genuine organic community
as previously mentioned, this past spring i planted my first ever garden: zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, onions and assorted herbs. nothing fancy, but entertaining nonetheless.
truth be told, it’s been one of the best things i’ve ever done. why?
*it’s helped formulate a relationship between frank (my 72 year old neighbour) and i. i tell him he’s my personal gardener and if i ever strike it rich, i’m bringing him on full time.
*we’ve been clobbered with 20 zucchini’s (& counting) which has opened a door (an oven door that is) for sarah as she’s baked numerous loaves of zucchini bread for our friends and neighbours. tonight, in fact, the kids and i delivered one such loaf to connie, a 70 year old widower who lives two doors down from us.
*a few weeks back we hosted a neighbourhood potluck bbq. a few of the dishes contained veggies grown in our backyard gardens. and what a great bbq it was! a great time was had by all.
*this evening the kids and i (on frank’s approval) harvested our first potatoes. ethan dug them out, ella held out the bucket and i quarterbacked the whole thing. who knew potatoes could be so much fun?
*today i did some work on our genesis series, specifically on our relationship as earthlings, to the earth and how part of our vocation is to subdue our habitat, but not abuse it. the tone used around this idea of ’subduing the earth’ is fierce, robust and smells of conquest. it’s the same language used to describe the role of a king over his people. kingship, interestingly enough, denoted looking after the welfare of its subjects, making sure they were fed, protected, taken care of. and this is where we come in: we were created to mediate the kingship of God, to exercise dominion in God’s garden - he owns it, and we play our part in taking care of it. what’s more is that we, as humans, have a special relationship with the soil and with all of creation itself. in fact humans (the climax of the creation narrative) didn’t even have a whole creation day to themselves…animals took up the first part of the day. hmm…doesn’t that begin to say a lot about our responsibility to and relationship with this tilted planet?
*rob bell from mars hill bible church in grand rapids is currently doing a teaching series entitle ‘God is Green.” some good stuff. check out the free download on iTunes. (in the first message in the series he opens with a passage from Leviticus 25 on how even the earth is mandated to have a sabbath rest every 7 years…another hint perhaps of adam’s (man/humankind’s) relationship with the ad’mah (dirt)? i think so.
quick…turn off your computer and go hug a tree…
Filed by Joe at August 7th, 2007 under Church Planting, Current Reads
Hey Joe. We met once at a social justice conference in Toronto - but briefly. I go to Next in Kingston. We’re in the midst of a whole grain living series and just tackled “live ecologically” a week or so ago. Many of the people engaged in the creation care/Christian environmentalism movement have steered away from the idea that human beings are the climax of the creation narrative and instead, are talking more about how day 7, sabbath, is the climax. If that’s true, it has the potential to change our perspective significantly about who we are in the context of creation and thus, what we should do and who we might become. Thanks for what you write and do. Bren.
Comment by Bren Melles — August 7, 2007 @ 6:22 pm