Several years ago, when housing prices began to shoot up into the stratosphere, we began to see something new in my neighborhood. We saw many of the houses being opened up from the top, and then construction of new second stories or new dormers or even decks and balconies, way up high. What was happening?
Well, because of the cost of real estate, people who at one time might have considered moving into a larger house as their needs expanded took on a new strategy. It cost too much to go out and purchase a whole new house, so they just added on to their old houses.
In particular, at least in my neighborhood, the preferred strategy was to raise the roof and put on a second story or convert the attic into usable living space. Everywhere you look· in my part of Silver Spring, you see modest cape cods and small bungalows with a telltale bulge at the back or with a different color siding on the front, and that shows you that these folks have made room for their needs by raising the roof.
Now when you raise the roof like that, two kinds of conflict follow. First, you will have some tensions within the family living there, because while the roof is being raised, somebody is going to feel unprotected. Somebody is going to feel insecure and unsafe, and there is always the danger of a storm intruding, and so raising the roof causes sane tension within the family while the work is being done … tension because for a time they feel unprotected.
But raising the roof brings some tension outside the family too. Unless the architect who has designed the addition is very skillful – and I’m sure the situations I’m talking about did not hire Sutton Campbell Britt Owens – unless the architect who designed the roof -raising was very skillful, you get some weird looking houses. You get some strange and awkward concoctions. And that causes tension among the neighbors. They decide they don’t like looking at that monstrosity, and they grumble. They decide that their view has been ruined, and they gripe. They think that what you’ve done in raising the roof is crazy, and they don’t like it. Primarily they don’t like it because it changes what they’ve been used to. People just resist change in their viewpoint. Raising the roof means tension.
For fifteen or so years our house looked out on the woods. There were about twenty-five undeveloped acres behind us, and my children could roam around in them, my wife could transplant wild flowers from them, and yours truly once got lost trying to short cut from the house to the bus stop! We loved our woods! But then a few years ago developers bought the property and build scores of homes and town houses back there. We no longer look at the woods; now we look at somebody’s back yard, complete with deck and barbecue pit and roofline – oh, the roofline! It’s way up there; why did they put it up so high? It blocks our view, and we just grumbled and groaned.
Raising the roof causes tensions both within the family and without. But the point is that in the end more needs are taken care of because somebody dared to raise the roof.
Let me read you a story that makes that point. I want to share with you about some folks who raised the roof and also raised some tensions, but the real point is that somebody else got what he needed.
Mark 2:1-12
In January of 1987 at our annual meeting we were introduced to a plan for the redevelopment of the life of our church. Coming out of a period of uncertainty and difficulty, we began to work at putting all the pieces in place so that we could once again become the kind of people God was calling us to be.
We used a metaphor to help us picture what this would be like. We used the metaphor, the picture, of building a house. We imagined that if we were going to rebuild our church … and you recognize I am not talking now about constructing a building, but about building a fellowship, building a working church … we imagined that if we were going to rebuild our church, it would be something like what you might do in remodeling a house. And so we set out to do, year by year, the kinds of things that would bring us toward being the kind of church we ought to be.
Review with me, just briefly, what we have set out to do. Look at the front of your worship bulletin, and it’s all laid out for you.
In 1987, the first year, we determined that we would secure our foundations. We did great deal of organizational work and we put together our staff, most of whom remain with us to this day.
We then turned our attention to "opening the windows" – that is, to let in some light and some fresh air by developing our educational program. After that we not only opened the windows, but we also "opened the doors" – we worked on evangelism and we organized to do more effective work in sharing the Gospel with others.
Next, in 1990, we "sanded the floors" – that is, we took some of the new members we had received and we worked on leadership skills. We did workshops on styles and techniques of Christian leadership, so that you would be ready for places of responsibility. I have noticed that our leadership roster carries the names of many newer members, and we worked diligently at preparing some people for places of leadership.
Then this past year we "extended the walls" – we attempted, at least in modest ways, to embrace more needs and to minister to special concerns out in our community. You will be able to judge, as you read the Book of Reports and as you hear what is said this afternoon how well we did that.
Now, here we are in 1992, ready to "raise the roof". What in the world do we mean by that?
Well, when I was growing up, my younger brother and I would get into some pretty noisy quarrels sometimes. Since I was the older, of course I was right; he was just loud – not right, but loud. Anyway, my grandmother would always say, in her peculiar Kentucky vocabulary, "You boys are going to raise the roof with that commotion". "You boys are going to raise the roof with that commotion." In other words, there’s so much going on in here, so much controversy, it feels like the very roof is going to be lifted off the house.
