About a dozen years ago there was a television situation
comedy entitled My Name is Earl.
The premise was that in the past, Earl had taken a lot of wrong turns
that had harmed many people. then he wins a lottery he has an epiphany and
decides to atone by contacting all those whom he has wronged and attempting to
undo, insofar as possible, all the damage he has caused. And to do that, he has
made a list of all the people he needs to contact and that list goes with him
everywhere. On one of the early shows he referred to it as cleaning up the
garbage in his life.
And perhaps one of the things that made that show popular was
the realization that, when it comes to having garbage in our lives, there’s a little
bit of Earl in all of us. We all have
emotional and spiritual garbage and clutter we’ve accumulated, and like Earl
discovered, it is hard to get rid of and, not infrequently, it just stays with
us and we just drag it along with us wherever we go.
We may have things in our life we’re not proud of, people
we’ve offended or been offended by, harm that we’ve caused or harm that we’ve
suffered. But it has been my experience, that on far too many occasions, even
as the garbage in our life continues to accumulate, rather than getting rid of
it, we continue to embrace it, and as we race on through life, simply clutch it
all the more tightly.
Today Paul talks
about “putting away” all that junk. And he challenges us to be “imitators
of God” and “beloved children” so that we can be like Christ
Jesus, “an offering and a sacrifice to
God as a fragrant aroma.”But Paul’s advice notwithstanding, putting away all the junk is often easier said than done. We all have spiritual and emotional baggage, clutter and garbage that enter into our lives; some of it is of our own making, some of it is thrust upon us by people or circumstances beyond our control.
Be that as it may, it seems to cling to us like emotional super glue; and unfortunately that in turn affects every aspect of our living. Every first responder can confirm how difficult it can be to put away the unavoidable stress and trauma they witness routinely. And the junk in our lives, whatever the source or circumstance, operates in much the same fashion.
To be sure, we can refuse to acknowledge that it's there or perhaps we can resolve to simply ignore it; but try as we might, it continues to intrude, often at the most inopportune times. And so we drag it with us wherever we go. It intrudes into our conversations; it colors our relationships, it goes to work with us, it goes shopping with us, it even comes to church with us: You can’t “unsee” something; you can’t “unhear” something; you simply cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. So, if that truly describes the human experience, can we ever truly dispose of the garbage? Perhaps we best continue on and endeavor to do better in the future.
Paul says no; absolutely and unequivocally no! And in so doing he might well remind us that garbage has another very distinctive feature; in pretty short order, and without exception, it begins to stink. Kind of like that hamburger or chicken you forgot about in the refrigerator meat drawer, and now you need to get rid of it. Now I’m sure you’ve noticed, even if you wrap it in foil or put it in Ziplock bag, the odor of the offending substance you’re throwing away inevitably gets out anyway. The odor is there and you're stuck with it until you take out the trash.
A mother of 8 came home one afternoon from the grocery store and walked into her house and everything looked pretty much the same, though it was a little bit quieter than usual. She looked into the middle of the living room and 5 of her darlings were sitting around in a circle, exceedingly quiet, which is a danger sign for parents.
She put down the groceries, walked a little closer and that's when she realized that the children were playing with 5 of the cutest baby skunks you can imagine. Mom was instantly terrified and she hollered, “Run children, run!” And they did. Each child grabbed a skunk and ran, in 5 different directions.
Well, that was the wrong thing to do. Mom was scared so, she screamed louder and more frantically. Well, that scared the children so much, that they each clutched their skunk tighter. And you know what, “Skunks, apparently even baby ones, don't like to be squeezed!” That's exactly what happens when we hang onto all the junk, all the garbage in our lives; it starts to stink.
But sometimes people aren’t content to just hang onto the junk; they are well aware of the garbage in their lives. And far from ever considering disposal, they enjoy displaying it and sharing it with others. They not only carry it with them everywhere they go, but they take out each individual piece and proudly display it for the world to see. You ask the rhetorical question: "How are you doing?" and 20 minutes later you're still finding out about their childhood, their ailments, their failed relationships and their children.
They've heard that confession is good for the soul so they just dumped all the garbage in their lives right at your feet and began to THUMP each piece.
They shake it out and show you all the folds and tears and creases. They don't even have a clue as to how much it stinks. But it does stink doesn't it. You have no clue why they chose you. All you know is that none of this has accomplished anything, because when they’ve finished with you, they’ll just scoop up all that junk and garbage and put it back in their bags to share with some one else.
