As if we did not have enough yard work to do at home, my wife and I have taken on a gardening project at the church to which we belong, Montgomery Hills Baptist Church. The landscaping had deteriorated, and so a gardening team was formed to take care of it. My wife volunteered; I got volunteered. And so many is the Saturday morning when we have gone to the busy intersection of Georgia Avenue and the Beltway to work our section of the church garden; in fact, that corner gets so much traffic that several of our friends have told us that they have driven by and have recognized us by the look of our posteriors!
Our section was in truly deplorable condition. The shrubs planted long ago were choked by weeds or broken down by falling limbs. Debris of all sorts, from old newspapers to beer cans to fast food wrappers, was tangled in the branches. And the weeds! The weeds were not just ordinary weeds, not just the occasional buttercup or dandelion. No, these were giant weeds, immense weeds that grew from way down in window wells upward to huge proportions. In fact, you could sit in the small chapel on the ground floor and see through the stained glass the ugly shapes of unwanted greenery. It was a mess. What to do? How to handle the problem? How would we ever get a harvest of beauty out of this overgrown plot of land?
My wife the gardener has the tools – her digger and her weed puller and her mulch carrier. In other words, moi! She carried out a plan to achieve a desirable harvest.
The plan was: first get some good plant material. Buy at the nursery plants that would be healthy and hardy. No harvest of beauty if you do not start with good quality seedlings.
Second, in order to achieve a harvest of beauty, we pulled out all the plants we did not want – the weeds, the diseased, the broken – everything that was unsuitable, and then we spaced out the material that was left over. I got it about pulling out the stuff that we did not want; but why move what was already rooted? Why re-space old plants? I am told, if you want a harvest of beauty, you must not only pull out the weeds, you must also reposition the good plants for growing room.
All right, so thus far we have brought in new plants and we have pulled out weeds and have re-spaced the old material. The next step, obviously, is to put in the new plants. Dig a hole, dump in some water, pop the plant in, and go, right? Wrong! Dig a hole, get rid of the clay, the rocks, the old roots and the garbage hiding there, and fill that hole with compost and clean soil. Only then are we ready to plant.
Now we are done, right? Yes, more or less. Now we can go home, right? Yes, we can. Now we can leave this plot forever, right? No, we cannot. For weeds will certainly come again, and we must return to do weed patrol. Drought will certainly come, and we must return to water. If you want a harvest of beauty, you must continue to tend the garden.
The prophet Zechariah spoke to Judah about the harvest they wanted. They too wanted a harvest, a harvest of peace. Their nation had been through disastrous times. Less than seventy years earlier, the Babylonians had conquered Judah. The Temple had been destroyed, Judah’s leaders had been taken into exile, and the land had been turned over to weeds and waste. No other episode in Biblical history was so devastating as when the people of God lost a war and felt themselves abandoned. They needed a harvest of peace.
But, in the providence of God, the Persians in turn defeated the Babylonians, and their emperor Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Judah. There they began the long and painful process of putting their lives back together. They even began to rebuild the Temple.
However, it seems, they lost their way. They grew weary after nearly twenty years of labor. The debris of battle and the devastation was too much, and they lost energy. They stopped work. The Temple stood unfinished, the city only half ready. Weeds began to take over again in the garden of Judah. Their lives were choking on neglect.
Into that situation stepped the prophet Zechariah. In 520 BC Zechariah urged Judah back to its garden. He and his contemporary Haggai fired up the people to finish what they had begun. And Zechariah in particular gave them a plan for a harvest of peace.
Do you want a peace-filled life? Do you want our nation to live in peace? Do you expect your church to be peace-making? Then follow Zechariah’s steps toward the harvest of peace, which are remarkably similar to what we found in the church garden at Montgomery Hills, working for a harvest of beauty.
“For there shall be a sowing of peace … These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD.” A sowing of peace.
