The Greatest Place on Earth – Part 4
February 3, 2002
(For this message we had 6 signs made and I unveiled them one at a time. In our foyer we have permanently hung the three that communicate what churhes should. Thanks to Mike Breaux, Lexington, KY for the seed idea.)
INTRODUCTION
Play the song, “Signs,” by the Five Man Electrical Band – (Start at :23) Play the line that says, “And the sign said, "Long-haired freaky people Need not apply.”
Then drop back the volume so I can speak over music with these words…
“In 1971 the Five Man Electrical Band made a statement against the intrusive rules and regulations of the establishment. Some of rules were written – many were unwritten but implied. They said things were clear if you just read the signs…”
(Raise volume back up for chorus and fade out – cue up to 2:32)
The song was later remade by the group Tesla in 1990. But the message was still the same. Signs are often used to exclude, eliminate, count out, keep out and rule out.
So I got to thinking, what kind of signs do we have up at the Christian Church Clarendon Hills?
All churches have signs. Most of these are not literal signs, but rather unwritten messages that are communicated loud and clear – especially to people who don’t go to church.
Sign, sign. Everywhere a sign. Blockin’ out the scen’ry. Breakin’ my mind. Do this. Don’t do that. Can’t you read the sign?
We’ve spent the past three weeks looking at some rather foundational, doctrinal and theological things. The oneness of Trinity, what it means to be made in the Image of God, how the very first ever Christian Church lived out authentic biblical community. Today I want to build off of those deeper concepts by getting a picture of biblical community today. Because if church is truly where no one stands alone, it would be the greatest place on earth! To get there, we need to take a look at our signs.
TRANSITION: I wonder what signs most non-church goers see when they look at a church?
The first sign many people see says this:
SIGN #1: When You’re Ready, We’re Here
A lot of churches believe they are really open, inviting and friendly. They say, “Our doors are always open. People are welcome to come on in. But the message is still heard as, “When you’re ready, we’re here.”
What is implied is this:
When you get cleaned up, dressed up, and ready to conform… When you’ve learned how we do stuff here, when you understand the terms we use when we talk, when you appreciate our history, when you embrace our traditions… – when you’re ready, we’re here.
The sign isn’t as nice a sign as we think.
That was the attitude of the Pharisees – added extra rules, through their teachings made it difficult for people to enter heaven.
In Matthew 23 Jesus said it was like they tied up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, shut the Kingdom in people’s faces. When you’re ready, we’re here!
The Bible says that at the very moment when Jesus died on the cross, the great curtain in the temple that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn from top to bottom. God places no barriers between us and Him. Absolutely anyone can have access to Him through a relationship with His Son Jesus. But unfortunately, fair or not, to those who stay home on Sunday, churches have the reputation of reconstructing that curtain.
Instead, a church where no one stands alone displays a sign that says…
COME AS YOU ARE
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, NLT)
God, in Isaiah 55:1 says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…”
Neither of those invitations say anything about getting cleaned up, dressed up, or learned up. They just say come to me. Come as you are! I have what you’re looking for! If we do anything as a church, we should echo God’s invitation of acceptance.
Gladys Hunt once wrote: “Acceptance means you are valuable just as you are. It allows you to be the real you. You are not forced into someone else’s idea of who you are. It means your ideas are taken seriously since they reflect you. You can talk about how you feel inside, why you feel that way, and someone really cares.
Acceptance means you can try out your ideas without being shot down. You can even express heretical thoughts and discuss them with intelligent questioning. You feel safe. No one will pronounce judgment on you even though they don’t agree with you. It doesn’t mean you’ll never be corrected or shown to be wrong. It simply means it’s safe to be you and no one will destroy you out of prejudice.” (Gladys M. Hunt, quoted in Eternity magazine, October, 1969 – as found in Swindoll’s Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, p. 3)
We’re never going to be a church that brings people out of isolation and into community until we agree together that people will find acceptance when they come as they are.
ILLUS – My Dad and I were having a conversation not too long ago about what people wear to church these days. He’s a suit and tie kind of a guy on Sundays, and was disappointed to see church attire becoming more casual. He said, “I was always taught that you should dress like you’re going to meet the King. So that means wear the best you have.”
