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| Source: ancientfaith.com |
This growing season I have tried to let the big garden at the park “lay fallow” or rest without the burden of needing to produce food for For the Life of the World Cafe. Last year I grew and put up enough menu staples to last us until the spring of ‘26. With the scriptural invitation to let fields lay fallow every seven years, and having tended the soils of our West Norwood neighborhood for fifteen consecutive growing seasons, both the fields and I have been doubly due for some “rest-oration.” However, over the course of the last eight months, I have learned that this is more easily said than done.
I couldn’t simply have a hands-off approach all year, allowing the gardens to be overtaken with weeds and grass. The city of Norwood gave me eighteen dumptruck loads of half-composted leaves, which I used to bury the garden and suppress the weeds. This helped a lot, but it didn’t take me long to discover that even a foot of half-composted leaves does little to check the life force of crabgrass, nutsedge, and thistle.
Yesterday afternoon, in an attempt to keep the thistle from going to seed, I worked to pull tens of thousands of prickly plants for the fourth time this growing season. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated about doing this work during my sabbatical. Then I spotted my son, Kallum, and his kindergarten classmates coming down to the park for their afternoon play time. Fifty yards from the playground, and elbow deep in the thistle, I watched Kallum run non-stop for the next twenty minutes. His joy and freedom of play was so beautiful and so good.
As I continued my work, buoyed by the gift of watching him, I thought of the many children around the world who, for a variety of political reasons, do not have the freedom, the energy, or the health to run around and play. I thought of children in Sudan and Gaza and Ukraine suffering from war and famine. I thought of children who are not receiving vital medical care, without which they will likely lose out on their childhood, and possibly die. I thought of immigrant children who are here in the United States by no decision of their own, living in constant fear of being separated from their families. Slowly, the thistle became an invitation to pray. Pulling these pernicious and pokey weeds yet again, and watching my son play, I held to God our polarized nation and suffering world.
Those of us who run this cafe believe that all of our lives, near and far, are interconnected, whether we realize it or not. And we believe that both on material and spiritual levels the flourishing of our neighborhood is inextricably connected to the well-being of the wider world. We believe these ideas are not mutually exclusive but mutually dependent.
In the gospel of John, Jesus declares that he gives his life–his very flesh–”for the life of the world”, (6:51), – not just for those with whom he agrees; not just for those who we like. He gives his life for Sudanese and Palestinians, for Ukrainians and Americans, for conservatives and liberals, for immigrants and citizens.
As a counternarrative to the fear-driven belief that we Americans need to “circle the wagons” and stop caring for others, whether people far away or those nearby with whom we do not agree, For the Life of the World Cafe insists that in order to “take care of our own here,” we must not abandon the heart of God for people in need around the world, particularly children who are truly innocent bystanders. To this end, during the month of September, For the Life of the World Cafe will donate 10% of its gross proceeds to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation which lost a tremendous amount of its funding through the dissolution of USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). In this way, may our small work here be for the life of the world and for the flourishing of our neighborhood.
Robert Lockridge
