Junk Drawer Jesus: Keys (Proverbs 18:

Feeling safe

What makes you feel safe? A recent study suggests that people feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods when they see children playing in the yards or park, people jogging, and the visible presence of neighbors. 73% of adults said they feel safe in their communities… and that’s a number that is from around the world. People feel safer more than ever before, with more people saying they feel safe walking alone at night than ever before and that includes places where our screens suggest it’s a bit unsafe. We spend more on security than ever before, and most people feel safer when they know their neighbors have cameras and electronic security.

But what about church? Yeah. The data doesn’t provide a pretty picture… Studies show a significant number of people have been hurt by churches… Barna Group tells us that nearly four in ten unchurched Americans (37%) say that they don’t go to church because they’ve had a bad experience. And Lifeway, another Christian research group found that 66% of people who don’t go to church any more stopped going to church because there was personal conflict or a painful church experience. The numbers are telling us that a good number of the people who live around us have been hurt by church.

We’re continuing our series on Junk Drawer Jesus and I thought we’d look briefly at one item that we all have in our junk drawers… keys. How many of you have old keys in your junk drawer at home? How many of you know what those keys go to? How many of you have spent time trying different keys with different doors because you couldn’t remember which door the key was for?

Every key presumes there’s a lock. And the lock is meant to provide security. Those keys in our junk drawers are meant to unlock what is locked. And we have numerous keys in our junk drawers because we are in constant need of security and safety. And that brings us to our spiritual junk drawers. There are all sorts of things we lean on for spiritual security.

Our good works. Good feelings. Individualism. Self-reliance.

There are a host of ways that we train ourselves to be spiritually secure. Some of these things aren’t all bad in themselves. But when we look to these for spiritual security or safety, we can run into problems. We have to acknowledge that we are obsessed with being safe and that includes our spiritual lives. But here’s where I am going with this…

the church is a safe place.

Some of you just can’t go there with me. I get it. Too much baggage. But hear me out. I don’t know what you’ve gone through. And I’m sure for some of you I can’t even begin to commiserate with you because you’ve had trauma in church I’ve never had. But there is hope. And you’re here and not someplace else because you are giving church another try and you want it to be safe. This is for you and this is for all of us at The Table because all of us have been there.

It all starts with Who Made us

We’re not just saying the church is a safe place because we want it to be so, or we’re trying to make it so. The church is safe because the one who created the church is safe. We struggle with this. In the story of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lucy want to know if Aslan is safe, and Mr Beaver tells her

“Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Now I’m not going to get into all that C.S. Lewis is trying to convey there, but what I do know is that this is how I grew up thinking about God. God isn’t safe. And if that is your prevailing view of God, and when you think of God, that’s the first thing that comes to mind, well then, what’s going to be your view of church? Of course, church is not going to be safe… and that’s before you have a bad experience.

But I have come to believe, such a view of God is faulty. The Bible does present God as a danger and a terror. He is to be feared, in an afraid kind of way. God is dangerous to his enemies, primarily evil, sin, death, and the evil one.

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t safe. Over and over and over again throughout the Bible, God is presented as someone who is safe. And no clearer statement is the summary found in a Proverb:

Proverbs 18:10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

That’s a summary of all the verses and passages that present God as a refuge, someplace to go when there is danger all around. Somebody to go to when you feel threatened. I think half the Psalms have this thought in them. Life is threatening. We have enemies. And Jesus has loved us to the point of going through hell for us so that we don’t have to. That is someone who is safe. Always.

Jesus is safe

One of the all-time great passages from Jesus’ ministry is Jesus presenting himself as the embodiment of safety. Jesus looks at the crowds who have been following him and He says this:

Matthew 11:28–30 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

You know what is fascinating about that passage? When Jesus says this, the danger is actually present. When Jesus tells the crowds “I will give you rest”, among the crowd are the religious leaders who were a danger to them. We know this because in the very next few verses, they attack Jesus for claiming he can give people rest. So Jesus is saying, “Come to me, all of you who have been beat up by church, and I will give you rest.” That is what Proverbs 18:10 looks like… running to Jesus who is a strong tower and finding safety is coming to him for rest. And he delivers every time: “I WILL give you rest”… I will. .That’s a promise from the Person who loves you the most. Jesus doesn’t just provide safety from sin, death, and the evil one… Jesus is The Safe One. He is safety itself.

The church: safe?

But that brings us back to the question at hand… and this is where we say… if Jesus is safe, the church He created is safe. We said this earlier in the series, but we are so used to the idea of religion and spirituality being a private affair. And in many places around the world, religion as a personal matter is enforced with the threat of law. But safety and reliance on Jesus was never meant to be only enjoyed or even primarily enjoyed by individuals as a private matter. In fact, Jesus makes our reliance on him and our faith in him stronger when we are with others who are also His people.

