2 Cor 5:11-21 - Taking Out the Trash

Too many of us are carrying heavy loads with us. Loads that we were not meant to carry. Sacks full of sin, guilt, shame, embarrassment. Emotional garbage. But there is a way to get rid of it all.

Last week we discussed how Jesus tells us to come to him. Asking us to trade in our burdens for his light yoke. But why don’t we? Why do we keep picking up our emotional garbage, looking it over, keeping it hidden? There are several different reasons we do so. Do you see yourself in either of the following scenarios.

You believe in Jesus Christ. You believe in the power of the cross - at least at an intellectual level, but you seem to doubt if Jesus really can handle your trash. Really can handle the weight of your sin. Sure he died for those other people, but he hasn’t seen what you are carrying around. He may not be able to handle all of it - it may just be too much to ask, even of a Savior. Maybe he didn’t really mean what he said about coming to him. Maybe he doesn’t really want to take this trash upon himself. 

Or maybe you believe that Christ can carry your burden, but you don’t want him too. You figure if you can just push it down deep inside of you enough then you can forget about it and God won’t know about it. Spiritual baggage isn’t as noticeable as some other things, so maybe, just maybe no one will know and you can go through life ignoring the ache inside of you. 

There are a variety of reasons that we refuse to bring our struggles and sins before Christ, but these are two of the most common. We don’t believe that Jesus’ invitation to come to him really applies to us. We don’t believe that Jesus wants to provide us rest by taking the burden of sin away. In fact, maybe he would punish us even more. But when we think this way we are forgetting what Paul is preaching about in today’s scripture passage. We forget that we are filled with the love of Christ who died for our sins, so that we no longer have to live a life of sin and be alienated from God. 

When we try to hide our sin from God we forget that we are well known to God. In fact, nothing can be hidden from God. And if only we would freely bring our hearts forward in repentance, there would be no condemnation because of Christ. Yet, we fear that might not be true so we try to deny that we have a sin problem at all.

But denial does not make trash go away in our houses or in our hearts. Think about it. If week after week your garbage can is overflowing to the point where trash is now on the floor and counters and tables, but you never take it out, does it go away? Certainly not. It simply grows and grows. You can pretend that you don’t notice it, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t present. So it is with our hearts. We can certainly pretend that we are fine and there is nothing we need to confess before God, but ignoring our sin, pushing it down deep within ourselves, trying to hide it, doesn’t make it go away.

So we are invited to bring our trash to Christ. To confess our short comings. To hand over our sin. Confession doesn’t create our relationship with God. It simply nourishes it. Flows from it. Confession is a gift from our spirit that we don’t often utilize. In one of the bible studies held in the parish the comment was made that we are more apt to tell God what we or someone else needs, or to say thank you for a blessing received, then to confess. Because when we confess a sin, we acknowledge it. And that is scary. 

But even more frightening is what unconfessed sin can lead to -  a split deep inside of us. On the surface we may proclaim that we are God’s children and everything is splendid, but deep in our spirits we don’t want to talk to God. We avoid God. Unconfessed sin stands as a barrier in our relationship. Its not erected all at once, but unconfessed sin after unconfessed sin build up over time and we choose to separate ourselves from God.

When I was younger I heard a story told by Joshua Harris entitled “The Room” that has always stuck with me. It goes like this. In a dream I found myself in a room, that was nondescript other than one entire wall filled with index card files, like libraries used to have. But the files that stretched from floor to celling and seemed endless didn’t have book titles. Instead they told the story of my life. A card catalog of everything I had ever done or thought or said. Big and small. Things that I didn’t even remember. So I began to open files that caught my attention, like one labeled “Friends”, which contained not only joyful memories, but some that brought shame and regret such as the one entitled “Friends I Have Betrayed”. There were so many files. “Books I’ve Read”. “Lies I’ve Told”. “Comfort I’ve Given”. “Things I’ve Done in Anger”. I began to feel sick about some of the moments that had been recorded. Some of the things that were a part of myself. I was captured by one though alone: “No one must see these cards! I have to destroy them!” So I pulled out index card file after index card file, only to find that I couldn’t dislodge a single card. With a sigh I returned the file and I began to weep out of shame. But as I cried I saw Jesus standing there, the last person I would ever want to know about what’s written on some of these cards. Slowly he began to open up file after file, reading everyone. Finally he looked at me across the room with pity. He didn’t say anything. He simply cried with me. And then he went back over to the files and one by one he started to sign his name overtop of mine on each card. “No!” I cried. Running over to him. But he had already signed his name in deep, red blood. And then he said “It is finished”.

Friends, we can’t hide our sins from Christ because he has already died for them. He has already died for the baggage that we were not meant to live with, not meant to carry. We need to look at our sin from God’s point of view, not our own. That God grieves when we continue to carry around unconfessed sin, refusing to hand it over. Refusing to take out our trash. That as new creations in Christ we are not meant to be carrying around old baggage, but rather are to be reconciled to the God who loved us to the point of going to the cross for us. In fact, because of Christ, God not only forgives our mistakes but removes them. But we have to choose to stop pretending and bring them to God. 

Set aside all that is preventing you from bringing your sin, your trash, your baggage before God. How many of you still have the rock from last week? If you were not here last week, please pick up a rock on your way out and write on it something that you are holding on to that needs to be given to God. Carry it around with you day after day and bring it with you to worship next week, where we will bring our stones, our trash, our sin before God. But before we can participate in this ritual of forgiveness, we need to confess before God. Confess over the sin that we are carrying around and confess that we have held on to it for so long. Confess that we have hidden it in shame or have just thought that it was too much for Christ to handle. Confess, brothers and sisters, let go of what is weighing you down and embrace freedom in Jesus. For the cross has proclaimed “It is finished”. Amen.