I
The first step toward a harvest of peace is, “Speak the truth to one another.” Bring good things to one another. Just as the first thing Margaret and I needed to do in order to prepare the church garden for beauty was to buy quality plants, so also the first step toward having a harvest of peace is to speak truth to one another. When we do not speak the truth, we sow seeds of conflict; but when we do speak the truth, there is hope for a harvest of peace.
We still live in a world where we stereotype others who are different. We think in prejudices rather than taking the trouble to find out the truth about one another. We live out of incomplete notions, and do not try to get at the truth. But when we do get to the truth, we create friendship rather than discord.
You may think I am about to launch into a discussion of race prejudice, and that is still appropriate. I lived for twenty years working against the notion that a white pastor could not possibly satisfy an African-American congregation. You may suspect that I am going to comment on the issues around immigrants; only this week I spoke with a Hispanic health worker who taught me how to say “undocumented” rather than “illegal”. You may even imagine that I am going to speak about the nostrum, “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus” and how that so blatantly misconstrues who we are. Yes, I am thinking about all of those things, and more. I am thinking about how some Baptist leaders slap the word “liberal” on churches like yours, and spit it out as if it were a curse word. I am thinking about how some in the political right wing brand gay people with hostile labels, and how some in the political left wing call those of us who stand for marriage homophobic. Labeling people, speaking in stereotypes, thinking in prejudices creates conflict.
But a harvest of peace begins when we speak the truth to one another and seek to understand one another. One of my first efforts at preaching, when I was a college student, came at the invitation of Brother James, who was during the week the elevator operator at the building where I worked, but who was on the weekends the pastor of a little church next to the railroad yards. When my father heard that I was going to preach in that community, in an all-black church, he said, “I’m going with you. I’m not sure you’ll be safe by yourself.” Well and good; I wasn’t sure either. But when it was all over, and I had at least tried to preach as best you can with one bare light bulb hanging in front of your face, my dad said, on the way home, “Why, you know, they were just as kind and gracious as …” He stopped himself, we looked at each other and smiled. He did not have to finish the sentence. We knew we had just escaped the prejudice trap. And we knew that thereafter we would speak the truth about others who simply look different.
II
The first step toward peace is to speak the truth to one another; to bring good material to the garden from which we can grow a harvest of peace. And the second step is to pull out all the weeds and re-space what is left to make growing room. Zechariah says it for us: “Render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace”
If I am to have a harvest of beauty, I must take out the weeds and make room for good things to grow. And if I am to have a harvest of peace, I must not only pass judgment on the things that destroy. I must also do the things that make space for peace. That may not be easy, but it is critical.
I know we are concerned about crime and violence. Every day the news is filled with atrocities. We are locking people up in record numbers, we are investing multiplied millions in prisons. We are passing lots of judgments. But if we want peace, there is something else to do besides passing judgment; we can focus on giving people space in which to grow.
Complain if you want about light sentences and plea bargains. Criticize if you wish the tedium that is supposed to assure justice but which ends up delaying it. All of that should be reviewed, yes. But what do we do with the incarcerated? What do we do to reclaim the lives of those we put into prison? It is one thing to pluck a weed out of the garden; it is another thing altogether to give space for growth.
Steve Tucker is a friend of mine, a Baptist pastor in Washington who has focused his church on the redemption of men released from prison. I’ve worked with him just a little, and it seems clear that we find it easier to punish than to train, simpler to imprison than to give skills. And so what happens to the hundreds of people released from prison each year? They go back to old neighborhoods, the old environment, with nothing more than the clothes on their back and a few dollars in their pocket. They are told to stay out of trouble. But I tell you, unless somebody steps up and does the things that make for peace, they will go right back into the system. Steve Tucker’s church is providing life skills and work skills on a mere shoestring, but they are graduating people who do not go back to jail. Render in your gates judgments that are true; of course; but be sure to do something that makes for peace.