What are we going to do this year? We are going to raise the roof. We are going to get involved in some of the great moral and social issues of our day. We are going to think about and learn about some of the burning questions that trouble our city and our nation. We are going to see what we can do to be effective advocates for justice, for righteousness, for responsibility. And, friends, that means we may have to learn how to make some noise, some commotion, as my grandmother said. We are going to learn how to take some moral stands and to live with the tensions that come when you do that.
Now what did I say a moment ago about what happens when you raise the roof? I said that raising the roof brings some tension within the family, because we may feel exposed and unprotected for a while. And raising the roof brings some tension outside the family, because they just don’t understand the viewpoint. But what matters, I said, is that some needs get net.
Now look at the scripture we’ve just read. And you will see the very same principles at work. You will see that as this particular roof gets raised, there are some tensions within and some conflicts without. There are fears inside and there are worries outside. But what matters, again, is that a need gets met.
I
The first thing I want you to see is that sometimes you cannot get healing done without raising the roof! Sometimes you can’t get to the root of a problem without making a big fuss and taking drastic action.
That’s what the friends of this sick man did. They brought him to Jesus for healing, but they found obstacles. They found their way blocked. There were too many people crowded into one small house trying to hear the teacher, and these folks took drastic action; they climbed up on the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching, and what did they do? They raised the roof! They removed the obstruction! They did what they had to do so that their friend could get to the healing place.
Can you imagine what the folks felt who were listening to the teacher? Why, you’ve messed up this house and you’ve interrupted the meeting! You’ve disturbed us here; why didn’t you just wait? Why didn’t you just wait your turn like everybody else? Their dander went up, their anger and their fear, went up!
But, you see, there are some things that can’t wait. There are some things that override everything else. And when a person is hurting and is sick unto death, it overrides every question of convenience. There are times when we cannot wait! Though the dander go up, the sickness must come down, even if we have to raise the roof.
Martin Luther King knew that. One of his finest books is entitled, "Why We Can’t Wait." And in this book he published his "Letter From Birmingham Jail," in which he responds to his fellow Christian ministers, who had suggested that he was moving too fast, that he wanted too much too soon, that he was an extremist. King replied that Jesus was an extremist for love, that the prophet Amos was an extremist for justice, and that the Apostle Paul was an extremist for the Gospel. He reminded his critics, all of them Christians themselves, that justice delayed is justice denied. King, you see, raised the roof, because often that is the only way justice can be served. And King created tensions within the Christian church, because the hour was urgent. Raising the roof and making a commotion is often the only way healing comes for God’s hurting children. When the sickness goes down, the dander may go up, but at least somebody gets healed.
Now you and I come from the evangelical side of the Christian church. Evangelical Christians have tended to think that you ought to preach religion and leave social and political issues alone. We have said, just get people’s hearts right with the Lord and everything else takes care of itself. We’ve been like the folks mentioned here in the gospel, who were crowding around Jesus to hear the Word preached, but who didn’t even see the sick man outside.
The trouble is, of course, that there are hurting people out there whose needs are being ignored; there are people out there being crushed by the system and left out, and we never even see them, because we are so caught up in being religious folks. Somebody has to raise the roof; somebody has to make some noise so that we can face the issues.
This came home to me in a fresh way not two weeks ago, as I had the sad responsibility of serving at the funeral of a young man out of one of the families in this congregation. Many of you know the story of how he was brutally cut down two weeks ago this Saturday, another victim of the criminal violence in this city. I saw as never before that we as the church of the Lord Jesus are going to have to raise the roof, we are going to have deal with some unpopular matters, if we are going to deal with the pain of this city. And so I pledged to that family that not only would we stand alongside them to comfort them in their loss, but also that we would stand alongside them as they attempt to bring to justice those who did this thing. We are going to help raise the roof, if that’s what it takes.
We may have to work on gun control questions. We may want to support more effectively the orange hat patrols. We may need to lobby for increased police presence. We certainly will need to do something about the needs of children. They are at risk.
There may be a good many things we’ll need to do. Getting involved in issues will be unusual for us, it will stretch us. It may cause some tensions among us. But raising the roof always does. However, the needs of those who hurt override everything else.
"When they could not bring their friend to Jesus because of the crowd, they raised the roof •• and let him down to Jesus. " Raising the roof, taking drastic action, causes tensions within the house, but the result is worth it. The sickness goes down, though the dander goes up, when you raise the roof.
