{"id":30,"date":"2011-04-24T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2011\/04\/24\/in-the-garden\/"},"modified":"2011-04-24T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-24T11:00:00","slug":"in-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2011\/04\/24\/in-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Click here to hear Sermon only<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

John 20: 1-18
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Preface<\/span><\/p>\n
In the garden, resurrection is utterly personal.<\/p>\n

Mary supposes she sees the gardener. Mary points to resurrection, in the garden, which is utterly personal and calls out our devotion, decision and discussion.<\/p>\n

In the garden, resurrection is utterly personal.<\/p>\n

When we think garden we think Eden and Gethsemane, creation and crucifixion, birth and death.<\/p>\n

My dentist, a raconteur of the first water, told me a story. (I have little chance to respond to his stories, given the instrumentation filling my jaw. It is one of the few times a preacher, who makes his living by the sweat of his jaw, is necessarily silent .) The story is about a man visiting a troubled part of the world. He finds a native and asks him what he sees. \u2018Tell me in a word, how are things?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Ah, in a word, good\u2019. In a word, things are good.<\/p>\n

Unsatisfied the traveler asks again. \u2018OK, could you expand a bit. \u2018Tell me, maybe in two words this time, how are things?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Ah, in two words, not good\u2019.<\/p>\n

In a word, things are good. In two words, things are not good. Eden and Gethsemane, good and not good. Which brings us to the garden and gardener of John 20:15, and to Mary of the utterly personal resurrection.<\/p>\n

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1. Devotion<\/span><\/p>\n
Mary announces: \u201cI do not know (where they have laid him)\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Mary has waited in the garden.<\/p>\n

Such a lush image, such a powerful setting, a garden. In one word we have evoked Eden and points east, creation and fall, good and not good. Garden. In a word we have evoked Gethsemane and Empty Tomb, cross and resurrection, death and life. In the garden. We treasure our gardens: one of the loveliest common spaces anywhere is our Boston Public Garden; and of course we hope our Celtics will find victory in one garden or another. In the garden. There Mary has been waiting and weeping.<\/p>\n

\u2018They have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.\u2019 Other than the cry of Psalm 22, Jesus\u2019 last word in the other gospels, there is hardly a more pathetic, sorrowful sentence in the Bible, or in history. The cross uncovers the marrow of our hurt, burrowing more deeply into our very loss and death, grief and guilt, than we ever could on our own. For us men and for our salvation: the resurrection follows but does not replace the cross.<\/span> In the garden.<\/p>\n

Earlier with the frantic run of the mysterious beloved disciple, and later with the ample doubt of the doubting Thomas, the gospel has fixed before us a discreet interaction. The same happens here. Mary and Gardener meet. Mary mistakes what she sees. She at first thinks she sees. She thinks she sees a gardener.<\/p>\n

Mary sees the gardener, what one would expect in a garden. Such a lush image, such a powerful figure. The world of work, evoked here. The world of struggle, evoked here. The world of birth and decay, living and dying, evoked here. In the garden, a gardener.<\/p>\n

In the Fourth Gospel resurrection is emotional, relational, and verbal: utterly personal. In the garden, resurrection is utterly personal, like devotion and decision and discussion. In the garden, resurrection includes tears. In the garden, resurrection ask for choices. In the garden, resurrection evokes speech. Why are you weeping? Emotion. Whom do you seek? Relation. I have seen the Lord. Word. In the Fourth Gospel resurrection is emotional, relational, and verbal: utterly personal.<\/p>\n

In the garden, resurrection, so utterly personal, is meant to change the heart. \u201cA sermon begins with a lump in the throat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our families moved regularly in the adventurous rhythms of the itinerant Methodist ministry. I came home from college once to a reasonable assemblage of old belongings removed to a new space, including a box of prized baseball cards by then 10 years old. I looked through the camping gear, the scouting badges, the photos and high school letters. I took a quick look through the cards. There was Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, just where I expected them.<\/p>\n

Later my mother said:<\/p>\n

\u2018Your little brother wanted some of your old cards. I told him I knew you wouldn\u2019t mind. He traded some of them with his new friends. They seemed pleased. I knew you wouldn\u2019t mind\u2019.<\/p>\n

With some anxiety I inquired: \u2018oh, which ones did he trade?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, I don\u2019t remember. One was something like Roy Rodgers\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018You mean Rodger\u2026Maris?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYes! Good for you! What a great memory you have. College has been good for you!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, and another one, something like one of the Walt Disney characters. You know Minnie or Mickey\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean Mickey\u2026Mantle?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes! Good for you! What a great memory you have for names. College has been good for you\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Right\u201d<\/p>\n