And prisoners are not the only ones who need redemptive ministries. The terminally ill need support; it is one thing to medicate to control pain, but another thing entirely to bring hope to the dying. And since it is Veterans’ Day, let’s add that veterans need supportive ministry. It is one thing to bring them home from the battlefield; it is a finer thing to see that they get space in which to heal and to grow. People of First Baptist Church, there are scores out there who need what you can give, not just judgment, though that must be done; but also room to grow.
If you want a harvest of peace, you will not only pull out the weeds, you will give space for growth. If you want a harvest of peace, you will not only render judgments that are true; you will see to it that they make for peace.
III
All right. Let’s check out how far we have come toward a harvest of peace, hearing the prophecy of Zechariah. First, speak the truth to one another; get in good material from which a harvest can be drawn. Second, render judgments that are true and make for peace; pull the weeds and make some growing room. But now a crucial step, a personal step. If you would grow peace, “Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another”
Just as the gardener replaces worn-out soil with compost if she wants a harvest of beauty, so it is crucial for a harvest of peace that our own hearts be clean. “Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.” Go to the very core of your being, see what is in your own heart, and let it be cleansed.
Brothers and sisters, the awful truth is that evil is not accidental. Evil is planned. Evil is the outworking of sin that is planned with selfishness. Witness those District government workers who have embezzled some twenty million dollars and spent it on lavish goodies. What were they thinking of? Not the common good, not the taxpayers, not the law. They thought only of the stuff they could get, and they planned for it. The prophet Jeremiah, almost contemporary with Zechariah, cried out, “The heart is devious above all else.”
So we must look to ourselves for there to be peace. We must look to our own hearts, for it is in the heart that cravings erupt and greed festers. It is in the heart that lust and pride linger. Like the gardener who removes the hard soil and its contamination, something has to be done to cleanse our own hearts before there can be peace.
I submit to you that it is only in Christ Jesus that the heart can be cleansed. I insist that there is only one way for the devices and desires of our hearts to be clean, and that is through the blood of Christ. Mere touchups will not do; mere admonitions will not suffice. There comes a time when old contamination must be removed, and a new heart must be given. There comes a time to pluck up that which is planted and to replace it with a whole new mind.
IV
And that is why Zechariah ends the formula for the harvest of peace with a word we hear in a fresh way, “Love no false oath.” Love no false oath; tell no half-truths. Do not settle for anything less than the full truth. Do not be trapped into political correctness. Come back, as gardeners must, to pull persistent weeds and offer life-giving water. Come back, to this one compelling truth, unpopular as it may seem: Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. Jesus Christ is the living water, from which if anyone thirsts, let him drink. Jesus Christ is the bread of life, the bright and morning star, the lily of the valley, the true and living one. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved.
Yes, it is tough to say that in a multicultural world. Yes, it is hard to make that stick when other claims to truth are alluring. And yes, it seems intolerant to stand on the uniqueness of Christ when religious zealots do everything from bomb Baghdad to picket military funerals. But here you and I must stand. If we truly want peace, we must affirm that it is only in Jesus Christ and Him crucified that the world will find peace. Here you and I must go, if we expect a harvest of peace, being clear on this – that outside of Christ there is no deep and lasting peace for the human heart or for the world. For, as Paul says, “He IS our peace, making the [divided] one by the blood of the cross.”
Love no false oath. Settle for nothing less than Christ. Preach Him, teach Him, share Him, send Him. Build up this church as a lush and generous truth garden. Do whatever you do here not for your own pleasure, but for the needs of the world. Return to Christ, over and over, for the heart needs His cleansing. Drink from the fountain of His truth often, for without Him we will wither and die.
Joe and Margaret’s little stretch of landscape out there on Georgia Avenue is beginning to take shape. It has taken love and care; it has required thought and work. But the results are turning into a harvest of beauty that calls a hurried world to see it and find joy. Slowly but surely it is coming, our garden.
Bring truth to one another, do redemptive things for those who are hurting, pay attention to your own heart, and, above all, give the world our Christ. And then there will be, in God’s good time, right here, a harvest of peace.
