Stone is heavy, and sand is a burden, but mulching flowerbeds when there’s a 100-degree heat index is almost too much.
My wife and I love to garden. Well, I like to garden when it’s not too hot, and when I don’t have to do too much weeding. But I love growing food and growing roses and other delightful plants. When we bought our house, several years ago, we bought a place that hadn’t really been taken care of…at all. Over the past several years we have been improving the yard by adding gardens, planting flowers, removing 200 square feet of poison ivy – that was painful.
And now, we’re reached next-level gardening – the world of mulch.
And while mulching is hot, dirty, hard work, it is work that is needed (our strawberries desperately needed it). Mulch provided compost, keeps the soil warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, it helps keep the soil moist, and, most importantly, it suppresses weeds!
I hate weeding. I do it. But I hate it.
I love things that make my life easier. Mulch makes my life easier by suppressing weeds so I don’t have to go pull them.
Now, I promised, in the title, that this would be a theology of mulch – and so it is. Because what the Church desperately needs is some mulching! Jesus speaks in the Parable of the Sower of the seed that fell among thorns. The thorns strangled the seed so that it couldn’t produce any fruit. There are all sorts of thorns that arise and throttle the seeds sown.
Now, please understand, I’m not attempting to exegete the Parable of the Sower. I’m simply suggesting that there are such things as weeds which can grow up in a real Christians life that will sap his strength. Throughout the New Testament weeds are used to represent several things. And that makes sense because seeds are used to represent several things.
Moreover, when I talk about weeds that grow up and rob believers of water, nutrition, and room to grow, these weeds could be many things. Some may be external – false teaching, for example. Some may be internal – self-destructive habits. Obviously, it would be better if true-believers were never subject to either their or anyone else’s flesh, but we don’t live in a sinless world, yet, so we’d best come up with a plan on how to deal with weeds before they choke the life out of the good seed planted.
Mulch is a great solution. Mulch suppresses weeds because it doesn’t allow weeds to break through. But mulch is tricky. Mulch is best applied after the seeds have been planted and come forth. It also has to be applied carefully and not haphazardly. Lastly, mulch is really only a solution for relatively small plots.
OK, so that’s a lot of metaphor – how can we make it real? What are some practical suggestions?
First, what is mulch? Well, I would suggest that, mulch, the stuff that suppresses weeds and adds nutrition and normalizes soil temperature, is the Spirit-filled, Scripture-loving, Christ-exalting, Sacrificially-loving, fellowship of believers.
I know some read that last paragraph and thought, “Right! The Church!” Sure! The Church! The Church as it should be!
The Church as it should be should be intimate enough, Spiritual enough, loving enough, and Scriptural enough that those things which rob us of our life will not only be pulled out, but won’t be allowed to take root at all! Faithful Bible teaching, faithful Bible preaching, and faithful Bible fellowship, when empowered by the Spirit and mutual affection will lead to a more fruitful life in Christ! Accountable, caring, fellowship is the mulch which will suppress weeds, not only in our own lives, but in the lives of others.
Yet, mulch isn’t perfect; it suppresses weeds, but it cannot totally prevent them. We must always be wary of anything creeping into our lives which would capture our affections away from Christ!
My point in all of this is simply this. There is a serious, and very needed, movement within the Church, today, which is taking a hard-stand against sin! Well! But, we must not only have a negative theology of sin, but a positive theology of holiness! And as mulch is not only beneficial for plants, but harmful to weeds, it would be well for us if we could seek a life in Christ which is not only Anti-Sin but Pro-Christ-likeness! True Christian Fellowship, centered on Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and built up by the Bible will do this! Let us seek to truly be the kinds of brothers and sisters who will spur others on towards love and good deeds!