The last boy, Mickey Mantle, led a desperate life, unlike the one suggested by his smiling countenance on the card I once owned. He chased Roger Maris all the way to the edge of a record number of home runs in a year. But he also chased drink and women. My friend George Mitrovich recently reminded me though of his devotional experience, late in life. I thought about him again, watching the Red Sox over in our shared mystery garden of Fenway Park last Saturday. Speaking of gardens. I remembered the conclusion of his life.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of his life he fell ill. After a full life and a great career, his hard living and drinking and carousing caught up with him. But something remarkable happened, at the end. After a life of success, pressure, stress, performance, a driven life, after a driven life with some predictable habitual consequences, the last boy found himself quiet, open and empty. Some Texan friends visited him, and over time, won the trust that allows one to pray with others. And they prayed with him and for him. Somehow, in those moments of simple devotion, the last boy saw more than the gardener. I only will quote his way of putting it because it so gospel and so true: \u201cIn their prayers, somehow, I saw that I did not need to perform in order to be loved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That is grace, prevenient grace. That is the gospel, the love of God. That is resurrection, in the garden, utterly personal.<\/p>\n

Faith is a gift meant for reception. It comes when we have some openness. When I go to Fenway, to our neighborhood garden, a garden of history and mystery, I enjoy a reminder of the distance from performance to love, from garden to glory, from gardener to teacher, from anxiety to wisdom, from death to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a recognition, like the recognition of the Lord in gardener apparel, can happen in very ordinary ways, even in a crowded Easter service, with communion on the way, and the sermon rounding first base. Just now, for instance.<\/p>\n

Such a lush image, garden! The garden of Eden, our image of creation. The garden of Gethesemane, our image of crucifixion. The garden of the empty tomb, our image of salvation.<\/p>\n


2. Decision<\/span><\/p>\n
The Gospel of John is throughout a call to decision. \u2018This things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you may have life in his name\u201d. All manner of other dualisms\u2014heaven, earth; light, dark; life, death, present, future\u2014take a back seat in John to the dualism of decision, the decision in faith, for faith, with faith. Easter may roll around just in time each year to put first things first, to let the main thing be the main thing.<\/p>\n

We have the capacity to deceive ourselves about what matters most. In the academic world we pretend that if we can write it down we need not live it through. We perceive accordingly. In academic settings we can sometimes presume that if we write it down we do not have to live it through. Not so, not so. The percentage of stellar academics\u2014students, faculty and staff\u2014who age, who stumble, who die is remarkable similar to the percentage of plumbers, farmers and custodians who age, stumble and die (\u263a).<\/p>\n

A long time ago we were asked, in a psychology class, to identify cards as they were lifted. 2 of hearts, Jack of clubs, 8 of spades. Or so we thought. But the 8 was an 8 of hearts, only the heart was black, so we all saw in spades. We \u2018saw\u2019 within a legitimate range of what legitimately we expected to see. Hearts and diamonds are red. Clubs and spades are black. A red spade or a black diamond we do not expect to see, and so we do not see them. We saw the gardener, not the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our moral and spiritual linguistic universe, in 2011, is something like this. We see cards in four suits, when in the garden\u2014whether Eden or Gethsemane or Easter\u2014the imaginative categories are different. It can require an apocalypse for us to see.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of John, in the whole course of this 20th chapter, has a lesson for us about resurrection. \u201cBlessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.\u2019 (Jn 20: 29). For John, all that is necessary has been accomplished since 1: 14, \u2018The word became flesh and dwelt among us\u2019. God has loved the world in his Son. Crucifixion adds nothing essential to this saving incarnation, for John. Resurrection adds nothing essential to this ancillary crucifixion, and so nothing to Incarnation, for John. All four separate (if not in fact different) endings to the Gospel, as found here in chapter 20, folkloric as Hansel and Gretel (the race won by the beloved disciple to the empty tomb, Mary and the gardener, the disciples cowering behind closed doors, touching (or doubting) Thomas), themselves are additional\u2014even superfluous\u2014to a needless resurrection, a needless crucifixion and a sublime, saving Incarnation. The Gospel of John is all over in the first chapter.<\/p>\n

So. Why is all this here?<\/p>\n

Because they are part of the story, and John has chosen to write a Gospel, not a psalm, not a sermon, not a letter, not an apocalypse (though this comes closest). So he tells the stories\u2014tomb, garden, closed room, touching hands\u2014and, it may be, believes them. But they are not the point. The point is in a way the opposite. Seeing is not believing for John. Believing is seeing for John.<\/p>\n

These things are written that you may believe\u2026<\/p>\n

After an evening program one spring, in the verdant garden of a campground retreat, an older man and I walked at dusk. Here is a Christian gentleman: steady in worship, regular in tithing, committed in faithfulness, devoted to faith and able to discuss this gift with others. In the garden, resurrection is utterly personal. He said:<\/p>\n

