Worshiping God the Gardener

Here's an image of God that might be new: God … the gardener.

Actually, the image isn't new at all. It goes all the way back to the beginning — to the Garden of Eden.  

"God is in the garden with hands in the dirt, holding the soil so close as to breathe the warmth of life into it."  So says Duke Divinity School professor Norman Wirzba — also known as "the dirt theologian."

Wirzba's earthy theology challenges the Greek Platonic notion that the material world we inhabit — our bodies and our planet — is all a kind of unfortunate imprisonment for our souls. Wirzba says that idea is patently unbiblical. He writes, "Scripture is clear that we are supposed to share in God's love for the ground. Adam is created from out of the soil (adamah) and then is promptly told to take care of the ground," (Genesis 2:15). Wirzba says the devaluation of the material world has ended not in caretaking for creation, but rather in environmental exploitation, overconsumption, and neglect. And the church has contributed, in seeing its mission as solely limited to salvation in the spiritual realm and not taking into consideration our call to help redeem the physical world as well.

Wirzba and many other theologians and practitioners say in order to turn this environmental degradation around is a robust theology of creation care.

Why am I telling you this? I would like for us to discern a call to build a garden on our land at Second B.

When I traveled to Israel I was struck by how much the land and the people are a part of one another; they are the chosen people in the holy land. As such, they take seriously the Biblical idea that salvation is not only about saving souls for heaven, but about bringing the kingdom of heaven down to earth. As we toured all around the countryside I could see groves, gardens, and vineyards, all supplied by slow-drip irrigation lines and interspersed with parks and other open greenspace. Our tour guide Laura noted there is a Biblical impetus behind all of this. "We are trying to make the desert blossom," she said, "just like the prophet Isaiah said would happen when the kingdom of God comes."  


When Laura said that, something clicked in my brain. "I know of another place that is increasingly becoming desert like — home," I thought. "I could see home looking something like this."

Water — or the lack thereof — is increasingly becoming the number one issue facing our community and the rest of the Southwest. On April 1 the city of Lubbock instituted new water restrictions for homes and business using municipal water. At church, we have our own well, so we are legally exempted from most of these restrictions. But we are not morally exempted. It is really God's water; and we are called to be good stewards of it.

One way to do that would be to put our water to more productive use with a garden. We could start with a few raised beds which might be used to grow vegetables and herbs which we could then donate to the Food Bank to help feed our city. Perhaps we might even open a few beds for people in the apartments behind us to use for their own family gardens. It would truly be a community garden. We would still have plenty of greenspace for our youth to play on and our neighbors to enjoy with a sense of hospitable welcome. Imagine what it would be like for those driving around the Loop to look over (quickly I hope) and see a church taking creation care seriously. And on Wednesday nights our Mission Friends program could take the children out to help dig around and plant seeds, hoe weeds, and harvest plants. It would be hands-on theology. It could be, well, Edenic.


I am sounding a call here. A few people have already expressed an interest in helping to envision this project. One even suggested we should ask MiracleGrow to sponsor us! We will be meeting sometime this summer to invite others who may have ideas to join us. All we need is a few green thumbs and lots and lots of workers.

Of course, we are not going to feed the city with a small garden. Nor are we going to solve our water shortage crisis. But we could model the way.  


We could be the Church that the 21^st century needs — a church that knows that its role is to care for all of creation — body and soul . . . and soil. A church that worships God the Gardener.