Notes:
- This is an adaptation of the traditional Jesse Tree story (that is usually quite complex and multi-layered) shrunk down to six parts with six symbols only.
- The six parts can be presented during worship on the four Sundays of Advent, plus Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
- The concept is for each part to be used as a segment during worship, usually in place of a Children’s Address, across Advent and Christmas, developing the themes of sin and grace through Old Testament and New Testament stories, ending up with Christ.
- It is designed to be used as an alternative to having a large ‘Christmas play’ on Christmas Eve, instead involving the children in special worship activities over the Advent season as well as Christmas.
- This script can also be adapted to be one longer presentation for a special occasion.
Readers
- Narrator – read by older child or adult
- Reader 1 – a child, ask a different child for each section
- Reader 2 – a second child, needed on Christmas Eve only
- Pastor – or a teacher or lay leader
Props
- A ‘tree’ made out of bare branches placed in a pot.
- Decorations are required for each part (see below); at least as many as the number of children you expect to be in worship, spare symbols can be added to the tree after worship. Depending on the tree, florist wire made into a hook may make it easier to hang symbols on branches rather than using a loop.
Song: O Jesse Tree
Sung to the tune, “O Christmas Tree”, by the children and congregation together at the end of each of the six parts.
O Jesse Tree, O Jesse Tree,
From death to life you lead us.
O Jesse Tree, O Jesse Tree,
You show how Jesus freed us.
Your branches lifeless, dead and bare,
Shall shine with beauty, light and cheer.
O Jesse Tree! O Jesse Tree!
From death to life you lead us.
Part 1: First Sunday of Advent
Introducing the Jesse Tree & The Apple
Decoration: Apple (plastic tree decoration or cut out of paper)
Narrator: When God’s people were waiting for Jesus, God’s promised one, it was a hard time. God’s people felt that God was far away. It felt like there was no hope for their future – like a dead bare tree [point to bare Jesse tree]. Trees normally have leaves and new growth but God’s people felt like their tree was lifeless and could never sprout new leaves again. How did this happen?
Reader 1: Sin came into the world: The Story of Adam and Eve and The Fall.
Read the story from Genesis 3 from a Children’s Bible or other Bible appropriate to the age of the children involved.
Narrator: Sin brought sadness and death into the world. People’s love turned back onto themselves instead of going out to others. This separated people from God and from one another. So this is why people felt like their hope and joy was gone. The ancient prophet Isaiah said God’s people were not like a living healthy tree anymore, but a dead dry tree stump, with dry branches like this Jesse Tree.
Sin is still with us today. It causes us to disobey God like Adam and Eve, and it separates us from one another. We still need Jesus, who comes to take away our sin and make us free. He is our hope.
Pastor: Today we are going to think about the way that sin came into our lives. We are going to hang our first symbol on the tree, which is an apple.Why an apple?
Allow children to give answers; talk about the apple as the symbol of Adam and Eve disobeying God, just like we do, and a sign of how sin came into the world.
Children hang apples on branches of the Jesse tree.
Children and Congregation sing the Jesse Tree song.
Part 2: Second Sunday of Advent
The Rainbow
Decoration: Rainbow (made out of cardboard or coloured in)
Narrator: After sin came into the world and people began to ignore God and do what they wanted without caring for one another, things got worse. People became very wicked and selfish. God saw that people had gone wrong and it was time for a new beginning…
Reader 1: The Story of the Flood
Read the story from Genesis 6 using an appropriate Bible.
Narrator: God washed away all the evil from his world, and started again. That’s what happened for us when we were baptized. God gave us a new start, through Jesus, who came to die and rise for us so that we could have eternal life. God’s new start is one that lasts forever.
Pastor: Today we are thinking of how God washed sin away in the flood and made a new start and gave a new hope to the world. So our symbol is the symbol God gave Noah – the Rainbow. What does the rainbow make you think of?
Allow children to give answers; talk about colourful, joyful, bright future, hope.
Children hang rainbow symbols on branches of the Jesse tree.
Children and Congregation sing the Jesse Tree song.
Part 3: Third Sunday of Advent
Picture: Anthony Easton
Stone Tablet (Ten Commandments)
Decoration: Stone tablets (cut out of cardboard or foam)
Narrator: God loves all people in the world, even though they do not always know or love him. He loved his people Israel too, even when they did the wrong thing and disobeyed him.
God wants people to live the right way so they will be happy and free, as he intended. He tried to help his people do this by giving them 10 rules to help them remember what was good and what was bad. God did this to help his people and make them a blessing to other people.
Reader 1: God’s Ten Commandments
Read the story from Exodus 20 using an appropriate Bible.
