Tossing the Junk
Philippians 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22; Romans 12:9
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
Introduction: It was one of those scenes you only see on television. For Rick’s sake, I was glad no cameras showed up. I knew Rick had some problems. But I had no idea. Someone had called me early that morning and told me that I might want to get over to his house.
Rick Parker was a member of a church I once pastored. None of you would know him. He lived a few hundred miles from here. In fact, he passed away a couple of years ago. Despite the fact that you wouldn’t know him, I have changed his name for what I am going to tell you. I think you will understand why. I assure you that what I am going to tell you is absolutely true.
Rick was in his late fifties at the time. Rick had lived alone for years. He had been married once years before. But that marriage ended after only a few years. At one time he had worked in a factory. But he developed health problems and eventually went on disability. All of that was long before I knew him.
The church was a big part of Rick’s life. He had grown up there. His mother was one of the oldest members for a long time. I had her funeral while I was there. Because he had a lot of free time on his hands, Rick would stop by the church office two or three times a week just to visit and share a cup of coffee. Rick was also a very good singer. He sang in the choir. People often requested him to sing for funerals or other special occasions. “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” was his specialty.
As I said, I knew he had problems. In addition to his health problems, Rick battled bouts of depression. More than once, some of us had to convince him that he did have something to live for. We would tell him he had plenty of friends and family who cared about him. Those talks became more frequent after his mother died.
Rick also had financial problems. Obviously, trying to live on a disability check wasn’t easy. He received food stamps and government medical assistance. But he also made his own problems worse. Rick was constantly using a credit card to order this or that gadget that he saw advertised on television. He belonged to all kinds of record clubs, book clubs, and video clubs. Church people helped him out of a financial jam every now and then. We paid to have his utilities turned back on. Many of us also offered a lot of unsolicited advice on money management. Very little of it took for long. Eventually, Rick filed for bankruptcy. Some friends at church tried to convince him to move into an apartment or better yet some kind of assisted living quarters. He would have nothing to do with it. He insisted on remaining in his house no matter what.
Nobody understood why. His house wasn’t much. I had never been in it, but I had driven by it many times. Every time I mentioned stopping by, he always had an excuse. I never thought much about it until the morning I received that phone call.
When I pulled up, several sheriff’s vehicles were already there. A large truck was parked in front of the house. Several coverall clad men wearing protective masks and rubber gloves were carrying Rick’s belongings out of the house and adding it to a growing mountain of trash already piled by the street. At first I thought it was a hazmat crew. I was partly right.
When I introduced myself to the deputy posted at the front door, I found out that Rick’s house had been sold for taxes several months before. I had known that something like that had been threatened, but Rick had assured me that his bankruptcy lawyer was taking care of everything. Apparently not! He had been given notice. But he thought that as long as he didn’t answer the door when the sheriff came to serve him the papers, nothing would happen. Wrong! After the months of warnings had been given and ignored, the day had finally arrived when a judge ordered the sheriff to move Rick out. They didn’t know what they were getting into.
During my years of ministry, I thought I had seen about everything. But nothing like this! It looked as if (and the sheriff’s people assured me that it was the case) the house hadn’t been cleaned or anything (anything!) tossed out for twenty years. Old newspapers, magazines, empty plastic milk jugs, cardboard boxes, discarded mail and trash bags full of garbage were piled everywhere. Every square inch was piled four or five feet high with trash. Everything you could imagine, plus some. The kitchen, what you could see of it, had stacks and stacks of dirty dishes covered with dried up food. Dozens of greasy pots and pans filled the sink. Most had not been touched for literally years.
A narrow path led from the front door through house to the back door. Another smaller path branched off to the small bathroom. I will leave that to your imagination. The living room had been partly cleared when I arrived. Apparently the only open area had been a small space between an old over-stuffed chair and the television. Even that had been piled high with old papers and magazines. The small bedroom looked much the same. The back porch, a small garage, every nook and cranny, was stuffed full of junk. For who knows how many years, Rick had taken stuff in but never thrown anything out.
I called some of Rick’s friends from the church. We helped him sort through some of the stuff. Actually there was some good stuff amongst the junk. That was part of the problem. There was so much stuff that Rick would lose tools, video tapes, and unread magazines. Once he laid something down in the house, the odds were against him ever finding it again. I wish I could tell you the story had a happy ending. We did get Rick into a new place, but very quickly it headed in the same direction as the old one.
