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).

God's Treasure

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
--2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)

The clay jars that the apostle Paul was referring to were fragile and plain-looking. You wouldn’t have chosen one of them to store your treasures in. But they were the “work horse” of Paul’s day…used to carry all sorts of things.

Paul chose this ironic image of storing treasure in plain pots on purpose. He wanted to emphasize the truth that God chooses ordinary, fragile people to do His work…to show His power and love. The fact that God uses us despite our flaws and ordinariness is a sure sign to us and to others of God’s “all-surpassing power.” What we do should leave no doubt in people’s minds that God is real, loving, and powerful.

Our youth mission trips always confirm this to me. These trips consistently put us in situations that look beyond our skill level or out of our comfort zone. Nevertheless, we are able to meaningfully serve the Lord because of His presence and power. Hearing our mission team members tell of how God works through them continues to be some of the most exciting experiences in ministry for me. Our youth get a sense of how God is willing to empower them to serve Him. That’s priceless! They get a sense of their ability to make a difference in the world. That makes faith stick.

These experiences are not reserved for our mission teams. You and I can make a difference right where we live and work by God’s power. God’s vision for the Church is that we do just that. To accomplish this, God has put the treasure of His Holy Spirit in each of us. What our God is calling you to do…you can do it! We have all we need.

I am praying that God will put some opportunities in our path in the next few months that will challenge our skills and take us out of our comfort zone. I invite you to join me in that prayer. And pray for our courage to accept these opportunities. Studies on vigorous, growing churches are consistent in showing that they are churches that reach out and serve their communities. We have this treasure of God’s presence and power. Let’s be ready to show our corner of the world the all surpassing power of God!

Only the Creator can recreate humankind

Before technology was really booming (1978) Billy Graham observed that humankind's moral capacities lagged far behind our technological skills and discoveries. Because of that, he said that "the greatest need in the world is to bring about the transformation of human nature." A lot a folks, especially preachers and politicians, have looked to social justice avenues to bring about such transformation. Working for a just society is indeed important, but Billy Graham reminded that there is one central reality:

...there is only one ultimate answer to the need of [humankind] to be changed. Science and technology cannot change [humankind's] basic nature. Economic restructuring cannot change[humankind's] basic nature. No amount of self-improvement or wishful thinking can change [humankind's] basic nature. Only God--the One who created us--can recreate us [through faith in Christ].

(Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit. Dallas: Word, 1978: 74)

My observation is that the social justice ministries of many denominations and congregations lose sight of this central reality.

We're on a mission from God!

“So because of God's mercy, we have work to do. He has given it to us.
And we don't give up.”

--2 Corinthians 4:1 (New International Readers Version)

They were the unlikeliest of God’s servants. Black suits, pork pie hats and RayBan sunglasses. Sister Mary Stigmata (a.k.a. “The Penguin”) had given them a special charge to raise $5000 to save the orphanage they grew up in from the Chicago city tax assessor. Every time Jake and Elwood Blues got a question about what they were up to, they simply responded, “We’re on a mission from God!”

You may recognize the story as the plot of the 1980 comedy film The Blues Brothers. John Belushi and Dan Akroyd had a fictional mission . . . ours is very real. God sent Jesus to us so that the world would experience God’s salvation . . . the WORLD. Christmas celebrates the WORLD receiving a special gift from God. Our very real mission, as recipients of this Special Gift of God’s mercy, is to give our testimony of God’s love and mercy to the world. As the apostle Paul put it in 2 Corinthians, we have work to do given to us by Jesus himself (Matthew 26:19-20; Acts 1:6-8).

There is a current trend in congregational growth and revitalization known as “going missional.” Actually, it is an effort to help congregations return to their Christ-given mission . . . to go out into their world proclaiming, in word and deed, the love of Christ. A book entitled Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness defines a missional church as “. . . a church that is shaped by participating in God’s mission, which is to set things right in a broken, sinful world, to redeem it, and to restore it to what God has always intended for the world” (pg. x).

We’re on a mission from God. It’s a great mission if you think about it. What could be more important and satisfying than helping set things right in a broken, sinful world? Allowing ourselves to be shaped by God, both personally and congregationally, is the essence of life as a follower of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that our creative juices will be ever-flowing about new ways to live out our mission in our community.
When people ask us about what’s going on at our church, may our answer always be “We’re on a mission from God.”