The Life of a Gardener

David Orendorff · Genesis 1:26-31 · April 22, 2007

Today’s Genesis passage is usually translated, “Then God said, ”Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness; and let them have “dominion” over the fish of the sea, etc."  When this translation was first made the concept of God was that of “King.”  God was thought to have "dominion" over the creation, which includes us.  And since we thought of ourselves as God's highest achievement, we had dominion over all that was below us.

Modern Hebrew scholars looked again at the word we translate as “dominion” and decided that the word is not meant to be about “power over” but about “responsibility for” the creation.  The word we have so damagingly translated as “dominion” really means husbandry, caretaker or steward.  A better translation would be “Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness; and let them “care for” the fish of the sea, etc.”  By this simple re-understanding our concept of our relationship with God and the creation has been altered and our discipleship transformed.

I have been working in the parsonage gardens. I didn't make the gardens.  A group of Bear Creek gardeners worked hard before we moved into the parsonage, and before them Roger Barr, and before him the Sorensons.  And before them are others.  And before them is God who created the earth, sent the rain and sun, designed the seed, plant and flower.  I now care for the gardens I did not make.  I like to think of life as a garden.  Life has been given to us as a garden we didn't make.

Having made all that is, God chooses by grace to care for it.  We are a part of God’s creation and God cares for us.  And we are a part of God’s plan in caring for the garden; we are God’s gardeners.

What I next tell you, you already know.  We are consuming the garden at an increasingly devastating rate and threaten to leave our children’s children with no garden at all.  We create so much trash that we are running out of room to dump it.  The Environmental Protection Agency estimates 80% of the nation's solid waste is dumped.  Our appetites have created such garbage problems that cities spend millions of dollars for waste management.  Seattle spends $53,000 per ton to collect garbage and $46,000 per ton to ship it from Seattle to Oregon. Garbage is a product of our insatiable consumption of the garden. A PBS video “Affluenza” identifies symptoms of our consumptive disease:

• Shopping fever: the average American spends 6 hours a week shopping and 40 minutes a week playing with their children.
• Chronic stress: Trends Research Institute reports, "We hear the same refrain all the time from people.  ‘I have no life....I get home at night, there’s laundry, bills to pay....I'm exhausted, I go to sleep, I wake up and the routine begins the next day all over again.’
• Hypercommercialism: By the age of 20, the average American has seen a million commercials.  Advertising accounts for 2/3 of the space in our newspapers and 40 percent of our mail.
• Materialized children:  Only the most expensive toys and designer clothes will do.
• A Rash of Bankruptcies: In 1997, more than 1.1 million Americans declared personal bankruptcy, more than graduated from college.  In 2005 the number declaring bankruptcy had jumped to 2 million.  The rate was so alarming that Congress passed laws making it harder to declare bankruptcy.
• Fractured Families:  In 90 percent of divorce cases arguments about money play a major role.
• Fractured Society: The gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. is the widest in any industrial country.
• Resource Exhaustion: Since 1950, Americans have used more resources than everyone who ever lived before them.
• Environmental Ruin: We are degrading our gifts of air, water, and climate.  As a consequence we are destroying other living creatures and our own habitat.  All this has prompted E.O. Wilson to write, “Is it possible that humanity will love life enough to save it?” 1 from E. O. Wilson, Biophilia

And while we vainly seek joy in consumption, our souls are dying.  Affluenza spreads because of the mistaken belief that deep happiness comes with things, so the more things we can gain, the happier we should be.  The facts will not support this belief.  Beyond the level of necessity, the more TVs, microwaves, cars, and toys we have, the less content we become and the darker is the future of creation.  Jesus rightly says, “What does it profit you, to gain the whole world and to lose your life?” 2 Mark 8:36

We do not have to die in body or soul of affluenza.  We are made like God to be loving gardeners with the earth and each other.  We can put away our mistaken imaginations of “domination over” and see ourselves as caretakers of the earth, as co-operates with the divine ecosystem of life.  We can "care for" our gardens as gifts from God so that those who follow might receive the gift we have received. We can rediscover lost beauty, enhance its presence, and share its love with our children and grandchildren for seven generations.  In this way we will gain our lives, feed our souls, and care for the creation.

United Methodists tend to be green at heart.  Our Social Principles state:

All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it.  Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God's creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings.  Therefore, we repent of our devastation of the physical and nonhuman world.  Further, we recognize the responsibility of the church toward lifestyle and systemic changes in society that will promote a more ecologically just world and a better quality of life for all creation. 3 The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, (United Methodist Publishing House, 1996), p. 85 

We must simplify our living, our gardening. Michael Schut, the author of Simplicity as Compassion writes, “Ultimately then, simplicity is about movement toward freedom which is what Jesus is about too.” 4 taken from inside the jacket, Michael Schut, Simplicity as Compassion

Many of us garden with the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle.  We reduce the amount of waste we produce by being conscious of the packaging (which is 31% of all waste) we buy, the amount of things we buy, and the amount of material we consume.  We plan our driving more carefully reducing the number of spontaneous trips. We reuse paper, bags, glass, plates, etc.  We recycle newspapers, aluminum and tin cans, cardboard and glass.  We buy fewer toys spending less time with things and more time with each other.  We use green products such as Fair Trade coffee now available at Safeway under the brand name Seattle’s Best. We use fluorescent bulbs which have an amazing effect in reducing energy consumption.  We can use our financial resources more effectively (this is the goal of the Financial Peace University currently being taught and which will have another class in the Fall).  Last Sunday’s Seattle times offered a web site where we can do an inventory of our lives and make some simple changes to reduce our personal contribution to green house gases. 5 Sunday Seattle Times, April 15, 2007, page 1ff.

No one can do it all in all places.  But each of us is called to be good stewards of God’s gifts and to care for the creation we touch; to be a gardener.  Together we can practice a compassionate simplicity and stewardship that is thankful for the gifts of our gardens, cares for those gardens with love, and bequeaths their beauty and their fruit to the seventh generation.  We can “care for the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”  May God fill us each with a desire and a power to be faithful gardeners.

Amen and Shalom