The Garden

Author: Pastor Mike Gutzler, Return to the Table Blog

This summer I had the opportunity to spend some time at Saltbox Farm in Concord, MA. The farm supports the larger effort to bring as much farm to table products as possible to their restaurant and catering customers. Walking among the rows, and seeing the many vegetables popping up through the ground reminded me of the centrality gardens play in western spirituality and cosmogony. The garden is the place of God’s creative activity. In the garden we come to appreciate not only the divine lifecycle of seed to fruit, but also the interdependence that animals play to plant life. In a western cosmogony, it is incorrect to assume humanity is the pinnacle of creation because of its placement in the completed garden. Rather, the culmination of the creative divine efforts is the Sabbath - the intentional resting with observation of the creative work.

Read in full on Pastor Mike’s “Return to the Table” blog.