Junk Drawer Jesus - Staples, Duct tape, and Band-aids (Luke 24:44-48)

Duct Tape

Duct tape is his super power. He usually carries a roll of duct tape in his back pocket. Paper clips. Chewing gum. Flashlight. He’s a master of improvising on the fly using items that are in his immediate proximity. He thrives in the spontaneous moment. His name is now a verb for making use of “whatever” to help vulnerable people and save the day. You MacGyver the situation when you improvise on the fly.

And it’s not just about being the hero. It’s about making everything right again. With just enough duct tape and just enough staples, what is broken can work again, and if you do it right… it’s like new. That’s the great thing about staples, duct tape, and band-aids… you have all you need to keep right on going and never miss a beat.

Fixer-uppers in the junk drawer

We’re working our way through our series on Junk Drawer Jesus and this week I thought it would be good, given the way things are a bit in disarray here at The Table to talk about some other items in our junk drawer that are meant to help with our disarray. There is a sense in which we duct taped our service together today to make it happen.

How many of you have duct tape, or tape, or staples, or paper clips, or glue, or band-aids in your junk drawer? Yeah… some or all of them. They all play a role in keeping things together or putting things back together or holding things together.

The thing about all of these things… none of them are considered permanent. None of them are long lasting… at least totally. Duct tape… maybe. But tape and staples and glue and even band-aids… they are not suggesting that whatever broke is now… not broke. Whatever is broke… it’s still broke, but we’ve invented tape and nails and glue and band-aids to piece stuff back together so that they work again. But if you’re going to sell the kitchen table with duct tape, it’s not worth as much as if it hadn’t broke in the first place. Duct tape can’t make it completely brand new again.

Why do we go to church?

We have these in our spiritual junk drawer as well. We are constantly duct-taping our lives together and we don’t even realize it. You can hear the duct tape and staples in the reasons given for going to church on Sundays. I go to church to get spiritually fed. Usually that shows up when someone gives the reasons for not going to a church as: “we weren’t being spiritually fed.” I go to church for my weekly pick-me-up. I need my spiritual batteries charged. I need a pep talk. I need a place to get away from the world for an hour. I need a gut punch to get my life back on track. I need to hear a word from the Lord. Or the more generic… I just need to get back in church. If you’re living right, you’ll be in church. And the one I grew up with: “we go to church because Jesus says we have to.” I could go on and on. There are so many.

All of these phrases you’ll hear at any given moment when church is brought up in conversation. And while all of those may seem like good reasons, and may have some truth to them, like all of the other things in our junk drawer we have picked up these popular phrases along the way and they have become part of the way we think. What’s not to like about being spiritually fed? Who doesn’t want to have a Jesus pick-me-up? Who doesn’t need to have their batteries recharged? I certainly do. And on some level church does do that. But is that the reason for church?

By the way… some of you are scratching your heads because you’re trying to remember just where in the Junk Drawer Jesus I’m operating from… and the answer is… I’m not. Apologies to Matt Popovits. LOL This isn’t in his book. But it is related to what we’ve talked about the past couple of Sundays. And it’s related to what we’re going to talk about next week.

But I thought of this problem of church this week after reading another story in the news about the decline of church going here in the United States. The latest Pew study found that church attendance continues to decline at a steady rate, even though some of the younger age groups show a bit of an increase. But even those increases aren’t enough… the latest poll shows just 45% of adults under 30 attend church… that number has dropped nearly 20 points in the last 10 years.

Numerous books have been written about this reality… and we’re not going to even speculate as to all the reasons for the decline, but whatever the reasons… if you simply listen to the reasons that people give for going to church, you can see the problem. The help you get from a pep talk doesn’t stick. When the world is going crazy, and life becomes overwhelming, how’s the pep talk working for you? When Satan and demonic forces throw your life for a loop, you find yourself again in the same sin… how is the charged battery helping? It’s all staples and duct tape… temporary helps, maybe. But they aren’t really addressing the fundamental problem we have week in and week out. What seems to be missing in all of these reasons is the idea that something fundamentally significant happens at church beyond the so-called pep talk or self-help of the sermon.

Jesus’ Word of healing

Our passage in Luke 24 goes right to the heart of the issue, and ironically, this is not a passage we turn to when the world is turned upside down. Because we’re looking for the spectacular in our lives, and because we’ve presumed this is about something else entirely, we’ve missed the point.

