Life, stinky clothes, and freedom
Love Never Dies, prt. 12
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
6/20/2010
Good morning everybody. I want to start this morning by thanking Jason for filling in for me the last couple of weeks. Thanks Jason! Two weeks ago I thought I was flying to Alabama and had Jason preach for me, then ended up leaving later. Last week I actually was in Alabama helping my dad with some stuff for my grandparents and didn’t get home until around 2 last Saturday. Of course with this building transition we’re in right now I will freely admit I didn’t start this sermon you’re about to hear until 5 pm yesterday. There’s just too much going on for the next couple of weeks, so this morning our greeters will be randomly drawing two names from a hat and those are the people who will handle preaching responsibilities next Sunday and the week after. So good luck with that.
Okay, seriously – I’m really glad to be back at it. I have realized lately that my greatest contribution to this church is the time I spend preparing and preaching sermons, and the time I spend sitting in my office, or in restaurants, with you dear people, lending you whatever perspective I might have that could maybe help you bear more easily the burdens you have to bear in this life.
Of course today is our last day here at River of Life (applause?) River of Life has been good to us. I want to thank Pastor Steve Hammon, and my friend Pastor Steve Turner for hosting us for the past two years and being part of our journey. I want to thank Steve Turner in particular for his gracious kindness to us, for the unwavering support and friendship he has shown to me, for always being happy with us and for us, and for being firmly in our corner, even when the changes happening with us have presented challenges for him and his congregation. Lastly, I want to thank the people of River of Life who have shown great kindness to us and patience with us. I can say that in two years I have never once had a single negative interaction with any of them. They have been gracious hosts, and we wish them nothing but the best as they continue to build their congregation and reach this community. I also want to thank you, the people of Wildwind, who allowed your leadership team and I to lead and make decisions, who didn’t complain when moving day had to change due to problems beyond our control, and many of whom have already put in a lot of hours working at the new site. Thank you for loving Wildwind Church and not simply for advancing my vision, but for making it your own.
I changed the focus of the verses I want to look at today, from what I sent to you on the e-list this weekend. I want to look simply at verses 43 and 44. This is where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
John 11:43-44 (NLT)
43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
Usually when you hear lessons about this text, the focus is on Jesus bringing life to Lazarus. That’s all well and good since it is the primary thing going on here. God’s role in our lives is to bring life. But what I want to focus on is not God’s role but our role. We play a part in this too.
“Unwrap him and let him go!” That’s our role. Our role in people’s lives often ends up that of unwrapping the stinky grave clothes of those Christ has brought to life so that they can experience the life God has already given them. So many people come to me and say, “I just want to run. I just want to get involved in this terrible relationship because it will make me feel good for a while. I just want to give up on prayer because it doesn’t always make me feel good. I just want to leave my family. I just want to spend money in some stupid way.” But the thing is, they already know what’s right. God has already shown himself to them, revealed truth to them, and oftentimes brought them so far on their journey – but they get tired and discouraged and want to give up. And so, hour by hour, and day by day, I find myself in the position of once again having to touch the stinky grave clothes, once again remind people that life is in them, remind them of what God has done, and call them to live in the life God has already given. There are people in your life at this moment who need you to get close enough to them to unwrap their stinky grave clothes. It’s not a glamorous job. We always must remember that we do not bring life to people – God brings life. Christ calls people out of the tombs where they are laying dead and breathes into them the breath of life. But unwrapping stinky grave clothes? That’s up to us. There are people in your life right now who are still wearing their stinky grave clothes – people who do not know Christ has come, who do not know that they are free men and women, who do not know that, like Lazarus, they too have been given another shot at life.
Perhaps you are that person. Perhaps you are the one who has been given another shot, but you are so wrapped up in your own stinky grave clothes that you do not know how to experience that life. Perhaps the stench that surrounds you (which is coming from the consequences of the choices you have made and the dead life God has raised you from) continues to make you think you are dead. But you are alive!
Galatians 5:1 (NIV)
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…
In other words, Christ has raised you and set you free, now live like it! Don’t continue in the deadness of your past life!
Matthew 5:48 (MSG)
48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.
This is the freedom into which we have all been called. But if you’re still wrapped in your stinky grave clothes, if you still think of yourself as that sleazebag who doesn’t deserve God’s mercy, if you still see yourself as the girl who can only get guys to love her by giving away parts of yourself that are priceless, if you still think you’re that guy in high school that everybody always said was a loser, if you are living out that false identity of someone who is in chains and in bondage, then someone needs to unwrap your stinky grave clothes and set you free and you need to let someone do that. God has breathed life into you and life is there for the taking, but you might be so disabled, so bound up in the stench of your past life, that you can’t take what’s been given to you. If so, you need to let someone get close enough to unwrap those stinky clothes and peel them off. That’s not who you are. There are pastors and teachers and friends and spouses and counselors and other people in your life who are mercy-gifted who – strange as it may sound – would love to step into your mess and help you drop those stinky grave clothes for good. You don’t need to carry them around any more. But don’t romanticize it. That stuff hanging off of you stinks. It’s not fun to be around. It’s embarrassing for you to let other people get close to. But it’s your only shot at living the life God has given you.