We’re coming up to the Christmas season and with all the lights and festivities and parties and songs and experiences of the Christmas season, we’re always going to come back to the original Christmas. At the very beginning of St. Matthew’s biography of Jesus, Matthew connects an Isaiah sermon to Jesus:

Matthew 1:23 “See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated ‘God is with us.’”

All sorts of things to unpack there, but what we need to see is that this baby that is going to be born in Bethlehem will be named “Immanuel”, which means “God is with us.” “God is with us.” In the story of Christmas, God comes to earth and becomes One of us… to be among us. To be with us. That’s grace. That’s love. That’s what God always wanted… to be with us. But it’s not just us as individuals. This theme of God being with us as Jesus shows up in conversation that Jesus is having with his 12 disciples, his best friends. And as He talks about some of the difficulties of living life with each other together and the need for forgiveness… Jesus says this:

Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

I. Am. There. “I am there.” Where two or three are gathered together in my name, Emmanuel is present. God is with us. In fact, this is why I left heaven and came to earth.. so that when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there. You want to run to Jesus who is a strong tower and be safe? Go to where Jesus has promised to be… in a different kind of way… run to the gathering to experience Jesus’ safety.

I know this is a difficult sell. but there’s no way around the idea that the Bible presents Jesus as safe, and the place to find Jesus and His safety is in the gathering of His people. Not a podcast, not an online experience, not on the golf course. In his gather. And I get that churches can be terrible places. Churches have been where bad things happen. But it’s not supposed to be that way, and that’s not how Jesus himself talks about the gathering.

The church is a hospital. The church is a place for dysfunctional people. After all, the church is a place where sinners gather. And if you come to The Table Church here for any period of time, you’ll figure out quite quickly that this is not where you’re going to hear a self-help message, and a message of 5 great ways you can be a successful person and achieve the American dream. That’s not church. Church is where we come to be real, we come as broken sinners in need of forgiveness.

What’s ironic is that this is where God shows up to be a terror to our sin. We come and we confess, yes, we are awful sinners. And again, God confronts that sin, confronts us in our sin, and then in all the safety He provides… there is forgiveness.

Church is safe, because church is where forgiveness happens

By this point, you knew this is where we were headed, right? Jesus is safe, church is safe, because at the heart of Jesus’ rest is forgiveness. Forgiveness makes the world go round. We come here to hear the words, “You are forgiven”! That’s what makes church safe. It’s not in anything we do.. in fact, we cannot manufacture safety for anybody. We’re sinners. We’re a mess. We’re dysfunctional. But Jesus is here to forgive us. The Word and the Table, week in and week out provide the rest and forgiveness we need. You want safety? You want Jesus, the strong tower? He’s here, in the Promises of His Word and in His Table… FOR YOU. That’s the whole purpose of church.

Matt Popovits says it so well...

“The primary task of the church—to give you Jesus.” - Popovits

The church gives Jesus. That’s the strong tower of safety. When you hear the preacher talking about the cross and the promises of Jesus that are FOR YOU, that’s giving you Jesus. When you hear the preacher say, “your sins are forgiven”, that’s giving you Jesus. When you hear and see the preacher providing the body and blood of Jesus at his Table, that’s the church giving you Jesus. When you experience the love and grace of Jesus through the kind words and hugs of others here in the gathering… that’s the church giving you Jesus. I know that doesn’t erase the hurt you’ve experienced here. But please hear this: Jesus uses messy people to give Himself to you. He has promised to be here for you in the midst of all our mess. This gathering where the Word is preached and the Sacraments provided is exactly where Jesus has promised to be. Jesus is always here for you. He’s always accessible for you.

You see it on the backs of our Table shirts. Jesus’ promise to you… it’s why the church exists:

John 6:35 “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.”

Jesus is our bread. Jesus is our life sustenance. He promises to be everything you need, especially through His church. He promises to be your safety. Right here in this gathering.

Jesus is not a Jesus to be unlocked.

You can throw away your keys from your spiritual junk drawer. Security and safety is only found in Jesus. And there’s no unlocking Jesus. There’s so much of that myth out there. How many books and seminars out there.. unlocking Jesus and unlocking some hidden secret about Jesus or the spiritual life with information or knowledge known only to the special few. Run far, far away from anyone who says this kind of stuff. Because Jesus needs no unlocking. He has unlocked himself for us. At the cross. In His Word. In His Sacraments. You want a safe place? Jesus is Your Safe Place. Everytime we gather. Everytime the Word is preached and the Sacraments provided.

Let’s Pray

The Table

Here’s your safe place. The Table. Right here, right now. Jesus is here in His body and in His blood FOR YOU.

Benediction