"You shall be like a watered garden..."

This past Sunday, FCCBC hosted a memorial service for Tom Neal, the primary gardener at the Fremont Garden just up the street from our building. Tom spent thousands of hours planning for and working in the garden. He loved the idea that he was planning, building, planting, watering and growing so that his community could have access to fresh vegetables each summer. If Tom was working in the garden and someone stopped to chat, he would often talk them into helping him with whatever project he was working on. He would post to the Fremont Garden Facebook group about these new faces, thanking them for their help. The most important thing Tom Neal grew in that garden was relationships. It was a place where he felt in right relationship with himself, others and the Universe.

One of the last text messages I sent to him was the news that we had received a grant to cover most of the cost to install water at the garden through a grant program from our denomination. Tom was looking forward to having water available at the garden (planned improvement for spring 2022) rather than hauling barrels from the church. I hope that he envisioned lush green plants and dark loamy dirt as he dreamt about the coming season.

As I prepared the service, I thought quite a bit about Tom’s generosity of spirit and his relationship to our church. We were able to help water the garden, make improvements and lend a helping hand through volunteers from FCC. We even started the garden’s plants in the window sills of our Sanctuary last year. At his memorial service, I shared from one of my favorite passages in Isaiah: “ The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” (Isa. 58:11, NRSV)

In this passage, Isaiah is prophesying, relaying God’s message to the Jewish people. God was responding to their prayers and their performative spiritual practices (specifically fasting). God told Their people to be about the work of dealing with injustice and being in solidarity with those in need. They told Israel that abundance comes from generosity and righting wrongs. God said, “This is the ‘fast’ I have for you. Make things right!”

Given where our world and the Church is today, it would be easy to hunker down and tighten our belts. We could work very hard at conserving resources and doing less. However, that would not be in alignment with the spirit of generosity that we are called to. We have the opportunity to take the risk of trusting in God’s abundance as we choose how we use and share our resources with the community.

With our community partners, members and neighborhood, we can plant, water and nurture with the hope that we will reap God’s provision through our trust in abundance. It is my hope that we can each live into generosity in the ways that our friend Tom did: with trust in an abundant harvest to share with all.

If you would like to make a donation to the Fremont Garden in honor of Tom, you can do so at fccbc.org/giving. Just make a note that it is for the Fremont Garden. If you would like to volunteer in the Fremont Garden this summer, you can join the garden Facebook group or look for volunteer opportunities in the weekly Worship Guide. —Jaimie Fales, Church Administrator