Unexpectations

Acts 6

This week, as I was waiting for the Metra, I saw something that I didn't expect. There was a row of Queen Anne's Lace next to the train tracks. They were growing in the rocks next to the steel. It was inspiring. It made me feel like anything was possible. I have similar feelings when I see dandelions growing in sidewalk cracks or daisies growing in a paved parking lot. If they can push through and live then so can I.

Seeing those flowers unexpectedly made me think about what I did September 11th. I wanted to do something positive and life-giving. I wanted to turn around the inertia of hate - the hate of racial profiling, the hate of revenge, the hate of self-righteousness. I decided that the best way for me to do this was to plant some seeds. I brought my planters upstairs and bought some seeds and some potting soil. After putting the seeds into the soil, I watered them and set them in the sun. I did all that I knew how to do to make the conditions right so that these seeds would grow. Some of them have. Some of them haven't. Maybe they haven't yet, but it looks like the seeds didn't take.

I don't know if I did something wrong for those seeds or what, but those pots are just full of dirt with no sprouts. It happens. And apparently it also happens that Queen Anne's Lace grows alongside the railroad tracks sometimes.

Although I planted my seeds with the best of care, I also planted them at the wrong time of year. I'm not sure how they will do now that the days are getting shorter and not longer. It was a risk that I took, planting them in September; in the autumn instead of in the spring. It was a risk that I felt like was worth taking. It was important for me to try to plant life-giving energy to counter the hate that I was perceiving. So conditions were not perfect, but really, they seldom are. And even when conditions appear to be perfect, there is no guarantee that things will turn out as planned. There is so much that we can't see - that we can't know - that we can't control. It's maddening sometimes.

Consider Job, or Naomi, or even Mary and Joseph. Conditions were pretty good for them and then - wham - out of nowhere there is crisis and confusion and all sorts of unexpected things. Now consider the condition of the Queen Anne's Lace, or Harriet Tubman, or George Washington Carver. Conditions were terrible! But somehow, through a lot of pushing and persistence and maybe a little bit of grace, they were ultimately successful.

I think it's good to do the best you can to make conditions favorable. After all, I didn't plant any of my seeds in the couch. I didn't put them in the drain of my kitchen sink. But I also didn't wait for spring.

In Acts chapter 6, Stephen was selected, along with six others, to make sure the Greek widows received their daily food distribution. They were in charge of their local "Meals on Wheels" program. The qualifications for these food delivery stewards included being in good standing and being full of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom. Stephen, it says, was full of grace and power. He did great wonders and signs among the people. He might not be what we think of as your typical delivery person.

Some folks who believed differently than him decided to pick a theological fight with him and they lost. That ticked them off so much that they started lying about him and got him in all kinds of trouble. By the end of chapter 7, Stephen was stoned to death. It doesn't make sense. Here he was, a man full of the Spirit of The Holy, doing great wonders and bringing food to widows and they killed him.

Stephen is set up as an example of living the teachings of Christ. He lived what he believed, he walked in power and professed boldly what he believed, he was challenged by those in authority, and he was executed for no good reason.

There are at least two things that feel unexpected to me in this story. One is that he would end up stoned because he was full of power and doing a good work, and the second is that his ministry of delivering food resulted in so much more than widows getting fed. Widows being fed is not a trivial thing in my mind. It is powerful and important on its own. But it sounds like there were ripple effects that happened in this man's ministry. It doesn't say what the wonders and signs were that Stephen performed, but in the gospels that usually means healing the sick, raising the dead, and deliverance from demons. It's a clear example to me that you just can't predict what will happen. You can't know what will lead to what.

The same is true of us, here at Grace Baptist. We can't predict what will lead to what. Here we are in this interim period, transitioning from the past to the future. In a sense we always are, but during this time we intentionally reflect on who we have been and how it informs who we are now and who we may become. We are in a discovery phase. This interim period is a time for ideas and visioning - a time for exploration and imagination. And it seems like the transition of the seasons that we are in now, this time of equinox when the light and the dark come to a place of total sharing for one day - this seems like a good time to me to transition from reflection to vision. It shouldn't be an abrupt change, any more than the seasons are. We still have some closure on our reflective period and we have to gain some momentum in our visioning.

I come to you today with an idea. I've shared this idea with a couple of people. It has been mentioned in the business meetings that I have an idea. Now I think it's time to share this idea with you. I want to make all kinds of prefaces and caveats - this isn't THE idea, and no decision by anyone has been made to do this, and so on and so forth. It's just an idea - a passion of mine that I'd like to share with you all and see what you think.

I am concerned about the homeless youth in Chicagoland. I am especially concerned about queer homeless youth in Chicagoland. We are not a people of extravagant monetary resources, but we are a people of extravagant resources of other kinds - love, compassion, sacrifice, etc. In Chicago there are opportunities for groups like ours to participate in community gardening. My idea is that we do that in an area where these young people hang out. We would grow vegetables that we could share with them and if they wanted we could teach them to grow their own. My big picture vision is that these young people would end up creating a positive community of growing food together and sharing it with anyone in need. It's a counter-cultural, counter-system vision.

I think it's wrong that people go hungry and homeless. I think it's wrong that people have to compete for food and shelter. I think it's wrong that young people are thrown out of their families because they are not heterosexual or because their gender identity does not meet the system's criteria. I like to believe that there are options to being a part of this oppressive system. This idea is my way of trying find those options.

It might not work. It might. Maybe we would end up with Queen Anne's lace on the railroad tracks - something completely different than we had imagined. Maybe we'll end up being stoned. Maybe we'll end up helping some young people eat and showing them love. There's no way to know.
Below is some information on community gardening. Please give this some thought and some prayer. See if it resonates with you at all. Maybe it will kick start another idea.

This is not a time for expectations. It is a time for unexpectations. A time for visioning, for reaching with our spirits and connecting all that we can vision with our intellect, our feelings, and our bodies.

I'll close with Ecclesiastes 11:6 "In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good."


http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/staff/detail.cfm?StaffID=4
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cook/reports/i244/index.html#Article_3
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/search/stateresults.cfm?cx=013441887324743351507%3Afnavtnakbe4&q=urban+gardening&sa=Search&cof=FORID%3A11#1099
http://www.garden.org/home