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This Good EarthRomans 1:20 His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
“And in the midst of these elements is a sandy globe of great magnitude, which these elements have so surrounded that it cannot waver in any direction. This openly shows that, of all the strengths of God's creation, Man's is most profound, made in a wondrous way with great glory from the dust of the earth and so entangled with the strength of the rest of creation that he can never be separated from them; for the elements of the world, created for Man's service, wait on him, and Man, enthroned as it were in their midst, by divine disposition presides over them, as David says, inspired by Me: ‘Thou hast crowned him with glory and worship, and given him dominion over all the works of Thy hands’, [Psalm 8:5-6]”
(Hildegard Bingen. The Ways of the Lord. ©1990. Page 20.)
“The fathers continually remind us that theology is at best broken speech about the transcendent, mysterious God who draws near to us in the incarnation of the Son and the presence of the Spirit.”
“Daniel Clendenin, an evangelical theologian, explains that Eastern Orthodox theology, a theology deeply rooted in the fathers, ‘is far removed from the theological abstractions common in the West. Adoration, contemplation and vision, not rational intellection, characterize the Eastern tradition.’ ”
(Christopher A. Hall. Learning Theology With The Church Fathers. ©2002. Pages 10-11.)
Who where the “fathers”? The period of the Church Fathers, also referred to as the Patristic period, is the period of time between the end of the Book of Acts and the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD). Some extend the period to the second Council of Nicea (787 AD). This is the period of bishops, many of whom suffered violent deaths, who also wrote the foundational documents that established what it means to be a Christian. The list includes names like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Jerome and Augustine.
The early church Fathers were concerned with pointing to God and Christ and the Holy Spirit, but were less comfortable with definitions. How this plays out can be seen in the Confession of Chalcedon where the union of Godhead and Man in Christ is defined by what it does not mean: not confused, not changeable, not divided or separable.
As much as we try to resist it, we do tend to view things in Taoist terms: something is good or bad, black or white, spiritual or of the flesh. Paul is reminding us that there is something not flesh and not spirit that will lead us to an understanding of God's nature and power. I have heard several interviews with scientists who have stated that their science makes it impossible not to believe in God. The universe is so big and yet so complex on levels below our threshold of perception, and the way that all the parts work together to create this wonderful world should wipe away any silly idea that this happened by accident.
I like to picture this world as a three layer cake. There is God's garden. We are here as God's caretakers. We have created our own rather un-Godly mess which we refer to as the flesh. This is the place of our selfish ambitions, the desires of the flesh that cause us to sin against ourselves and others, our own self-involvement. And finally there is the Spirit. This is the place where we commune with God. We receive wisdom and the strength of the Holy Spirit from God to cause the flesh do the will of God.
So Paul continues:
Romans 1:21-22 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…
Because this world does not appreciate the wisdom and power of the most high God. Because this world does not honor God. He is dismissed. He is even denied. Human wisdom sinks into a pit of vain and perverse imaginations, which Paul goes on to enumerate. This is the apple in the garden: ‘I've got this. I can figure out good and evil for myself.’
How is God dismissed? God is dismissed through human thought. Because we as humans are programmed at the fall by our father Adam to dismiss God and take our own path, we develop thoughts that when we become Spirit filled must be dealt with. In essence, this is theology. As much as we hate theology, it necessary. Hilary (Hilarius) of Poitiers (c.310-c.367) longed for the simplicity of the gospel. To him, baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit opens the mystery and that should be enough. But people are people, and so he laments:
“We must strain the poor resources of our language to express thoughts too great for words. The error of others compels us to err in daring to embody in human terms truths which ought to be hidden in the silent veneration of the heart.’ ”
(Christopher A. Hall. Learning Theology With The Church Fathers. ©2002. Page 32.)
Hilary understood the need for a balance between reason and the simplicity of contemplation. Reason alone creates arrogant, puffed up Christians, who may speak the right words, but do not know God in a personal way. Reason is like water, you try to keep it out, but it always finds a way in. So you can't ignore it either.
350 years before Christ, Aristotle put forward the idea of the Unmoved Mover, postulating that there must be something beyond all created things which causes all things to come into existence. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas revived Aristotle's philosophy. He is considered to be the most influential of the Scholastics who emphasized dialectical reasoning. Even though the Scholastics faded away, the emphasis on reason still pervades Western theology.
I believe that our own founding fathers here in America made one huge mistake. Because they were sure the Bible could be proved out logically, they did not found our institutions on a Biblical foundation, but instead used terms like “self-evident” truths and “unalienable Rights”. Now we have the right be homosexual and demand a job. Now we have a right to health care, whether we feel like working or not. Even though the founding fathers had the best intentions, logic and reason, untethered from wisdom, have been punching holes in our ship of state.
