True Worship

Be a gardener
Dig and ditch
Toil and sweat,
And turn the earth upside down
And seek the deepness
And water the plants in time.
Continue this work
And make sweet floods to run
And noble and abundant fruits
To spring.
Take this food and drink
And carry it to God
As your true worship.

Today I read again these words by Julian of Norwich - with more delight this time than when first read because yesterday Firefly and I walked through the Fenway Victory Gardens. Some beautiful and some neglected, strolling through the small plots was the highlight of my time in Boston.The park was a short walk from the apartment where we stayed on Massachusetts Ave. (Firefly's Gran, Beth's mother, has been in the hospital for a the past six weeks with acute leukemia. We all three went to Boston this time so Fly could see where Mommy has been spending so much of her time.)

I diddled around a bit to find Julian's words in context.  They are from chapter 51 of Revelations of Divine Love.
Why have all the translators changed delve and dyke to dig and ditch?  I rather like the original.  But that's just a personal preference.  Still beautiful, the piece when plucked and pruned  loses its Christology. I love the image of the earth grounded in Jesus, which of course must be true if we believe in the incarnational Jesus who is grounded in the earth. 

From Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 51

The wisdom of the Servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to do which should be to the worship of the Lord. And the Servant, for love, having no regard to himself nor to nothing that might befall him, hastily he started and ran at the sending of his Lord, to do that thing which was his will and his worship. For it seemed by his outward clothing as he had been a continuant labourer of long time, and by the inward sight that I had both of the Lord and the Servant it seemed that he was a new [one], that is to say, new beginning to travail: which Servant was never sent out afore.

There was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved. I marvelled and thought what it might be, and I was answered in mine understanding: It is a food which is delectable and pleasant to the Lord. For I saw the Lord sit as a man, and I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to serve him. This was one marvel.

Another marvel was that this majestic Lord had no servant but one, and him he sent out. I beheld, thinking what manner of labour it might be that the Servant should do. And then I understood that he should do the greatest labour and hardest travail: that is, he should 

be a gardener, delve and dyke, toil and sweat, and turn the earth upside-down, and seek the deepness, and water the plants in time. And in this he should continue his travail and make sweet floods to run, and noble and plenteous fruits to spring, which he should bring afore the Lord to serve him therewith to his desire. And he should never turn again till he had prepared this food all ready as he knew that it pleased the Lord. And then he should take this food, with the drink in the food, and bear it full worshipfully afore the Lord.

And all this time the Lord should sit in the same place, abiding his Servant whom he sent out. And yet I marvelled from whence the Servant came. For I saw in the Lord that HE hath within Himself endless life, and all manner of goodness, save that treasure that was in the earth. And [also] that [treasure] was grounded in the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless love, but it was not all to His worship till the Servant had thus nobly prepared it, and brought it before Him in himself present. And without the Lord was nothing but wilderness. And I understood not all what this example meant, and therefore I marvelled whence the Servant came.  Julian of Norwich