Destruction Happens Fast. Creation Takes Time.
Asparagus Ferns, Our World, Our Church...and Halperin Park
It takes slow, patient, work to really build true community.
And it’s much easier to destroy than build up.
Take, for example, the hanging baskets on my front porch. This is a picture of our front porch this week. I know there’s a lot going on, but what I’m hoping you’ll see are the three hanging baskets. Three “asparagus plants” we’ve had there for many years.
Two winters ago, these plants died back to almost nothing. I have a “before” picture that I took all those months ago, and meant to post with this story; but I cannot for the life of me put my hands on it today.
We bring these plants inside, during a hard freeze. But somewhere in the winter of 2024-2025 there was a storm that caught me off guard, and I didn’t rescue them quickly enough. The shock of the cold/warm killed them.
All through that winter, I fretted about it. I left the seemingly dead baskets out on the patio table. Out of laziness, rather than a firm plan, I cut them back to about three inches, and gave them a lot of water and Springtime Sun. I almost threw them out and started over, several times.
Then, I just forgot about them.
For months, nothing.
Still dead.
Then, finally, a few little sprigs of green started to pop up, here and there. So, I cut back more of the dead parts, and waited more.
It is now almost a year and a half since that killing freeze.
And as you can see: Only now, have the baskets have returned.
The metaphor here is strong:
Destruction happens in an instant.
Building back takes time, patience.
And above all, it takes hope in something beyond our own abilities.
I think about that when I think of the beloved Texas Hill Country. I’ll be headed to the Kerrville Folk Festival, next week. That area is still reeling from the horrific floods of last summer. And I know we’ll do a lot of grieving, but also a lot of resting in the persistent hope of our Hill Country friends.
Destruction happens in an instant.
Building back takes time, patience.
I see this spirit in the opening of Halperin Park, and the years of patience and work it’s taken to create that new community space.
I got a chance to go by there today.
What an amazing gift for all of Oak Cliff.
Congrats to Kessler Park’s own, Edwin Cabaniss for being a key part of the vision.
A few years back, our KPUMC “Journey Toward Racial Justice” named the division that the Interstate brought to our area of town. Our tour went through 10th Street, and saw how it was cut off from the rest of North Oak Cliff. We meditated on the harm of this.
The highways came in quick, and sliced deep.
It brought in divisions along racial lines.
Destruction, as we’ve said, can seem to happen in an instant, and last for decades.
A park doesn’t fix everything, of course. But what a symbol of re-stitching the community back together.
What a hopeful little sign.
But, again: Don’t miss this...it took YEARS to dream, design, and create.
Just like it took years to create the bustling nightlight area of Bishop Arts. It might look like an overnight miracle. But it was built year-by-year through massive amounts of planning, sweat, and patiences.
Oak Cliff folks know that truth in their bones.
We think about all of this almost every day, here at Kessler Park UMC, and about the community we are carefully cultivating with patience and God’s Spirit.
We are a part of that at Kessler Park UMC; creating beautiful space for new people. And we remind ourselves often of the time and patience that takes.
These days, it so often feels like our world is only filled with those who wish to destroy and divide. It seems that too many people understand how DESTRUCTION IS EASIER. It’s quicker.
But CREATION TAKES TIME.
Creation takes trust, patience. And more than all this: Believing in the goodness of Gods’ Spirit and the unity of the world of God’s Spirit.
Maybe right now your experience of the world is more like Sisyphus pushing that rock up the hill.
I know that many of the neighborhood parents and families I’m talking to this week are feeling a sense of exhaustion at the pace of this May.
Testing. Graduations. Summer Plans. Team Sports.
Our church families, KPDS, and Wednesday Night Live Families all feel torn and pulled in all sorts of complicated directions. Everyone I know is just holding their breath until the slower pace of Summer can start.
So, I’d say to you all: Be gentle with yourselves, friends. Trust that you are right where you need to be. Trust that New Life is being born in your life and community. Get some rest this Summer.
Come to see us for worship, when you can.
Yes, harm is all around.
Yes, the news is terrible.
Yes, many people mean to tear down and destroy the good things that take a long time to grow.
But our Gospel lesson this Sunday reminds us again (as last week as well) of a kind of deep Spiritual unity and connection, behind and beneath all we can see with our eyes.
The Gospel lesson has Jesus saying:
“All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
That kind of protective community is hard to create, and you can sense Jesus’ longing for it to be kept safe from destruction. Jesus prays for us, and Jesus notes the unity between he and God, and between God and us.
Connection.
Spiritual union, beyond what we can see.
Trust in New Life and New Growth. God brings back things we think are dead, like dead plants, like churches, and neighborhoods, and parks.
We in Oak Cliff all know well how long it takes to bring back a neighborhood.
We are doing that at Kessler Park UMC, every day.
Trust in God’s promise of New Life, even when new growth takes a long time to show up.