Sacrificial Trees

2018-06-04 08:03:34-0400

It's that time of year when the Christmas trees go out. Buying, displaying, and disposing of Christmas trees is practically the only practice remaining of the religious ritual of sacrifice. Acres are given over to the growth of Christmas trees, nurtured for years until they are cut down, carted to parking lots, selected and bought, driven off, decorated for a few weeks, and then, usually without ceremony, stripped of finery and placed on the sidewalk.

In ancient times, the quality of the sacrificial goods was carefully evaluated to match the amount of godly appeasement with one's budget. It was a public ritual, and in many cases, a beneficent gesture from the gods in response to the sacrifice, say, a good growing season, benefitted the whole community. But American Christmas trees get no such ritual, and their sacrifice is not attended by requests for divine intervention. Yet here they sit, in rows in death as in life, out by the street: brittle, flammable, naked, and unsanctified. But what if we were to take these trees and collect them in a public square, and ignite them as in the old days, with praying, singing, and joy?