Gardening in the Desert: Week 3 - Nurture

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 3 – August 19

Frame: Nurturing and Waiting

Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus presented another parable to those gathered: “The kin-dom of heaven is like a farmer who sowed good seed in a field. While everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then made off. When the crop began to mature and yield grain, the weeds became evident as well.

“The farmer’s workers came and asked, ‘Did you not sow good seed in your field? Where are the weeds coming from?’ “The farmer replied, ‘I see an enemy’s hand in this.’ “They in turn asked, ‘Do you want us to go out and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ replied the farmer, ‘if you pull up the weeds, you might take the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until the harvest, then at harvest time I will order the harvesters first to collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn, then to gather the wheat into my barn.

Luke 13:6-9

Jesus told this parable: “there was a fig tree growing in a vineyard. The owner came out looking for fruit on it, but didn’t find any. The owner said to the vine dresser, ‘Look here! For three years now I’ve come out in search of fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down. Why should it clutter up the ground?’  “In reply, the vine dresser said, ‘Please leave it one more year while I hoe around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine; if not, then let it be cut down.’ ”

                It struck me as significant that in both of these parables of Jesus, the key ingredient of nurturing the growing crops (grain in one, figs in the other) is time. In Matthew, rather than put the crop grain at risk, the farmer says to let them both grow. Time will tell which is grain and which is weeds. In Luke, the vine dresser begs for the time to cultivate and fertilize the poor little fig tree (and just what is a fig tree doing in a vineyard?). The tree seems to have a special place in the vine dresser’s heart. Saving that tree is a special project that the vine dresser takes on.

                When thinking about our spiritual gardens, there are all sorts of fertilizer that we can apply: meditation, prayer, readings, exercise (the physical and the spiritual are closely connected). We can try to control the bugs and grubs. Maybe we can prune back the suckers and volunteers that divert our energy from our core. But one of the elements that Jesus reminds us is essential for grow is time. Time is grace. Time is a gift we give ourselves. It is the grace to grow at our own pace.

                So I suggest we have four stops along the way on Sunday: 1. cultivate, 2. fertilize, 3. prune, and 4. wait.

                1. Cultivate – to break up the soil and make it easier for the roots to spread and grow. In our spiritual gardens we have to break up the ruts and routines we get stuck in. Our ground can become tamped down and hard. We need to break free every now and again in order to grow.

                2. Fertilize – one of the translations of the story in Luke actually says “apply manure” where most choose the more genteel verb “fertilize.” It may not smell great, but it is full of nutrients and good microbes. Sometimes the crap we endure can become the fertilizer to strengthen our hearts and spirits.

                3. Prune – just as the dead wood and volunteer shoots need to be trimmed so the plant can direct its growing energy into the main stem, so we too need to trim up our lives from time to time. What habit or practices are no longer fruitful? What desires or occupations would we be better off without? Simplifying our lives can help us direct more energy toward our health and well-being.

                4. Wait – just as we can’t make the plants grow any faster no matter how impatient we are, so our own growth takes its own pace. Likewise, another person’s growth will not happen at a pace of our choosing. We have to let them grow at their pace, not ours. It takes patience to allow the fruits, vegetables, or flowers to reach maturity. A large part of tending our gardens is the waiting for things to grow. And such patience is a gift.