Fruit of the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:1-5)

[The sermon I preached at Anna Hull’s memorial on April 16, 2021]

Hello, friends. It is good to be with you. As many of you know, I am Anna’s friend Ashley. Anna and I spent a lot of time together talking about this day and how she wanted it to go. Anna chose this liturgy. She chose the music. And she wanted you all to have plants to take with you, so please take a plant for your family.

This past week, I have been working with Anna’s family and friends to honor Anna’s wishes. I think we all know how much this memorial feels like Anna! And so it seems fitting that the text for my sermon is Revelation 22:1-5, about the tree of life.

The passage begins, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city” (Rev 22:1). This text comes from the last chapter of Revelation. After everything else—everything we associate with Revelation—God has created a new heaven and a new earth, as well as a New Jerusalem. This is the city with the river of the water of life running through it.

But I learned this week that this description is very similar to one in Ezekiel 47, parts of it were taken word-for-word from that chapter. In the Ezekiel passage, the water flows from the entrance of the temple; here it flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Now, Anna was a Bible nerd like me. I can just hear her saying, “Oooh, that’s interesting!” I think this image of water flowing from the place where God is occurs again because it is so powerful. We want to see the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the Most High.

More beautiful imagery follows: “On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month” (22:2). This seems perfect to read here because Anna loved plants! One of the things she was concerned about was what would happen to her plants after her death; she wanted to make sure that people would take care of them. And we are all here to bear witness to the fruit in her life.

We have already heard many examples of this fruit from the people who have spoken today. One is love—we are all here because we love Anna, and she loved us. Anna loved her family, especially her nieces. When we talked about how to organize this memorial, she especially hoped to provide a framework for her nieces to better understand death. Anna hoped for children of her own, but was not able to have them. So she poured out love on many children, caring for them and taking their questions and concerns seriously.

Another fruit in Anna’s life was joy. We all remember Anna’s laugh, and her joy in learning and teaching. Anna loved theology, and one of her professors at Candler said, “I remember her well as one of the most steadfast and courageous students I had at Candler. She was smart, open, and willing to risk her ideas to learn new ones.” Anna was always teaching others: about the medical system, about death and dying, and about theology. She found joy in this work.

And another fruit of Anna’s life was kindness (if you are familiar with the Bible, maybe some of you see where I am going with this). Anna showed kindness to everyone, even those who hurt her. When someone did something thoughtless or hurtful, Anna would take the time to talk to them about it and how they could respond differently the next time.

Another example of the fruit of Anna’s life is faithfulness, and I am going to take some time with this one. Anna was faithful in being true to herself and who God made her to be. Anna and I met through Sacred Worth, the Candler group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer students. We were both in leadership. This group meant so much to us—mutual support, a place where we could be with others like us, being able to be ourselves and visible in a place that didn’t always feel accepting.

Being part of the queer community was so important to Anna. She asked me to talk about it here. She wanted to make sure that people knew that she had fallen in love, that she’d had a girlfriend, and how important that relationship was to her. Anna said, 

“I don’t regret coming out. I don’t feel wrong or guilty for who I am at this point. I am really supremely glad I met the people I did at Emory and was involved in Sacred Worth. None of those are things that I regret. I hear stories where people have regrets at the end of their lives, and while there are things I regret or wish I had changed but that was not one of them. The acceptance and activism I had during my time at Emory and with Sacred Worth were some of the most healing experiences for me personally.”

While she was at Candler, Anna was able to express her whole self and it was a joy to see her do that.

Anna and I met in 2013, two years before same-sex marriage became legal in the U.S. A lot has changed in our country and our world since then, but some things still feel the same. People sometimes ask me how I can be a queer minister, what Bible verses shape my understanding of how to be faithful as a queer Christian. 

My response is that I look to Matthew 7:16: “You will know them by their fruits.” Jesus goes on to say, Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Matt 7:16-18) And we know that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Gal 5:22-23) We are all here to witness the good fruit of Anna’s life.

Going back to our passage in Revelation, the next line is, “And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (22:2). I know many of us prayed for healing for Anna. She wanted healing for the world and the people in it. Anna shared this quote from Barbara Kingsolver with me:

“What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That’s about it.”

Anna could envision a world with kindness, with enough to eat, enough to go around, and where kids could grow up to be neither destroyers nor destroyed. This is a vision for the healing of the nations. The passage says, “Nothing accursed will be found there any more” (22:3). This is a return to the garden of Eden, but without pain or suffering. Nothing accursed will be found there.

The promise of Revelation is that God’s servants will see God’s face (22:3). Another translation says, “They will see the Most High face to face.” As some of you know, Anna was friends with Rachel Held Evans, who passed away a couple years ago. Anna and I talked after Rachel died, and she said that, in a way, it was comforting to know that Rachel had gone on ahead of her. Now Anna has gone on ahead of us. Anna knows things we do not know; Anna has seen the Most High.

Finally, the passage says, “And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (22:5). We long for the day where there is no more night, where God holds us close and wipes away our tears and we no longer grieve. And yet, the light of God we have now with us is a blessing. This light shows us how much Anna means to us, how she touched all of our lives.

Until that day comes when there are no more tears, remember Anna.

Remember her laugh and how she would get excited about something especially nerdy.

Remember the time you spent together and the things you learned from her.

Remember her love, her joy, her kindness, and her faithfulness.

Remember the fruit of the Spirit you saw in and through her.

All of this is a gift.

Amen