First Sunday in Lent

Readings — Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Mathew 4:1-11

Today, we begin the First Sunday in Lent with the Great Litany of 1544.  Thomas Cranmer composed the first version of this prayer at the request of King Henry VIII as England faced war with France.  Prior to this prayer in English, all liturgy in England was in Latin.  This litany opened the way for the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549, also composed by Thomas Cranmer, also in English.  With this publication, one of the norms of the Anglican Church originated, that worship was to be in the language of the people.  The work of our current 1979 Book of Common Prayer began in the late 1950’s.  We are way overdue for a revision. 

Now I would like to address just one sentence from our readings today.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden
to till it and to keep it.
                                       Genesis 2:15

Scholars sometimes call this sentence the First Commandment,

to till [the earth], and to [protect it].

This sentence concludes the earliest creation story that begins with Genesis 2:4.  This earliest creation text follows the better-known text with the seven days, composed much later.  In that creation story the sixth day states

God blessed them [male and female], and God said to them,
be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of
the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Current scholars agree that a better rendering of the ancient Hebrew would be

…care for it, and have stewardship over the fish of the sea, and…

Let’s return to the earlier creation text.  The task of Adam [before the creation of Eve] in the garden of Eden was to cultivate it and protect it. 

First observation, even in paradise, even in Eden, Adam had a purpose, a task.  Paradise was not a Margaritaville existence.  To work in God’s Garden was to grow it.  In today’s times, what might that include, to grow God’s Garden?  I suggest that to grow God’s Garden is to grow God’s people, to grow the people who live a Jesus life.  It is to grow the Jesus life well beyond the hours spent here at Snyder and Market.  This is the challenge for this congregation, for this Vestry.  How do we nurture and support more fully, people who follow Jesus? 

My second observation is that Adam was to protect Eden, to keep it.  This “fragile earth, our island home”, scientists tell us is continuing to warm, dangerously warming, and our future is unknown.  Greenland would not be a topic of discussion if the ice and snow of the polar regions were secure.  Gulf of Mexico storms grow stronger as the water temperature approaches that of bath water.  This is not “woke”; this is science.  Recycle, Reduce, Reuse may not be enough.  Thinking Spring, growing in local gardens and buying locally may not be enough.  Yet we all need to do our part, and we need to raise our voices and to encourage others to do the same.

Remember the Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.  Amen.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden
to till it and to keep it.
                                     Genesis 2:15 

Amen