“Underneath the spreading chestnut tree
I loved him and he loved me
There I used to sit up on his knee
´Neath the spreading chestnut tree.”

– “The Chestnut Tree” by Glen Miller 1939

The spreading chestnut tree is an image richly found in literature. Glen Miller’s 1939 nursery rhyme is said to have inspired George Orwell’s famous line in his classic book 1984:

“Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree.”

The spreading chestnut tree is a fascinating metaphor for life itself – life in all its joy and pain, fullness and brokenness, good and, yes, even evil. In Glen Miller’s nursery rhyme the chestnut tree is where love is formed and expressed. For Orwell, the tree is where people sell each other out and love is not permitted by the party of Big Brother.

The spreading chestnut tree.

A young Bavarian fellow by the name of Sebastian once offered another glimpse into the meaning of this tree. My ears perked up when I heard it:

“In every Bavarian village,” he said, “you will always find three things:  a Maypole, a church, and right next to the church a chestnut tree under which is a Biergarten.”

Say what? A BEER garden at church? Under a spreading chestnut tree?

Looking carefully around each new village we visited I realized Sebastian was correct. With few exceptions there were always Maypoles, a church, and a biergarten!

Under a spreading chestnut tree.

Sebastian said:

“In the olden days people would go to services and afterwards gather in the biergarten to drink and gossip. Nowadays, most people skip the service and just go for the beer and gossip.”

Then with a wry smile Sebastian added, “That’s what I’d do.”

This got me thinking about something that had been troubling me about the churches we visited in Europe. In contrast to the simple architecture and humble beauty of the villages, the churches were elaborately decked out in sparkling treasure.

Stepping through the imposing front doors – moving from the plainness of the town center outside into the hollow silence of the sanctuary inside – was like getting slapped in the face with …wealth …glitz …extravagance…

I’m at a loss for words.

Everything was gold. Silver. Bejeweled beyond belief.

Now I’m not against churches being beautiful. Church buildings should reflect the beauty of God and the magnificence of the faithful saints who have carried forth the Gospel of Christ from generation to generation. I’m all for celebrating, expressing and testifying to Jesus who defined the Gospel like this:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

– Luke 4:18-19

Good news to the poor.

Deliverance to the captives.

Recovery of sight to the blind.

Release the oppressed.

Proclaim the year of God’s favor.

God’s love at work in the world.

As the old hymn goes:

“Silver and gold have I none,
Such as I have give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth rise up and walk!”

What is the Church missing here?

Here in America, as in Europe, many churches have replaced the Gospel with a golden gaudiness of another sort. Instead of preaching good news to the poor, release to captives, healing of blindness, release to the oppressed and declaring God’s day of Jubilee for all people through forgiveness and grace, churches are more and more decorating themselves in the sparkling gilded extravagance of sappy, self-serving, superficial spirituality.

“Come to church to hear nice music, see beautiful ornaments, hear our praise team, and listen to a preacher tell you how you can worry less, be more happy, achieve true success, find your purpose for being, and keep yourself on God’s good side by following God’s rules that we made up for you from the parts of the Bible we agree with.”

Of course, people aren’t stupid.

They know you don’t have to go to church to find those things, let alone find God’s grace.

All you have to do is go to a book store and buy a self-help book, or go to the opera to hear heavenly music…

…or maybe even go to a biergarten located outside the church under a spreading chestnut tree.

You’ll find plenty of happy singing there, joyful laughter, lots of animated two-way conversation, and copious amounts of sharing, storytelling, advising, sympathizing, commiserating, encouraging and all manner of other lively human interactions.

You’ll find life in all its glory and all its ingloriousness there!

And chances are you’ll meet in the biergarten many more poor people, troubled people, blind people, oppressed people, needing-forgiveness people, REAL people than you’ll ever meet in the church next door.

Because today more people are skipping the church service altogether and just going right to the Beer Garden instead…

…where life is lived…and the Gospel happens…

…under the spreading chestnut tree.