Gardening in the Desert – Worship Series for August, 2012
Series Title: Gardening in the Desert
Anchor Image: Gardening in the Desert (get some
videos at the Desert botanical Gardens?)
Threads: Isaiah
58:11
GOD will always guide you,
giving relief in a sun-scorched land,
and giving strength to your bones.
You will be like a well-watered
garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Each week we will explore
1. the concepts as applied to the physical world
2. the concepts as applied to my personal
spiritual struggles
3. the concepts as applied to how we are called
into the wider world (justice and compassion)
Week 2 – August 12
Frame: Planting
Last
week we did the work of getting the soil ready. The “ready” is for the seed. The soil supports and nurtures the seed. It
provides an environment that signals the seed that it is time to crack open its
hull and start growing. The soil of our spiritual garden provides the same
environment for our own growth.
Planting takes an act of
volition. We choose what to plant and where. But in an odd oxymoron, planting
is also an act of giving up. We give up the seed to the soil and the sun and
the elements and hope that it sprouts and grows. We can plant the seed but we
can’t make it grow. We can water and fertilize and weed around it but we do not
have the power to make it grow.
Again
to talk about our spiritual lives, we can put ourselves in an environment that
can nurture and support our growth, but we can’t make ourselves grow. Planting
spiritual seeds is an act of surrender to the soil and elements of God’s love.
John 12:24-26
The truth of the matter is,
unless a grain
of wheat
falls on the
ground and dies,
it remains only
a single grain;
but if it dies,
it yields a
rich harvest.
If you love your life
you’ll lose it;
if you hate
your life in this world
you’ll keep it
for eternal life
The obvious action this week is to actually plant some
seeds, but we’ve chosen not to do the
obvious. So the question becomes how to evoke the feeling and experience of
planting? How do we invite both the act of intention (choosing to plant a seed)
and the act of surrender (giving the seed to the care of the earth)? We will
still have our tub of soil that we can use symbolically, as well as our
gardening tools. One idea may be to invite people to help water the soil (we have ended up with a number of watering
cans, and if we ask for plastic ones instead of just the galvanized ones, I
imagine we could have quite a few more). This is not the season for planting in
the physical world, so even handing out packets of seeds seems a bit out of
place.
A
friend of mine is also planting seeds of a different kind. Blair Frank is a
Peace gardener. For the last number of years he has worked on creating a Peace
Garden on his property in Iowa. Each choice of seed or plant was both a gift to
the earth, allowing nature to be nature, but also a gift to his neighbors as
the garden becomes a place to come and rest and restore. Blair has written a
book about his vision and experience entitled “Waking Up and Getting Ready: About
Gardens, Spirituality, and Wellness.” Blair has told me that he would be
available for a Skype conversation. I’m not sure about his availability on
Sunday mornings, but I believe we can record a skype conversation. He has also
said that he has pictures of his garden. One interesting twist in this is that
Blair is moving to a new location, so it seems that he is beginning a new Peace
Garden, too. The first video is a little long and rather disjointed, but it
gives you a look at Blair and his perspective on his garden and the world. The
other two are shorter and a more usable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdJp6obn3NY
Planting is an act of hope. It is an act of vision. We plant for the future harvest. Sy Kahn is a folk singer who wrote a song called “Gone, Gonna Rise Again,” which includes the verse about his grandfather:
These apple trees on the mountainside
He planted the seeds just before he died
I guess he knew that he'd never see
The red fruit hanging from the tree
But he planted the seeds for his children and me
We plant in the hope of a future harvest, be it food, or
health or peace.
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