God’s prophets and Jesus often spoke in agricultural metaphors. Most of us no longer farm for a living but many of us work on spring clean-ups. Here are some lessons for our faith lives from my own experience this week in spring-cleaning.

We need nurture and feeding: Bare and moss-covered places in my yard mean that the soil there needs nutrients. I will add topsoil and fertilizer to help ground cover grow.

Similarly we can’t grow in our faith without proper nutrients. That means study of scriptures, both individually in the home and in groups. That also means participation in worship, and not just at Christmas and Easter and High Holy Days.

Don’t be a “ weed”: A “weed” is any plant not in the right place. I have a goodlooking cedar and shrubs in my front yard that are too near the house and must be moved. So also should we allow God’s Spirit to direct us to the “right” place of worship, where we need to wholeheartedly commit to our faith community.

People of faith also need to be in the “right place” in the public arena. Choose from a long list of possibilities: opposing religious intolerance, protecting the environment, making immigration legal and fair and safe, continuing to fight poverty …

Don’t dissipate energy: A seeming shrub around the base of my Hawthorne tree turned out to be tree shoots that were taking energy from the trunk. Pruning the shoots will give the tree a better chance to grow tall.

How often do we dissipate our energies by trying to be helpful and participate in everything in our places of worship and in our communities? We need to carefully identify our spiritual gifts and, with the Spirit’s help, employ them effectively for the good of God’s people and the glory of God.

Soreness is to be expected: Just as I woke up this morning sore and stiff from my yard work, so also should we expect bumps and bruises in our faith lives.

Around the globe people of faith are actively persecuted and may face torture and even death at the hands of mobs and governments. We should oppose such intolerance and injustice.

Our comfort and consolation is the knowledge that the God’s Spirit guides us as we travel on our journey. The Light that was present at the creation of the world is still with us and waits for us at the end of our journeys. We are not alone.

The Rev. Alan Baughcum is pastor at Day’s Ferry Congregational Church in Woolwich.

Clergy column: Local clergy wishing to write should contact Lois Hart at lhart@gwi.net. Lay ministers as well as ordained clergy may contribute.

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