Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:28b-33 (CEB)
During the eco-walk organized by our Green Team for our Earth Day celebration, we walked along the edges of our property and our guest pointed out to us the invasive plant species that we have on our property, especially along the creek. Much of the plant life there is invasive. Invasive species are hard to get rid of once they are established, and they push native plants out. Even more, they are not edible for local wildlife, and so they diminish the liveliness and diversity of our little ecosystem. It is not that these plants are bad in and of themselves, but rather they are bad to have in this place. In their native ecosystem they are able to be beneficial, but left to run loose out of place they detract from the overall life of our little creek.
I can’t help but think of the ways that sin in our lives can be like invasive plant species. In most of our lives, the sin that dominates is not things that are bad in and of themselves, but they are problematic in the way they function in our lives. I love watching a playoff basketball game, but if I say that I don’t have time to pray and yet find time to watch a game, then I have placed basketball above God. I have put the game in the wrong place. You can say the same thing about family picnics, reading books, and any number of other things. One way of understanding sin is mis-ordered desires; that is, our desire that should be directed at a relationship with God gets aimed towards things that are not God. If we place God first, then those other things can be blessings but if we put them first then they can interfere with our relationship with God and throw our life out of balance.
We can perhaps image that sense of mis-ordered desires as secondary concerns being invasive plants, growing in the wrong place. When our priorities are in order, our lives flourish and are enhanced. They are vibrant and diverse, taking joy in God, our relationships, and our activities. In such times, our life in God is like a native plant garden. There is balance and liveliness. When we allow other things to invade where God should be in our lives, though, it throws the ecosystem of our life out of order. Too easily invasive plants take root, and once they are there it is hard to get them out. Our schedules become a burden of one more thing, our experiences narrow, and God becomes hard to identify. We lose the diversity and energy of life. When that happens, we need to cut things back and carve out a place for the native plants to
grow again to put things back to where they should be. Theologically, putting things right is called “justification.” Justification happens when we hear God’s law that tells us our life is out of whack, and then the promise that God will grow a new garden within us. This promise is an act of grace that we call Good News (or Gospel) of Christ.