This is the night of the resurrection. Jesus shows up to where his best friends have gathered to watch Sunday Night Football. Not really. They were still trying to process the death of their friend AND the latest news that some of them had seen Jesus alive. Jesus shows up. And into their shock he explains this:

Luke 24:44 Jesus told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

This is the second time he has said this on this very day. “Look, we talked about this. I told you before… your entire Bible (which we know as the Old Testament) talks about me, including the death you just witnessed and my resurrection. They are still confused… and Luke tells us that Jesus opened their minds to understand what he’s talking about.

And what is he talking about? He’s talking about the Gospel.

Luke 24:46 Jesus also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day.”

That’s shorthand for the Gospel. What they need in their grief, what they need in their moment of despair, what they need in their world that has been turned upside down is the Gospel. Not more dos and don’ts. Not a pep talk. Not even a reprimand from the law… stop your grieving, it was all right here. None of that. This is in your Bibles: Jesus, the Messiah, has suffered and died on your behalf. FOR YOU. That’s what they need to hear.

But then there is also this:

Luke 24:47 Your Bibles also tell you that "repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

It’s so easy to miss this… we look at that verse and we immediately think, because this is what we’ve been told is that this is the story of mission. This is what you do in evangelism. This is how you win people to Christ… proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, it is those things. But the word “proclaimed” won’t let us simply categorize this as just another missionary verse. What if I were to tell you that what you’re looking at in that verse is exactly why we come to church?

That’s what church is:

Church: where the Gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments are provided

So much could be said here. But this smacks our spiritual junk drawer idea of church head on. What is it that you and I need most at any given moment of the week? Forgiveness. What is it that we need most at any given moment that the church is in the business of proclaiming? Forgiveness.

I have had this conversational countless times. In fact, I was teaching a Bible class and made this point and a dear saint raised her hand and admitted, “I don’t come to church for forgiveness because I’m already forgiven and I can ask Jesus for forgiveness at any time.” OK, then, I guess we don’t need church for that. It really is the pep talk stuff. But here’s the problem: yes, you can ask Jesus for forgiveness at any time, but at what point in asking for that forgiveness is the forgiveness actually proclaimed? At what point did someone speak and verbalize for you “Your sins are forgiven. I forgive you all your sins.” At what point was the promise of forgiveness proclaimed into your hearing ears to be received by faith in the heart?

Life, salvation and forgiveness through hearing

Reading is a must for a cultured and civil society. Illiteracy is an enemy. But reading about forgiveness has robbed us of hearing it in the ear. Reading about life and salvation has robbed us of receiving life and salvation through sound waves that go in through the ear and into the heart by faith. God creates faith in us through the proclaimed Word. Proclaimed. Not read. Proclaimed. God uses the sound waves of the Gospel to wage spiritual warfare on the evil and our unbelief by creating faith in us through the Preached Word and the Sacraments.

When we come to church, Jesus heals us through the Promises of the Gospel found in the preached Word and Sacraments. Literally. Jesus raises dead sinners from the dead through the Proclamation of Absolution and the Administration of the Lord’s Table. A pep talk can’t do that. Getting your praise on can’t do that. Proclaiming repentance for the forgiveness of sins? That’s not duct tape and staples. That’s Jesus making you brand new as if you never sinned.

St. Paul reinforces what Jesus is saying to his disciples in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 10:17 Faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes through the word of Christ.

When we come to church, we need to hear with our ears, how much Jesus loves us. We need to hear that we are loved. That we are forgiven. We need to hear that our identity is Who Jesus is for us as Savior and Forgiver and Gracer. We need o hear that our identity is found in what Jesus has done for us in his life, death, and resurrection. As we hear all of this, Jesus is creating the very faith we need to believe it. A pick-me-up can’t do that… although, if you want to call Jesus creating faith in us through the Word and of the Gospel a “pick-me-up”… that might rescue that phrase. It’s just that it’s so much more.

When we come to church, what we need is a healing. What we need is a resurrection. What we need is forgiveness. From Jesus. Through faith. Again.

Let’s pray!

The Table

This is more than a pick-me-up. This is your life. This is your salvation. This is your forgiveness. This is your grace. This is Jesus FOR YOU. This is not duct tape. This isn’t a Band-Aid. This is not Jesus patching you back up together. Right here, right now, Jesus heals. Right here, right now, Jesus makes you whole. This is why you came to church this morning. To hear Jesus and to taste Jesus FOR YOU all over again.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.