The Fullness Thereof

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. 

~Leviticus 19:9-10~

“Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor... For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.” 

~1 Corinthians 10:23-26~

All who've ever attended a church service have almost certainly been graced with the message that we are to love the Lord our God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Many of us have heard this teaching so often that we brush it off quickly assuming to have great wisdom and don't give it much thought after that. However, when reading Scripture, two things that can be observed are: 1) that wisdom should not be assumed and 2) that humans are not as good at loving as God commands us to be.

As recorded in Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 10, Jesus says what is most important is for us to love three people--God, self, and neighbor. Why did Jesus say these were the greatest commandments? Was it because He was a good guy that wanted us to be nice people? Was it because he was trying to be democratic when responding to skeptics? Or, is there a subtext, a deeper exhortation that many of us have missed? 

Jesus did not waste His words. He was intentional in all that He said and how He said it. In this discourse He began with "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" and He ended with "and [love] your neighbor as yourself." This was not simply a stylistic preference; it was a formula. In order to love our neighbors well, we must love ourselves well, and in order to love ourselves well, we must love God well by giving Him our lives and immersing ourselves in His love for us. 

One way that we love ourselves is by nourishing our bodies with food and nourishing our souls with community. So, it would follow that if we are to love our neighbors as ourselves we should nourish them with the same things.

This year, University United Methodist Church's vision of building a Community Garden came to fruition. The church has long hoped for a way to make use of the land between our building and the neighborhood. We have also been dreaming of ways to take our love outside of the sanctuary and into the community. This project is the result of those hopes and dreams.

The vanguard of the Community Garden was a plot consisting of a few rows of potted vegetables. It has since expanded into another ground plot beside the pioneering garden as well as four keyhole gardens nearby (three of which were built in one day!). 

There are no rules or regulations attached to the garden; all are welcome to reap of its produce (even if they weren't part of the sewing). Those who are involved in the Garden's upkeep have found joy in seeing the growth that has come from their labor and they receive great joy in noticing that others have been blessed by the delicious peppers, squash, lettuce, and other nourishment that it has to offer. 

Love is a simple submission that produces extraordinary growth. When we love God the way He calls us to, the natural result is that we end up better loving the things that He loves: ourselves and our neighbors. 

In creating us in His image, our Father dreamed for us to enjoy what is His. This earth belongs to Him, and He calls each of us to SHARE in its fullness thereof.