Ephesians 3:17 is a wonderful text. What is striking in this text and incredibly discerning when thinking on a work such as RBA is verse 17: “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith….” The word “dwell” actually means not merely to take up residence in one’s heart but to colonize and take over one’s entire person. Paul is saying that when Christ enters one’s heart, He takes an active and exacting role in changing each part of the believer-leaving no stone unturned, no blemish untreated, no pain overlooked, no struggle unaided and no need forsaken. Christ does not simply “save” from Hell, if you will. He must drive headfirst with total commitment in presence and grace into the very core of that one forsaken. This change is radical, pervasive, comprehensive, and concrete and cannot be undone. This is the way our Christ works.

Hence, Christ takes the role of a Constant Gardener-One always present, always believing in the work and power of His Green Thumb in providing Light and nourishment, despite the doubt and weakness of the believer. Our Christ enjoys beauty; He is the standard for beauty and aesthetics. This world is being turned back into His Garden as He remakes it and transforms it into the New Heaven and New Earth. Christ is the ultimate Cosmetologist. This changing, shaping and colonization of the believer is a foreshadowing of the colonization of the entire cosmos (Revelation 21).

Therefore, we must carry a message of redemption. Christ is still in the seed planting and field harvesting business. He is a Farmer and will later be the One who sentences. He is the Planter and will later be the final Judge. He is the Gardener now and will later bring retribution. This idea of “later” is a blaring bull horn, the sound of the rooster, an alarm clock, a military call to order, a call to service.

We now stare out of the window of opportunity to aid in the beautification of the earth by directly influencing others’ lives through He who colonizes us. With this focus then, we must look outward-away from ourselves, away from our comfort zone, into the streets, into the strange and unfamiliar places. All theology and understanding must force us to ask the question, “Where will we dig next?”

So then all of our biblical understanding must drive us away from ourselves into the strange places; our reformed theology must place our feet on untilled ground and hard soil. Our Christianity, our reformed theology, our doctrines, our books on the shelf, must force us onto untilled ground, rough and course dirt, walked upon and cracking, starving and yearning for sustenance. We the gardeners see and understand what the ground may not realize-its desperate condition and its need for our presence as the cistern through which the Water of Life does flow. It is our hearts which the Gardener has carved into a cistern; it is our theology which if understood correctly refuses to allow our individual pietistic satisfaction to override or distort our hunger and sadness for the absence of so many.

Isaiah 1:21-26 is one of my favorite passages because through the chastisement, redemption finds Israel. Accordingly, after the chastisement, can redemption also find the Black Church and Community? We see the Constant Gardener in action here too. In verse 26, Isaiah asks gardeners to fasten their overalls, step out of the Ford pickup, grab the shovel and seeds from the truck bed and start turning over soil and planting. Some black reformed folks have forgotten the seeds and have no intention of planting and gardening. RBA wants to be a judge (not one who “condemns” but one who weighs truth and lifestyle, supports and delivers in times of difficulty) and counselor. Therefore, RBA is utterly focused on the ground beneath its feet.

But how does this illustration of the Constant Gardener base itself in theology? Doctrine involves one’s life just as much as it involves one’s mind and brain. One of the prevailing themes of my Constant Gardener illustration is a theology deeply rooted in God’s presence (immanence) in His creation and His unquenchable desire to have His creation look like and imitate Him. The constant gardener is one who dwells with others for the purpose of being a catalyst for the redemption of others just as God dwells in creation in order to bring about redemption for others. Therefore, one’s theology must heavily pursue the meaning and role of redemptive immanence.

What does it mean to live in a neighborhood or suburb? What does it mean to have a relationship with “Malik” and “Rashan” and what should this relationship look like? What does it mean to love the money-making preacher? What does it mean to love and understand the sista who can’t stop shouting? What does it mean to love the choir director who moves to every beat? What does it mean to love the preacher who leaves the text during his sermon never to return to it? These are the questions that a constant gardener must ask God and him/herself.

Co-Founder Michael Mewborn