“Trust the gardener (and stay in his garden!) and Jesus will grow new life
out of the husk of your old life. Please, stay in the garden. Yes, I know it’s easy
to get depressed about ecclesial garbage. But just remember,
even beautiful gardens have a compost pile”.
Brian Zahnd
Taken from:
https://www.ecodisciple.com/blog/god-the-cosmic-gardener/
God the Cosmic Gardener
May 25, 2023 - The whole of creation is a magnificent garden created by God. Every aspect of that creation God looked at and proclaimed “It is good.” By Christine Sine
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Not long ago we celebrated Earth Day, and recently I had the privilege of sharing the sermon at Seattle Mennonite church. This was not another doom and gloom talk about climate change. I think we are all aware and concerned about the future of our planet. I couldn’t open my computer in the last few weeks without another story shouting its concern. Some feel we only have a decade in which to make changes. It overwhelms us but research suggests that it does not galvanize us into action; in fact, quite the reverse. It actually makes us less likely to respond, because we feel so helpless.
We need new language and new perspectives that inspire us with the enthusiasm and passion to get out and make a difference. We need to re-enchant and re-wonder peoples’ view of the world. Part of our problem is that we have lost the language to describe the beauty around us. When the Oxford Junior dictionary was last updated, some words were removed and new ones added. All the words removed were about nature. One of them was dandelion. Can you imagine? No wonder we think of dandelions as weeds to be eradicated rather than recognizing them as one of the most nutritious plants in the garden and, to a child, one of the most beautiful too.
I love that the Bible begins and ends with a garden. The Eternal God, the cosmic gardener, starts by creating a garden. Our creator doesn’t just go to the local nursery and buy a few plants, but creates every single element of that garden. The divine spirit is infused through every aspect of creation. The flora, the fauna, even the soil, pregnant with life, shimmers with the vibrant presence and glory of God. It’s not just Eden that is a garden, though; the whole of creation is a magnificent garden created by God. Every aspect of that creation God looked at and proclaimed “It is good.”
In the Voice translation of Genesis 2:7-9 we read: “The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden – a place of utter delight – and placed the human whom they had sculpted there. In this garden, the Creator of all made the ground pregnant with life – bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty.” God took all the good stuff of creation and formed it into a garden of utter delight. It gives me a feeling of delight just to think about it.
The great Irish teacher John Scotus Eriugena taught that God speaks to us through two books - the physically small book of scripture and the big book of creation, vast as the universe. Eriugena invites us to listen to the two books in stereo, to listen to the strains of the human heart in scripture and discern within them the sound of God and to listen to the murmurings and thunders of creation and know within them the music of God’s Being. To listen to one without the other is to only half-listen. To listen to scripture without creation is to lose the cosmic vastness of the song. To listen to creation without scripture is to lose the personal intimacy of the voice.
At the end of the Bible in Revelation 22 there is another garden. This is a garden city, a garden that inspires me with possibilities for how to beautify our urban world today.
Imagine it—garden cities multiplying throughout the world. I am deeply touched by the verse, “On each bank of the river stood the tree of life, firmly planted, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and producing its sweet crop every month throughout the year.” I will never forget my first experience of holding a child dying of starvation in my arms when I worked in the refugee camps on the Thai Cambodian border in the mid 80's. Then, from Africa, more images of starvation are seared in my brain. Starvation is seasonal. If the harvest is poor, stored crops will run out before new crops are ready for harvest. In the Middle Ages, it was known as the hunger season. I close my eyes and think of it—a tree that gives fruit twelve months of the year. Can you imagine abundant, lush harvests every month of the year? In God’s garden there is no hunger season, no chance of a child dying in infancy— abundance and provision for everyone and every creature at all times.
Jesus is the gardener of this new creation garden. We heard it at Easter. When Mary Magdalene encounters the resurrected Jesus as depicted in John 20:15, she was coming to the garden tomb looking for Christ’s body. Instead she finds a very much alive Jesus and she thinks he is the gardener. This is not a throwaway line. It is of cosmic significance! Jesus is indeed the gardener of the new creation and asks us to once again join him in its care. Soil must be fertilized, seeds planted, watered, and nurtured and fruit harvested. Animals must be tended and cared for. I don’t think this is a spiritual metaphor. Jesus loved creation and delighted in using it as the focus for his parables.
Several years ago I read A New Heaven and A New Earth by Richard Middleton. It both inspired and stunned me. Middleton suggested that our purpose is to transform the whole earth into a fitting and hospitable place not just for humankind but also for God to dwell. Can you imagine it? God longs for a beautiful place where all creation flourishes and all creatures enjoy abundant provision. A place in which God, too, feels welcomed and comfortable, able to walk once more in relationship with humankind. I like to close my eyes and think about this. What kind of world would God feel comfortable in? Obviously, one in which justice and peace reign, but also one in which creation is restored and cared for.
This is why Earth Day is so important for me. It is not just about climate change and our concern for a world humankind has abused, but about our longing to be able to walk once more with our God in a world of beauty where creation flourishes and all are abundantly provided for. How could this view change how we approach God’s good creation and the destruction we often unwittingly contribute to? How could we make this world more inviting for God to dwell in? What difference would it make if we saw God as the cosmic gardener and Jesus as the gardener of the new creation?
