The Church as a Defiant Garden

The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Psalm 92:12-15

At the end of a recent Sunday message, “Determined to Hope,” I told this story. I wanted to share it with all of you because the spirit behind it has really gotten my attention.

Jane Garmey, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a piece about Kenneth Helphand, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon. A little while ago, Helphand purchased an old stereopticon at a flea market. It depicted a scene of shelters in French military trenches surrounded by gardens. After a great deal of research, he discovered that gardens were often created in times of war. Gardens flanked the Western front during World War I, Jewish ghettos during World War II, German POW camps, Japanese-American internment camps in the U.S., and war-torn areas of Sarajevo. Today, gardens are sprouting up in the deserts of Iraq.

The gardens symbolize life in the most difficult of circumstances. They are "an obdurate refusal to give in to the horror of the hell so close at hand." In fact, Helphand calls them "defiant gardens."(i)

I had to look up the word “obdurate.” It means “unyielding,” or “stubbornly resistant to influence.”

The Church was formed by Jesus to stubbornly resist the brokenness, evil, and chaos in the world. The Church proclaims life! We proclaim that there is love, goodness, and stability available through the presence and power of Jesus Christ. A big part of bearing fruit is bringing people to a relationship with Jesus. Like a beautiful garden, we draw people to Jesus by the beauty of our witness. Like a beautiful garden, we draw people to Jesus by spreading the fragrance of our love.

The defiant garden flourishes “in the courts of our God” (Ps 92:13). This was a psalm for Sabbath Day. The psalmist stresses how important worship is to our life. In worship we are bathed in the light of scripture. In worship we are watered by preaching, prayer, and communion. In worship, we are nourished by song, praise, and fellowship. In worship we are given the opportunity to return good things to God through giving and serving. In all of these things we are made vigorous and fruitful. The beauty of our witness and the fragrance of our love flourish when we are planted in the house of the Lord.

I see each Christian and every church as defiant gardens that grow hope in a world that is broken and corrupt (Romans 8:18-25). We grow hope in a God who has a glorious future for all of Creation. We grow hope in a God who has a glorious future for those who follow Jesus Christ. It is our future. It is a future open to every person. May we be unyielding in our proclamation of the hope we have in Christ!

(i)Jane Garmey, "Planting Hope: Gardening in Times of War," www.opinionjournal.com (3-21-07).