The Message, August 17, 2025: "In the Garden," Genesis 2:4-23

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
August 20, 2025

 

“In the Garden”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Genesis 2:4-23

            In the beginning, there was God. Nothing else … just God. God was immense and infinitely powerful. God decided that a display of that power was in order.

            So, God created. God created a universe that was vast and infinite. Then God created galaxies within the universe, and solar systems with the galaxies. God created suns and moons and planets around which the moons orbited. God looked at all of that and saw that it was good. And it was all for God. God reveled and delighted in the universe.

            Then God decided that another display of power was in order. This time God would use a finer brush. God would create smaller things … creatures of every sort and variety. God created swimming things and flying things. God created walking things and creeping things. God created slimy things, and scaly things, and furry things, and feathery things. God created things with two legs, and four legs, and six legs and eight legs. God created some with so many legs that only God could count. God gazed upon all of those creatures and was pleased. God thought, “Look at all of my stuff! I am great and powerful!”

            Then God thought, “I should create some more creatures. I should create should creatures that are aware of how great I am. I should create some creatures that will admire my stuff and desire my stuff. I will create some creatures that resemble me so that when they see one another they will see how infinitely wonderful I am.” So God created human beings in God’s own image.

            The humans saw all of the things that God created and they wanted it for themselves. Their longing for God’s created things fueled their passions. They fought one another to get God’s good things. They were selfish. They wanted more and sometimes they would kill one another to get what they desired. The strong ones took what they wanted and became even stronger. The weak ones suffered. God looked down upon the activities of the human creatures and saw that it was good.

            With the passage of time, the humans began to feel more powerful. They became arrogant. The powerful ones said, “We understand why God gave us the ability to take whatever we want. We understand why God gave all of this to us. We understand God’s power and that is why God gave that to us too.”

            God looked down upon the rise of the demigods. God looked down and saw their pride and their avarice. God looked down and saw their selfishness, and saw the pain and suffering and devastation and destruction. God sat back, smiled, and said, “Good job. In you, I am well pleased.”

            In my office, I have two shelves filled with different translations and interpretations of the Bible. I have three shelves of Bible commentaries. And I know that you will be shocked to hear that nowhere on those five shelves of books did I find that version of the Story of Creation. The parable that you just heard was only written yesterday. Perhaps one day it will find its way into a scholarly journal so that it may sit on someone’s bookshelf.

            As we gather here this morning, it is hard to imagine that our Almighty God, the God of Creation, the Author of Life and of Love, would look down upon this earth of ours and proclaim, “It is good. That is just the way that I drew it up.”

            I know that quite a few of you are wonderful gardeners. You post pictures of your glorious gardens online. They are magnificent!

            I am more of a ‘wonder-if-it-will’ gardener. I wonder if it will survive. I wonder if it will come back next year. I wonder if it will ever actually bloom.

            You see … the truth is that I like to PLANT gardens, but I am not very good at CARING for my gardens. The planting phase is fun … hard work, but fun for me. Caring for the garden is tedious … for me. I also know that not only are some of you wonderful gardeners, but some of you actually ENJOY weeding! You are like a woman in a previous church that liked ironing dress shirts!

            But, tending the garden is the most important part. We do not have the Ron Popeil version of the garden. “Just set it and …. What? … Forget it!” I know that I am speaking in generalities. If I were to plant wildflower seeds in my yard, I might be able to ‘spread it and forget it.’ But when we plant a garden, we have to tend it. We have to care for it.

            I do have one garden success story. When Renee and I lived in Worcester, we had the perfect yard to grow tomatoes. I turned the soil. I mixed in compost and other organic material. I planted six cherry tomato plants and they grew perfectly. I went to the garden center and purchased the wire frames and I gently placed them around my tomato plants. I fed them and watered them. And then I had to go to the hardware store to purchase ten-foot construction stakes because I grew a tomato forest! My tomato plants were seven feet tall!! And those little sunburst tomatoes were absolutely delicious.

            In the first story of Creation, that beautiful lyrical story we read in Chapter One of Genesis, God works on a larger scale, a cosmic scale. God created the heavens and the earth. God created light, then separated the light from the darkness. God created the earth, that waters and the dry land. God created night and day. God created animals and fish and birds, trees and flowers. And then God created humans in God’s image.
As we heard in the second telling of the story of Creation, God was more intimate. God got God’s hands dirty. God scooped together earth … adamah … and breathed the breath of life into human … adam. In our story this morning we heard that God did more than say, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) In the second telling, God scooped up the earth. God breathed the breath of life into the human’s nostrils and adam … human … became a living being. It does not get much more intimate than that.

            This telling of the story of Creation is about relationship. God created relationship. God created community … co-mingled and mutual life.

            The word “Eden” means “delight.”

            God created humans out of the dust of the earth. God created the other creatures, the other living beings, out of the dust of the earth. We and they are of the same substance and given life by the same loving and gracious God. Humans and the other living creatures are given life by God and are dependent upon God. The Garden … Delight … is created and it is a ‘good’ place. It is a good place for the created creatures to live … together. The Garden of Delight is created by God and designed for community.

            Our destiny as humans … adam, our purpose, the fulfillment and perfection of who we are intended to be is to live in a world of God’s making. As humans we are to live WITH all of God’s creatures, all of the other living beings, and to care for them. The destiny of humans is to live in a world of God’s creation, to live in that world with God’s other created beings, and to live in that world on God’s terms.

            What does that mean? What does a story written nearly three thousand years ago mean for us today?

            It means that we have to be willing to get our hands dirty.
            It means that we have to be willing to be intimate with our fellow creatures … with our neighbors. It means offering life – not death. It means offering comfort – not pain. It means offering joy – not sorrow.
            It means that we have to be willing to build and sustain community. Being in relationship with one another is not always easy. It is often difficult, if not seemingly impossible. Most days are not cookouts in the pastor’s backyard. Many days are spent working with, and interacting with people with whom we struggle, people with whom we disagree. We find ourselves asking, “How can they possibly think like that?! How can they possibly believe that?! How can they possibly act like that?!”

            And then we need to find a way to tend to them, to care for them.

            How does that fit into our understanding of the Garden of Delight? How can we possibly tend that Garden? God makes it clear … it is our job; it is our responsibility. It is who and what we are designed and created to be.

            To be clear, in today’s extremely toxic and divisive and … at times … explosive political climate, it is a tough row to hoe. It is hard and rocky soil. But if not us, then who? If we are not willing to be the ones to tend the garden, then who will do it?

            This garden is our garden. It is God’s gift to us. And it is our responsibility. We have to be willing to get our hands dirty. We have to be willing to have our hearts broken … and broken again. We have to be willing to tend this garden, because if not us, then who? Amen.

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