Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent: Keeping God’s Garden
Read: Genesis 2:8,15
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Watch
Reflect
God’s command to the first human was to “keep” the garden. “Keep” is from the Hebrew word shamar, which can also be translated as guard, take care of, or look after. The writer Calvin B. DeWitt reminds us that the word shamar is also used in the Priestly Blessing, given to us in the Book of Numbers (6:22-27):
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
We are to do to creation as the Lord has done to us. We are in relation to the land as the Lord is in relation to us.
Reflect on the distance between our actions such as mountaintop removal and God’s command for us to keep this “fragile earth our island home.” How can we balance our need for reliable energy in this day and time with this command to take care of creation? Perhaps one step is to think about how to redefine ourselves. Perhaps we are not here to be consumers but keepers. Perhaps our calling in the holy season of Lent is to reorient ourselves in relation to the world around us and to remember who we are and our true calling to be agents of God making the world new.
While this reorientation will require work, it will not be hard because it returns us to right relation. We began Lent being reminded that we are dust. God made the first human out of the earth. Our connection to nature is embedded in us. As we learn to keep the earth, we come into right relation not only with the environment but with ourselves. We bless and in turn are blessed. We keep and remember how the Lord keeps us.
Pray
We give you thanks, most gracious God, for the beauty of the earth and sky and sea; for the richness of mountains, plains, and rivers; for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers. We praise you for these good gifts, and pray that we may safeguard them for our posterity. Grant that we may continue to grow in our grateful enjoyment of your abundant creation, to the honor and glory of your name, now and forever. Amen.
(The Book of Common Prayer, p. 840)
Author
Porter Taylor serves as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina.
March 14, 2016 @ 9:54 am
My problem with these kinds of sentiments — “for the beauty of the earth and sky and sea; for the richness of mountains, plains, and rivers; for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flow” — is that it’s too easy for us to forget that too many people on this miserable little mudball in space never have the luxury to “experience God” in nature. To millions, maybe billions, trapped in grinding poverty, war, and slavery (there is more slavery in the world today than at any time in human history), such lofty notions are incomprehensible abstractions. God’s creation is indeed wondrous, and we should be careful stewards of it, but we should also never forget our brothers and sisters who desperately need care and rescue. When we do (forget), our poetic prattling on about “the beauty of the earth and sky and sea” sounds too much like smug arrogance.
March 15, 2016 @ 6:41 am
Yes, I agree that there are other dimensions of this issue.However, it’s not either/or. We can appreciate God’s creation and still connect to issues of justice.
March 14, 2016 @ 12:23 pm
Too often we have confused dominion and domination in our relationship to and care for the earth, Garden language is a disconnect from factory farming as is tree farming
from clear cutting. There are places in Schuylkill County, Pa that might easily be mis-
taken for the back of the moon thanks to coal mining and the failure to restore the land
afterwards. The waters, in many places, are worse than Flint’s h2o as to color, smell
and drinkability. There is much to be done to care for and restore the total environ–
ment, we should begin already ! Solar & wind energy are a bare start. RH Lewis
March 14, 2016 @ 12:33 pm
What is this but a reminder of the reality that we are of the earth, that farmers, fishers, foresters, florists, park rangers, quarriers, oilers, gassers, miners, and hydrologers, all sustain and support our way of life whether rural, urban, or between.
Thanks and honour to all the humans across the world whose highly skilled labours in these primary industries creatively bring us this life and abundance.