Grounded in a Garden

 All our sermons through Lent begin with this quote from sculptor and environmentalist Anthony Goldsworthy. We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.

 

I recall two books that I had on my bookshelf growing up. One was a little book called, A Children’s Garden of Verses. It had only a few verses from Robert Louis Stevenson’s book of the same name. The little book was like a garden of pretty flowers; the flowers were rhymes, poems, and prayers, all suitable for grounding young children. The second book was Beatrice Potter’s, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Peter Rabbit was always in the expertly tended and meticulous garden of Mr. MacGregor, where he -Peter Rabbit- would rummage through and help himself to whatever he wanted to eat, leaving behind holes and pieces of plants. Mr. MacGregor and Peter Rabbit had very different understandings of garden. Each understanding came from their nature. Human nature is quite different from rabbit nature.

 

On Ash Wednesday we began the season of Lent, reflecting on nature – nature as in creation, human nature, and God’s nature. We thought about Ash Wednesday as turning over a sod – turning over hearts and wills to open ourselves to becoming rich soil, grounded, and eventually blooming in the glory of Easter. In a recent exploration of the Genesis text, Professor Valerie Bridgeman from Methodist Theological School in Ohio focused on ‘nature.’ She wrote, As a Lenten text, it does seem that we are being asked to ‘reflect on the nature and limitations of humanity, including the consequences of our actions and inactions and our responsibility in and for this world.’ –Working Preacher.com

Let us consider an interpretation of the Genesis story that follows a garden path less travelled. Human beings are placed in a garden. The vegetation is abundant. There are creatures of every kind. The soil is naturally perfect for hosting and supporting the life in its care; some have called the Garden of Eden, paradise.

But, if we think of human nature --- from a human perspective is the garden paradise?

Today’s story begins with Adam being placed in the garden and commanded to till it and keep it. That is a lot of responsibility; to arrive in a new surrounding, as a new creature, and figure it out.

We are told that Serpent starts a conversation. Serpent is said to have tempted humanity, causing humanity to sin. Serpent through the centuries has received a bad rap, and has been painted as the Devil, evil – non-of-which comes from the story itself. This passage has theologically been termed ‘the Fall’ and the moment of ‘Original Sin.’

Taking a fresh look at the garden passage, could it be that the story is about nature, human nature, and God’s nature? God’s nature created humankind as a creature with freedom of heart and will, with the ability to choose their relationships, with nature, other humans, and God. This story is a conversation of living within this freedom, and it means discerning boundaries. Being in relationship requires boundaries: who to listen to or not listen to; what to eat, not eat; what or how to take or not take; what to till and tend and what to leave alone. To cope with freedom human nature developed an internal process to help discern who to be, how to be, and what to be. The process is an on-going internal conversation -some might call this the conscience. Internal conversation is a consideration of all the choices human’s have to make and all the boundary decisions to be made. In this story, is Serpent the internal conversation partner of human nature? Neither good nor evil – just a conversation partner, to reflect on the options. God said don’t eat the fruit.  But why not, go ahead and eat the fruit. Where the conversation goes between Serpent and human determines how a particular human will act in the same situation. Genesis continues the story we heard this morning, with the story of God walking in the garden. God’s nature of being present and relational to have conversation with God’s creatures. God’s voice in addition to an inner Serpent fertilizes an idea of a relational garden that is abundant and flourishing the world over.

 

One of my all-time favourite paintings is the Tangled Garden -by J.E.MacDonald, an artist of the Group of Seven. The Tangled Garden - in the background there is a small portion of a wood-sided house overlaid with a gnarly apple tree. In the middle is a patch of abundant brightly flowering plants. The foreground has large sunflowers whose season is done; their heads are bent, leaves are turning brown. The garden is full and overgrown. It appears that as the seasons turned it has been left to its own nature. Boundaries - human-made edges and planting groups- have disappeared. Everything is tangled together – blossom and decay, life and death, buds and harvest, plants and weeds. I find the Tangled Garden and its nature beautiful. My nature sits well with this nature. In it I see God’s nature.

 

Mr. MacGregor would not like the Tangled Garden. Mr. MacGregor gardened by bringing his sense of order to the plot of ground. He dug the soil. He tended his plants. Protected the garden with a boundary fence and gate. Traps were set to rid the garden of rodents and pests. Gardening as a verb was hard and time-consuming work. Every plant had its place in the eyes of Mr. MacGregor and weeds were immediately hoed and removed. Order. Productivity. A garden was to be tamed, commanded, and controlled.

 

Peter Rabbit, on the other hand, experienced garden as a bountiful space, full of food and fun. He enjoyed the garden. Gardens were places of adventure and play. Yes, gardens were beautiful but also dangerous, due to Mr. MacGregor’s human nature, but being in the garden was worth the risk! Peter Rabbit got into quite a lot of trouble. He lost his coat which Mr. MacGregor turned into a scarecrow, and almost his life, ending up in Mr. MacGregor’s stew. Peter Rabbit no matter how much his mom and cousins told him to avoid the garden, he did not show any restraint.

 

God tells human beings that they may eat of every tree but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. This is a conversation about boundaries and consequences. Just because something is good for food does not mean we should eat. Just because a flower is beautiful does not mean we should take it out of the garden to place it inside and ‘own’ it. Just because a tree is good for wood, does not mean we need to cut it down. I am currently reading a book with writings about birds from the 1800s where because there were so many birds, humans decided to kill thousands at a time for sport – simply because they could.

 

Today we visit a garden. The garden is the original grounding spot for humanity. It is the place where human nature began to discern what it means to be human and in relationship with nature, other humans, themself, and God. We learn that gardening is not as easy as saying till and tend. There is a lot of discernment required and that discernment comes through internal conversation. Human nature doesn’t always choose wisely. We learn that God’s nature is to come to the garden and be present; to walk among creation and grow relationship with humankind, if humankind chooses to come out from hiding and walk through the garden too. Enjoying the garden, with respect, entering into relationship with it, not rummaging or ruining but caring and keeping.

 

The garden image challenges us this morning. How do we garden? How are we grounded in the garden? Lent gives us time to consider nature, human nature in the eyes of Mr. MacGregor or J.E.MacDonald, experienced via Peter Rabbit’s nature. This week consider experiencing garden in an alternative way to your usual nature. Discern boundaries. Think on consequences. Grow relationships.