II
In the same way, however, as I have said, raising the roof causes some tensions outside the family of faith. There are those who are offended; their viewpoint is different. They just don’t understand, and they grumble. If you let them, they will distract you from what you ought to be about. You and I will have to recognize that when you raise the roof to deal with the real, tough hard-core issues, there will be some tension out there in the community. There will be some misunderstanding among your friends and neighbors who do not share your viewpoint. Though the sickness may go down, again the dander goes up, the tension and the anger increase.
"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ’Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ’Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy!’ … At once Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, ’Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven" or to say, "Stand up and … walk?”’”
Folks, this is the way it always is. With every great question of life there are those who will raise the roof and get something done, and then there are those who will raise only questions and think of why it shouldn’t be done. At every crucial point of life there are those who, like the paralytic’s friends, will raise roofs and destroy obstacles and run the risk of being ridiculed; and then there are those who like the scribes, just sit on the sidelines and second-guess. I’m saying today that if we are to be the church our Christ expects us to be, we are going to have to wrestle with the big issues and get past worrying about the nervous negative nay-sayers who will never understand what we are doing.
Let me tell you what happens to Christians who dare to be different. I was a member of a Baptist church in Lexington, Kentucky, years ago. We took some stands and undertook to do some things which for that place and for that time, at least, were unusual. We undertook some fellowship across racial lines; we attempted to work together with other churches ethnically different from ours. It went well enough until we began to hear that other folks in other Baptist churches were saying, "They’re different at Central Baptist. They’re not like the rest of us. They’re involved in some odd things."
It wasn’t long before people began leaving our church and joining other, more traditional, churches. We tried to find out what was happening. These folks told us, ’’We don’t want to be different. We feel nervous about being in a different kind of church. When we hear our neighbors tell us that Central Baptist is strange, we get scared." You see, there is tension in the community outside the church when we raise the roof, and, if we are not committed, they can get to us.
I think some of you know already what I am talking about. It is not particularly comfortable in some parts of our city for you to be in a church that has taken the stand we’ve taken about racial partnership. I am told that some of you take some grief from neighbors and co-workers about being in a church that has a white pastor. And I know from first-hand experience that some of our white members have family members who think they are insane for belonging to a largely black church. So you know that raising that roof creates tensions outside of us. I can only commend you for standing firm and for not letting that create impossible tensions within us.
So we’re going to go forward with our stand. We’re going to keep on dreaming that dream. We’re going to maintain that stance and raise the roof about racial justice and reconciliation and understanding. We’re going to do it again and again and again. Because that’s the way somebody gets healed. That’s the way the lame walk and the blind see. That’s the way the deaf hear and sins are forgiven. Raise the roof and the sickness goes down, though the dander and the anger may go up.
III
For you and I have seen what they saw that day in Capernaum. You and I have caught a vision of the same glory that brought them to their feet that day. When that lame man stood and walked, the text says they all said, "We have never seen anything like this."
And that is the power and the glory and the possibility for us … to create here a church so courageous that they will say, "We have never seen anything like this." To mold here a people of God so unafraid to face the great questions of our day that the city will wake up and say, ’’We didn’t know churches could do this.” To be so caring and so loving and so trusting of one another that even other Christians will say, “Our church could never do that. We’d be afraid of splitting. We’d be afraid somebody would get offended."
The power and the glory and the possibility for us in this coming year is that as we study social issues and make moral choices we will trust the strength of our own fellowship and we will trust the leadership of the Spirit to get us through. We know that when sickness goes down, the dander, the anger goes up. But we will not be afraid.
We will not be afraid because we know that we are obeying the command of the Father, speaking by the prophet Isaiah, who teaches us, "Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." And we will not be afraid because we are driven by a dream, a dream that one day the church will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, that all things are to be shaped in the image of Christ. We have a dream that one day the sick and the healthy, the hurting and the healed, will be able to sit down together at the table of the Lord.
We have a dream that one day our little children will live in a neighborhood where their safety is guaranteed and their achievements are encouraged. We have a dream today.
We have a dream that once we, the faithful of the Lord, raise the roof and demand justice and righteousness and responsibility, then the sickness of our society will go down.
And we have a dream of a church which is not afraid when the dander of the world goes up and the anger of others is voiced, because we are obedient to the Lord’s command, "Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow".
Raise the roof, despite the tensions, and somebody will be healed.
