Sacred Resistance
- Pastor Brenda White
- Nov 30, 2022
- 1 min read
The nerve of a church and its neighbors working together in a garden to preserve and restore sacred trust. The Pathway Forward Community Garden launched on Juneteenth (June 19th) 2021 with the help of the University Maryland Extinction Master Gardener initiative, the Black Church Food Security Network, Inter-faith Partners for the Chesapeake, Lowe's Home Team, United Way of Central Maryland and a generous grant from the Foundation for Spirituality and Medicine. A year later the garden along with its super-sized pollinator garden has transformed the 1100 square block of West Lexington Street in Baltimore City.
We dare to engage in a sacred resistance which defies the idea that the legacy residents and resent neighbors cannot work together, growing organic vegetables and herbs, as a means of building community. Together, we put our hand in the soil, make conversation, relief stress, and implement plans for a life sustaining community called Poppleton. We are persuaded that our best days are yet to come.
Our resistance chants are:
Psalm 24:1
The earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it—
the world and all its people.
Psalm 150:6
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 118:23
The Lord has done this, and it is amazing to us.
Micah 6:8
The Lord God has told us what is right
and what he demands: “See that justice is done,
let mercy be your first concern,
and humbly obey your God.”
Jeremiah 29:5
Build houses and live in them. Settle in the land. Plant gardens and eat the food you grow.
I read the post about your community working together in the garden and how that counts as really standing up for each other and for justice in Baltimore. It reminded me of when I was stressed and needed bold online English communication exam help during my last semester because group work made me feel like I could not keep up. Thinking about your effort makes me see small actions add up to big change.
I read the article about how the church talked about standing up for justice and peace in life and community. When I was writing my own paper last term, I even needed to edit my research proposal UK because my ideas about justice were messy at first, and that helped me make sense of my thoughts. Reading this made me think more about how our small actions really matter in the bigger picture.