09-21-21

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
September 21, 2021
When I was attending church camp as a youth, we would sing the “Garden Song” by Pete Seeger. I loved that song, and I still find its opening verses coming back to my mind and lips, often for no apparent reason. It starts with these words:

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row
Please bless these seeds I sow
Please keep them safe below
‘Til the rain comes tumbling down

Both the words and the melody give a sense of patience and process, encouraging us to provide the necessary time and space for creation to do its thing. So much of life is a series of steps, often very small deliberate steps toward a goal. In Psalm 37, it speaks of how our steps are made steady and secure by the Lord. Those words are found in a larger poetic offering about the righteous and the wicked, and how the righteous are about the work of justice, wisdom and goodness. Those are big and bold words, often tossed around indiscriminately without much appreciation for what they mean in the context of daily life. Might I suggest they are big and bold, and for that reason we must honor every little step, every little action as part of the work toward these high ideals. In the Bible, the garden is an image of a world formed by God’s justice, wisdom and goodness. And Pete reminds us how no garden bears the fruit easily or quickly.

Guide my every step, O Lord, as I seek to walk with you and choose a path that will honor you and the vision you have for this world. Amen.

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