We enjoyed our trip back home to the Midwest.  How beautiful and green it all is.  And so clean!  As we drove along the clean roads Iowa and Minnesota I thought of the ditches of Israel.  Israel's ditches are littered with junk, especially plastic.  If anyone wanted to recycle that plastic rubbish over there, he'd make a good living.

          But I also thought of God's grace for us.  In this time of peace and prosperity, it's definitely time to be grateful for grace.  Grace is the umbrella of God's love.  GRACE has been defined through an acrostic:  God's Riches At Christ's Expense.  Grace is true heart of God, loving people in spite of who we are.  God's grace is truly amazing.

          But why does God love His people?  Why does He forgive us in Jesus?  Why does He take time for people who don't take time for Him?  The Bible says God loves everyone, even the most terrible of criminals.  He loves the young and the old, the rich and the poor.  We understand how God would love "good" people, the nice people.  But why would God care anything about "bad" people, people who treat themselves like throwaways and treat others like dirt?  Why does a holy God care about unholy people?  It's a mystery, the mystery of Grace.

          Growing up in my southern Minnesota hometown, the name Pankonin was always associated with junkyards.  The Pankonins had at least 2 junkyards.  They were rough people, hard-working, hard-drinking people.  Their children attended school but seemed more to be students of crude stories and foul language than of the "three R's".  Rumors abounded about them.  They seemed to have money but few friends.  And few ever associated them with God or the church.  I remember once going to Pankonin's junkyard with my Dad and feeling very uneasy about those dirty people sitting there looking at us.  They and their dogs seemed made of the same junk.

          Did God love the Pankonins?  I never thought about it then, and assumed He was too busy with good people to be worried about them.  I always believed God took care of good people first.  Those others had to clean up their act before God would be concerned about them.

          But I grew up and learned a few things.  I learned that God's grace is not for good people -- it's for ALL people.  I also learned there are no truly good people.  Isaiah 64 says, "Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags".  And the kind of rag Isaiah referred to is not appropriate public comment.  Romans 5 reaffirms this:  "There is no one that is righteous and does not sin."  In other words, sinful people are like garbage.  We're all rubbish compared to our holy God.  But those who believe in Jesus become recycled rubbish.  He cleans us up, and makes us holy.

          A man coming home from work saw his dog dragging a dead rabbit.  He realized it was his neighbor's pet rabbit and was shocked his dog had killed it!  Feeling guilty, he washed the dirty old dead rabbit and sneaked it back into its cage.  The next morning he saw his neighbor as they both were leaving for work.  "It's the strangest thing," said his neighbor, "Yesterday my rabbit died so I buried it.  This morning it's back in the cage all cleaned up!"

          That's the way it is with us.  Wash the rabbit all you want, but it's still dead!  We can't change our sinful condition.  But God can.

          Because of sin, you and I are rubbish.  We should be tossed out.  Today's humanism disagrees.  It says all people are basically good.  It denies the obvious.  We live in a society that doesn't like to admit the truth about sin.  We like to hear good things about ourselves, nice things, sanitized things.  Those who believe people are good have looked reality in the face and denied it.

          Not far from my home is Powell Middle School that has a canal behind it where a stream runs.  Clarkson Avenue crosses that canal creating a small hill.  Beside the road is a sign -- "No Dumping".  That's the kind of sign I used to see on country roads.  Out there, thoughtless people often dump loads of garbage in a ditch or on a hidden hill.  "No Dumping" signs are still found in the country, but it's surprising to find one in town.

          But, you see, people will always have garbage and some will dump it where they shouldn't.  That's true in our homes, our jobs and every part of life.  People find ways to dump their rubbish and often do so right on top of innocent people.  God knows all about that because people unloaded everything on top of His Son out there on Calvary.

          I have a confession to make -- one of my favorite people is the garbage man.  I don't know his name, but I like him.  Every Friday he comes early and takes away all the junk I don't want any more.  He hauls it away and I never have to think about it again.  Just like Jesus!  He went out to a landfill called Calvary, where all the sins of the world were dumped on Him, and died.  Because He did, we live!  Jesus is the greatest garbage man of all, and we're all blessed because He is.

