Do you experience life in pieces? Do you find that each day is a jumble of bits and pieces, fragments? That most of the time there isn’t any coherence, there isn’t any consistency? Do you feel that each day is a whole lot of things to be done, but they don’t always hold together?
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think I need somebody just to pick up those pieces and put them together. They must be part of some gigantic jig-saw puzzle that eventually fits together. But I don’t always see it, do you?
The trouble with picking up the pieces is that sometimes we like the fragments more than we like the whole! There is something more attractive about the jumble of pieces than about the whole thing put together! It would frighten the socks off us if somebody were to pick up the pieces tell us what our lives are all about. That would be scary!
Several weeks ago I walked into my office and got a terrible shock. There in front of me was my table, completely cleared off, clean as a whistle. That was not the way I had left it! Not on your life! When I left my office the night before, that table was stacked high with stuff.
On one corner there had been a computer and a keyboard, several cables and connectors of various kinds. I was getting that ready for one of our financial officers, but was not quite finished yet. So bits and pieces.
On another corner I had piled odds and ends for Vacation Bible School. Some books I had planned to use; two or three videotapes I was going to show; the rough draft of a handout I intended to distribute; some diplomas I was expected to sign; and the usual accumulation of the things without which no self-respecting Vacation Bible School could operate: coffee cans, popsicle sticks, drinking straws, crayons, scissors, and, so help me hannah, a roll of duct tape. You know, duct tape fixes anything. There is a rumor around that it came in very useful with one particularly loudmouthed teenager. But I’m not sure.
Computer components here, Bible School miscellany there, and then just piles of this and that. Addresses and phone numbers, mostly from people wanting to sell something to the church; mail to be answered (or not, because I find that if you wait long enough, the question will go away anyhow), memos: memos on the capital projects fund, memos to the deacons, memos to the Sunday School, and a memo to me, reminding me not to write so many memos. All of this terribly important stuff! But bits and pieces, fragments.
And on this dreadful morning, it was all gone. Somebody had "done me a favor" and had picked up the pieces. I didn’t want the pieces picked up! It may have been a mess, but it was my mess, and I knew where to find things! Who did this? Now my office is infected with a case of terminal neatness! I don’t like it!
Life is like that- mostly pieces, fragments. Most of the time there isn’t any coherence. Just a whole lot of fragments, lots of things to do, but no pattern. Sometimes we like the fragments more than we like the whole. And it frightens us when somebody picks up the pieces to make sense of them.
What a mess our world is in! Not only my office table, and not only my life, but my world. Not only my life and your life, but our entire world. We prayed today for world peace, but what we have is a world in pieces. We prayed today for wholeness, but what we have is terrorism in Jerusalem, panic in Brooklyn, mayhem in Belfast, and slaughter in Kumasi. We prayed today for an end to strife and bitterness, but what we have is slander in the White House, racism in Congress’ House, suspicion in God’s house, and bitterness in our houses! What a mess of fragments we live in! What a confusion we have created! Who will make sense of it all? Who will pick up the pieces?
In the most sweeping language anywhere in the Bible, Paul in the Ephesian letter speaks of the vast scope of the work of Christ. He uses one long doxology, one majestic sentence of praise, to proclaim that Jesus Christ has come to pick up the pieces. The Ephesian letter begins with a claim of breathtaking proportions.
God "set forth in Christ .. a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." In Christ there is a plan for everything, and, at the right time, in His own way, He will gather up all things. What does this mean?
I
First, it means that God has chosen us. God has reached out and selected us, calling us to be His own, adapting us as part of His own household. He brings order and meaning to our lives just by reaching out and putting his hand on us. He has chosen us for His plan.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved."
God has chosen us. He looked down into this chaotic world and He chose us, messes and all. Now I am well aware that we could get bogged down in discussions about election, predestination, freedom, sovereignty. Why did God choose us, does that mean He didn’t choose somebody else? We could lose our way on that, right now. If you want to pursue that, come to Wednesday night Bible study, and we will look at it! But, right now, see it this way. If you are a Christian, you are one because you responded to God’s choice. You did not decide to become a Christian, all by your lonesome. You decided to respond to what God was already doing. He chose you. He chose us. He has plans for us. We are not accidents. We are the result of His gracious choice.
That means that each of us is special. Each of us has worth. No matter how confused I may be personally, God is not confused about me. No matter how pointless you may feel your life has become, it is not pointless to God. There are no throwaways in His Kingdom. Even if you cannot see where your life is going, God can. God sees the overall plan, God knows where you and I fit into it. At any given moment, sure, it looks like we may have lost our way. It looks sometimes as though life is nothing more than getting up and going to work, coming home and flopping down before the boob tube in order to get some rest and get up and go to work, so that we can come home and flop down before the boob tube, in order to get some rest and get up and ... and so on ad infinitum ad nauseam.
But there is more. There really is more. There is a purpose to life. That purpose lies in our being chosen of God to be His children through Jesus Christ. And you will find that your pieces start getting picked up when you discover that you have been chosen, hand-picked, by God, for a place in His plan.
II
When you have made that discovery, then the plan of God becomes more explicit. More complete. Not only are we chosen by Him to be a part of His plan, but then He also redeems the mess we have made. He takes the
brokenness we had created while we had lost our way, and He makes something useful of it. He sorts through all the clutter and the disorder, and He pulls out of it something He can use. Sort of like my Bible School stack of peculiar odds and ends, looking like trash, but intended to teach somebody something. God has a way of taking our mistakes and making of them something beautiful for the Kingdom.
