Wednesday, April 21, 2021

“When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place.” (Matthew 12: 43 -45, The Message Bible)

                I should have nipped it in the bud, but I didn’t.

                A season ago, two weeds began to grow in a bare spot, beyond the grass near some pine trees in the back yard. I was curious what might become of these plants with their very large leaves. By the end of the summer, a magnificent, sturdy stalk had grown to over five feet long, topped by small yellow flowers. It was kind of cool, so I left the plants alone. The two twin, tall weeds towered over the snow through the winter. Perhaps their seeds would be eaten by the birds or squirrels. So, I let them be.

                Bad decision!

                The weed is Common Mullein. You may have seen them by roadside, looming high and mighty out of the ground. The seeds weren’t eaten, but have scattered throughout my back yard and dozens upon dozens of baby mulleins are striving to establish a beachhead in my yard.

                My laziness in the Fall, not hacking the weeds down, has resulted in much more work as I have been pulling each new weed out by hand, using a weed-puller.  But just when I think I have gotten rid of them all, new ones shoot up overnight. The scotch thistles are almost as bad. Don’t get me started on the dandelions, but at least those are good for honey bees, apparently. Give a weed an opportunity, and it will seize it, multifold.

                You probably see where I am going with all this in light of the scripture above.

                I once got taken to task by a member of my congregation for suggesting in a sermon that Christians need to be weed-like. The person told me that he didn’t like being compared to a weed; his life had enough weedy moments and didn’t appreciate the analogy. Fair enough. I was being too clever by far in suggesting that Christians could emulate a weed’s persistence, perseverance in tough living conditions, and proficient ability to multiply, e.g., make disciples.  

                But he has a point.

                What have we allowed to grow in our lives that is producing bad and unhappy, compounding results? What thing has taken root in our lives and won’t go away because we didn’t deal with it right from the start?  What sorts of things is Sin multiplying in our personal relationships, communities, churches, etc. because we ignored the root of the problem?

                Sometimes, we may even admire the ability of some of the things which are cropping up  in our lives. They look good. They look like they belong.  They don’t seem to be doing any harm at the time. So, we let the little sins, mistakes, failures and poor decisions go to seed and begin to multiply. Then, when it is almost too late, we realize how hard it will be to deal with the results of our neglect and rationalizations. Pull one weed and three more come back.

                Kick out one “defiling evil spirit” and if not replaced with the right mind, spirit and heart, you will have worse spirits taking up residence, “whooping it up”. That person is indeed far worse off.

                The Apostle Paul knew his weeds: “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.” (Galatians 5: 19 -21, The Message Bible)

                Now, I am going to continue to pull the mullein and the thistles. Similarly, we should continue to use God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness to deal with the weeds in our lives. It is never too late. It may be hard but we need to persevere and persist.

                Sort of like a weed, but let’s not go there!

 Dale