Sodom and Gomorrah

Help!  My yard has become Sodom and Gomorrah, and there is no remedy.  For years -- ever since I moved into this house, as a matter of fact, --- I have been ignoring the dollar weed, the chicks- in-a-basket weed, the wild strawberry weed, and only God Himself knows what other kinds of weeds growing in my lawn.  I have been so intent on tending to the beds, keeping the weeds out of the flowers, that I have allowed the grass to take care of itself.  As long as I ran the lawnmower over the lawn once a week, no one could tell without a close look that the "green" appearance was mostly weeds. 

Now I am paying the price of neglect.  This winter, the weeds I thought I was keeping at bay have invaded all the flower beds and the vegetable garden -- and there is no remedy now; they have taken over.  The only thing I can do now is to pull up all the dirt, pile it up somewhere, and cover it with heavy black plastic, hoping to kill the weeds.  Then I will have to consider using some kind of chemical on the lawn, a practice I have never adopted because of my cats who walk on the grass daily and then lick their paws. 

The problem with weeds is that they are bullies; they cannot "live and let live," peacefully co-existing alongside their neighbors, the non-weeds.  They must conquer all available space; they must dominate and subdue everything not as strong as they are, until they rule without question.

There is a reason that the Hebrew words for "man" (adam) and for "earth" (adamah) are so closely related.  Whatever we see reflected in the earth originates and is a mirror of mankind's spiritual condition.  If we wonder why God had to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, we have a good portrait in the story of Lot.  Even when angels visited the earth, the men of Sodom and Gomorrah were determined to take them over by force.  They could not rest with normal lusts; they had to force their perversions on all visitors to the city.  There was no 'peaceful co-existence' in Sodom and Gomorrah, just as there is no 'peaceful co-existence' in Los Angeles, Mexico, or New Orleans between gang violence and drug cartels and those who chose not to be involved.

The only remedy for sin is death.  When Scripture portrays sin as 'eating,' taking in evil so that it changes our DNA, it is 100% accurate.  And then we pass our sin-prone DNA on to the next generation, where it has deeper and stronger roots -- until finally, Cain had to found the first city, because the earth would no longer yield its produce to him, and where 'everyone who meets me will want to kill me.'

There is no "fix" for sin except death.  I have tumors in my feet which are hereditary; my mother had them, and almost all of my siblings have them also.  Both my mother and my brother attempted surgery on both feet -- very painful -- to remove the tumors.  And even while they were both still on crutches, the tumors had returned; the roots were so deeply embedded in tissue and nerves that they could not be disentangled.  That is sin, both in our "flesh" and in society.  We might suppress the symptoms for awhile, but we cannot cure the evil.

That is why Jesus had to die; He died not for Himself, but for us.  He crucified our flesh -- that which cannot be cured -- and brought it to the grave.  When He arose, He was a "new man," a man born not of flesh and blood, but of the Spirit of God.  And this is the life He gives us; our old man has been crucified with Christ.  The man that now exists is a "new creation," no longer subject to the law of sin and death, but subject to the Spirit of God. 

When we are baptized in water, symbolically we are demonstrating our death to the old man -- the man of sin/adam/earth-- and our resurrection of the new man, the man who belongs to God, who is ruled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit.  Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me to the glory of the Father."  If Christ lives in us, He will transform our mortal flesh -- as we allow Him -- into His glorious body.  This is a great mystery; it is the mystery of death and new life. 

Now if I could just figure out what to do about all those weeds.....