Dear friends, last weekend our theme was "Fools for Christ," and this weekend it is "Rubbish for Christ." One might think I am "scraping the bottom of the barrel"" lately. Actually, such themes may be getting closer to the heart of the Gospel than we think. "Fools" and "rubbish" are connected to the Law, which shows us our sins and need for God's forgiveness. Those two concepts should show us our need for the Gospel of grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. For if we truly believe that by nature our sin makes us fools, then all our sins and even our righteous acts are mere rubbish. Only by God's grace can we do anything worthy of being called good.

         AI have said many times that one of my favorite people in life is the trashman. Every Monday morning he faithfully comes and removes all the stuff I no longer want or need. He empties the cans, picks up the boxes and other rubbish and takes it to a place unseen, somewhere I don't know of and don't care. It's gone and I'll never see it again. I've been so grateful for his work at times that I have given him a soda or bottle of water. I always feel good when the trashman leaves.

          SJesus is our spiritual trashman. He died on the cross of Calvary, taking upon Himself the garbage of our sins. He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, and we never need worry about those sins again. They are gone! If any of those old sins bother us, it's not because He hasn't removed them. We are forgiven! Our Lord has given His life on that great landfill called Calvary, that we might be live new lives. The past is over - forgiven - and now we have a new life before us. Jesus took all the trash away and replaced it with the treasures of eternal life.

         That's what Paul may have had in mind when he wrote our text. Compared to Jesus, the things of this life are mere rubbish, especially the things our world considers precious. I watched a program last week in which a woman discovered a valuable coin. She found it in some used clothing, a 1921 silver dollar, "double-struck" at the Denver Mint that was worth $100,000. What a treasure! The trouble was, she wondered whether she should tell the woman who gave her the used clothing. She also wondered what to do with the money. Should she keep it all or share it? Her worries came to an end when she was swindled out of the coin by an unscrupulous coin dealer. When she discovered he had switched it with another, she laughed, but something inside me hurt, knowing she lost it all and the swindler got away with his crime.

         But, if you think of it, it's all rubbish anyway. Worldly wealth will all pass away, and any of the possessions we treasure now will one day all be gone. The things people covet and steal have no lasting value. St. Paul treasures "knowing Jesus Christ as Lord." When he wrote this, he himself had lost all things, for he was old and in prison. He was penniless and knew he had not long to live. But he knew Jesus, and compared to that, all else was rubbish.

         What would you do if you knew you had not long to live? What things would you do, or what people would you speak to? One fellow said he'd get all the credit cards he could and max them out. Trouble is, his heirs would have to pick up the tab. Comedian Erma Bombeck once wrote, "Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart." Comedian Flip Wilson once said, "If I had my whole life to live over again, I don't think I'd have the strength!"

         What would you do if you knew you had not long to live? St. Paul was looking back on his life, and that's a good thing for anyone to do now and then. It's hard to see clearly if we look back too soon. If we see only yesterday, or even the past year, our troubles will look too big and our blessings too small. But looking back after time has passed helps us see the reality of God's truly rich blessings, even if we have lived some of our life in poverty.

         What did St. Paul see when he looked back on his life? In today's text he writes, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

         Paul considered the possessions of life rubbish. He willing traded that rubbish for Christ! What did you think when I told that story about the woman who was swindled out of her $100,000 coin? Did you, like me, get a little twinge of anger and regret that she lost it? But, you see, it wasn't her coin a few days before, and it really wasn't her coin when she discovered it. The thief, however, decided to make it his, and so he got the prize, whatever that was. He lied and he stole. Hopefully, some of what he got included guilt. One would hope he also received a visit from the police. Stay tuned next week and we'll see.

         Dear friends, the rubbish of life doesn't go away easily. We cling to it and it clings to us. We may quickly forget what the earthly trashman takes away, but we don't like to let go of some trash we've collected. Certain sins come back again and again, and we let them take over. We fall to temptation time after time, and though we know they are forgiven, still they come back and haunt us, clinging to us, showing up when we don't expect it like one of those dryer sheets we find inside a sleeve.

         Perhaps it's something that happened to us long ago that still appears in our nightmares. Or maybe it is still happening to us. Or we have a weakness, and try as we might, we can't seem to overcome it. It may be a bad habit, or an addiction of some kind. It may be a lifelong struggle or something new that bothers us. It may be because are old and fearful, or it may be because we are young and lustful. Often it just a lot of guilt, regret and resentment that's been around so long it begins to smell like spoiled garbage.

         Whatever the case, that's when we need Jesus the most. When we trust in the Lord, He will help us by taking away that load of trash, that canful of garbage, or that little bit of unneeded stuff that hurts like a stone in our show and pulls our thoughts away from God. The smell of old rubbish may linger, but in Jesus we are promised it will disappear. We may remember it, but its smell no longer need suffocate us. The divine trashman is always ready to remove all that needs removing.

         Sometimes the rubbish of life is a prelude to a great treasure. Somerset Maugham, the English writer, wrote a story about a janitor, the verger, as his position was called, of St Peter's Church in London. One day the young vicar of St. Peter's discovered the verger was illiterate and so he fired him. Jobless, the verger invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered. He eventually bought another, expanded, and ended up owning a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand pounds, a fortune in his day. One day the man's banker said, "You've done well for an illiterate man, but think where would you be if you could read and write?" "Well," replied the man, "I guess I'd be verger of St. Peter's Church in Neville Square."

         Earlier in his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul wrote, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) What is life for you? Are you able to identify what is the rubbish and what is the treasure? For all of us, our treasure is Christ. And for some of us, it takes a whole lifetime to make that discovery.

         May God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, give us grace to put all our rubbish in its proper place, at the foot of the cross. You may not like the trashman, but he does us a great service. If God wants us to have the treasures of this world, we'll get them. But whether we are rich or poor, whether we have much or little, God will give us all the treasures of the Cross. We know this because He has promised it, and God always keeps His promises. In Jesus' name, amen!

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