The Triune God is revealed: three Persons, one God. One of the most famous of Christian ikons shows this meeting, and the hidden circles and triangles in the composition express the Christian interpretation of this passage.

Near the city of Hebron is the now dead stump of a very ancient oak which was for long held to be the same tree which marked the sacred site where Abraham met God. It died about twenty years ago but was recorded from the sixteenth century and was certainly then already mature. Here are pictures of the  tree in 1900 and in 2008.







The oak as a symbol of life, resurrection, steadfastness and loyalty is well known to anyone who knows Haileybury. What would the place feel like without the Lightning Oak? The burden of the passage set for this Sunday is that God's promises are stronger even than the oak. Though they might live a thousand years oak trees do eventually die; but the Word of the Lord lasts forever.