If you’re helping someone out of their stinky grave clothes, realize it might take some time. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. Be patient. Don’t tear away stuff people aren’t ready to let go of. Be gentle and honor the Holy Spirit in your treatment of those who need you.
We are about to begin ministry in a new community – a ministry where, for the first time in our history – we will have a natural presence in that community. We already have a sign out front with a name, and with our website clearly listed.
On June 26th, the day before our first service, we’re conducting a food ministry called Angel Food. That’s a ministry we’ll be doing regularly from now on, and we’re starting before our first service, hitting the ground running. If you want to build some relationships, and maybe play a part in unwrapping some stinky grave clothes this coming Saturday, contact Pastor Jason. Our new location will give us a base from which to conduct all kinds of grave-clothes unwrapping missions, to serve in new ways and with a new freedom.
For years the Protestant church has focused on Christ’s role in bringing life to people. We have been getting people to altars, getting them to say salvation prayers, telling them to take their alcoholism and their lust and their addictions and their gambling problems and their ego problems and their pride and their greed and their vanity to Jesus and let him set them free – let him raise them from the death of all of those things to new life in Christ. But we are failing, and we are failing miserably, I think for two reasons. First, we have sold this as an event rather than a process. Though Lazarus was raised in an instant, God will raise many of us more slowly. We will have to learn some hard lessons, make some stupid mistakes, and keep hearing that grace is available in spite of it all. We have oversimplified the process by which God brings life. “Give it to God,” we say, and then we leave it at that. But people cannot give to God what they are still attached to. Coming unattached from the stuff we need to give to God might take a while, so we have to see this and “sell this” as a process, not an event. Second, we are failing because we have largely neglected our own role in it. Since it’s not something that Jesus just does with a magic wand and bang – it’s accomplished – but rather it’s something that Jesus calls forth and then asks us to get messy and dirty and put our hands on stinky people and unwrap them so they can experience the freedom of the life he has brought them – then we will only see results as we are ready to get our hands dirty. In miracle after miracle, Jesus touched people. He could have just waved his hand over them, sprinkled pixie dust on them, or simply prayed for them, but he touched them. He touched blind people, people with leprosy whose fingers and noses were falling off, people who were social outcasts and untouchables, people who were paralyzed, people who were out of their minds. He touched them. And in this account of Lazarus, we see Jesus bringing life, and then asking us to do the same.
There is nothing like stinky people. Doesn’t that sound funny? It’s true. There is nothing like the person who comes into my office and says, “Please help me – I’m lost.” There’s nothing like one of my clients who comes to me weeping and says, “I’m broken – I have sinned myself sick and I don’t know which way is up anymore. Please help me find the truth.” It’s messy business, that’s for sure. You will hear things and see things and be part of things that will break your heart, but God is in that brokenness and will meet us somehow in that place. And somehow, because God is there, it is a sweet place to be, despite the pain it often brings.
Now honestly, we’re not moving to the hood. We’re moving to the central hub of Genesee County. So much happens in this area, and it’s exciting to think about being in the midst of it all. But there are homes around – tons of them. There are hurting people around – people who are now becoming our neighbors – people who live not next to the place we rent, but people who live next to where we – as a church – live. Suddenly we will find ourselves with a new sense of love for these people, and even a bit of an appropriate sense of responsibility to them.
There are some grave clothes that need to be unwrapped. God wants to bring life to people in our new community and needs people willing to get their hands dirty. Ultimately THAT’S what this move to Flint Township is about – not buildings, not control over our future (both of which are wonderful), but an opportunity to love and serve our community. Are you ready?
We want to do communion very differently today. It’s our last one in this building, so we want to do it in a celebratory way – celebrating our ever-deepening opportunities to be part of Christ’s body, celebrating a new chapter of Wildwind’s history that has already begun and that will take off in earnest next Sunday, and celebrating God’s provision for us beginning at the Karate Studio in 2002, then moving to Brendle, then Indian Hill, and then here to River of Life two years ago. Our journey continues, and what lays ahead of us will be better than what is behind us!
We’re going to have a moment of silence, then the band will play and we’ll worship together, and we invite you to come forward and receive the elements as you are ready. They will be up here at the two tables – just come get them and we will take them together when everyone has received them.
