Did you know that soil is incredibly diverse and complex?\u00a0 It might look like simple dirt, but one handful contains more living organisms than there are people on the planet.<\/p>\n
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And every part of the soil, every organism has a part to play.\u00a0 They affect chemical and physical properties.\u00a0 There are a billion bacteria in one gram of fertile soil that consume what is produced by green plants… there are fungi that decompose materials, there are soil animals that consume and decompose and feed on one another and leave channels in the soil that increases infiltration of minerals and water and oxygen.<\/p>\n
And all of these living organisms live off of and feed off of one another.\u00a0 It is their interaction that makes soil healthy and thriving and good.<\/p>\n
In his book, The Third Plate, Dan Barber describes the “war” that is going on in the soil we walk upon.\u00a0 It is a class system where:<\/p>\n
Jack pointed to the soil. “There’s a war going on in there…”<\/p>\n
first-level consumers (microbes), the most abundant and miniscule members of the community, break down large fragments of organic material into smaller residues; secondary consumers (protozoa, for example) feed on the primary consumers or their waste; and then third-level consumers (like centipedes, ants, and beetles) eat the secondaries.\u00a0 The more Jack explained it, the more it started to sound like a fraught, complex community…<\/p>\n
Fred Magdoff, likened the process to a system of checks and balances. “To me there is real beauty in how it works,” he said. “When there is sufficient and varied food for the organisms, they do what comes naturally, ‘making a living’ by feeding on the food sources that evolution provided… What you have is a thriving, complex community of organisms.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I have been thinking about the immense complexity of dirt and what it means for us as the church.<\/p>\n
We have been inundated with a move towards “simple church” and we talk so much about unity\u00a0and yet I wonder what would happen if instead we embraced the incredibly complex, diverse, thriving nature of soil as a metaphor of our life together.<\/p>\n
It is actually what we find in the Body of Christ as described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12. We have feet and hands and eyes and hearts and livers and spleens.\u00a0 We all play a part. We might look at others and think, “I don’t need you,” but Paul says we are wrong.<\/p>\n
In our Iowa Annual Conference right now, we are divided.\u00a0 We are different.\u00a0 We don’t read scriptures the same.\u00a0 We feel differently about human sexuality.\u00a0 We aren’t sure what we should do about those folks on the margins, our brothers and sisters, who are gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender or still discovering. Underneath it all is a different understanding of how we understand the scriptures.<\/p>\n
And sometimes, that diversity feels like a war.\u00a0 It feels like the\u00a0battle Jack described the soil beneath us.\u00a0 We are chewing each other up and spitting each other out. And I hate the way my brothers and sisters are hurt and damaged by comments that cut to the core of their very being.\u00a0 Especially as I watch them walk away from the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n
When you focus on the conflict that diversity creates, like Jack did, you want to strip out everything that is different to protect yourself and others.\u00a0 We want simple things.\u00a0 We want unity, which means, we want to all be the same.<\/p>\n
But to be healthy, we need diversity.\u00a0 We need difference.\u00a0 We need checks and balances.\u00a0 We need to remind each other of the importance of the bible and scripture and justice and mercy and grace and love.\u00a0 It comes from both sides.\u00a0 We need to listen.\u00a0 We need to hold one another accountable.\u00a0 We also need to challenge one another.\u00a0 We need to say things that are difficult to hear.\u00a0 We need to be willing to speak the truth in love.<\/p>\n
And together, the interaction of all of our different parts creates something beautiful and mysterious and powerful.<\/p>\n
Friends, we might look like United Methodists, but a little deeper under the cover of our identity, we are incredibly complicated. We are men and women, people of all sorts of shades of skin, languages, eye colors, theological perspectives, ideas, gifts, skills, ages…<\/p>\n
I need you.\u00a0 All of you. And together, God wants us to be amazing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did you know that soil is incredibly diverse and complex?\u00a0 It might look like simple dirt, but one handful contains more living organisms than there are people on the planet. And every part of the soil, every organism has a part to play.\u00a0 They affect chemical and physical properties.\u00a0 There are a billion bacteria…<\/span><\/p>\n