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The Rev. Frank
Logue
God—The Gardener Jesus does not sound like the best of gardeners, does he? What happened to waste not want not? After all, Jesus’ story only works if the farmer casts seed all around without taking the growing conditions into account. Seed is sown equally liberally on rocky and thorny patches of dirt as on the good fertile soil. I’m not a gardener and I know better than to do that. If the crops matter to us, any one of us would only plant in carefully tilled soil, making sure that the seeds were placed just so, well aerated, with the proper spacing, fertilizer and watering. Instead, Jesus tells of a sower who casts seed about recklessly. Jesus can’t be doing this because he does know or care about gardens. After all, the story of creation is the story of a garden. Genesis 2:8 says, “Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had created.” God is the original gardener. After everything is created, God’s first act is to create a garden. Then in Deuteronomy (11:10-12), Isaiah (5:7) and elsewhere, the land of Israel is referred to as a garden tended by God. So the image of God as gardener continues. This is, of course, a very different from some other images of God. Forget the idea of a big meany Hell bent on punishing you. Forget the clockmaker who created everything, but once everything is made and in motion, looks on with something more akin to indifference. Forget any image of God you have that leaves God distant or unconcerned for every detail of the creation. Jesus loved this image as he not infrequently used farming analogies to teach. For example, in Luke’s Gospel (13:6-9) Jesus told the following parable, “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn't been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s taking up space we can use for something else.’ “The gardener answered, ‘Give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I'll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, you can cut it down.’” Jesus portrays God as a patient gardener, giving each plant what it needs to thrive. This is the God who made you and cares for you. This is the God we have gathered to worship. There are two other gardens in the Gospel. Jesus prays before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then in John (19:41) we are told, “The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before.” This second garden will be significant for after the resurrection, John tells us (John 20:11-18) of Easter morning as a scene in a garden: Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels sitting at the head and foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don't know where they have put him.” She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. “Why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned toward him and exclaimed, “Teacher!” It is a moment full of meaning when Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the gardener. Jesus in a metaphorical sense is the gardener. Jesus tends to the creation is a loving way, concerned for everything in creation as a good gardener is concerned with every aspect of their garden. It is out of Jesus’ love for all creation that he tells those gardening stories that make him sound like a bad farmer. There is the one about the weeds growing among the wheat and Jesus says that nothing should be weeded out, let it all grow until harvest time. And we get the parable for this morning of the wasteful farmer casting about seed without any thought for where it lands. Jesus tells us that the seed is the Word of God. The Greek here is the word logos which is actually broader that just “word.” Logos is words, things, matters, concerns. The Word here can be thought of as the words of scripture, that is certainly true. But it is more than that. The sower is spreading around revelation, the knowledge of God. In last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus revealed himself to be the revealer, the one through whom we come to know His Father, God. This week, Jesus lets us know how he goes about the work of revealing God to creation. Jesus reveals God liberally, abundantly, promiscuously even. No matter how likely Jesus is to get a response, he makes sure all kinds of people come to know of God. This isn’t like a theology course, but a still small voice in your heart letting you know that God is there, God is real, and God wants a relationship. One wrong way to read this parable is to make it all about someone else. If you decide that this story is only advice for evangelism, letting you know that not everyone you share God with will react the same way, then you have missed some of the richness of what Jesus is teaching. First know that all humans were created to be fertile soil for the revelation of God. The very word for man is closely connected to the word for fertile soil in the Hebrew. In that language, the word for man is Adam. The word for fertile soil is Adamah. The closest translation I can offer in English, which captures this shared root is that we are “humans” of the “humus.” Every human is closely connected to the humus, the fertile soil. So this parable can not be an excuse to name someone as rocky or thorny dirt. For in the parable we find that if each of us is humus, or fertile soil, then there are probably ways in which each of us is rocky or thorny. None of us is perfect yet. Each of us has those areas within us that we have not fully given over to God. Maybe you trust God with your family, but don’t want to make room for God in your decisions about work. Perhaps you trust God in many ways, but not with your finances. Or it could be that you have turned over your life to God except for the part that bitterly hangs on to past hurts, and you don’t want to soften that soil for you are accustomed to nursing those wounds. No matter what it is for you, there is some area within you that is not yielding everything it can. Some place where you have always preferred the rocks and the thorns. For getting rid of those obstacles, means allowing God to clear the way. This is not easy work. It can cause you to have to forgive, really forgive people for some of the ways they have hurt you. It will also call on you to be open to seeing the ways in which you are hurting others. Tilling the soil in our hearts, pulling the weeds, breaking up the tough clods of dirt—this is hard work. The idea though is not to beat yourself up, but to open up new places to let God in. When I finish this sermon in just a few moments, we will move to the font to baptize Jaylee and Chloe. In that portion of the service, we’ll reaffirm our baptismal covenant. Whether you are baptized or not, this is an opportunity to read through the promises made for you or by you in baptism and consider where the areas are that you still need to offer to God. Right before we get to that reaffirmation of our faith, I would like us to join together in prayer:
Amen.
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