Bruce Larson, in one of his books from the seventies, told about a farmer who one morning discovered a chunk of blue ice in one of his fields. Uncertain of its origin, except that it had fallen from the sky, he picked it up and as it was beginning to melt he packed it in a cooler with ice to preserve it. And his shared it with others. He shared it with the local police; he shared it with a nearby university and soon he even shared it with the FAA and NASA.
Initially, no one was certain just what it was, except that the more it thawed, the worse it smelled. Within a span of 24 hours or so, the mystery was solved—the blue ice, that farmer’s prize possession, was frozen potty fluid that had been inadvertently ejected from a commercial airliner’s toilet.
And so it is with the garbage of many today. It is their prize possession and so they CLUMP IT and they THUMP IT. Instead of disposing of their garbage, which is why Christ died on the cross, they drag it out at every opportunity and insist on sharing the stink with they rest of us. Indeed, what Christ wants us to do is to neither THUMP IT nor CLUMP IT. Christ wants us to DUMP IT at the foot of the cross.
And the words with which Paul addresses the Church at Ephesus in our Epistle this morning give us some very specific examples of just what “putting away” or “getting rid of the garbage” will require and look like in our lives:
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
I don't think it was a coincidence that Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, which was literally the largest garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem: Consider the symbolism: Jesus the Son of God became for us the greatest garbage collector of all. He took upon Himself, the full brunt of the garbage of all humankind. He bore the stink and weight of our sin. The perfect, sinless Son of God was marked and scarred with the sins of this world so that we could be free from the garbage and trash and the stink of our sin.
And all we have to do to get rid of our garbage; the garbage that hinders, cripples and destroys our witness, is leave it with Jesus at the foot of the cross. Unfortunately, some people choose to deal with their garbage in yet another way.
When I was in high school, one of my friends had one of the worst cars ever. It was a 1947 Chevrolet with so much play in the steering wheel that even turning a corner was an exciting event. It was hard to start and hard to stop and burned oil and gasoline in almost equal proportions. The easiest and most prudent action would have been to junk it, but his recently deceased grandfather had left it to him and so there was some understandable desire to restore it. His father came up with $250 and told his son to do something about the condition of the car or just junk it. And he did something—he had it . . . . painted!
Painted? Painted? What good was that going to do? It is so easy to see the folly in this young man’s actions, yet some who bear the name of Christ gloss over their sin and the sins of others with the sham forgiveness of a new paint job, ignoring the scriptural admonitions and true forgiveness offered only through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus that promises not only redemption, but frequent tune-ups or even a major overhaul.
Rather than getting rid of their garbage and the sin that energizes and nurtures it, they just dress it up with a new trash bag. The only way we can get a spiritual tune-up is through repentance, confession and obedience, or to put it another way, by dumping all the garbage in our lives at the foot of the cross.
And as we dump it, only then can we truly experience the promise of the bread of live. once we’ve taken that burden of sin, that Christ has really already removed and dumped it at the foot of the cross, then we can begin living what He called the “Abundant Life.”
And then, whenever the negative, sinful aspects of life begin to build up or try to intrude, we can TRUMP IT with the Grace of God, through Christ.
And then when we're free of all the garbage that separates us from God, when we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives, our witness and our stewardship—then, and only then, can we truly give God first place in our lives and live the “Abundant Life” that Jesus promised; the “Abundant Life” so filled with unexpected blessings. Let me give you a couple of examples:
Charles Spurgeon related the following: It seems he was calling on an elderly woman who was living in the poor house. As they visited, his attention was drawn to a framed document hanging on the wall of her room and he asked her about it. She said that many years before, she had cared for an elderly gentleman, and before he had died, he had written out a little note of appreciation to her followed by his signature.
After much persuasion, Spurgeon was allowed to borrow the paper. When he took it to the bank, they exclaimed, “We’ve been wondering to whom the old gentleman left his money.” She was a wealthy woman but had been living like a beggar.
In west Texas there is a famous oil field known as the Yates pool. During the depression this field was a sheep ranch, owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family, like many others, had to live on a government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling west Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would be able to pay his bills.
Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told Mr. Yates there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve, yielding 80,000 barrels a day. In fact, thirty years after the discovery, a government test of just one of the wells showed that it still could produce 125,000 barrels a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he was living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty: What was the problem? He did not know the oil was there. He owned it, but he did not possess it.
As Christians, Paul reminds us we are marked with a seal for the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus Christ, we own much, that our emotional baggage, our spiritual garbage and our relational clutter hinder us from possessing.
Come and see; come and taste—the table has been prepared; the feast is both for now and for all eternity.
Only as we consent to dump our garbage at the foot of the cross will we discover the true richness of our blessings in Jesus Christ.
This is the Word of the Lord for Today; Amen and Amen.
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