          St. Paul understood what it was like to be treated like garbage.  In today's text he says the Christian life isn't easy.  He said of himself, "Up to this time we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world."  People had been abusive of Paul, even people in the church.  They mistreated him, but he still kept going.  He preached Christ as Lord and got kicked around.  His message of Christ was so important that he didn't care what others said of him or did to him.  Let them dump on him, just as long as he could continue to preach Jesus.

          God's grace was evident in Paul's life.  Even when people were against him, he didn't give up.  Even when they treated him like the scum of the earth, he kept up his work.  Only God's grace could keep him going under such circumstances, and it did.

          Paul knew firsthand of God's grace.  God chose him, even though he'd been cruel to Christians.  Thinking he was doing right, Paul had jailed and persecuted dozens of people whose only crime was to believe that Jesus was their Savior.  He was there when Stephen was stoned.

          Paul worked hard, and felt he was right, but he was so wrong.  One day God knocked him down and turned his life upside down.  God blinded Paul to his own ideas and showed him the truth.  Paul knew the terrible things he'd done, yet he knew God chose him to do His work.  That's God's grace, choosing the unworthy person to do His work.

          I heard of an amazing incident.  A young couple from Minnesota were in Mexico, doing a few months of research.  One night they noticed a small, hairless dog on their doorstep.  They didn't want to feed it, but finally gave in.  It grew strong and eventually came inside and even slept on their bed.  It was a strange looking critter, but they grew to love it.  They decided to smuggle it across the border when they returned to Minnesota.  Later in the cool Minnesota autumn it became sick.  The wife left it off at a pet doctor and came back later just before closing.  The Vet invited her into his office and asked if she knew what kind of pet she had.  Seems he spent an hour in the library and finally discovered this was no hairless Chihuahua dog, but a large channel rat.  Their pet was a rat!  "Didn't you ever wonder why it never barked?" he asked.

          I'm not quite sure how to say this, but in many ways we're like that rat.  Because of sin we're not very lovable, but God loves us anyway.  He takes us in, cleans us up and makes us His children.  And best of all, God keeps us!  I doubt those folks ever brought that rat home with them, but God does.  But because of Christ God cleans us up and takes us to our heavenly home.  An old friend of mine, Glenn Swendsen died this past week.  Because of God's amazing grace, he's finally home.

          What does this mean for us?  Knowing God accepts us by grace, how then shall we live?  We must stop thinking we're "good" when we're not.  It means we must stop treating ourselves like garbage and know we're loved children of the Heavenly Father.  It means we should pray for each other, encourage each other, be friendly to each other, and help each other.  It means we should love each other like God loves us.

          You and I are recycled rubbish.  As funny as it sounds, that's the Good News for today!  God has scrubbed us clean in the blood of Jesus Christ.  We're holy people because He declares us holy.  We can't just keep fretting and stewing about things that don't matter.  Jesus Christ is Lord, and we're God's children!  That's life-changing news!  "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see."

          Perhaps you know the story of that hymn, the most beloved hymn of all time.  John Newton was a rich and successful man who lived in the 18th century.  He was a powerful man who controlled others.  He was captain of a slave ship.  Time & again he crossed the oceans with his human cargo of blacks from Africa.  On each crossing, up to half of his human cargo would die and were dumped overboard like garbage.

          Yet he read His Bible!  And at some point, the Holy Spirit convicted John Newton.  Realizing the horror of his work, he repented and turned to the Lord.  In the Bible he learned of God's grace for Him in Jesus Christ.  Later he put his thoughts into this most famous hymn.  "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see."

          God changes people.  Through Gospel and sacraments He convicts people of their sin and shows them they're loved by God.  God's grace is the center of it all.  It's the heart of God.  Give your heart to Jesus, my friends.  Let Him forgive you and change you.  Let Him make you His child.

          This brings me back to the Pankonin family, the junkyard people.  A few years ago I saw a new church built near my hometown, and the pastor's name on the signboard was James Pankonin.  One of their children came home.  I hear some of the family are Christians now.  Recycled rubbish -- just like you and me.

          Let's pray:  Thank you, Jesus, that You love us so much.  Pick us up despite our sin, clean us off, and make us new.  Forgive us for thinking we're good enough.  Help us cling to Your goodness always.  Amen!

Copyright © 1999 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.