On Saturday, October 29 from 4:00-7:00pm we are hosting an “Open Farm” as a part of Dekalb County’s Food Week events. http://www.dekalbhealth.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/foodDay-GardensFarms.pdf. Our farm is being highlighted among other area projects for it’s commitment to serving our community and producing good, healthy food. We hope our neighbors will come out and see what God has been doing in our garden. You’re invited too, if you want to come around and greet our guests.
So what about this church farm of ours?
The idea for our project comes from the hope that our small one and a half acre garden is heaven on earth. Let me be clear, this is not a bragadocious statement about how beautiful the garden is, but rather, I mean to say that the garden is a place where the Kingdom of God, the new creation has come on earth.
The Kingdom has come in growing friendships between those who work on our small farm, Rahm, Tila, Steve, Margaret and I. The Kingdom has come in the dignity and joy with which our refugee partners, Rahm and Tila, get to do their work. The Kingdom has come in the healing power of holy space where broken and traumatized people come and find peace. The Kingdom has come in the divine mystery by which God, Humankind and the Land enter into a blessed communion.
God too comes in the garden. God is present to us in the cool morning air that gives us breath. It is God who comes to share the heavy load, and God who comes to soften the earth beneath our shovels. God’s grace is known in afternoon shade and evening showers, God’s justice in the plenty of our tables and God’s peace in the quiet of our laboring bodies. It is God who called us to the garden, and though some have come later than others, we share the harvest just the same. We hope that if our vegetables make it to your table, God too would come.
May the Great Kingdom spread to your tables where the plenty is shared and love reconciles us. May God be known at your table in the breaking of bread together. Praise be to God, and may God’s Kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Peace and sweet tastes to you and to those who share your table,
Paul Reeser