There is nothing wrong with that. But then I asked him why he frequently wore his overalls while having his morning quiet time. Are you not going to meet the same King when you spend time with Him in private? Why not wear the best you have then too?
ILLUS – This is one of my favorite T-Shirts of all time. One year when I went to the Cornerstone music festival a band called the 77’s was selling these. It says, “Pray Naked.” In other words, “Take off the mask. Be authentic. Be real. It’s about what’s in your heart, not what you’re wearing on your body.”
A church that says “come as you are” doesn’t get hung up on the issue of clothes.
I’ve heard stories from some who, when they came to church here for the first time, parked the car and waited to see what people were wearing before they came inside. Then say, “Oh, someone dressed like me. It’s OK.”
It is sad to think that some might miss out on eternity because they didn’t know what to wear to church. But maybe it is because most churches still display a sign that says, “When you’re ready we’re here.” This is not going to be one of those churches.
So three rules of thumb on clothes: 1) Wear what you want; 2) Let modesty prevail, and: 3) Above all don’t look at someone else and think they should dress like you. (Check out 1 Timothy 2:9 if you want more details). If you worship God most authentically in more casual clothes, wear more casual clothes. If you worship God most authentically a little more dressed up, then wear that. A diversity of clothing styles will help hang a sign that says, “Here at the Christian Church of Clarendon Hills, we’re just a group of people in love with Jesus. And you’re welcome here too. So come as you are.”
By the way, for those of you who pick up a copy of the Chrisitian Standard, today’s issue has an article in it called, “A Challenge to Church Clothes,” which you might want to read.
Non-church goers in America typically aren’t the most traditional people in the world. If someone is genuinely seeking Jesus, and we in the church add extra hoops to jump through – such as the “right” kind of clothes, the right this or the right that – they’re gone. Jesus didn’t have any hoops to jump through for those who came seeking Him – he just said Come to me. Come to me, and I’ll show you truth.
Many of you know that this church is part of something called the Restoration Movement. It was a movement that sought to restore the centrality of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible through non-denominational churches. But what we should never forget is that it was also a movement of radical acceptance. Listen to what Isaac Errett, founder of the Christian Standard magazine wrote in 1872.
“To persuade men to trust and love and obey a Divine Savior, is the one great end for which we labor in preaching the gospel; assured that if men are right about Christ, Christ will bring them right about everything else. We demand no other faith, in order to baptism and church membership, than the faith of the heart in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God; nor have we any term or bond or fellowship but faith in this Divine Redeemer and obedience to Him.” (Isaac Errett, Our Position)
Did you catch what he said, “If men are right about Christ, Christ will bring them right about everything else.”
We don’t make the changes in people’s hearts. God does. It’s his church, not ours. So remember, everyone is welcome here. And with great joy we display this sign, “Come as you are!”
TRANSITION: A second sign many non-church goers see when they look at church says this:
SIGN #2 – You’ve Made Too Many Mistakes for Us
A lot of people think this.
How could I ever expect to fit in with all those people? They’re not like me. They’d never understand me. Maybe they’d judge me. I guess I’m just not the church type.
Philip Yancey tells a story in one of his books about a person on the streets reaping the results of a series of bad choices. The person felt miserable, hopeless and alone. An acquaintance suggests she try going to a church. To which this person responded, “Church! Why would I go there? They’d only make me feel worse.”
To many the sign is clear to read, “You’ve made too many mistakes for us.” So why bother with church, they think. I’ll take my chances out here, thank you very much.
It’s said, but one of the main barriers to church growth in America is Christians. Christians who give off the impression that sinners aren’t really all that welcome at church. Sinners never seemed to feel awkward around Jesus. But they consistently do around people who claim to follow him. Why is that? Maybe it’s because we never really displayed the right sign.
A church where no one stands alone displays a sign that says…
GRACE HAPPENS
I like Romans 5:20, which says…
But where sin increased, grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20)
In the Living Bible it reads…
The more we see of our sinfulness, the more we see God’s abounding grace forgiving us. (Romans 5:20, LB)
Philip Yancey calls grace the last great word. Grace is when you get what you don’t deserve. Like eternal life instead of punishment. Like a second chance instead of judgment. Like riches instead of a debt you could never pay. That’s grace.
And the church is one of the only places you’ll find it.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound! – That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.
