Wednesday, April 26, 2017

                My back yard is dead! Kaput! ALL the grass has gone to that Big Grassy Field in the Sky! There is nothing to mow – zilch! My back yard needs a radical makeover. Last year’s drought did it in. We were away throughout and it wasn’t ever watered. It died under the heat and arid conditions. It was only a two-year-old lawn and it hadn’t really established its roots deep enough. So, left unattended during an extreme dry spell my lawn died and it is now its own ugly version of a brownfield.

                Except for the weeds, of course. Drought – what drought? The weeds, especially Scottish thistle, obviously stole what little moisture there was and used it for their own survival. And this spring they’re back with a vengeance. Green, lush, hale and hearty! They own the lawn! I am sure they are mocking me.

                There are so many possible metaphors and images in this plight that I don’t know where to begin!

                For example, there are the weeds. Right off the bat I am thinking of Jesus’ parable of the sower who, rather willy-nilly if you ask me, scattered seed all over the place.  “And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.” (Mark 4: 4-7)

Jesus gets weeds! They take away nourishment and vitality.  They don’t care about anything else than their own survival. If left unattended they smother and choke out the life of good things around them.  Nobody ever intentionally plants weeds but they crop up uninvited and will take over. Sometimes they even look pretty, but those attractive blossoms produce seeds at an alarming rate and spread like crazy. Weeds are strong and persistent - growing in cracks and crevices, out from under rocks and breaking through cement and concrete. Just when you light think you might have gotten rid of them, new ones will sprout.

It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to understand the imagery here. Weeds are symbolic of those insidious actions, words, thoughts, bad deeds, bad habits, etc. (i.e. sins) that crop up in our vulnerable human lives and kill the soul and spirit. These weeds in our character, in our psyche, in our spirit, in our day-to-day living also strive to thrive, especially during arid and barren times. We may put up a fight for a while, but many folk let the weeds take over, because they don’t know what else to do.

                The sowing of weeds is, in part, the work of the Enemy, who seeks to wreak havoc and prevent us from producing positive, healthy, thriving lives. Jesus tells the parable of an enemy “who came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So, when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also,” (Matthew 13:25-26).  The advice within the parable is that the servants should leave the weeds alone rather than weed them out “for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.”  

                Jesus is making the point that he is doing everything he can to sow good seed in the world: seeds of love, compassion, forgiveness, hope, joy, peace, mercy, healing, freedom, but the damnable weeds keep trying to choke it all out. Christians, our churches, our faith practices are not immune from weeds. Sometimes, the good we do as Christians is obliterated by the weeds of our hypocrisy, our judgmentalism, our intolerance, our arrogance, our dogmatism or our refusal to change as the winds of the Spirit blow us into the world to make a difference.  “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness,” (2 Corinthians 9:10).

                I am going to have to rotor-till the back lawn to get back to the raw earth and plow those weeds under and start all over.  I haven’t decided whether to reseed or re-sod. Either will be labour intensive and costly. I am not looking forward to doing it. But it’s the only way to resurrect my lawn.

                What do you need to do to get rid of the weeds in your life?

Dale