I venture to say that almost everyone who was coming-of-age in the late 1960s has heard this song by our own Canadian Joni Mitchell:
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
For a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lx86B6a3kc
Interestingly, even though Joni Mitchell did not perform at Woodstock, this song, so-titled, became the first song on the LPs and then movies that were put out subsequent to the big festival of 1969. Coincidentally, one of the vocalists on that famous recording is none other than another Canadian, Neil Young. And even though we might not agree with everything in the lyrics in terms of our theology as Christians, there is more than a kernel of truth here.
These connections really struck me anew this week. It is Lent, so it was appropriate that in my reading through the Bible this year, I came to Matthew 26:36, which reads "Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."" That verse stood out to me because in the version of the Bible I am reading, The Green Bible, the text (New Revised Standard Version) is in green. Some of you will be familiar with the so-called red-letter Bibles, where all the text that Jesus spoke is in red. Those who worked on That Green Bible selected some 1500 versus to highlight with green text because, in their minds, these verses related to Creation Care, as we have come to know this aspect of concern for our environment. The phrase in capital letters is descriptive of the movement in this regard that has grown up within the Christian church in the last half-century.
So, there you have it, Woodstock, Gardens, Easter and Creation Care. However, there is more to it than just stringing those words together. If we look at our Bibles, we readily see that almost the whole collection of books and letters we call The Bible, is ‘book-ended' by reference to and description of gardens. The first is what we know as the Garden of Eden, and the last is what is described as the garden of the future New Heaven and Earth.
But why would the editors of The Green Bible highlight this one verse about Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the evening before his crucifixion? Think about it. The way we understand the message of the Bible, in the first garden, God was in intimate relationship with humanity, which he had created. We read about him walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. Everything was perfect. There was no sin, no death. Humanity was connected to its Creator, who had created the universe, the earth and all that covers and occupies it including humanity because of his inherent love and creativity. He created much before he created humanity, but he could not have a loving relationship with most of that creation. Thus, he created humanity in his own image, as we read. He created us to be in a reciprocal love relationship with him.
We also read that God had a purpose for placing humanity in this garden. They were to look after it. They were to be co-regents with God in terms of looking after the earth i.e. Creation Care. We know what happened next. Humanity, first, rejected the will of God, submission to him and made wrong choices, second, as a consequence of that first choice, they lost that relationship with God, third, were expelled from the garden, and, fourth, sentenced to death.
Are you beginning to see why what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane might have been highlighted in green? Everything that happened in the Garden of Eden was reversed in the chain of events set in motion by Jesus' going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. At least, this is how we as Christians understand it. In the first place, Jesus submitted to God's will, driven by God's love for humanity and his desire that no one should be lost, and set his face for the cross. With his sacrificial death on the cross, the consequences of those early wrong choices were erased. Love won out. At least if we believe what Jesus' death and resurrection signify, even though we acknowledge that no one on earth has ever fully understood how that came about. Hence the number of so-called theories of atonement, but that's another story. Our relationship with God was restored and the sentence of death removed for those who believe. Christians claim all of that in the here and now. The only thing we still wait for is our resurrection to life eternal with God in the new garden.
Meanwhile, in this period between Christ's death and, what the Bible refers to as the end of the age, Christ enjoined us to work with him to begin bringing about the new Kingdom of God on earth already. As such, that very first command to humanity, to look after the garden, i.e. the earth, means we should be devoting efforts to do so. In various ways, humanity, including Christians, has looked after the earth reasonably well over most of human existence. It is largely since the dawn of the soul-called Industrial Age, that forces detrimental to the well-being of the earth have been unleashed. However, the call to look after the earth is there and we Christians should be at the forefront of such efforts.
Lorne Brandt, 2021-3-26 posted to “Reflections from Lulu Isle” blog.
