There is an Australian phrase, "beyond the black stump", meaning "far away". I learned it from Christine Sine: she and her husband Tom were presenters at the Black Stump Festival last October in the Sydney area. The festival is part of the 'emerging church' movement. (It seeks to foster a celebratory, participatory, interactive, inclusive, safe, creative, ethical, grace-filled experience of the Kingdom of God.)
They were invited to give their global-view insights into what is moving and changing in the church and Christian community throughout the world.
Here in the parish we've invited everyone in the congregation to imagine what lies "beyond the black stump" (far away in future time). Imagine coming back to this spot at Easter 2022. Who do you see? What are they doing? Where is the church in all this?
And we have begun to see people sketch their visions. Among the common themes that are emerging - a gathering, a Eucharist, a table of sharing - there is the recurring image of the garden, real and metaphorical.
Both physical and spiritual, appropriately enough: for the church may be a sacred garden, a 'thin place' where the membrane between this world (material) and the next (spiritual) may be especially permeable - or where the truth of the barrier's non-existence might become real to us.
Donald Nicholl (author of "A Testing of Hearts") used to say that he would build his ideal scholarly community, of friends seeking truth, around three common elements: a pilgrimage to the site where they would work together, a bell which would draw them together by its sound, and a garden in which they could get in touch with the earth.
As we began envisioning 'the future of social anticipation' at St Albans, Christine Sine encouraged us to think of more than just another community garden - for the church the garden should have a spiritual element, as sometimes a monastic garden has a tree at its center, an apple tree, as a focal point.
(The apples here are just beginning budding, following a late frost.)
What I would like to do now is invite you to look at the church as a sacred garden.
Here, at St Albans, beyond the corner of our current property, where indeed there is a black stump, the sawyer-hewn, springboard-notched, fire-tempered remnant of the first growth, the old forest...
Imagine: a garden. In the garden are many people digging, loitering, enjoying the sun, awaiting the fruits of their common labors.
In the garden are people praying, as well as people spreading manure, double-digging raised beds, spreading seeds, tending crops, pulling (or hoeing) weeds...
Are there children laughing? Are there people singing? Are their hands in the soil? Are they gathered by the sound that rings them round the table, gathered in fellowship and faith, delighting in the joy of God?
Are there hands reaching out, giving and receiving from the town and people around them, spreading the word and tasting the fruit of faith?
Is there a mission outward, seeking in all persons the face of Christ, and serving him there in the face of the stranger as well as in each other?
And in the garden in the cool of the day walks our Lord, as he walked of old, seeking out the new (renewed) humankind he has brought into being, called by his Word.
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The Little Feast (May 14-15, 2010)
Come to The Little Feast: a springtime celebration of creation, creativity, and the Creator, a collaborative adventure with the Church of the Beloved. Register online (http://littlefeast.eventbrite.com/) or send a check to the church ($12). The evening of May 14th we begin the celebration in the living room of Rosewood Manor; on Saturday morning May 15 we gather under the big brown roof of the church of Saint Alban.
"I worship and adore the true and living God, who created all things." --Alban
May we live by faith, walk in hope and be renewed in love, until the world reflects your glory and you are all in all. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Church of Ireland, 2004)
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For the Gospel Grapevine (May 2010) the parish newsletter of St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Edmonds, Washington.
JRL+
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