Title: In the Garden
Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Matthew 4:1-11
2/13/05 First Sunday of Lent, Year A
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
Every culture has its Creation Story and today's reading from Genesis is a small part of the Creation story of the Hebrew culture and religion.
I am continually amazed that there are still some places in the United States that want to teach the Creation story as science in their public schools. Having lived in Kansas for nine years of my life I can honestly say, “Toto, thank God we do not live in Kansas any longer.”
The beautiful creation story and all its variations and wanderings in the book of Genesis is about our search for meaning and relationship, not science. It is a story well worth studying, but not in public schools. It is meant for faith communities as we continue our search for meaning and understanding.
In our Western love for the rational, scientific and provable - we must NOT lose our love and appreciation for STORY and the Divine Truth's that we can discover within them. And we must not ruin the power and Divine-inspired art of STORY by trying to convert it into scientific and provable fact. Stories are an art form. They are meant to be walked around in and reflected upon. A good story can even be life changing as it challenges us to open our eyes to things we may not have noticed before.
A very brief overview of the whole Bible shows that it begins and ends with God's garden, in Genesis and in Revelation 22:1-2. In between, the garden image reappears again and again. (Seasons of the Spirit) The garden images work in different ways: They describe the life space for human beings. They express safety and abundance and joy. Garden imagery sometimes represents God's people, Israel is described as a tree or a vineyard, and so is the wise person.
Garden's portray places where God is present and they also signify God's realm. For those of us that love gardens and find them to be a soul-full place to be, it is a wonderful image to consider God's realm as one. It also seems quite apropos that garden's need tending to, just like a living relationship with God.
The story of the garden we heard today from Genesis that tells us of Eve and Adam's encounter with the snake is traditionally known as the story of “the fall”. I remember as a kid always wondering why they called it “the fall” when in my mind I always pictured it as being spring or even late summer when the fruit trees would be ripe…
In the years that I have studied and preached on this passage I have found this story to be deeply rich in so many different images that I love to preach on it and see what angle the Spirit nudges me towards at a particular time. This time it was “the fall”, a title that echoes the idea that God is up there and we are now down here, thanks to the disobedient behavior of some wild woman named Eve. I agree with Professor Dale P. Andrews' suggestion that we call it “The Estrangement” instead. The Garden of Eden story is symbolic of the estrangement we feel deep inside due to putting ourselves before God, of wanting to be in control of our lives without a Divine presence.
When I image Eve reaching for the fruit from the tree - I recognize that innate human need and desire to know now, to have now, to act now, to own, to be in control - NOW! I see a symbolic story about the struggle of finding a balance between receiving and taking, holding and letting go.
I have no doubt that many of us have struggled, or at least struggle off and on with a deep sense of estrangement from God, from the spiritual dimension of our lives. In a society such as ours, in many circles - recognizing and connecting to the spiritual dimension would be considered foolish, irrational or simply a waste of time. I believe that is because we have chosen to value the taking - the gaining - the doing side of human existence, while spirituality is so counter to all of that. Spirituality involves waiting, trusting, and receiving.
Most of us are not born with the capacity to do these things. I have never met a baby that will patiently wait to be fed. Babies learn to trust as their needs are met, babies do know how to receive - but that is only due to their not being able to walk or speak yet!
We choose to learn how to do, how to act, how to give, how to take, and how to gain what we want and desire. But we also need to teach and learn how to wait, how to be still, how to trust what we cannot see, and how to receive. When we do not, we are out of balance, disappointed and discouraged, and feel estranged from the Divine around us, within us and in our relating to others.
We can learn how to honor the spiritual dimension of life but it takes time and commitment to till the ground of our spirits with prayer, meditation, music, worship, community and exercise (yes, our bodies are a part of our spiritual health). The whole rest of the Bible is about a people wrestling with the dilemma of taking control or trusting God, of learning to be a good steward of our spiritual “homes”. Mind you, you won't find anyone in the Bible that had it all figured out.
'What about Jesus? ' You ask. Didn't Jesus have it all figured out? Some would say absolutely “yes, that is what makes him the Son of God.” I believe Jesus would say to us, no one ever has God or spirituality “all figured out” except God herself.
The story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness certainly reflects to us a man that learned how to wait, to let go, when to take charge and when to let go, when to take and when to receive. He was not estranged from God but we must not forget his words on the cross when he asked, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus' life models to us at least two particular Truths about spirituality:
We did not hear the Psalm for today, but it is Psalm 32 and the author writes: “While I kept silence, my body wasted away.” When we are hurting or angry - we must try to find enough strength to share it with God or our very body will waste away. Jesus knew it is better to cry to God, “where are you?” than to not cry out at all.
The garden of our lives will inevitably have seasons of joy and deep loneliness, even despair, whether we nurture the spiritual dimension of our lives or not. But in nurturing your relationship with God, in learning how to wait - how to trust - how to receive - your joys will grow deeper in the garden of your soul. And in your seasons of despair you will have deeper and stronger roots in the heart of the Divine to hold on to.
The 40 days of Lent is an opportunity to nurture the spiritual dimension of our lives in an intentional way, perhaps for the first time, perhaps as a time of renewal. It is a time for all of us to ponder the power of Jesus' story and to consider how his story touches our own.
If you would like support in how you might do that, it would bring me great joy to help you explore some possibilities. For me, that is the core of our ministry together - tilling the soil of our God-gifted souls. Amen.