We sing it, but not everyone out there knows we believe it. They think they’ve made too many mistakes for us. When the truth is we’ve all make mistakes. Church is a place filled with people who have messed up.
ILLUS – I was talking with someone after church last Sunday who has recently started attending here. This person had stayed away from church for some time because of some past experiences – They started to feel like they didn’t belong because they didn’t have a perfect life. But after last Sunday this person said, “I always thought a church could be like this. I’ve been searching my whole life to find it.”
So we proudly display this sign also. “Grace happens.” Second chances are normal around here. You haven’t made too many mistakes for us.
TRANSITION: One more sign non-church goers see when they look at the church says this:
SIGN #3 – Our Roof Isn’t Strong Enough
You know how some people think they’ve stayed away so long, they say if they showed up the roof would cave in? This is the sign they see. They say, “I swore I’d never go. If I did now the shock would be too great. I read that sign you have up – you say so yourself – “Our roof isn’t strong enough for you.”
In his marvelous book, The Kingdom of God is a Party, Tony Campolo tells a story about some people who very likely might have read this sign…
Campolo was attending a Christian conference in Honolulu. Since there was a six-hour time differential between Hawaii and his hometown in Pennsylvania, on his first night there Campolo experienced some confusion in his sleep pattern. He woke up about 3 o’clock in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. So he got up, got dressed, and left the hotel where he was staying, searching for a place to get something to eat. Eventually he found a tiny coffee shop that was open. Here is his description of what happened there:
“The guy behind the counter came over and asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted a cup of coffee and a donut. As I sat there munching my donut and sipping my coffee at 3:30 in the morning, the door suddenly opened, swung wide, and to my discomfort in marched 8 or 9 provocatively dressed and rather boisterous prostitutes. It was a small place and they sat on either side of me. Their talk was garrulous, loud, and crude. I felt completely out of place.
I was just about to make my getaway when I heard the woman next to me say, ‘You know, tomorrow is my birthday. I’m going to be 39.’ Her friend responded in a rather nasty tone, ‘So what do you want from me? A birthday party? What do you want? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?’
‘Come on,’ the woman sitting next to me said, ‘why do you have to be so mean? I’m just telling you that it’s my birthday. Why do you have to put me down? I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?’
Campolo says, "When I heard that, I made a decision. I sat and waited until the women left, and then I called over to the guy behind the counter and asked him, ‘Do they come in here every night?’
He answered, ‘Yeah.’ ‘The one who was sitting right next to me, does she come in every night?’ ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘that’s Agnes. Yeah, she comes in every night. Why do you want to know?’ ‘Because,’ I replied, ‘I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you say we do something special for her? What do you think about throwing a birthday party for her right here in the coffee shop?’
A cute kind of smile crept over that man’s chubby cheeks. ‘That’s a great idea,’ he said. ‘I like it. That’s great. Agnes is one of those people who is really nice and kind. I don’t think anybody has ever done anything nice and kind for her.’ ‘Well, look,’ I told him, ‘if it’s okay with you, I’ll be back here tomorrow morning at 2:30. I’ll decorate the place. I’ll even get a birthday cake for her,’ ‘No way!’ he replied. ‘The birthday cake, that’s my thing. I’ll bake the birthday cake myself.’
“At two thirty the next morning,” Campolo says, “I was back at that coffee shop. I picked up some crepe paper and other decorations at the store, and made a sign of big pieces of cardboard that said ‘Happy Birthday, Agnes!’ I decorated that diner from one end to the other. I had it really looking great. The word must have gotten out on the street, because by 3:15 that morning every prostitute in Honolulu was in that place. There was wall-to-wall prostitutes – and me.
At 3:30 on the dot, the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and her friend. I had everybody ready… When they came in we all jumped up and screamed, ‘Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Then we sang to her. And you know, I’ve never seen a person so flabbergasted, so stunned, so shaken. Her mouth fell open, her knees started to buckle, her friend had to offer her arm to steady her, and I noticed she had started to cry. When the birthday cake with all the candles was carried out, that’s when she lost it. She started sobbing. Harry, the guy behind the counter, gruffly mumbled, ‘Blow out the candles, Agnes, blow out the candles.’ Then he handed her a knife and said, ‘Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake.’
