garbage

  Last Saturday, I arrived at church to find a massive mound of garbage on our parking lot,

  surrounded by trucks from Waste Management and a couple of fire engines.  Our custodian

  explained that the driver had discovered a fire smoldering in back of his truck and had

  dumped the contents and called the fire department.  The fire was out and the workers

  were reloading the soggy, smelly mess.

  A fellow could do a lot worse than bring his garbage to church.  I mean, where else are

  people better equipped to receive it and deal with it?

  She sat in church with the accumulation of years of trash collected and compacted in her

  soul.  Early in life, she had been the victim, but quickly enough she became the victimizer.

  She looked attractive, at least on the surface, as makeup and clothes worked their magic.

  Look closer and you could see a hardness to her eyes and mouth.  The scars and guilt she

  carried would prevent anyone from getting close to her today. If you had asked, I would

  have said she would not be hearing anything we had to say.  There was too much junk in

  her system, blocking the way.  But I had not reckoned on the gospel.

  She sat there listening as the pastor read from John 8, the story of an adulterous woman

  thrown at the feet of Jesus, a woman accused and condemned by pious hypocrites.  She

  heard as the Lord said, "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone."

   She understood why the crowd drifted away, the oldest first, those with the longest

  laundry list of wrongs and crimes.  Her attention was caught when the Lord stood to

  His feet and said, "Woman, where are they?  Does no one condemn you?" "No one, Lord,"

  the woman said. Jesus said, "Then, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."

  That's what broke her.  She sat there in church with the tears flowing, her stone heart

  shattered by the love of a Savior who came not to condemn but to save.  All we had done

  was read the story in the Bible.

  That day, this woman for whom Jesus died on Calvary left her burdens---the garbage of a

  lifetime---at the foot of the cross and walked out of church clean and free.  Did I say

  walked?  She floated out of church that day.  She could not have told anyone how the

  Lord did it; she did not know the old songs about the cleansing power of the blood of

  the Lamb.  She only knew that when she stepped forward at the invitation and prayed with

  the pastor, a dam of resistance built over a lifetime was breached and the Spirit of God

  rushed in and washed away the flotsam and debris.  She was free and whole and clean and

  new.

  But there has to be a garbage processor.  Otherwise, people will bring their trash to

 church and dump it on the preacher or on each other or they will carry it around with

  them and contaminate everything they touch.  A lot of churches have great internal

  problems because the members have not dealt with their garbage.  They bring it into

  the house of God and guard it like a treasure and do not have a clue that they are

  stinking up the place, poisoning the temple, and sickening anyone who comes near them.

  I got out of my car at the mall and started inside.  Along the way, I passed an auto-

  mobile filled with garbage.  Inside was an accumulation of tissue boxes, paper bags,

  hamburger wrappings, crumpled candy packages, soda cans, you name it---all the way to

  the top.   The driver had hollowed out an area, a cockpit if you will, around the

  driver's seat, but there was no more space in that car.  I stood there transfixed,

  wondering how in the world the owner had allowed this to happen.

  Now, the lady who owned that car could have done something about the clutter any day

  she pleased.  But she had grown accustomed to her garbage.  She wore it like a soprano

  wears a robe.

  Many of us recall a garbage scow from New York City that journeyed up and down the

  east coast a few years ago while the owners tried to find a processor willing to

  receive it and deal with it.  What to do with garbage is a major problem of our time.

  But we know.  We know what to do with the real trash and junk of life.  Bring it to

  the Lord Jesus Christ.  Somehow or other, the blood He shed on the cross outside

  Jerusalem has power to cleanse us.  Somehow, He removes the clutter and destroys the

  garbage and sets us free.

  Over a century ago, Robert Lowery penned a song which became the anthem for our

  grandparents' generation:  "What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of

  Jesus.  What can make me whole again?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus?"

  "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden," Jesus said, "and I will give

  you rest."  "The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin."  "If anyone is in Christ,

  he is a new creation.  Old things are passed away; behold, all things are new."

  "If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."  That's why the gospel is

  such good news.

  (Scriptures cited in the final paragraph:  Matthew 11:28; I John 1:7; II Corinthians

  5:17; and John 8:36.)

-joe mckeeever