A Sermon Preached July 4, 2010, Proper 9 C by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

Today’s Gospel is familiar to many of us at St. James. We used it as our “Dwelling in the Word” passage for the entire first year of the Partnership for Missional Church process.
Jesus sends out 70 disciples, Two by two to spread God’s peace to the towns and to cure the sick. Now when these disciples are welcomed and well-received, God’s peace is shared, hospitality is offered and gratefully received, and the sick are healed. When this happens, Jesus tells the disciples to say to the town, “The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” (The King James Version we heard today). I love that phrase…“The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you” or (the more familiar from the New Revised Standard Version) “The Kingdom of God has come near.” It’s almost like the Kingdom walks by and dusts us with the fragrant hem of its garment.
And aren’t there times in our lives when the Kingdom of God seems to “dust” us: When it has indeed come near to us, when we or someone else has been open and receptive to God’s deep peace and healing? The place where I am most aware of this right now at St. James is at Gideon’s Garden.
The Spirit nudged our young people to have a garden to feed the hungry. Parishioner Pennie Curry took the word out, and the wonderful people of Taft Farms offered gracious hospitality to help make it happen. And so young people from all over the area go out two by two by two to plant, tend, stake-up, and water.
Before we know it, the harvest is truly plentiful, and more laborers are always welcome and needed. And true to the kids’ original mission…HUNGRY PEOPLE ARE FED. The bountiful produce goes to the People’s Pantry, Breaking Bread Kitchen, the Stockbridge Open Table, and others in the community who need food. But I think what’s going on with these young people, and with all the other people who even hear about this garden—I think these people may be the REAL harvest!
The young people of St. James are involved. It’s their garden! And they also bring their friends. There’s also some youth from St. Paul’s Stockbridge, and several young people from the wider community. So Gideon’s Garden is a place, not unlike a traditional church, where a variety of people gather, who might not know or even like each other otherwise, but they learn to care for each other because they’re all Children of God. As with big people, sometimes this learning to care takes awhile…it isn’t easy. Boundaries must be set. But when it happens for them (as for us big people), true community is formed. There is healing, reconciliation, peace—the Kingdom of God has come near.

And the Kingdom is near as well when young people find their strengths, and learn how grounding and good it is to get their hands dirty in work that ultimately feeds hungry people. When this happens, again there is healing: Hungry people are literally nourished; and the children are nourished, and they grow at least as much as the plants! All this going out and nurturing and healing and growing and transforming and feeding is ultimately the work of God’s Spirit of Mission.
Last year we know there were several individuals and families who would go to the garden to work and to pray. Sometimes we knew who they were. Sometimes not. It seems this year the wider community is becoming very interested in our garden. So, Pennie and Garden Foreman Brendan Farnam are going out, two by two, to tell people about it. They’ve spoken with the Railroad Youth Project boards. As a result, they are sending some young artists to paint the garden in all seasons. Pennie and Brendan have also spoken with the Brookside School, a close neighbor to Gideon’s Garden, Brookside wants to start a garden of their own, and asked us for ideas. And they’ve talked with the People's Pantry board. Soon they will talk with the Breaking Bread Kitchen board, Women in Crisis in Pittsfield (WIC). They will also set up meetings with contacts in the Hispanic Community through Fairview Hospital and also the BRIDGE organization. Senior Citizen groups in Sheffield and Housatonic want to hear about the garden as well. So as you can see, people in the community are excited about our garden! I’d venture to say Gideon’s Garden is bringing healing, peace, and a sense of God’s Kingdom to many we’ll never even know about.

I hope you can see Gideon’s Garden is not about recruiting a lot of new children and families to come to Crissey Farm for worship. In a sense, Gideon’s Garden is a church in itself already. It’s a church without walls. It is a place where people come together in community and get in touch with the earth, each other, themselves, and God. . .for the sake of feeding the hungry.

(Sounds pretty much like a church to me.)

Now the garden even has—not a pew— but a meditation bench. Perhaps its icons are the amazing Scarecrows the children made last Thursday. The liturgy is literally the work of the people, young and old. The mission and offering is the bounty from God’s good earth. The Peace of the Lord is what prevails.

I hope you will all go there at least to visit (if not to get your hands dirty!). Take some time to sit on the bench, experience the hospitality, feel the peace, and say your prayers. I think you’ll find the Kingdom of God has come very near.

Now it would be great if we could just stay in the Garden or the Kingdom all the time, but Jesus knows we can’t, and I will speak about this briefly. Remember in today’s Gospel, when the disciples are not welcomed…When their peace and ministry are not well-received, and there’s no hospitality for them? Jesus tells them not to force themselves, God’s Peace, or their healing ministry on anyone. Instead, Jesus says, “Your peace will return to you… and you should shake the dust from that town from your sandals and move on.”

There is a message here for us about TOUGH LOVE. As Jesus’ disciples we are called to offer Peace, to do what we can to help someone or a situation be healed. It may be a person or situation in our personal lives, in our church, in our community, our nation, or the world. But it’s always a two-way street…The other person/entity must offer us hospitality, and must be willing to receive God’s peace and healing from us. Sometimes the people we most want to share God’s love with and the people we most want to get better and be healed, just cannot receive our ministry and love. It’s perplexing, heartbreaking, maddening to us…

Why won’t they take love and peace and healing?

For whatever reason, they just can’t (at least not at that time). Jesus makes it clear when this is the case, there comes a time when he expects us to let it go, to let our peace return to us, to quit agonizing and trying to make them change, and to shake their dust from our feet.

Jesus wants us to spend our time and energy and lives spreading the Kingdom where it can be received, where the ground’s fertile. I know it’s sometimes painfully hard to “shake dust”, but it’s what Jesus calls us to do. But we can take heart because even when we “shake dust”, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God has come near.” Think about it…When we speak the truth in love, even if it’s not well received, it is heard, at some level. So we can let go with confidence that God’s Spirit will use what we’ve said and done in some way…Only God knows how or when. And so, even for the one who cannot yet receive, who cannot yet offer hospitality to God’s peace and healing, even for that one the Kingdom has come near, if we speak the truth in love.

Let us pray…

O God, keep sending us out two by two, speaking and doing your Truth in love. Give us hearts to offer your healing and peace. And when it’s there, as it is in Gideon’s Garden, help us see it and celebrate it, always thanking you for your grace and goodness. And when there’s no hospitality for your healing and peace, help us let go graciously, knowing your Kingdom is always there and your goodness is always at work. In Jesus holy name we pray, Amen.