The Jesse Tree [2015]

"The Jesse Tree" was an installation commissioned while I was working as the fine arts chapel minister for the Yale Divinity School and Yale Institute of Sacred music. The "Jesse Tree" is an image from the book of Isaiah, from the Hebrew Bible, which in the Christian tradition has come to represent Jesus Christ. Medieval European visual arts depicted this "stump" and "shoot" of Jesse—the father of King David—as being a family tree of sorts leading from Jesse to Joseph, Jesus' father, and finally to Jesus. This sculpture was designed to make those attending the 2015 Advent worship service at Yale Divinity School feel themselves both beneath and amongst the branches of this biblical image.

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

—Isaiah 11:1-5

The Jesse Tree
Installation with sisal rope, thumbtacks, soil
Yale Divinity School and Yale Institute of Sacred Music
New Haven, CT
2015

The Tree of Jesse, from a Book of Hours, n.d.
Thielmann Kerver
German, flourished 1497-1524
Woodcut (or soft metal relief cut) on vellum (both sides), with touches of blue and red applied
150 x 91 mm
Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago