Latest / Finding God at Work / Episode 6: Gardener

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Episode 6: Gardener · Finding God at Work

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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  This is Finding God at Work.
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  In our current series, Imagining Work, we're asking
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  the question, what story about work am I
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  living in?
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  Because not every story about work squares with
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  the story that God is telling on the
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  pages of the Bible.
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  And that's the story that we want to
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  live inside of, that we want to change
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  our hearts and our minds, and help us
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  live out life, at work and everywhere else,
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  in a beautiful way that looks more and
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  more like Jesus over time.
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  So the image that we're going to look
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  at today from the Bible is Gardener.
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  What does it mean to do our work
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  as gardeners, and how do we meet Jesus
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  as the gardener of our souls?
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  Now, the image of gardening or farming or
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  sowing seeds comes up in scripture so many
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  times, I feel like people who actually spend
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  their time taking care of plants in real
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  life have an unfair advantage in understanding of
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  the Bible.
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  I am not one of those people.
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  I've spent a bare minimum of time in
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  my life taking care of plants.
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  I sometimes get anxious.
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  I even got a little set of mums
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  today and a little plastic planter to sit
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  on the kitchen table.
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  And I'm like already anxious that they're going
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  to die, right?
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  Because I just I want them to live.
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  And so maybe it will be my my
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  spiritual discipline to to be a gardener, to
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  care for those mums as I live out
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  what the scripture texts teach.
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  But regardless of whether you have much time
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  actually taking care of plants in your real
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  life, this is an important image from the
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  Bible.
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  So we're going to look at a few
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  different passages.
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  We're going to start in Genesis chapter two,
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  an account of the creation.
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  So starting in verse eight, now the Lord
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  God had planted a garden in the East
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  in Eden, and there he put the man
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  he had formed.
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  And the Lord God made all kinds of
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  trees grow up out of the ground, trees
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  that were pleasing to the eye and good
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  for food in the middle of the garden
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  were the tree of life and the tree
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  of the knowledge of good and evil.
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  Skipping ahead to verse 15.
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  The Lord God took the man and put
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  him in the Garden of Eden to work
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  it and take care of it.
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  Okay, so there's several things happening in this
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  passage.
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  The first is that God creates the garden.
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  The garden is already there, right?
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  He puts humanity represented by Adam in this
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  passage right in the middle of it.
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  But then the first thing he does is
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  he gives Adam a job to do, which
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  is to take care of that environment.
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  And we're used to this story, so it
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  kind of makes sense to us.
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  We might not question it, but it can
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  be helpful to ask, well, how could the
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  story have gone differently?
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  Because the idea that humanity are meant to
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  be gardeners is not necessarily a given.
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  A lot of cultures around the world and
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  their creation myths, that was not the role
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  that they imagined for humanity.
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  So, for example, in the Babylonian creation myth,
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  the Enuma Elish, the god Marduk imagines humanity
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  as builders of shrines for the gods.
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  It's more of an architectural role.
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  Or in the Cherokee creation myth, humanity's main
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  role is hunting.
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  In one of the Chinese creation myths, the
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  mother goddess Nua, she forms certain people by
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  hand out of clay, and they become the
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  nobility.
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  She mass produces other people by dragging a
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  string across mud.
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  They become the commoners.
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  So people's role in life is based on
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  whether they were specially created or mass produced.
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  So, you know, there were other options, so
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  to speak, in the ancient Near East when
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  Moses was writing this text for how humanity
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  could be imagined.
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  But God reveals in this story that we
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  are meant to be gardeners.
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  That's how we should relate to God's world,
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  and that's how we should do our work.
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  And I think there's four ways we can
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  unpack that.
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  Gardeners cultivate, gardeners care, gardeners discover, and gardeners
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  wait.
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  And I think God's saying that those are
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  the four things that we can do in
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  our work that he intends for us to
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  do in our work.
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  That's why he picked this image, rather than
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  all the other images he could have gone
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  with to describe our role and our work
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  in his world.
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  So let's look at each of those in
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  turn.
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  First, gardeners cultivate.
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  So you'll notice in this story, God creates
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  the garden, but he also gives Adam work
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  to do.
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  So God didn't do everything.
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  God left room for Adam to complete the
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  project.
