Sermon - May 30, 2010
Garden the Earth - Part III - Eric Warren
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Genesis 2:15 (MSG) God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.
Genesis 2:15 sets the course for the human race…work the ground…be productive…that;s easy…but how to remain productive…the next part tells us how…
The second direction to Adam and Eve shows them how to stay productive.
They where to “Keep it in order” What does this mean?
Shaw mar: to guard to protect to attend to. To preserve or reserve
The second Adam…Jesus describes he and the father maintaining the creation:
Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.
Allows rain to fall on the righteous and the wicked…
God maintains his creation day in day out.
Most of us, as God’s image bearers naturally feel drawn to maintain what we have…maintaining our piece of the earth…our person, and our living space.
Pruning, weeding, painting, cleaning, are maintenance tasks that glorify God because we are maintaining what he ultimately owns in a sustainable way. We should not look at our maintenance tasks as a time filler till we retire to the new heaven and new earth and experience heavenly leisure.
Without becoming a worshipper of the creation more than the creator, we can do our part for the environment…God’s good earth.
Do I print drafts on one side clean paper…
Do I consider walking or riding my bike to the store instead of starting my car.
Am I being careful how much water I use when I’m shaving.
Am I burning the dead tree in my fireplace instead of turning on the furnace.
But on the other hand creation shows a certain extravagance…there are plants that bloom where no human will see them.
The Parable of the Sower and the seed shows us we must persist in sewing good seeds…regardless of the ground we are on at a given time…and to do it extravagantly.
With the freedom God has given us we can maintain or mismanage what he’s given us…we can plant a variety of actions and thoughts…
Galatians 6:7-10 (MSG)
What good seeds do we sow to maintain what God has given us?
The heart of Jesus beats stronger as we garden in harmony with his purposes. A big part of the heart of God is expressed in:
Luke 4:17-19 (MSG) 17 he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, 19 to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
Seeds of Good News…not just the gospel…good news stories to those in a poor negative attitude absorbing a steady diet of often negative media
Seeds of pardon or forgiveness…to those who we might hold prisoner to their bad actions toward us or others.
Seeds of seeing the big picture … to help people see beyond the day to day minutia of their personal lives.
Seeds of acceptance and attributing unsurpassable worth to those who have been severely burdened and battered by life even within the boundaries we sometimes must set for theirs or our own good.
We are little words in the sentences that God is speaking to humanity. Through us he is planting little seeds good news, forgiveness, big picture, and acceptance in the lives of others.
We caring for the Earth…cause that’s what we see
We care for God who made what we see
We care for Each Others who are in his image.
This is a recipe for burnout unless we allow God to maintain us…
God even maintains those who follow him…
John 15:1-2 (MSG)
1 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more.
He maintains us through troubles.
Romans 5:3 (MSG)
3 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.
As we both maintain and experience God’s maintenance, …
2 Corinthians 3:18b (MSG). …we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
What will all this seed planting and maintenance result in?
What will we harvest?
Not only will we be like him in heart and mind…we will be like him in appearance and enjoy his living space…
Rev 21:2 I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.
The City shimmered like a precious gem, light-filled, pulsing light. 12 She had a wall majestic and high with twelve gates.
18 The wall was jasper, the color of Glory, and the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. The foundations of the City walls were garnished with every precious gem imaginable: The main street of the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple. The City doesn’t need sun or moon for light. God’s Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp! The nations will walk in its light and earth’s kings bring in their splendor. Its gates will never be shut by day, and there won’t be any night. 26 They’ll bring the glory and honor of the nations into the City.
God links these together in his vision of the new Jerusalem. A a multicultural, multiethnic, garden city. With blooming plants and trees, in constant communion with God the central light and energy , and everyone fully cooperating in scholarship, music, architecture, cuisine, art…all synergistically interdependent. The best elements of creation drawn together in one place.
“We do not go back to the garden, and we do not go up to heaven. We go forward to the garden city of the New Jerusalem…God doesn’t start all over again. Instead, he resurrects humanity and, so to speak, resurrects the earth as well into resplendent eclogoy of vitality and beauty in which all live in mutually beneficial relationship with each other.” John Stackhouse, Making the Best of It, (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008) p 200-201.
As more of humanity returns to their primordial purpose…as more people see their role to be gardeners of the earth and others…we get a greater glimpse of what God has planned when he unites heaven and earth. The bringing together of gardeners in rural and town areas.
“Each sector of society…maintains a central concern to improve the earth, to garden the world. The individual human being matters and he or she is called by God to play a part that matters in the great garden of the world…the world is importantly better or worse depending on how each of us lives in it…” Ibid. p 231-232.
“God expects us to garden and reclaim the whole world with him…” Ibid p, 227