Agnes looked down at that cake, and without taking her eyes off it, she slowly and softly said, ‘Look, Harry, is it okay with you if I, I mean, if I don’t, what I want to ask, is it okay if I keep the cake for a little while? Is it okay if we don’t eat it right away?’ Harry shrugged and answered, ‘Well, sure, Agnes, that’s fine. You want to keep the cake, keep the cake. Take it home if you want to.’ ‘Oh, could I?’ she asked. Looking at me, she said, ‘I just live down the street a couple of doors. I want to take the cake home, okay? I’ll be right back, honest.’ She got off her stool, she picked up that cake, and she carried it out of the diner like it was the Holy Grail. She walked slowly toward the door, and we all just stood there, speechless. When the door closed behind her, there was stunned silence in the place.
Not knowing what else to do, I broke the silence by saying, ‘What do you say we pray together?’ Looking back on it now, it seems more than a little strange that a sociologist from eastern Pennsylvania would be leading a prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in the morning. But I prayed. I prayed for Agnes. I prayed for her salvation. I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her.
And when I finished, Harry leaned over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, ‘Hey, you never told me you were a preacher! What kind of preacher are you anyway? What church do you belong to?’ In one of those moments when just the right words come, I answered him quietly, ‘I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.’ Harry thought for a minute, and then almost sneered as he answered, ‘No you don’t! There is no church like that. In fact,’ he concluded, ‘if there was, I’d join it.’
There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it.
If we really become a church where no one stands alone, you’ll be surprised who’s here.
Most churches display the sign, “Our roof isn’t strong enough.”
But a church where no one stands alone has a visible sign that says…
YOU MATTER TO GOD
No matter who you are – where you have been – what you’ve done. The roof won’t cave in if you show up. How do we know this?
John 3:16-17 from The Message
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
So we proudly display a sign that says, “You matter to God.” He’s crazy about you!
TRANSITION: Sign, sign everywhere a sign…
CONCLUSION
After continually running into rude signs, the protester who sang those words stumbles across a more comforting message near the end of the song…. (Start 2:32 - “Everybody welcome. Come in kneel down and pray.” – Fade back slightly)
“Everybody welcome. Come in kneel down and pray.” And then having no money for the collection plate, he decides to make up a little sign of his own….
(Bring back to full volume)
“Thank you, Lord, for thinking about me. I’m alive and doing fine.” (Fade out)
What will we look like when we’re really the church God wants us to be? What will be the word on the street?
My guess is that it will be something like this…
Becky Pippert, is a Christian author from Naperville.
While doing campus ministry she met a student named Bill on a college campus in Portland, Oregon. Bill was brilliant, and always looked like he was pondering something deep. He had messy hair, and the entire time she knew him, she never saw him wear a pair of shoes. Rain, sleet or snow, Bill was always barefoot. While he was attending college, he had become a Christian.
At this time, a well-dressed, middle-class church across the street from the campus wanted to develop more of a ministry to the students. They weren’t sure how to go about it, but they tried to make them feel welcome. One day Bill decided to worship there. He walked into this church wearing his blue jeans, T-shirt and of course no shoes.
People looked a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. So Bill began walking down the aisle looking for a seat. The church was quite crowded that Sunday, so as he got down to the front pew and realized there were no seats, he just squatted on the carpet – perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, but perhaps unnerving for a buttoned down church congregation. The tension in the air became so thick one could slice it.
Suddenly an elderly man began walking down the aisle toward the boy. Was he going to scold Bill? Becky’s friends who saw him approaching said they thought, You can’t blame him. He’d never guess Bill is a Christian. And his world is too distant from Bill’s to understand. You can’t blame him for what he’s going to do.
As the man kept walking slowly down the aisle, the church became utterly silent. All eyes were focused on him. You couldn’t hear anyone breathe.
When the man reached Bill, with some difficulty he lowered himself and sat down next to him on the carpet. He and Bill worshipped together on the floor that Sunday. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. (From Out of the Saltshaker, p. 260)
A church with the right signs is pretty much like that. Come as you are – because grace happens – and you matter to God.
Are we a church full of people who would do what that elderly gentleman did? Are you that kind of person? Remember, all churches have signs. Only a few say what these do.
(User note: Part 1 of this series is called "One.")
