Hello,
Let
me tell you a story. It isn’t true, but it could be.
There’s a vacant lot sitting in a
neighborhood of Pittsburgh where some of the homes have residents who battle
the winter chill because the windows are vacant, and others of the homes don’t
fight that battle because they are just plain vacant. If you drove by
that lot, the truth is that it isn’t really vacant. It is quite
full….full of rusted washing machines and old kitchen sinks, full of garbage
and trash that was thrown there….full of thistles and ugly weeds….full of rats
and stray cats. Over the years it has become the dumping ground for that
neighborhood. So full of junk and garbage is it that you have to look
really hard to see the 63 Impala that has taken its rest there. It
stinks. It attracts pests. It is ugly.
One day, to the surprise of the
community, a sold sign appeared on the property. When the people saw the
sign, they wondered what fool from Florida had been suckered by some shady real
estate shark. But they were even more surprised a couple of days later
when they saw a car pull up to the vacant lot, and out stepped someone they all
knew. They knew him because he had grown up in the neighborhood, grown up
in the days when it was struggling buy not devastated. Unlike many
of his peers he had escaped from the neighborhood and landed a job as a public
school teacher. He started trudging his way around the vacant lot, and
when some people saw him there, they ran out to meet their old friend, and the
first thing they asked him was, “What are you doing in that vacant lot?”
“I bought it,” he said.
“Bought it with my hard earned money.”
“What for?” they asked, thinking
that his escape from the neighborhood must have been to an insane asylum.
“I bought it to turn it into a
garden. I want to bring life into the dying neighborhood, and it seems to
me that the place to start is in the most dead place…this lot.”
As they were talking a dumpster was
dropped off with a loud bang, and the people realized that he wasn’t
kidding….he might be crazy…but he wasn’t kidding.
He stepped out of the garden and
walked over to the corner where a bunch of the neighborhood folks were hanging
out, as they did every day. Some of them were drug dealers, some of them
were gang members, some of them were prostitutes…but all of them knew him…knew
him from when he hung out with them as kids.
“Hey,” he said as he shook their
hands. “I bought that vacant lot, and I have a dream of turning it into a
flower garden. Would you come and help me out.” Although they
weren’t much for dirt, grime and grease, but because he was an old friend, they
said, “Sure, why not…what else do we have to do.”
So they set off to work in the lot,
and the hardest work was first…clearing out all the junk. They worked
hard, but they didn’t make much headway, so they said to their friend who owned
the lot, “We need more help!” So the owner went to another street corner,
frequented by the same sorts of people and once again, because he was an old
friend of theirs and they really didn’t have anything else to do, they, too,
said, “Sure. Why not.” Twice more the same thing happened.
More help needed. More help obtained. When at three in the
afternoon, the lot was finally cleared and ready for the rototillers, four of
them. While some of the people ran the machinery, the others took a short
break, but the break was soon interrupted by the delivery of the plants – three
flatbed truckloads of plants…..”We need more help.”
With the additional help, the shovels went to work and soon
holes were being dug, plants being set in, and mulch set down. It was starting
to take shape, but evening was soon coming…. “We need more help!”
So one final group of people were brought into the project
to set plants in the holes that were already dug, and to spread around the last
pile of mulch. And when the work was done…that lot, once a cesspool and
junkyard had been transformed into a flower garden worthy of wedding pictures.
The whole thing had created quite a stir throughout the
neighborhood and even throughout the whole city of Pittsburgh. So much
stir that the T.V. stations sent out reporters. One of the reporters, a
young woman from KDKA, hopped out of her van and headed off with her microphone
toward a group of folks who looked as though they had been part of the project.
“What a transformation!” she said pushing her mic in front
of one of the person’s face, “And what part did you play in this amazing
transformation?”
A little bit camera shy because of her life as a prostitute,
the woman said, “Well, I’ve been here all day…we cleared out all sorts of junk,
turned over the soil, and planted the plants.”
“Remarkable,” said the reporter. “And how about you?”
she said as her mic found its place in front of some one else’s nose.
“Well,” said the guy, “I wasn’t here from the
beginning. By the time I got here most of the gross garbage had been
hauled out. I helped carry out the washing machines, turning the soil
over, and planting.”
“Remarkable! And you?”
“Well, by the time I got here,” he said, “They were turning
the ground over, so I grabbed a shovel and started digging holes for the
plants….holes, holes and more holes.”
“Remarkable! And you?”
“When I got here the trucks had pulled up and talk about
plants! I thought they had moved a forest in here. I don’t know how
many plants I planted!”
“Remarkable! And you?”
“Well, by the time I got here, most of the work was
done. So, well…I planted one plant.”
“Oh,”
said the reporter…… “that’s too bad.”
Take a
look at Matthew 20:1-16…..
Have a
great week.
God’s
grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor
Jerry Nuernberger
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