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  And Andy Crouch, a Christian writer and kind
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  of thinker on the lines of culture and
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  institutions and things of that nature, he has
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  a book about power called Playing God.
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  And he looks at this passage in particular,
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  and he says, what God does is he
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  actually makes room for our power.
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  So God has all power, but he doesn't
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  push it to the limit.
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  He actually kind of holds his power loosely,
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  so to speak, and makes room for our
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  power.
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  He lets us finish the job.
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  Pastor Timothy Keller, who just passed away in
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  2023, very influential and helpful thinker for me,
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  he has a book about work called Every
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  Good Endeavor.
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  He kind of talks about the same dynamic
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  of God making room for us by saying
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  that God gives us the raw materials, but
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  then we have to develop them.
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  And let me just read a brief quote
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  from that book.
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  Keller writes, Humanity do not leave the land
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  as it is.
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  They rearrange it in order to make it
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  most fruitful to draw the potentialities for growth
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  and development out of the soil.
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  They dig up the ground and rearrange it
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  with a goal in mind, to rearrange the
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  raw material of the garden so that it
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  produces food, flowers, and beauty.
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  And that is the pattern for all work.
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  So I just love that, that idea that
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  the job isn't done.
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  God has left us room to unfold the
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  potential of our work.
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  And whatever your job is, that's true for
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  you.
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  If you're like me, you probably have a
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  job description, but that job description does not
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  spell out everything you need to know to
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  get your job done.
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  There's still room for you to figure things
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  out, to make your job your own, to
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  unfold the potential of what can be done
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  for the good of the world, for the
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  good of people within the role that you
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  have.
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  And that's true even if you have a
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  very cut-and-dry job.
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  If you're a bus driver, you still have
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  a choice about how you greet people when
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  they come on your bus, how you navigate
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  the challenges of your particular route.
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  You still have the capacity to unfold the
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  potential of what God is giving you in
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  that role.
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  So that's the first way we think about
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  work, is gardeners cultivate.
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  Also, gardeners care.
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  So this idea that God's given us something,
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  that means He's given us something to take
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  care of.
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  I love the Living Bible.
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  This is not a translation.
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  It's a paraphrase from scholar Kenneth Taylor.
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  It's the antecedent to the New Living Translation.
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  But this is how he puts that verse.
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  He says, So gardeners care.
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  Whatever your role at work is, there's something
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  or someone who's been entrusted to your care.
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  So if you're a teacher, your students have
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  been entrusted to your care.
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  If you're a plumber, the pipes of your
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  customers have been entrusted to your care.
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  And you need to bring that attentive, hardworking,
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  in the nitty-gritty attitude of, how can
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  I care?
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  How can I pay attention to what's really
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  needed here so that I am trustworthy with
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  what I've been entrusted with?
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  Gardeners care.
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  Third thing, gardeners discover.
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  And this is something that comes out of
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  the idea that it's living things that we're
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  taking care of, at least in the gardening
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  metaphor, regardless of what we're doing in our
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  actual jobs.
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  So it's not that architecture metaphor, like with
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  the God Marduk, who wanted humanity to be
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  builders of shrines.
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  When you're an architect, you're working with inert
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  materials, like stones or wood, so that they
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  can do exactly what you want.
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  You control things so that they fit the
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  blueprint.
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  But when you're gardening, you might choose where
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  to plant the seed, but then it's going
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  to spring up in its own shape over
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  time.
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  And you don't know exactly where every branch
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  is going to go.
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  You have to discover the work as time
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  goes on.
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  And Jesus actually speaks to this dynamic specifically
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  in the Gospel of Mark, one of his
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  parables of the kingdom.
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  So this is chapter 4, verse 26.
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  Jesus said, This is what the kingdom of
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  God is like.
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  A man scatters seed on the ground, night
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  and day, whether he sleeps or gets up.
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  The seed sprouts and grows, though he does
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  not know how.
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  All by itself the soil produces grain, first
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  the stalk, then the head, then the full
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  kernel in the head.
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  As soon as the grain is ripe, he
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  puts the sickle to it, because the harvest
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  has come.
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  Now Jesus in this passage is unpacking something
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  about the whole kingdom of God, but he's
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  appealing to that dynamic that the plant is
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  growing even when the farmer is asleep.
