Where is Eden Today?

If you ask biblical archeologists, they will say that we can not physically locate Eden today.  We keep looking for a physical location out there somewhere but could it be right in front of us and we keep missing it?  More accurately, could it be right inside of us undiscovered?  The ancient Christian mystics said our soul is the garden of Eden and God's furious love comes in to fully posses us.  Eden then is within us or as Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).

Mystic Marriage is the place where God's Spirit touches our spirit and makes us one with God.  The soul is the fertile ground of spiritual union and intimacy with God. Christians have wrongly concluded that when Jesus said people in heaven did not marry or were given in marriage, he was not saying as popular conventional church wisdom often does that there is no marriage in heaven (Luke 20:33-38).  For those with spiritual eyes, everyone is married in heaven to Jesus.  He is the bridegroom and we are His Bride.  It's not that there is no marriage in heaven but heaven is all about being one big marriage banquet for the Lamb!

The World Is My Garden

I good friend of mine, Don Lokey died and I did his funeral.  Sometimes when you are close to someone, is easier to give the message.  All I knew is I wanted to give God's message so I prayed and waited and prayed some more.  The day before the funeral, early in the morning, the message came flooding in like a wave.  I heard in my spirit these words, "The world is my garden."  As quickly as I heard these words then a scripture came to mind, the last half of Psalm 65 which speaks of God's care and renewal of garden earth.

The last day of Don's life he spent in his garden.  I was considering looking for a poem on this image of garden but it was so late and I went to the funeral visitation.  The front of every bulletin has the twenty third Psalm.  This is the first time in almost two decades that the front had a poem called "God's Garden."  I was also handed that day three letters from Don's daughters to read and the last one ended with words about seeing Don some day in his heavenly garden.  Are you starting to see a pattern yet?  I also discovered that there was an assortment of special music and the last song chosen was the song "In the Garden."

I was amazed at the unity and beauty of the whole service which like a masterpiece of art all flowed together.  Now I am working through a sermon series through the book of Daniel and I am studying the ninth chapter of Daniel.  As I am working and praying my way through this chapter and book, there are two thoughts that press in on my mind on how God builds faith and trust.  God does it through extravagant love and extravagant suffering.  I got a last minute phone call to help at the local food pantry and I got to put into action some of this by helping others in their suffering.

There is a little book I picked up earlier this year called "Living with Mystery."  I started the book, set it down and never picked it up again.  It caught my attention today so I picked it up and it was marked on a chapter about the cross of Christ and suffering.  As I was reading, I thought about the funeral I did today and Don's life how his life ended abruptly from cancer, I ran right into these words:

I have entered the garden gate.  But this is not a garden of fragrant roses, singing birds, and sunlight and dew-covered grass.  This is the garden of darkness, a garden of finitude, a garden of turmoil---the garden that Jesus entered.  It is the garden of humanness, of abandonment, and tears.  No rays of sunlight shimmer through the trees.  No blossoms open their faces to the sun.  No birds serenade Him.  Rather, in this garden, only the way of the cross beckons Him.  And in this dark garden, He waits for me (p.93).

The enemy of our soul tempts us to believe that suffering is bad or evil and should be avoided at all costs.  But its suffering like Jesus in Gethsemane that releases us into perfection with Christ in the garden of paradise.  When we have the marks of Christ's suffering, then we are like the man who trusts in the Lord that the prophet Jeremiah describes:

Blesses is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord.  For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes.  But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit (17:7-8).

Death Has Lost Its Sting

Death is a defining moment.
     Not an ending but a new beginning.
          Not a disappearance but a new revelation.

Like Adam and Eve we must descend before we can ascend into perfection.
     Like Moses and the burning bush, the fire purifies but does not destroy.
          Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, the whale of death swallows up the human race.

Who can escape death for it is every man's fate.
      Leaving the world of Egypt, we return to the world of Eden.
          At the center of Eden is a tree, the cross.

It is by that cross we come to live with God in paradise.
     As we carry the cross of Christ, death has lost its sting.
          Death is swallowed up by paradise.


(Inspired from the writings of John Behr Becoming Human)

Paradise Open

Paradise is open and all around us.
People think paradise is closed and no one can enter in.
Obsessions blind us and we don't understand ourselves.
Living water is there to drink for those who dare.

We peer over the edge into the abyss.
Can anything survive; is all there is death?
But when one looks deeply across the edge.
Out of the darkness the face of God appears.
All one can do is praise without interruption.

Paradise Now: God's Heavenly Dance on Earth

We have been stumbling in the darkness after being banished from Eden.  Paradise in many people minds is about going to heaven after one dies.  But God offers paradise on earth in the here and now.  The beauty of God's creation surrounds us with lyrical rhythms of the Spirit of God.  There is a kind of heavenly dance happening on earth and you are invited to the dance.

When one starts dancing with the Spirit, everything begins to spiral in a different direction.  What was uninteresting now is engaging and what once captured our attention does not even get a passing glance anymore.  Reading the Bible is not even the same.  People may have caught a connection between the "Son of Man" title that Jesus grabs hold of but miss the deeper dimensions of the whole background of Daniel's use of numbers pregnant with hidden meaning as well as one in exile.

We have become so accustomed to captivity that many of us do not even know we are prisoners anymore.  But the prophet Daniel is not just a book connected to Jesus and Mark's Gospel but also to the book of Revelation with all its hidden symbols and mystery.  The Song of Solomon breaks forth in songs in each of these books as they all in one great musical orchestra play deep echoes of moving from exile back to Eden or paradise now. 

Daniel, Revelation, Mark, and the Song of Solomon are four books with a rich tapestry and deep dimensions.  The multiplicity reveals the singular path and face of Christ.  The path may be hidden but deep within the framework and structures of these books they overlap and are there.  The very structure of these books and the movements ordered by the Spirit can only be seen when one joins God in the heavenly dance that ends with a great wedding feast for all.