Latest Vicar's Letter

The Bible begins and ends with a garden. At the start of Genesis, Adam and Eve live peacefully in the garden, meeting with God and walking together in the cool of the evening. That is until it all goes horribly wrong. In the final book of the Bible, Revelation, the Tree of Life stands at the centre. ‘And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.’ (Revelation 22 verse 2) I don’t believe that these parts of Scripture were written to be taken literally. Rather, they are poetic works which seek to explain why there is so much beauty and so much horror in our world. And they point to a future hope of healing and renewal for all of creation.

For Jesus, gardens were spaces to pray and be still. They were also places to wrestle with God, and with the meaning of his vocation. Jesus lived as we do and experienced the whole of life. He laughed and shared meals with his friends, he knew what it was like to be lonely, hurt and fearful. He joined in wedding feasts and celebrations, times of joy and times of sorrow. On the eve of the crucifixion, Jesus went with three disciples to the garden of the Mount of Olives. Jesus prayed, “‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.’ In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became “like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” (Luke 22 verses 42 & 44). I’m told that this is medically possible when someone is in anguish.

In the Bible, gardens have a significant role as places where crucial things happen. The garden is the place of encounter with God, the place of sanctuary , the place of wrestling and the place of healing. The Garden of Eden is the archetype of an earthly paradise with God in its midst. In fact, the word ‘Paradise’ originates in old Persian and means a walled garden. So do we find paradise in our gardens? Dorothy Frances Gurney wrote that we are ‘closer to god in a garden than anywhere else on earth.’ And it is probably true that gardening keeps us on our knees far more than prayer does!

Our gardens, or outdoor spaces if we have no garden, are a reminder of the beauty and fragility of creation. This summer we have again been confronted with the effects of climate change. In the vicarage garden, the fruit trees have been abundant, but the courgettes have been hard and hollow despite our best efforts at watering. The kale has more holes than leaf because the cabbage white butterflies have had a field day. Learning to garden with the increasingly erratic weather patterns is something which all gardeners will need to do.

Gardens are also used in the Bible as metaphors. A particularly fruitful way of thinking is to imagine God as the gardener of our soul, as this prayer by Richard Foster shows:

Spirit of the living god, be the gardener of my soul. For so long I have been waiting, silent and still- experiencing a winter of the soul. But now, in the strong name of Jesus Christ, I dare to ask:

Clear away the dead growth of the past,

Break up the hard clods of custom and routine, Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge,

Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word,

Cultivate and water and tend my heart, until new life buds and opens and flowers.

Amen.

With every blessing
Revd Joy Cousans