[Below is something like what I hope to say this Saturday at
Greenhouse Park--the former builders' tip/landfill,
now a bush regeneration site. Volunteers like our little house church and our friends are coming to demonstrate our care by planting 400 native plants--trees/shrubs/ground covers/grasses.]
Welcome to
bush regeneration! And you thought only human beings needed to be born again! (You know,
regeneration means "born again". LOL)
It’s amazing this gift we humans have--to be born again--but there are some other gifts I want to talk about.
The first gift:
SEEING THE FUTURE. It's the joy of sending oxygen into the future. It's harvesting water and micro-organisms in the soil. It's making a promise to your family--"For better or for worse, I will be faithful." It’s a vision of promise and hope for the future. It's seeing the unseen--everything from the unseen nutrients and living things in the
soil to the unseen spiritual nutrients in our
souls. In Christian terms, it’s
THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
It's a welcoming of Heaven home to Earth. And by faith we pray
in working clothes for its coming, taste it, and rejoice! Did anyone taste it today?
Another amazing gift:
BREATH. We simply inhale/exhale and we live. Yeah, I know lizards and sheep do this. But we know that we’re doing it and what a blessing it is! (
Which leads some of us to imagine and trust the most Blessed Giver!) Our discoveries led us even to see
oxygen and
photosynthesis under a microscope! And our breathing is potentially so incredibly efficient and useful!
Of land mammals, none can inhale as much oxygen as we potentially can! "Get up and go breathe, says the Lord!" As I aspire to trust Jesus, I also aspire to breathe.
Enough about “breathing”. That’s nothing. The next gift will push you over the edge: POWER.
Humans have power over the whole earth. I can abuse my family, friend, neighbor, planet or I can bless them whether or not they can pay me back. Here’s a Proverb [12:10]:
The just ones are kind to their animals, but the unjust? Even their compassion is cruel. I'd say even the very soil on which I tread is a "
neighbor." Here’s another example: I have the power both to leave a
footprint of waste or create spaces for life! . . . Let me put that in cornbread English: I can consume the land like a locust or
I can use my power to GREEN THE DESERT, so to speak. [I’ve seen the desert "greened" on
YouTube, literally. These permaculture people in England went to a place where the earth was as dry and barren as a parking lot and they created a space for life in it . . . and violá! In months this desert was producing figs and pomegranates and citrus like crazy!] So, that’s the gift of power that God
and/or
evolutionary convergence gave to human beings. In Christian terms, it’s
"Dominion" and “The meek will inherit the earth” and “In Christ, anyone is a new creation”. Resurrection knows no bounds.
I know this is an incomplete list of gifts that humans share, but I want to say what I believe ties these gifts together--CARE. The proper bond for VISION and BREATH and POWER is
“care”. It's care that brings green to the desert and gratitude to the one who breathes.
It’s illustrated in the Bible. This is
Romans 8, written nearly 2,000 years ago by Paul who followed Christ from his own people, culture, tradition, and beyond into those of Arab, Greek, Asia, and Rome. Paul said:
For all of creation is waiting, yearning for the time when the children of God will be revealed. You see, all of creation has collapsed into emptiness, not by its own choosing, but by God’s. Still He placed within it a deep and abiding hope that creation would one day be liberated from its slavery to corruption and experience the glorious freedom of the children of God. Everything created by God, including every bird, every beast, and every plant, is moaning in unison with birthing pains up until now. And there’s more; it’s not just creation--all of us are moaning together too.
When the groan in me meets the vision in you, I begin to see what care can do. When I feel anger for the mess I see or feel joy at the possibilities, I begin to care with you. I just can't sit for this slavery so I'll stand in the image of a God who cares.
I’m a born-again or maybe I should say, I aspire to be a born-again. I aspire to be a man of regeneration, "bush" regeneration included. I also aspire to practice
this moaning. This moaning isn't because we're stuck; it's because we're waiting for something. We’ve moaned together today by planting natives, waiting for oxygen in the air and habitat for trillions of "neighbors." If you breathed a little more than usual or feel like your power was put to good use today, go home, take a deep breath, and let out a joyful groan!
Many of you aspire to care,
To really care.
You breathe blessing in and blessing out,
Without lack.
You don't need dirt to pay you back.
You aspire to care like you breathe fresh air.
Most people aren’t like that most of the time.
They breathe in blessing and breathe out a little less.
They take others' needs and try to horde breath.
How do you teach someone to aspire to care,
How do you make room for others to bless?
Others, I don’t know
But here's my promise, for better or for worse
I will care more today and start to rehearse it
I'm starting with a breath
And then a moan
By the way, we'll be doing this Natives Planting again in November.
