you thought God was an architect now you know
he's more like a pipe bomb ready blow
It’s days like these that we learn all over again, how Jesus is for the broken…
How often do we get on with our lives and start thinking Jesus is just there to give us a little nudge to help keep our lives on track?
But on days like these, we learn all over again, how Jesus is for those whose lives have gone off the rails.
Because on days like these, we see most clearly, how that’s us. Don’t we?
On days like these, we come here, desperate for a God who’ll meet us in the thick of it. Because on days like these, that’s where we are, isn’t it? In the thick of it…
Too often the way Jesus, and Christianity in general, is depicted is as a little good advice to help you keep your life in order.
But on days like these, you go back over every Bible story you’ve ever heard, and realize in a way you hadn’t before, how Jesus didn’t spend his time with the respectables, teaching them how to be more respectable.
You see that Jesus spent most of his time with the un-respectables!
Not giving them advice about how to get their lives in order. But telling them the shocking news that they were loved by God! That they were loved by God right in the thick of their messes! And what’s more, that they had been loved all along and nothing could undo that!
They could turn their lives around or their lives could somehow come apart even more, but NOTHING could undo God’s love for them!
And on days like these, you learn all over again how that’s us. And more importantly, how that’s who Jesus is for!
Jesus didn’t come to give advice about how to get your life in order. He come to be there for you when your life crumbles apart!
And the truth is, it doesn’t take an explosion for our lives to come apart. Does it?
In fact, in a lot of ways, the thing that explosion destroyed the most, is what’s hardest to see… The lie we tell ourselves; that we’re capable of keeping our lives together.
But on days like these we see most clearly the truth, that our lives are lived amidst rubble. Aren’t they?
The rubble of our broken hopes and dreams. The rubble of the people we’ve failed to become. The rubble of the relationships we couldn’t hold together.
And, the literal rubble of the buildings we thought would secure our future.
And on days these, you realize, in a way you hadn’t before; how it was only folks sifting through piles of rubble, that Jesus did his best work!
Jesus had little time with those who had built their life as a monument to their own self-sufficiency.
The folks Jesus couldn’t keep away from, though, were the ones whose lives had come apart at the seems!
The blessing that’s hidden from the eyes of those who dream they can build their own life, is that something you have no control over, can make you into exactly the kind of folks Jesus can’t keep away from!
And one days like these, that’s right where life has landed us! Hasn’t it?
The upside-down blessing those of us who have been baptized into Jesus death have, is that God works best with our rubble! God works best with out worst!
For us rubble represents broken things. Things that must be fixed or tossed out. But for God rubble is the choice material to build the kingdom of heaven!
Because God doesn’t build as the world builds!
The insurance company, contractors and their ilk are obsessed with rebuilding everything the way it was. And if we’re being honest, there’s a part of that’s obsessed with that, too…
*And I don’t just mean the church on S. Central; I mean the idilic picture we have for our lives…
In God’s blueprint, though, there is no brick or mortar to patch up those broken places. Instead, God plans to place two measly pieces of wood where everything came apart: The beams of Jesus’ cross!
And what looks so weak and foolish will turn out to be the only material capable of withstanding the blasts that would turn our world to rubble!
If we think all we need is to find out what happened, collect our insurance money and rebuild; we’re mistaken. And I know. I know we all worry about these things, and I’m not trying to vilify those thoughts; I just don’t want us trusting them!
After all, isn’t it precisely that way of thinking that causes the first two folks in the parable to make light of the king’s invitation?
One goes to his farm, the other to his business.
And there’s nothing wrong with farming or business, in and of themselves. But the trouble starts when we begin to think our enterprises will be enough to build our little world!
And on days like these, we learn for ourselves how foolish those kind of lies are!
On days like these we experience the joy of the Good News that Jesus isn’t there just to help us keep our lives in order. He’s here for us when our lives goes off the rails!
On days like these we experience the joy of the Good News that Jesus isn’t there just to help us keep our lives in order. He’s here for us when our lives goes off the rails!
Because on days like these, that’s especially us. Isn’t it?
Ultimately, that’s really the problem for the poor soul who’s thrown out of the banquet at the end of the parable. He wasn’t wearing a wedding robe. He wasn’t wearing a wedding robe, not because he thought he was too good. He wasn’t wearing a wedding robe because he was afraid he wasn’t good enough!
After all, as the parable goes, when the servants go out the third time to invite anyone and everyone to the banquet, they invite the good AND the bad! The good, and the bad!
Presumably this guy was like the rest of us, good and bad! More than likely his life had gone off the rails a time or two. He probably had some rubble in his world.
So when everyone else was offered a wedding gown, this guy demurred. He politely declined, thinking he wasn’t worthy enough of putting one on.
He figured his life was too messy, too full of rubble to really belong at the king’s banquet.
…And the truth is, that’s a fear that creeps around in the back of our heads and hearts on days like these, isn’t it?
That this is happening because there’s something wrong with us. That we’re not worthy of having a picture perfect little life. That if we were just a little better, a little more prepared, somehow we could have avoided all this.
But that’s not the way it works with the king, his son and the banquet they invite you to!
The shocking news about the kingdom of God is, worthiness has NO place there!
That's why Jesus spent his time, not with those who were worthy; but those whom the world had deemed unworthy! Those who had failed to hold their own lives together!
Jesus didn’t go to the worthy, to teach them how to become more worthy! He came to the un-worthy, and declared the incredible promise that they were loved, right in the midst of their unworthiness!
The shocking truth is, God is for people like us! On exactly days like these!
God is for people who don’t see the disaster coming! People who can’t avoid it! People whose lives have gone off the rails!
And on days like these, we learn all over again that, that’s us. And it’s always been us, too.
More importantly, though, we learn all over again that, that’s the only kind of people Jesus has ever been for!
Jesus is for us! Right in the midst of all this!
That’s the promise your Sunday School teachers volunteered to come to church early to try and drill into your hearts and heads!
And it’s the only Word I have to offer you that will be of any help in the days ahead!
Hidden in all this wreckage is a promise; Jesus is only for the wrecked! He specializes in broken people. And on days like these; we learn the Good News all over again that, that’s us! That, that’s always been us!
We don’t get better. We don’t get more put together. We get God’s love! Good or bad, we get God’s love! Put together or falling apart, we get God’s love! Worthy or not, we get God’s love!
Jesus isn’t waiting for us to get everything put back in order, he’s in the middle of all this. Messy as it is! Full of rubble though it may be!
Best of all, though, Jesus has exactly what we need! Two pieces of wood! Two pieces of wood that may look weak, but turn out to be the only thing capable of bearing the weight of the world when we’re weakest!
It’s these two pieces of wood where we find our shelter, especially on days like these!
“Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
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