Matthew 23:13
13 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
“The God-Shaped Hole in all of Us”
I’m sure none of you have EVER experienced the unbridled wrath of a VERY… upset… two year old! Let me educate you if you haven’t. It goes a little something like this… WAAAAAAAAAH! At least that is what William does when he does not get his way. Sometimes… it is over the silliest of things. The other day, he thought the soda-pop cooler at the gas station was a tent, and he threw a complete fit in the middle of the store when we would not let him play inside the “tent.” Sometimes, it is over more serious matters, like the night I could not fight his puppy at bed time.
Oh… I had bears, ducks, frogs… even a stuffed Minnesota Viking doll… (which all of you bears fans will be glad to hear that he hates), I even had a different “puppy.” None of them worked… there was only one puppy that he wanted… only one puppy that he needed… only one puppy – that would bring his now quite anxious father salvation.
There was no reconciling him. He was incomplete without the puppy… and there would be no rest until it was found. Luckily… it turned up in the basement… comfortably riding in the bed of his Tonka truck. William received his puppy, and almost instantaneously fell into the soft slumber that I’m sure only two year olds can really know.
Seems silly, to make such a display over such a silly thing as a puppy. I mean… really. He’s going to have to learn sooner or later that life is not fair. He’s going to have to learn sooner or later that he can not always get his way… can’t always get what he wants. We all did! We got tough. We stopped our crying when life gave us less then we deserved, gave us less than we wanted!
But we have never stopped needing. We have never stopped wanting. Sure… we’ve suppressed our selfish cries for fulfillment… but in many ways… we are still like two year olds… needing that warmth and security that only one thing can give us! And we spend our entire lives searching… we spend our entire lives seeking. We ache for that hole inside of us to be filled, and we try to fill it with friends, with companionship, with money, with toys, with work, with admiration, with power, with… so many different things. And we are still left empty. Still wanting… for that hole inside of us to be filled.
You see brothers and sisters… there is a hole inside every single one of us that can only be filled by one thing… and it WILL never be filled until we find that one thing. That hole… is a God-shaped hole, a hole that only God can fill. Everything else we try to fill it with will fall short… and leave us wanting… crying in our cribs for that one thing to come.
A few of us have found that one thing… but many of us are still searching… still wanting… still crying out. Our town of Fairbury now boasts a population of around 4,000 people. Now, just estimating… putting all the church memberships in town together, we would hit a guestimate number somewhere in the ballpark of 2,000 people who attend a church… leaving roughly half the town of Fairbury un-churched. Roughly half of the people of our town… left wanting… left crying out.
And here is the kicker… many of them know that what they are lacking is something of the divine… and they have even tried to come to our churches… and have not found God here. Let me relate the story of one man who went to church on a Sunday… seeking to fill his God-shaped hole… and left that Sunday... still empty.
He relates his story saying, I had made up my mind to finally go to church that day, but that morning I was running late. I almost couldn’t find the place, but I did, and I had to park pretty far away. I felt pretty awkward walking up to that church – I could hear that everyone was already singing. It was my first year of living in that area, and no one knew me.
I slowly opened the big wooden door of that church and quietly stepped into the entry way. That entry way was very small – about the size of two phone booths, put together. I did my best to act like I belonged there, but deep down, I felt awkward. The ushers were sitting on chairs in the worship area facing forward – they were so busy singing their hymns that they didn’t notice me. I looked around, but I could see that there was no place to sit. And there weren’t any hymnals either, so I just stood there, trying to look cool.
But I wanted to get out of there. I saw that there was a side entrance with a hallway, and maybe that would be a better place to stand. So I walked out of the church and over to that side entrance. I found a little hallway, about the size of one phone booth, between the outside door and the door leading into the worship area. I spread out my bulletin on the floor and sat on it, and listened to the service, resting my head and my arms on my knees. I decided that I would stay long enough to hear the sermon and then go home.
But right when the sermon started, an older woman got up – I’ll never forget this - and walked over to me. She looked down at me, sitting on the floor, and she whispered to me that it was too drafty. And so she shut the door on me, and I was left sitting out in the hallway where I couldn’t hear or see anything. I was shut out, so I went home.
A person… desperately needing Christ… desperately needing God to be a part of his life… and good Christians shut the door on him. This… brothers and sisters… is the number three way… we can be a bad Christian.
Our scripture text this morning speaks out against our friends the Pharisees saying, 13 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
In many cases… they were literally shutting the door on those seeking grace… just like in the story we heard this morning. They would shut you out of he inner sanctum if you weren’t a Jew. They would shut you out of the inner sanctum if you weren’t a man. They would even shut you out of the inner sanctum if you were sick, a time when you probably needed it the most.
But it even went beyond that… there were so many other ways that they shut people out metaphorically speaking. As people came seeking God, actively searching to fill their God-shaped hole… they would be held up to the light… be weighed… and measured… and found time and time again to be wanting… and sent away empty. Don’t live up to our standard… and we’ll shut you out. Don’t look like we do… and we’ll shut you out. Don’t act like we do… and we’ll shut you out. Don’t conform to our way of doing things… and we’ll shut you out. Simply put… if you are not one of us… you will never BE one of us. And Jesus says, “woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees.”
As you and I relate back to the story I told, I’m sure that we would find it hard to relate. I’m sure you and I could never imagine a time when we would literally shut the door on someone in our church. For one… our entryway is much bigger than a telephone booth, he would feel much more welcomed… secondly, our ushers are much more inviting than theirs ever were, he would be much more welcomed… thirdly, we would definitely have one… or two empty seats this young man could have taken a seat in. I can not think of any circumstance where someone would ever come and be shut out.
At least not in the literal sense of the word. But I have to beg the question… what would happen… if someone who REALLY needed Christ came into our presence. How welcome would they really feel? Suppose one the skateboarders who frequent our parking lot for their stunts decided to come to church today, and you were sitting next to a young man or young woman with green hair and piercings from ear to ear… honestly, how would we respond? Suppose it was someone who came in off the street, who was obviously living out of their car and seeking salvation not only in the eternal sense, but needing it in the physical sense as well… how would we respond? I’m sure you could all think of one or two people in our town who could be described as “ill repute.” What if they showed up… still drunk from the night before… or still disheveled from their night of indiscretion… how would we respond?
You see, there are so many little things that we can do to shut the door to heaven on those who need it the most… a cold shoulder… a quick awkward glance… sometimes it’s a simple whisper… it can even be as simple as doing nothing at all. Every single act… a clear indication to anyone who doesn’t fit our mold… that our door to heaven is closed to you.
While I know that this is probably the single most welcoming church I have ever seen in my entire life… I also know that if we all closely examine ourselves… we will find that we have more in common with these teachers of the law and Pharisees than we would ever like to admit.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