“Abraham was not by nature a man of strong principle, and his sense of responsibility was somewhat deficient. But God in wisdom dealt with this easygoing, unheroic figure to such good effect that not merely did he faithfully fulfill his appointed role on the stage of church history, as pioneer occupant of Canaan, first recipient of God's covenant (Gen 18:17), and father of Isaac, the miracle child; he also became a new man.
“What Abraham needed most of all was to learn the practice of living in God's presence seeing all life in relation to him, and looking to him alone, as Commander, Defender and Rewarder.”
(J.I. Packer. Knowing God, 1973. Pg. 93.)
The practice of Living in God's presence is such a juicy phrase. I got started on this line of thought while watching the movie Point Break with Patrick Swayze playing a surfer who is training a newbie surfer. His character goes into long dialogue about the beauty and the power of nature. Unfortunately, he is also two-faced since he supports his endless surfing by robbing banks. He loved to be out in the surf, but that was as far as it went. I have discovered that a large number of the world's top surfers truly appreciate God's creation. They love God and they love Jesus.
The presence of God is in all of His creation. When you step into the world of human creation, it becomes less obvious. That is why every Christian should have a garden or mountain top or sea shore or where they can go to re-charge, to just sit in the presence of God.
A young Frenchman by the name of Nicholas Herman looking at a tree in late winter, contemplated that this barren tree would soon come to life again, sprouting leaves and then flowers and finally fruit. This stirred in him such a high view of God the creator of such wonders that he chose to join a Carmelite monastery and has forever since been known as Brother Lawrence. Although crippled in battle as a teenager and illiterate, this dishwasher in a monastery so impressed his colleagues that a vicar went to visit him. Through his conversations and letters with Brother Lawrence we have the classic text The Practice of the Presence of God.
Brother Lawrence perfectly developed the ability to stay in constant communion with God. All beauty he praised God for. All his victories he praised God for. All his failings he admitted and placed them at God's feet and left them there. He writes to the vicor:
“It is not necessary for being with God to be always in church. We may make an oratory of our heart wherein to retire from time to time to converse with Him in meekness, humility, and love. Everyone is capable of such familiar conversation with God, some more, some less. He knows what we can do. Let us begin, then. Perhaps He expects but one generous resolution on our part. Have courage. We have but a little time to live; you are near sixty-four, and I am almost eighty. Let us live and die with God. Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant while we are with Him; and the greatest pleasures will be, without Him, a cruel punishment to us. May He be blessed for all. Amen.”
(Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God, 1967. Pages 47-48.)
You can see in Brother Lawrence's letter that he has become the vicar's advisor. There is no question that that is exactly what he was seeking from Brother Lawrence. Look at the most Godly person you know and ask them how do I get that way? Lawrence tells his friend:
“We cannot escape the dangers which abound in life without the actual and continual help of God. Let us, then, pray to Him for it continually. How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him but by the holy habit which we should form of it? You will tell me that I am always saying the same thing. It is true, for this is the best and easiest method I know; and as I use not other, I advise all the world to do it. We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure. This is an argument which well deserves your consideration.
I am,
Yours…”
(Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God, 1967. Page 51.)
Without a doubt, my favorite kick-starter is to find a place where it is easy to feel the presence of God. I am blessed to have a patio that overlooks Galveston Bay. But my favorite place is out in my kayak in Armand Bayou alone with God. There it is so easy to see “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20). I like to pray there, but I really like to just bask in His presence.
Psalm 80:8-9 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
Jeremiah 2:20-21 For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?
The tribes of Israel's first real image of Canaan was a huge cluster of grapes carried on a pole between two spies returning to Moses and the exiles from Egypt (Numbers 13:23). Can you imagine the scene. Here come the spies that they have been waiting for, and two of them are carrying a giant cluster of grapes. It was the perfect introduction to a fruitful land. It seems remarkable that they wouldn't say to themselves, “I don't care what the obstacles are, let's go get this wonderful place”.
The grape vine is the image of fruitfulness. We see that Israel is described as a vine brought out of Egypt and planted in Canaan (Psalm 80:8-9; Hosea 10:1). Fruitfulness in this case is in their relationship to God. We see this clearly in Jeremiah. When the children of Israel said, ‘I will not serve.’, Israel is described as degenerate, a wild vine (Jeremiah 2:20-21; also Isaiah 17:10-14; Ezekiel 15:1-8 & 17:1-24).
In the parable of the vineyard, also called the parable of the tenants, Jesus directly alludes to this same allegorical legacy (Matthew 21:33-40; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-16). No Israelite of his time would have missed that in this parable of the vineyard, Jesus is referring to Israel as rejecting the landlord of the vineyard. They would have understood the rejected servants to represent the prophets. Up to this point the pharisees would have had little to argue with, it all lines up with prophetic scripture. The addition of the landlord's son would have been over the top however.
