God, the original Master Gardener

Nearly every month, the Hudson Mohawk Conference pastors get together for a ‘ministerium,’ sharing prayer and fellowship time, and often learning together about unique ministries around the area.

I remember the first time I came to visit Saint Andrew was during a ministerium over a decade ago, where we were told about the master gardener who had initiated the community garden space on the church property.

We will see those times again, once all this snow melts, though the snow does have a quiet beauty about it from the perspective of being warmly indoors with a cup of hot tea or a nice bowl of soup like those we shared at the Souper Bowl of Caring last month. 

This month, our Conference Ministerium is meeting together in Albany for some advocacy work together, speaking to State representatives on issues related to housing and to food insecurity. Stewardship of our shared civic life is part of our ELCA’s faith in action. At our last Churchwide Assembly, gathering voting representatives from all 65 synods across the country, we adopted a social statement 6 years in the making - “Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Wellbeing of All.” Contrary to keeping politics out of the church, it emboldens us to take seriously what our faith means about how we live with our neighbors, and to do what we can to speak up for those whose voices have been historically silenced.

Many of us might not realize how deeply impacted we are by the legislation being debated in Albany, let alone in D.C., but when our systems and policies become cumbersome and difficult to navigate, everyone struggles. These struggles impact human beings, our neighbors, our own families, even while arguments about them are steeped in name–calling, bullying, and a scarcity mindset which is not reflective of the vast amount of wealth being hoarded by a handful of people.

Advocacy is our calling when injustice sits in the halls of power. The Spirit poured out in the disciples has been called our ‘Advocate,’ with good reason. We speak up for the care of each other, to remain connected, human, and alive in this world. Using our voices to plant the kind of world God gave us to tend in the first place, is one way we have been created in the Image of God, reflective of the One who was the original Master Gardener.

Grae and Peace,

Pastor Andrew Tobias Nelson