’in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us’
Redemption and forgiveness according to the riches of his grace. Folks, there is no mistake too big for God to take care of. There is no blunder too terrible for God to use. And there is no sin so terrible that His grace cannot turn it around.
I’ve spent quite a while in the last few weeks thinking about our church’s life and ministry. Thinking about all the things I felt called to do eleven years ago when I came to be your pastor. Adding up all the things we have done together, toting up the much longer list of things we said we would do, felt called to do, but have not done. There are a host of reasons why so many of the visions and dreams we generated together years ago are still not in place. Some of them were just pipe dreams, they were not God’s will, and so they haven’t happened. They should not have happened.
Some of them were good ideas, they are still good ideas, but they are ideas whose time has not yet come, and we just live in patience and wait for the fullness of time. Others are ideas which have been blocked, blocked by one person or another, one circumstance or another, blocked because of selfishness, pride, laziness, distractions, a whole host of things.
Sometimes I have felt like that character in the old movie, "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming". Comedian Jonathan Winters spends most of the movie scurrying around town, muttering through clenched teeth, "I’ve just GOT to get organized." That’s often the way I feel about what we are doing in this church. We do too many things that do not matter that much, we do too few things that advance the cause of the Kingdom. We invest too much emotion mediating little arguments that sap our energies, and we do too much repair work on things that were not done well in the first place. I’ve done, we’ve done, bits and pieces, fragments.
But, men and women, there is one thing that makes sense. And that is the knowledge that Christ has redeemed some of these bumbling, fumbling efforts. Christ has forgiven us, Christ has showered grace on us, Christ has continued to make a place for us in His plan, Christ has lavished on us... those are Paul’s words, not mine ... Christ has lavished on us opportunities, gifts, victories, people, and hope. As fragmentary as my own life has been, as piecemeal as your church life has been, as sloppy as we all have been about facing some issues, still, Christ is redeeming us. Christ is forgiving us. Christ is picking up our pieces and setting them in order. "in him we have redemption .... the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us."
I stand trembling at the beginning of another year of work in this place. I stand here, knowing that none of us can presume on God’s forgiveness, but knowing also that it is only by His redemptive power that any of us can get anything done at all, it is only by His forgiving grace that any of us make any sense at all. I stand here grateful that His plan involves the redemption of all our messes, picking up our church’s pieces, and making of them something useful and beautiful for the Kingdom.
III
And so today you and I are called to acknowledge that there is a plan into which our lives fit. That God has chosen us. That God in Christ is at work redeeming our misunderstanding of His plan. But, finally, that He has taught us what that plan is. There is no secret about what God wants to do. God wants to restore everyone and everything to fellowship. God wants to bring back to Himself all who have strayed, all who have wandered, all who have turned their backs on Him. God has called us to participate in piece-picking.
God has made us, the church, the entering wedge for His grand plan. We are the shock troops, we are the advance party, and the wonderful thing is, we know what the whole plan is. We know what the whole puzzle looks like. And better yet, we know who’s going to win!
God has not kept us ignorant. No one can tell it like Paul:
"With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory."
Wow! Now that’s a plan! I cannot begin this morning to take the time to lay out all that it means. I can only hint at it and promise you that as we work our way through the Ephesian letter this month, we will discover more and more about it. But this I must say: nothing and no one is outside the circle of God’s love. Nothing and no one is beyond help. All human needs matter to God. All human hurts touch the heart of God. All human shortcomings bring the compassion of our God.
Everyone, every thing, is within the scope of the church of Jesus Christ. If in our community there are people who hurt, we are God’s instruments of healing. If there are people whose family life is broken, then we are God’s reconcilers. If there are people who lack direction, then we are God’s signposts. If there are children who are not learning, we can guide them. If there are youth who are into devastating habits, we can stand in the gap for them. If there are seniors whose lives are fading into oblivion, we can hold up their hands. If they are hungry our lonely, if they are unemployed or depressed, we have a task to do. I don’t write off any human need. God cares about it all!
And most of all, if there are ... no, since there are ... since there are men and women, boys and girls, who do not know Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord, we can carry the good news to them. We can go to their homes, their schools, their places of business, their streets. For we know what God’s plan is. "He has made known to us the mystery of His will ... as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him." To make whole, to pick up the pieces of all humanity. What a plan!
These coming weeks and months can be Takoma’s finest hour. Ministries of witness and compassion, to this community and this city, even to the farthest points of the world, have been on our drawing boards for some time. Some we have done, some we have drawn back from. But now is the time for us as a church to look at all the bits and pieces we have created, to discern the plan of God in all of them, and to move forward decisively and boldly. These can be our finest hours.
I know one thing already. And that is that the price has already been paid. It will not be my sacrifice or your gifts that will accomplish great things for the Kingdom. It will not be my getting organized or your getting busy in our ministries that will be the key element. No, the pieces were already broken in the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. The sacrifice has already been rendered, the price already paid. For we have redemption, we have it, through His body, and through His blood.
For you see, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but over on the bookshelves, near my office table, about eight neat stacks. Eight carefully wrought piles of things. The computer parts properly connected. The VBS materials neatly boxed. And all the other fragments sorted out, stacked up, labeled, and ready for my attention! Somebody had made sense of my mess! Somebody had not only picked up the pieces, but had made sense of my mess! The table swept clean, the plan made clear.
Take courage. For the table has been swept clean. The table has been prepared. The broken body and the spilled blood are accomplished. Now there is His risen life. Now there is His victory, in the church. Now all things will be gathered up in Him.