My husband Tom and I live in a small intentional community with three two-bedroom units. One of our foundational guidelines is sustainability. Recently, we became full for the first time in several years with keen gardeners, and we look forward to sharing an abundant harvest of salad greens straight out of the garden, as well as tomatoes, squash, and beans.
In our parking strip, we have several fruit trees, including three apple trees that sometimes produce up to 400 pounds of apples. Over the last 15 years we have probably harvested 5,000 pounds of apples from the trees. Talk about the abundance of a generous God.
"I am not a gardener!" you might exclaim. "I have a black thumb. I don’t have space or time for gardening. I don’t like dirty hands." Well it doesn’t matter. There are many ways to become a co-worker with Jesus to create the new world that Easter beckons us into. It is not just about plants and gardens; it is also about justice and concern for those whose lives are increasingly devastated by the impact of climate change, which usually hits the poorest in our world and communities hardest. ….
And, taken from:
https://brianzahnd.com/2018/03/mistaken-as-the-gardener/
Mistaken As the Gardener
Brian Zahnd
“Mary Magdalene turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not know it was Jesus…supposing him to be the gardener.”
–John 20:14, 15
“On the third day the friends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of a gardener God walked again in the garden, not in the cool of the evening, but in the dawn.”
–G.K. Chesterton
The first person to encounter the risen Christ was Mary Magdalene. It happened in a garden. At first Mary thought Jesus was the gardener. A logical mistake. Or a prophetic mistake. Or a beautiful mistake. Or perhaps not a mistake at all.
On Good Friday Jesus was buried in a garden. A garden is a place to cultivate and grow living things. An appropriate place for Jesus to be buried. A few days before his crucifixion Jesus had said, “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) On Holy Saturday the Son of God was a holy seed sown in a peaceful garden. On Easter Sunday the garden brought forth the first fruits of resurrection — “Jesus Christ declared to be the Son of God by resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:4)
The first seed raised by God in the garden of resurrection became the gardener. When Mary Magdalene “supposed him to be the gardener,” she was exactly right!
Jesus is now the gardener of resurrection, cultivating new life in all who believe. The first Adam was a gardener who failed in his task and the world became a wasteland of war and sin. But the second Adam will succeed in his task — Christ will restore the ruined garden. With Christ as the gardener of new creation we have a hopeful eschatology.
Instead of the thorn bush shall come up the juniper;
Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle.
–Isaiah 55:13
“On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be there anymore.” –Revelation 22:2, 3
Jesus is the gardener who turns blighted wastelands into verdant gardens.
Jesus is NOT a conductor punching tickets for a train ride to heaven. Christian hope is not so much about getting from earth to heaven, as it is about getting heaven to earth.
Jesus is NOT a lawyer to get us out of a legal jam with his angry dad. God is not mad at sinners. Jesus told Mary to tell his disciples that his Father was their Father too!
Jesus is NOT a banker making loans of his surplus righteousness. Modern people love economic metaphors…but they are terrible! Economic metaphors invariably produce bad theology.
Jesus IS a gardener! A gardener cultivating resurrection life in all who will come to him. The conductor, lawyer, banker metaphors are mostly false, giving a distorted view of salvation. The gardener (and physician) metaphor is beautiful and faithfully depicts the process of salvation in our lives.
A gardener’s work is earthy and intimate. Gardeners have their hands in the humus. (We are humans from the humus.) Conductors and lawyers and bankers are concerned with abstract and impersonal things like tickets, laws, and money. But gardeners handle living things with living hands. Jesus is not afraid to get his hands dirty in the humus of humanity.
That Jesus is a gardener with a good heart and a green thumb should change your perspective on life. I promise you that your life is not so messed up that Jesus can’t nurture you into a flourishing state. This is the good news! Take a leap of faith and believe it!
Trust the gardener (and stay in his garden!) and Jesus will grow new life out of the husk of your old life. Please, stay in the garden. Yes, I know it’s easy to get depressed about ecclesial garbage. But just remember, even beautiful gardens have a compost pile.
Believing that Jesus is a good gardener tending to your soul really does change your perspective on life. So when “stuff” happens (you know the expression), don’t despair. Allow Jesus to use “it” as fertilizer to help you grow. Paul says something about God causing all things to work together for good…
Then there are those times when the gardener pulls out his shears. Oh, no! Pruning time! Pruning is the painful experience of loss. No one likes to be cut back. But the gracious intention of the good gardener is always the same: to prepare you to flourish. Jesus says, “every branch of mine that bears fruit is pruned, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2)
I know in my own life any fruitful result from my work of writing has only been possible because of pruning. If I had remained a church-growth, success-in-life unpruned pastor I could never have written on forgiveness and beauty, peace and love as I have. I had to be pruned. It was painful. Very painful. But I thank the gardener for it.
So take heart, if you’re in the garden, the gardener is there. You may not always recognize him at first, but he is there. He calls you by name and his desire is for you to flourish. Believe in the gardener…for he is risen!
