Gardening with a gun on my hip

Yesterday really felt strange to me.  On the one hand it was a great afternoon to be outside.  The snow is gone, the ground is drying out, and the mosquitoes are not biting…much.  I found myself reveling in the work of cutting out some dead wood and making room for the new growth we are planning this year.  I almost never get to do brush-work when there is no snow and no mosquitoes.  What a day!

On the other hand, I was doing this work with my Smith-and-Wesson .44 magnum handgun hanging on my hip.  You see, the day before yesterday our neighbor was attacked by an 800 lb grizzly bear.  The bears are particularly hungry this time of year, given that they haven’t had much to eat in six months, and that the salmon won’t be in our river for another six weeks.  The bear chased our neighbor down, clawed him up a bit and the, mercifully, left him alone.  As I enjoyed being outside preparing ground for permaculture-style gardening, it somehow seemed wrong to do with a gun on my hip.  Mosquitoes are pests, but at least I don’t have to wear a gun to deal with them.

Maybe it shouldn’t seem so strange.  The health of any body requires a healthy immune system.   Foreign bodies that take away from the health of the system must be identified and dealt with, or the body will soon lose its health.  Indeed, the definition of a healthy body is not one that is disease-free; foreign bodies are always finding their way in.  Rather, a healthy body is one that has an immune system that is effective enough to deal with any intruders that show up.  

Until the salmon start running, that will mean for me that I get to do my gardening with a gun on my hip.  I don’t really want to shoot a bear, but I would if attacked.  Under a permaculture view, and a Christian view, of proper relationships this makes a lot of sense.  Humans and the rest of creation coexist so that both can thrive (Genesis 2:15).  Individual creatures always try to make their way as a part of their ecosystem, and that is certainly true for me.  I have just as much survival instinct as any other creature.  As an individual, Ifeel very justified in insisting on my own place in nature.  As a human, I know that I must care for all of creation, even as creation provides life for me.  

Sacrifice is also a part of relational life, of course.  Yet, the sacrifice I understand is for the good of all.  Bears rarely eat humans.  I do not really want to shoot a bear.  Neither do I want to be swatted around by an angry bear.  I therefore make a lot of noise so they are less likely to be startled—and I carry a .44 to protect my own health.  

The need for health is just as great in human systems as in individuals.  Societies do not do well if “just anything” goes.  Since this blog is a Christian blog, it is important for me to point out that this is true for churches, too.  Churches, and denominations, that do not adequately define themselves will fall apart under the onslaught of foreign ideas and competing interests that will threaten the vitality and viability of the organization.  The members need to have some sense of what it means to be a part of this particular church and this particular denomination.  Indeed, this is one of the reasons why so much effort is going into encouraging congregations to do the work necessary to define their overarching vision.  Churches, which understand their vision for furthering the Kingdom of God, have a vitality that is necessary for their survival.  Churches that do not tend to dissipate away into nothing.

A problem that I believe plagues churches the churches of today is that they have lost track of what it is that makes them particularly Christian.  Christian groups know well enough that they need to define their purpose and their distinctiveness as Christians.  Unfortunately, they often end up attacking the very body of Christ—their fellow church members—rather than the antibodies that are foreign.  If this happens in a human body, say through a runaway immune system disease like rheumatoid arthritis, then the body becomes sick, gets weaker, and dies.  Similarly, if this happens in churches, then the churches become sick, get weaker and die.

I believe this is what is happening today to Presbyterians and to other mainline Christian groups across North America.  For example, all Presbyterian churches teach that the Bible is the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ, and God’s word.  This is an essential teaching, and becomes one of the defining points of what makes Presbyterians both Christian and Presbyterian.  Presbyterian leaders also teach that God alone is Lord of the conscience, which means Presbyterians must accept that there will be great diversity in how Scripture is interpreted.  This is healthy because it forces all of us to a certain humility, knowing that we will be in ongoing conversations, and even debates, on important points of Scripture.  None of us know it all.  Indeed, the Scriptures tell us that together we are the body of Christ and no one part knows it all or can Lord it over the others.  Rather, each part needs the other parts if there is to be a whole body (1 Corinthians 12:all).

When the church must make decisions requiring a certain interpretation of Scripture it is done by the whole body, through carefully defined methods.  If we think of the Presbyterian Church as a great family, then these methods of interpreting Scripture are the agreed-upon family rules for how we will live and discern God’s will together.  This is what defines us as Presbyterians, and this is what keeps us together, despite our disagreements.  Indeed, a good definition of Presbyterian Christians should be that part of knowing ourselves as members of the family of God is through our acceptance of the Bible as God’s word; AND through our acceptance that discussions about how to interpret the Bible are family discussions.  These also define us as a family.  We take the Bible seriously and will be engaged in discussions and decisions on how to apply the biblical teachings.  We need to know that if we are engaged in discussions on biblical interpretation, then we are engaged in family discussions, and that is a good thing.

What makes this difficult is that these family rules require that we have to live with the mistakes that come.  The Christian family members are human and mistakes will be made.  However, if we trust the Holy Spirit to be a Spirit of health, then we can live within this imperfect body, knowing that over time the mistakes will become clear and corrections will be made.  It took many decades for the American Presbyterians to figure out that racism is not a biblically supported worldview, or that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to both women and men in the same way.  We live in an imperfect world and an imperfect church, but the Spirit is always at work and will, in the end, bring enough light that we will see the truth.  

Unfortunately, the church has split over and over again because of the issues of the past.  Today, there are tens of thousands of Christian denominations, and as a result distrust continues to plague the body of Christ.  Strangely, there is still a sense that we are right in standing ready to amputate others from the body of Christ simply because they are not just the same as ourselves.

It seems to me that this is a wrong-headed approach to health.  A healthy immune system does not cut off parts of the body.  Rather, it recognizes very different members as parts of itself, and defends them from the truly foreign bodies that come along.  People who proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and who join the fellowship of Christians should not be cut off.

I think of all this while I am gardening.  Although I carry a .44 magnum on my hip during this time of the year, I do not intend to shoot a bear; I will let it simply pass through, so long as it does not attack me.  Similarly, I do not shoot at strangers who walk up the driveway, or who look rather foreign to me.  I encourage the bears to live well, so long as they do not attack, and I try to welcome strangers to my home, so long as they treat us all with respect.  I believe that God is teaching the Christian family to do much the same.