I don’t want to make light of Rick’s problem. It had gone on so long and grown so out of control that he didn’t know how to do anything differently. He was too embarrassed to ask for help. He felt too overwhelmed to do anything about it himself. It was not a pretty picture.
When we see or hear about situations like Rick’s, if we are not careful we can be tempted to shake our heads and look down our noses with contempt. “How could anybody be so foolish? How could anyone allow themselves to collect a houseful of worthless rubbish like that?” I understand that reaction.
Grads, listen to me closely now! I think there may be something worse. What if we were not talking about a house but a life? It is just as foolish, probably a lot worse, to fill your life with garbage and trash and never throw any of it out.
I am convinced that a lot of people whose houses are as neat as a pin live lives that are just as out of control as Rick’s house. Like Rick, they take in, but they never toss away. Their lives, their time, their minds–all get filled with more and more stuff. Some of it is good. But not all of it! A life is lot like a house. If you keep bringing stuff in without throwing something out, eventually it gets so cluttered that even the good stuff gets lost.
That’s the appeal of the passage from 1 Thessalonians 5 that a read a bit ago. Let me repeat it again for you. That’s my appeal to you graduates. Of course, it isn’t limited to young people. Not so young folk need this advice from time to time as well. “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” This passage calls for making decisions, keeping the right stuff and tossing the trash. That’s always good advice.
These three simple instructions can make life a lot simpler! “Test everything.” The ancients used that expression to test gold or precious metals. Knowing the difference between fool’s gold and the real thing matters. In the passage the primary reference is to discerning between spiritual truth and counterfeit religion. The same principle applies to lots of areas of life.
I hope you don’t believe everything you hear, especially spiritual stuff. It is not bad to have a certain kind of skeptical mindset. The “I’m from Missouri, show me!” attitude can be very healthy thing. If you are going to college, test what your teachers say. All of you, college or not, should be prepared to examine what your friends try to tell you, what you hear on television or radio, or what comes down through the popular culture around you. Be smart about what you believe and accept. Test everything. Don’t accept everything. If you do, you will end with a life and soul as cluttered as Rick’s house. Nobody wants that, believe me!
“Test everything. Hold on to the good.” “Hold on to” means to be glued to, stuck on. Some things are worth holding on to. But not everything. Knowing the difference is what counts. That’s why Paul prays the prayer we read from Philippians 1. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
Those of you who have grown up in this church have been taught lots of good things. Most of you have been raised by families that care deeply about right and wrong and the truth of God. Lots of people around you have tried hard to prepare you for the future. I hope that you learn to test everything that comes your way in the future and that you hold on to the good stuff.
“Test everything. Hold on to what is good. Avoid every kind of evil.” That last phrase is probably not strong enough. The old King James Versions rendered that line, “Abstain from the very appearance of evil.” We ought to be so repulsed by evil that the very sight of it turns us away. Romans 12:9, the other passage I read, puts the same idea in even stronger terms. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” There’s a lot of garbage out there. I hope you know it when you see it. I hope you can smell it. I hope you continue to abhor it. I pray that you are smart enough not to fill your life with it.
But if you do, don’t let it just pile up. It will just get deeper and deeper. Pretty soon, you can’t tell the good stuff from the junk. Bad memories, bad friends, bad habits, bad thinking, misplaced priorities—that’s all garbage that can mess up your life. Don’t start collecting that junk. If you do, clean it out. Get rid of it. If you need help, ask for it.
Conclusion: During World War II an Air Force a B-29 had completed a bombing run over Tokyo when the plane lost two engines. Home base was over 1000 miles away. Conventional wisdom advised dumping fuel, ditching the plane and hoping for a rescue. The pilot, however, was far from conventional. He told his crew, "I have never believed in crashing a perfectly good plane. Let’s see if we can make it home." The crew began to throw out everything that wasn’t bolted down and some things that were. They tossed ammunition, armor, and all of their supplies. Eventually, the much lighter plane limped home. The pilot and crew were decorated for their daring.
Now that’s the kind of happy ending I wish I could have told you about Rick. That’s the happy ending I pray for you. You have reached an important milestone in life. There are lots more to come. The likelihood of your reaching the next, the one after that, and ultimately the end of a long, well-lived, happy life depends on whether you “test everything, hold on to what is good, and avoid every kind of evil.”
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