\u2018Now that you are my pastor, I guess I better tell you why I am the way I am. In 1944 I was hiding in a garden, along a fence like this one we are walking along, near a field like this one by us. All about me unfriendly fire was raining down, a kind of horrible death rain I had never known in 19 years growing up on a Nebraska farm. To survive I had to pass through the garden and then run, without cover, through a clearing, fully exposed. So, I ran through the garden. Before I crossed, I knelt and said a prayer: \u2018If I survive this my life is yours\u2019. I survived. So, my family and I make our decisions in the light of that decision in a garden in France a long time ago. We try to be attentive to small things. We try to put our faith first. We try to be salt and light that others can see\u2019.<\/p>\n

Utterly personal. Justifying faith, call it health or salvation or happiness or grace, is not so much about the freedom of the will as it is about the freeing of the will (this Augustine not just Hill). One kneels in a garden. One prays: \u2018let his cup pass from me\u2026as thou wilt\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Discussion<\/span><\/p>\n
John teaches us about a sanctifying grace, known in the daily discussions, the daily voices which remind us of the resurrection radiance, the real presence, in Word and Sacrament.<\/p>\n

In the garden, resurrection is utterly personal. Sometimes it takes the death of a close friend, or mentor, to remind us. The ancient refers to this in the petition about those whom we love but no longer see. No wonder Gov. Patrick eulogized Rev Prof Gomes by saying \u2018he was the freest person I ever knew\u2019.<\/p>\n

There is a difference between seeing things as they are and dreaming of things that never were. 43 years ago this month on the tarmac runway in Indianapolis, Robert F Kennedy said something because he saw something. He was able to recall Aeschylus because he had placed his eye on a resurrection horizon. He was able to counsel courage and patience because he placed his gaze on a resurrection horizon. He was able to mention his brother\u2019s death, without wincing, because he placed his gaze on a resurrection horizon. He was able to meet the gaze of a rightly angry hour by lifting his gaze, lifting his chin, lifting the sight lines of a crushed people in a frightful hour. There was a transfiguring transcendence in his manner of discussion.<\/p>\n

1 O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me! 2 Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; thou discernest my thoughts from afar. 3 Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou dost beset me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. 7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!<\/div>\n

Resurrection is verbal, vocal.<\/p>\n

As many of you know, my Dad died this year, and nearly died in September of 2008. We had two extra years with him. In November of 2008, as he recuperated, I saw him one morning learning to walk all over again, with my mother ever present and loving alongside. It was a miraculous sight, as was the rest of his healing. He told us in those days about a vision or dream he had had, in the coma. I share it with you to close, not as evidence of eternity, for resurrection neither needs nor admits of evidence from us, but rather as evidence of a lo
\nnging for eternity, and so a comfort and an encouragement. He said that in the hours near death he saw a kind of light, shining through what he described as a lattice work. \u201cBehind and around me I could hear voices\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

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Coda<\/span><\/p>\n
In the garden, resurrection is utterly personal.<\/p>\n

We are in no position, ever, to say what God can and cannot do. If God is the God of the ordinary, then God is the God of the extraordinary, too, of the plain and the mysterious, of the known and the unknown.<\/p>\n

As Huston Smith (no stranger to Marsh Chapel) reminds us: \u2018we are in good hands and so it behooves us to bear one another\u2019s burdens\u2019.<\/p>\n

John has chosen to write a Gospel, not a psalm, not a sermon, not a letter, not an apocalypse (though this comes closest). So he tells the stories\u2014tomb, garden, closed room, touching hands\u2014and, it may be, believes them. But they are not the point. The point is in a way the opposite. Seeing is not believing for John. Believing is seeing for John.<\/p>\n

Utterly personal, in emotion of devotion, in the relationship of decision, in the voices of discussion: so resurrection, in the garden.<\/p>\n

The point is prevenient grace: \u201cI learned that I did not need to perform in order to be loved\u201d. The point is saving grace: \u201cI will make this vow: if I survive, my life is yours\u201d. The point is sanctifying grace: \u201che was the freest person I have ever known\u201d.<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t we let a story be a story? These things are written not that you may see, but that you may believe.<\/p>\n

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven\u2028 and earth.<\/p>\n

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only\u2028 Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.\u2028 He suffered under Pontius Pilate,\u2028 was crucified, died, and\u2028 was buried. He descended to the dead.\u2028 On the third day he rose again.\u2028 He ascended into heaven,\u2028 and is seated at the right hand\u2028 of the Father.\u2028 He will come again to judge\u2028 the living and the dead.<\/p>\n

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church,\u2028 the communion of saints,\u2028 the forgiveness of sins,\u2028 the resurrection of the body,\u2028 and the life everlasting.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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~ The Reverend Dr. Robert Allan Hill,
Dean of Marsh Chapel.
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