The vine, like the fig tree or the olive tree, represents the fruitfulness of Israel, God's chosen people. These were people who knew grape vines and fig trees. The new pomegranate and olive trees. They new good grapes and unripe or overripe grapes. As the cursing of the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-14 & 20) demonstrates, fig trees, pomegranate trees, olives and grapes where tangible things in the world of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus was using images with visceral energy. These were things that they knew without thinking intellectually. The parables were meant to press truth down into the gut without the brain filters twisting it into something less than the truth, the way the devil likes it.
When I sit out on my patio and look at the trees and the flowers, watch the squirrels and the birds, or look out across the expanse of Galveston Bay, it is easy to see the incredible beauty that so surpasses any human art. It is easy to see that the imagination of God is so much bigger, and so much more wonderful than all of the human race from the beginning of time until now could ever produce. And so I give the Father praise.
That is the first step in a new journey. I can have access to that wisdom, that creative beauty, and be fruitful in a way that blends beautifully with this good earth. How? Glad you asked. Listen to words of Jesus:
John 15:1-17 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
When you see the beauty of God, see also the beauty of Jesus Christ.
James 1:17-18 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Who is the word of truth? Jesus Christ. Jesus is not an abstract concept, and nice proverb to post on Facebook. Jesus is the word of God made manifest, that is flesh and blood. We celebrate this truth by the bread and the wine.
When we repent of our lives outside of Christ, when we submit our whole being to His touch, we step through a door into a new life. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, enters our life to guide us, to direct us, and to make us fruitful. We the church of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, are the fruitful branch. We are also the first fruit, a beautiful offering to the Lord.
Am I going to far? or not far enough?
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me,
Within my heart is ringing.
I'd stay in the garden with Him,
Tho' the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go, thro' the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
(C. Austin Miles. “In the Garden”, 1913.)
The Methodist hymnal suggests that this song is based on John 20:11. Mary has come to Christ's tomb and finding the tomb empty is standing there in the garden when Jesus appears to her. If you can't find Jesus; if you can't feel the presence of the Holy Ghost, go stand in the garden. Drink in the air. That's how I start my day. I take my Bible out to my patio and enjoy the presence. And at the end of the day, before I slump into my easy chair to see if there is anything on television, I walk outside and drink in the presence of God.
I have a J.I. Packer 31-day devotional. Under the title “God Speaks To Us Through His Creation”, I found this:
“There is, says Calvin, a universal self-communication by God, a divine reality usually called ‘general revelation,’ in the created order around us. And in our own nature, too, in our awareness of our own awesomely complex makeup and in the functioning of our consciences, there is revelation, that is communication from God. Some sense of the reality of God and his claims come through to us in the same way than an awareness of light comes through. It is immediate, pervasive, inescapable, undeniable. Calvin is very strong on this. ‘God has so shown himself in the whole workmanship of this world that men cannot open their eyes without being forced to see him.’ Again, ‘The orderly arrangement of the world is like a mirror in which we may contemplate the otherwise invisible God.’ Once more; ‘The world is created for the display of God's glory. ’ And, ‘The world is the theater of God's glory.’ Again, ‘The Lord clearly displays both himself and his immortal kingdom in the mirror of his works.’ And yet again, ‘In the splendor of the heavens there is presented to our view a lively image of God’ (see Inst. I.v.1-2).
“The awareness of the Creator, then comes through in all our commerce with his creatures, as it does in all our knowledge and awareness of ourselves and our own identity; and in the judgments on us of our conscience, and in many of the thoughts of our own hearts. But humanity's way is to ignore or deny this awareness, or , if we cannot deny it outright, to distort it and turn it into darkness and superstition. Thus the world, for all its fancied wisdom and multiple dreamed-up theologies, does not know God, even though this general communication of God through nature and inward experiences is a reality for everyone. So says Calvin, following Paul, who said it before him (see Romans 1:18-23, 32; 2:12-16; I Corinthians 1:21). If, therefore, God is ever to be acknowledged, worshiped, and trusted as he should be, he not only must set his truth before us, but must give us eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and hearts to receive it. Which, in fact, is precisely his agenda.”
(J.I. Packer. Great Power, 1997. Pages 20-21.)
A lot of what Packer is addressing here is the follow on to our opening quote from Paul (Romans 1:18). Your presence amount the priesthood of believers, tells me that you already have eyes to see and ears to hear. You must continually exercise that gift. Look and see, Listen and hear. The word of the Lord is in the air. The beauty of the Lord is a table spread before you.
Where is the Garden of Eden? Where is the home of the Tree of Life? Any place that you can see God at work. Any place that you can hear the word of the Lord. Any place that you can tangibly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Out on the bayou in my kayak is great, but the fastest and easiest: walk out the door and stand in the garden. He meets me there every time.
Song of Solomon 6:1-3 Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze in the gardens and to gather lilies…
I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies