Peace Tomatoes
In years past, I grew a wide array of crops, almost all of which groundhogs enjoy eating voraciously (minus tomatoes and jalapenos). So, I would fence everything in but then the groundhogs would climb the fence like a Jungle Jim or dig under it as if escaping from East Berlin in the era of Communism. I would also plant a lot of crops to give a chance for some of the plants to survive, but all it did was escalate the groundhog eating frenzy. Basically, just a bad scene of destroyed crops, weeds, and etc. (the more plants one has, the more difficult the weeding, need to be surgical). The tomatoes were just buried in the mess.
I used to toss the rotting tomatoes in the bushes and some apparently started rolling out the other side into my neighbors' yard. He didn't directly inform me but did craft a mid-sized sign expressing his extreme displeasure. That was about five years ago. I went to him immediately and asked him to see me directly for problems like these rather than posting a sign full of choice words and accusations. The whole passivity of it really irritated me. The sign looked like it took him several hours to design and build. I promptly cracked it in half and tossed it in the trash. Since then, we have had disagreements, some vehement in nature, of him hiring workers to spray weed-killer on his grass within inches of my garden. I asked him to refrain from such a close proximity and he blew me off. It happened year after year. I am sure the chaos of the garden also disturbed his meticulous nature since he can see it from the back of his house.
I finally decided that I would not benefit from further confrontation with the man. Silently and behind closed doors, I harbored a high degree of anger toward him, but I decided to drop it actively. I came to the place where I had to accepted his posture and realized that my power to do anything about it resided only on my side of the property. I could decide to not garden or still have a garden but prepare that he was going to do what he was going to do. End of story. I still silently seethed though.
The other day he was out back on his patio with his wife. I called out to him and he came over with his wife and we had a nice chat about how one of my tomato plants keeps tipping over. It is top heavy with fruit and for some reason the tomatoes are not turning red very promptly this summer, and thus I cannot pick them from the vine. He offered to give me these half-cinder blocks he had to prop on my cages. I accepted them. I, in response, gave him a couple of ripe tomatoes. It was a small thing, a minor gesture, but in the context of our past, pretty significant. A start perhaps to a better relationship.
I read this morning the verse where Paul write about being ambassadors for Christ in the ministry of reconciliation. Most of the verses with the ambassador language are in Corinthians which makes me think that divisions both within the Church there and in the culture of Corinth, were particularly acute, destructive, and serious. The fruit of healing was quite necessary. In thinking through the present serious issue with Chick-fil-A, I have to wonder if the confrontational stance and battle lines being drawn honors Christ. We can take a lot of lessons away from this situation but I don't think anyone can assert that reconciliation is evident anywhere. Our public campaign to eat at Chick-fil-A looks like gesture of both good will/appreciation to the chain as well as a finger in the eye of the Libs. I just would prefer that we would quietly support Chick-fil-A if we want to without all of the fanfare. Sounds like bleating trumpets to me announcing our righteousness to all.
Until the Church in America learns how to balance the 'Right" with "Reconciliation" I am concerned that we are just wrong.
2 Corinthians 5:20
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
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