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  The plant is growing into the stalk and
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  the head and the full kernel in the
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  head eventually, even though he doesn't know exactly
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  how that happens.
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  And that's true of gardening in general, that
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  we have to discover what our work is
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  as time goes on.
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  And so that's true in any line of
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  work that we don't necessarily know in advance
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  exactly what's going to happen.
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  We don't have a blueprint for every year
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  of our work life.
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  We have to discover what's happening and adapt
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  to the unanticipated as time goes on.
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  And that's how God intended it.
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  I, in my own need for control in
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  life, sometimes an unhealthy attempt to get control,
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  sometimes act more like an architect and less
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  like a gardener at work.
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  And I'm trying to learn how to unclench
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  and trust God in the unanticipated things coming
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  into my care.
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  So that can be more like a gardener
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  and the way I get my work done.
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  So gardeners discover.
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  And then finally gardeners wait.
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  Jesus got at this within that parable as
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  well, that farmer has to wait until the
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  full kernel is in the head before taking
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  the sickle for harvest time.
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  And we often have to wait in our
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  work lives.
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  We have to wait for the promotion.
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  That doesn't come as soon as we think
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  we're ready for it.
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  Maybe we have to bear with a coworker
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  who's not catching on to things as quickly
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  as we might hope and be patient with
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  them and care for them as they learn.
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  Maybe we have to wait for a change
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  that's really needed on our team and wait
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  for a project to launch until it's ready.
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  Whatever it is that we're waiting for, it's
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  a reminder for us that God is also
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  working, right?
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  That's kind of the background of that parable
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  of Jesus, that that plant is growing because
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  God is making it grow, even when the
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  farmer is asleep.
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  And so for us, as we're waiting, we're
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  doing our part, but we can trust God
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  is also doing his part to realize what's
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  needed in our work.
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  There's a power beyond ourselves at play in
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  every workday.
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  So hopefully that's helpful in terms of thinking
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  what it means to be a gardener in
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  your line of work, that you can cultivate,
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  that you can care, that you can discover,
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  and that you can wait, trusting that God
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  is at work, a power beyond you every
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  day that you work.
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  But these things are also true of the
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  work of Jesus.
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  And I want to go to just one
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  more passage from the New Testament from the
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  Gospel of John.
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  You might remember this poignant moment at Jesus'
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  resurrection.
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  He's still right next to the tomb, and
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  Mary Magdalene is there, and she doesn't recognize
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  him at first.
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  Let me read from chapter 20, verse 15.
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  So there's that beautiful moment of recognition when
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  Jesus says her name, she sees him for
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  who he is.
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  More to that story than we can unpack
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  here, but I just wanted to point to
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  that one detail that Mary thought he was
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  the gardener at first.
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  And that means that the tomb was in
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  a garden, and that's not an accident, that
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  when Jesus took up his life again in
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  resurrection power, he did it in a garden.
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  He did it in a place of growing,
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  living things, a place that echoes that garden
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  of Eden where Adam was first placed.
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  And there's a way in which Mary was
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  mistaken, obviously.
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  There's also a way in which Mary was
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  right, because Jesus is the gardener.
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  He's the gardener of our souls.
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  He's working the soil of our hearts to
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  bring something there, and he cultivates his virtues
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  in our soul, peace and patience and kindness
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  and goodness over time.
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  He cares for us.
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  He gives us what we need.
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  He helps us to find true rest and
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  security in our Father's love.
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  He discovers.
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  He understands who we are better than anyone
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  else, and he doesn't control us to get
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  us to become more like him.
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  He, along with us, lets us develop freely
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  into the creatures that he desires for us
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  to be.
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  And he waits.
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  He is so patient with us, even though
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  we are slow to learn what it means
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  to do life with him and like him.
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  He has much more patience than we do,
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  and he waits for the head and the
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  full kernel in the head to develop until
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  we have the fullness of the stature of
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  Christ over time.
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  Lord Jesus, help us to find you as
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  the gardener of our souls and help us
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  to learn how to cultivate and care and
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  discover and wait in the work that you've
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  entrusted to our care.
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  Do your work in us as we do
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  our work with you.
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  Thanks for listening.
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  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
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  life.
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