Growing a Community...

I felt alive, for the first time in a long time I felt alive. As I sunk my hands into the field of warm, rich horse manure a feeling shot through my body. My childhood pastor would be appalled at my devilish, heretical blasphemies, but for the first time in my life I felt the presence of God, in horse poop.

For the past few weeks I have been working with kind, beautiful people in the Uptown area of New Orleans, on the edge of Central City. The community is riddled with drugs, bled by malicious police brutality, afflicted by unemployment and homelessness and slapped in the face by the nearby ostentatious wealth and comfort of St. Charles and the Garden District. In the matter of a few weeks, through the power of community, a jungle inside the concrete jungle of New Orleans has been transformed into the beginning stages of a productive, fruitful, community garden. This work has not been done by construction workers, professional gardeners, non-profits, grant money, volunteers from Kansas, Kentucky or students from Tulane, Xavier, Loyola or by any other outside forces. This abandoned, overgrown lot on the 1900 block of Delachaise has been transformed by the hard-working, caring hands of New Orleans’ forgotten citizens, people typically labeled as “prostitutes”, “crack-heads”, “pimps”, “homeless”, “felons”, the true people of God. It hit me, Jesus’ words “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). It began to make sense; here were the “meek” inheriting the earth, literally. The presence of God was with us, in us, around us, in the dirt, in our smiles, in our community. Theology for me escaped the prison walls of my textbook and my church steeple and I began to live it, I began to feel the presence of the Creator.

There used to be a house on this plot of the land. Katrina came, the house went. Once we cleared the jungle, we discovered a microcosm that reflects the stereotypes about our neighborhood; liquor bottles, bent spoons, chip bags, condoms, beer cans. We cleaned it all up, threw all the filth away, as if symbolically discarding society’s dirty stereotypes. People would stop, watch, ask, talk, work, joke, smile, donate, laugh. Neil, a homeless man, neighborhood griot and handyman brought by some plastic in order to keep the weeds out of the garden’s paths. He stumbled across it in an abandoned house that he sleeps in periodically, ever since he could no longer afford the price-gouging rent rates of predatory landlords. Henry, a neighborhood bike mechanic and occasional bike thief who steals to eat, helped paint and assemble the raised beds. Estelle, a local prostitute and walking community newspaper made sweet tea and brought fruit and rolls for everyone to eat while working. George, an ex-convict and comedian sat by and cracked jokes and told stories to ease the effects of New Orleans’ famously oppressive heat. Camile, a former prostitute, a hard-working mother had a medical condition and couldn’t help physically, but brought by a bevy of assorted seeds. Gary, a neighborhood pimp, thirty-year long vegetarian, garden neighbor and neighborhood nutritionist informed all on the importance of eating natural and which foods provide which health benefits.

All of this is illegal…of course. What is legal that truly benefits the poor? Let me rephrase. What is legal and not paternalistic that truly benefits the poor? This plot of ABANDONED land is not owned by the people now working it. In our capitalist system of private property, we are criminals, guilty of trespassing. I briefly asked myself; “Am I a criminal? Am I breaking the law?” Then a more pertinent, more theological question crossed my mind…”Is God a capitalist? Is Jesus a capitalist?” Although it may seem silly, sometimes wisdom can be found in a wrist-band, “WWJD?” “What Would Jesus Do?”. Matthew once again sheds some light, "'They need not go away; you give them something to eat.' They (the disciples) said to him, 'We have only five loaves here and two fish.' And he (Jesus) said, 'Bring them here to me.' Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children" (Matthew 14:16-21). How do "five thousand men, besides women and children" get fed with only "the five loaves and the two fish"? Through competition? Through private ownership? No indeed!!! Through sharing, through caring, through love, through community. God is not a capitalist. We must stop trying to fit God into our unjust societal mold. God does not fit! God is love!

This community service project has helped to shed light on our unjust society and helped me to reflect on the meaning of law in an unjust society. Whose law do I follow, the law of man or the law of the Word? The answer is becoming more and more clear every time I work with Neil, Henry Estelle, George, Gary, and Camille. The answer is becoming more and more clear every time I dig my hands in warm, moist horse poop.


BLESS


LUKE 12:48