I am the farthest thing from a gardener. When God was passing out the talent for gardening, I must have been in another line.

Even though I am not the gardening type, I am fascinated by the idea of composting.

Instead of throwing away vegetable scraps, coffee grinds, grass clippings, leaves, etc., put it all together with dirt, and, Presto! Compost! When all this garbage is mixed with dirt, it is turned into a beautiful, raunchy, smelly dark stew that becomes the food for plants and soil to give it life.

Again, just to be sure, I’ve never done this. I’ve only seen it done and read about it. I wouldn’t want you to think I’ve turned into “Farmer Brown” or anything like that.

But still, I’m fascinated by how you can take garbage and dirt and transform it to this life-giving, life-generating, health-promoting, nutrient-rich soil that plants and shrubs go nuts over.

I can’t think of a better image for the church than the compost heap.

You see, the church is made up of people with all kinds of garbage and dirt. What the world calls garbage, junk, dirt, the church calls it the yummiest ingredients for transformation. In the midst of the pile of death and junk, death comes alive – breeding, simmering, cooking up a ripe soil of new life.

All this is possible because that’s the work of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So here’s the thing. The church may stink sometimes. But that’s good. That means we’ve got exactly the right ingredients to start the process of turning death to life. Christ is the Master of turning death to life.

Welcome to our stinky church!