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The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

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You may have heard in the news about COP26 these past few weeks. \xa0It's a United Nations climate change summit that happens every year for the past 26 years. \xa0As many nations in the world as can come together do come together to talk about climate change and the ways that they each, and together, can address these challenges.

Many of you will remember the Paris climate change conference called COP21, where a number of countries came together to sign the Paris Climate Change Agreement. \xa0And now at COP26, those same countries come back to update their commitments to keeping climate change and the warming of the globe at or below the target of 1.5 degrees of warming.\xa0

It's a tall order and one that seems well beyond our little daily lives. \xa0This is the world that's coming together to talk about these things and countries are the only ones who can come and participate in this \u201cConference Of the Parties\u201d called COP26. \xa0So what role do we have?

Well, from the very beginning of the book of Genesis, it makes clear that our work is as stewards of God's creation. \xa0We hear that in the first chapter of Genesis as we are we are told that we are made in the image of God and are commanded to rule, to steward the land. \xa0But, we hear it, I think, more particularly in these words from Genesis 2:15.

First, we find that the Lord God took the man and put him in a particular place: the Garden of Eden. \xa0So, we're not just those who wander the world and make these high flying, abstract commitments, but we are people who live in a particular place in a particular time with particular work that we do.\xa0 We are to understand this place where we are put as God's gift to us. \xa0It is the garden within which we carry out our ruling and stewarding work for God's creation. \xa0God has placed me right here in Hamilton, and perhaps he's taken you and put you in Caledonia, or Brantford, or somewhere else in Hamilton. \xa0But that is our garden: the place we work out our stewardship of the earth.

The person was put in the garden in order to do two things. \xa0To work it and take care of it. \xa0The word for work and take care of are words that are pictures, pictures with deep resonance throughout the Old Testament. \xa0One of these words is the word for observe, or keep, like we're commanded to keep and observe the Torah: the commands of God. \xa0The other word is a word that's often used for worship in the Bible. \xa0

And so these words give the sense that we have an almost priestly duty here, not just to work the ground and take care of it, but really to serve it as an act of worship. \xa0We are to serve as priests for the ground and for the earth. \xa0

So the question: how are you serving as a priest in the place--your garden--where God has put you?\xa0 Not just serving as a priest before God and among your neighbors, but also to and for the creation? \xa0Do you actions bring healing and redemption to the ground you walk?\xa0

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