I love gardening. This time of year is intoxicating! I love seeds and plant alot of them. The smell of flowers and trees in bloom is a reminder of the power of the Resurrection laid out before our very eyes. Just a few weeks ago it was still brown and we had some light snow. Then slowly the smell of wet earth began to emerge, and in late February bulbs began to show up and bloom. Slowly the buds on the trees got bigger and the daffodils began to come forth, then the peonies and the “woody” plants followed. Our lilacs are loaded with blooms! The recent storm blew all the blooms off of our weeping cherry, which made me very sad. The early viburnum is in bloom and so on and so on. It is going to be an awesome pink dogwood year in the Andersons’ yard.
Sometimes I garden alone. I haven’t always gardened alone. Thinking about our yard reminds me of my grandparents’ home in Iowa. Sometimes I would garden with them. They taught me a great deal about plants and the cycle of life. They lived pretty much on a direct line west of Detroit, MI in a town called Charles City. Grandpa and Grandma loved the passing seasons and the death and resurrection process lived over and over. They believed the process is a gift from God.
We are emerging from the death season of winter and the season of Lent. My grandparents always went to the noon service on Good Friday, came home, and planted potatoes. An interesting habit given that the date always moved! Regardless, new potatoes were always in harvest for July 4th family celebrations. How did that happen? My grandmother, a great gardener, was also a cheater! Grandma would raise the hills with a pitchfork, pull off the choice potatoes, then replant the hill with a hefty dose of organic fertilizer. What I learned later in life is that my grandparents were participating in the narrative we give voice to today, death and resurrection. They buried potato “eyes” for a harvest worth waiting for, shared with family and neighbors.
Sharing the harvest reminds me of the post resurrection story of Jesus and Mary in the garden and offers an interesting juxtaposition to the creation story in our preaching texts today. Theological claims are made about life, death and resurrection and what God is trying to do and to say to all of us. There is a process that is repeated. On the other side of death is resurrection and new life. There is fallow time, stillness, and quiet. Then comes the ta’ da and the party! The harvest, the party, is what we are celebrating in this sermon series on Holy Ground.