A Planting of the Lord

January 3, 2022

In the the early ‘80’s, I was rapidly burning out in ministry. I was going through the motions—all the things pastors were supposed to do, such as visiting the sick, writing and preaching sermons, presiding at meetings, but inside I was dying. A series of fortuitous circumstances, including the leadership of my district superintendent Bob Pascoe, instilled new life, new energy, and most of all, a new vision of what ministry could be like. I began working on a mission statement for Park church, the shortened version which read, “Reaching the Heart of the County with the Heart of Christ.” It succinctly stated what we were about as a congregation, and became the basis on which we made practical, everyday decisions: “Does this move us toward this goal, or not?”

In the late ‘90’s as we were gearing up for a new building, we began asking the question of what it would look like if we accomplished our mission, and our vision statement began to take shape. Our vision was to be “a Garden of God’s Delight, Oaks of Righteousness, a Planting of the Lord.” This garden imagery guided much of how we built, and the direction ministry would take for the next decade. 

This imagery was taken from Isaiah 61, a beautiful text that Jesus quoted as he began his earthly ministry:

““The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” 

It was the last of this prophecy that became the foundation of our ministry for many years. As I read today, I saw something I had never before noticed. Before Jesus would proclaim liberty to those held captive by their sin, he preached healing to the broken-hearted. I think he did this because broken-hearted people are not able to appropriate the freedom God gives. Their discouragement and defeat prevent them from grasping the hand that would set them free, and keeps them planted in the prisons of their hearts and minds. Healing is an essential mission of the Church. 

Consolation for those who grieve, beauty for ashes, joy in place of mourning—all this is what must be proclaimed before people can truly be free. But there is more.

When pastor Joe took over upon my retirement in 2012, he slowly began to put his own stamp upon the ministry here. This is as it should be. Over time however, the mission statement disappeared from the wall of the sanctuary, and the vision statement faded into obscurity. Joe is not my clone, so this was to be expected, and is entirely appropriate. But I often wondered how this vision God gave me could have been temporary. Being a Garden of God’s Delight, Oaks of Righteousness, a Planting of the Lord didn’t seem to me something to merely be discarded. But I couldn’t figure out how it might continue to find life, other than in my own mind. Then this morning, I read the rest of the text.

“They shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.”

—Isaiah 61:4 

Our planned mission trip to Cuba has been delayed due to the newest governmental Covid restrictions there. But as I read these words this morning, I began to see that while this vision may no longer be in place for Park church, it still is God’s call on my life, but now with the addition of verse four. 

Over the past dozen years that I’ve been going to Cuba, I’ve seen the beautiful classic cars, tasted their Cuban coffee, and even tried a Cuban cigar (I cannot see what pleasure anyone gets from those things!). But I see also the evidence of a once-thriving country in continual decline, streets and infrastructure in disrepair, buildings crumbling, people living in poverty and despair. The old ruins are desperately in need of repair, sad remnants of what once was. God is calling me and others to rebuild the old ruins, to step in, in whatever way we can, to restore that which has been destroyed by the Enemy of our souls, for it’s not only the infrastructure that is in ruins; it’s the spirit and hearts of the people.

We have the Good News! And God has sent us to proclaim it, that there might be “beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”