Narrator: God’s ten good rules are hard to keep. In fact they are impossible to keep, because even though they are good, you and I still struggle with sin in our lives and we often choose what is wrong. But God’s rules still help us, because they show us how much we need Jesus to take away our sins and make us new everyday. They also help us to know what is right and wrong if we get confused about this.
Pastor: So what symbol could we use for the ten good rules God gave his people? Well, when God first gave them to Moses, he wrote them on flat pieces of stone, called tablets. So let us hang up these stone tablet symbols on the Jesse tree to remind us of God’s ten good rules.
Children hang stone tablet symbols on branches of the Jesse tree.
Children and Congregation sing the Jesse Tree song.
Part 4: Fourth Sunday of Advent
Green branch and green leaves
Decoration: Leaves (made out of green paper)
Narrator: God’s people, Israel, who lived long ago, relied on God for everything. Without him they were lost. When they tried to live their way, they chose the wrong way and did wrong things that hurt them and others. They couldn’t keep God’s rules. After many years they felt dead and bare, without any hope and joy left, like a dead dry tree. It seemed like sin had ruined everything and there was no way to fix it. But then something happened.
Reader 1: A reading from Isaiah chapter 11.
Read Isaiah 11:1-3 from the NIV Bible
Narrator: That’s right, God did what he always does when people find that they can’t live without him. He showed his great love and helped his people even though they did not deserve it. They were like a dead tree, but God made a new green healthy branch grow out of that dead stump – that new green healthy branch came in the form of a person, a special helper, a rescuer. We know his name well: Jesus.
A green branch with leaves, such as a green willow branch, is placed in with the other branches of the Jesse tree.
God’s people were hopeless and lifeless, but God made a new thing happen. He sent His own Son, Jesus. God had promised to send a Saviour to our world for many years, through his messengers, and finally he came. The bare dead tree was coming to life.
Pastor: I have here some shiny green leaves that we can hang on the tree, to show how Jesus is the new green branch on the tree. Jesus can bring dead things to life again. He bring us to life again, so let’s hang up these green leaves.
Children hang green paper leaves on branches of the Jesse tree.
Children and Congregation sing the Jesse Tree song.
Part 5: Christmas Eve
Picture: Hilde Vanstraelen
The Star
Decoration: Star (cut out of cardboard or buy Christmas tree decorations)
Narrator: God’s promised Saviour was coming. God’s people were waiting. The most wonderful new beginning God would ever make was about to happen. Sin and sadness and dying would be gone forever. Love and joy would come to the world.
Reader 1: God placed his own symbol in the sky that night, to show people that His great light was coming into the world. A reading from Matthew chapter 1.
Read Matthew 1:18-43 from the NIV Bible
Reader 2: A reading from Matthew chapter 2.
Read Matthew 2:1-10 from the NIV Bible
Pastor: Do you have a star anywhere among your Christmas decorations? Where do you put that star? [top of tree] That’s right we put it up high to remind us of those kings who came from east looking for Jesus so they could worship him, and how they rejoiced when they saw that star, because it was a sign from God that the saviour the new king was born.
So tonight we are going to put up some stars on our Jesse tree, to show that we are rejoicing and celebrating tonight too, because Jesus the Saviour is here.
Children hang stars on branches of the Jesse tree.
Children and Congregation sing the Jesse Tree song.
Part 6: Christmas Day
Picture: Holly Hayes
The Chi Rho Chrismon
Decoration: Chi Rho Chrismons – cut out of cardboard or foam; white with gold trim.
Narrator: That baby born at Bethlehem was no ordinary child. He was God’s Son. God had sent Jesus to save his people and the whole world from their sins so that sickness and sadness and death would not rule over us anymore. This is actually what his name “Jesus” means – the one who comes to save people from sin.
God chose his Son for this special and wonderful job and gave him, as well as his name Jesus, another special title to show all people who he was and what he had come to do, as the angels told the shepherds on that first Christmas Eve:
Reader 1: A reading from Luke chapter 2.
Read Luke 2:9-12
Narrator: Jesus is the Christ – the one specially chosen and anointed by God, the one who is sent to us from heaven. This is the name from which we Christians take our name. It is the name which gives Christmas its name. It is the name we praise and worship and adore today, and everyday. Today a Saviour has been born to us. He is Christ the Lord.
Pastor: Today we have some special symbols – decorated with gold for royalty. It is called the Chi Rho symbol. It is the first two letters of the name “Christ” in the Greek Language which is the language in which the New Testament was first written down. Together these two letters make a symbol for Christ. And we are going to hang this symbols up on the tree now.
Children hang Chi Rho chrismons on branches of the Jesse tree.
Children and Congregation sing the Jesse Tree song.