One thing that often defines me as a modern American is, first of all, whatever I want I tend to translate into "need", so what I "want" becomes what I "need."  This factor alone has major implications: it becomes the heart and soul of the mass consumerism that is ever more quickly choking us.  Secondly, what I think I need, I need it now!  Not tomorrow; getting it yesterday is even better.  But the problem here is, what truly provides quality life isn't like that.  A lengthy list of "wants" only serves to remind me what I (think I) lack and the things that truly give me life-healthy and dignifying relationships with others, practicing a rich spiritual life, understanding and appreciating the complex web of the
ecology of which I am a part-take a lifetime of persistent and steady work to obtain.

A well-lived life is a lot like compost.  Compost is made up of the recycled waste byproducts of the food that nourishes us.  It represents the castoff material that once defined what the thing was: eggshells, banana peels, corn husks, potato skins.  All this unusable stuff gets thrown together, mixed up, and left to rot under the impact of sunshine, rain, and microbes.  In so doing, it breaks down into, not only usable and redeemed soil amendment, but rich food for further growth.  In this way, it makes the soil of life more amenable to a sustained future.  But creating compost takes time; it can't be made overnight.  It needs to be continuously added to, turned over, mixed up, and sifted.  But the payoff is great: eventually, you've got the best food for growing food there is.  The icing on the cake is, it's all natural, organic, and, using leftover scraps wastes nothing.  Paul suggests we should live life like that: take the castoff material that defines us-i.e., sins of the flesh-and put them in the composter of the Holy Spirit, allowing them to break down into usable material-like healthy and dignifying relationships with others, practicing a rich spiritual life,
understanding and appreciating the complex web of the ecology of which we are a part-to help create the good soil that Jesus talks about which sustains life and ensures a future.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.  And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears listen!’

‘Hear then the parable of the sower.  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.  As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.  As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.  But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.