October 28, 2007 Sermon

Freedom
I Timothy 1:12-17

[The following is a sermon in the form of a short story, written by Pastor Riggins. The characters in the story are entirely fictional, as are the events depicted.] Yesterday, as our work crew got going on the new building addition, I walked around the big hole, smelling the fresh tar on the outside of the walls and kicking debris in the sand. At the far corner my toe caught on something. I wedged it up out of the ground. It was a length of pipe that had snapped off the existing building when the bulldozers came through. I read the words stamped into it: “Seymour Tubing.”

Working outdoors makes you feel alive, strong. Working with brother and sister Christians does, too. If you ever begin to feel alone in this world, or that you cannot do anything that matters, get busy on our building addition. When you work as part of that team, you receive much more than you give. I enjoyed the talks we had while working. To those (mostly women) who say that men don’t really talk, I say, come listen to us as we work. We talk a lot. We talk about football, the weather, football, the World Series in baseball, the weather and football. So there!

One worker and I talked about deeper things. We had marked where to place the long beams that crisscross the span of the new building. As the lift raised those heavy beams, we smacked them with our hands to inch them into place. Once, the tip end of my work gloves got wedged between a beam and the cement wall below, though fortunately I had pulled my fingers back inside the glove just in time. After I yanked the glove out of its trap my work partner whistled and said, “That was a close one!” He fell silent until we got the beam on the foundation. Then, quietly and without looking me in the eye, he told me a little story.

“Seeing your glove get stuck reminded me of me,” he started. “I almost got caught, too. You know how guys complain about how their wives spend money? Have you ever noticed that it’s the guys who spend the most money? Not every day. We go for a long time without buying anything and tell ourselves we’re being careful. But then we’ll buy a truck or a boat or a big TV. And it’ll cost what our wives spend in six months.

“So I was driving along and I saw these two snowmobiles on a trailer parked out by the road. The sign said call this number for a price. I did, and it was low enough I guessed we could afford it if I bought one. I didn’t want both, ‘cause Jenny won’t go snowmobiling anyway. Says she gets too cold. I called the guy back and told him I wanted one and he said okay. That’s when it got interesting. I knew if I wrote a check Jenny would see it. But I didn’t have any other way to come up with that kind of money. And we don’t have much money in our checking account anyway. I got to the office and sat down behind my desk and I couldn’t get anything done. That stupid snow machine was all I could think of.

“I was just messing around, dreaming and opening and shutting my desk drawers without thinking and it hit me: the company keeps the previous day’s receipts in the locked drawer in the back office until the secretary can get to the bank. I’m one of the three of us that has a key to it. I could borrow the money from there until I figured out how to get it back from our family money. All of a sudden it was like a spotlight was on that drawer. So I waited until the secretary went out back for a smoke. The boss was at some meeting somewhere. I just walked in there, opened the drawer, pulled out the bank bag and counted out the $2,750. I left a note on my computer screen that I’d be back, drove over to the guy’s place, and paid him in cash. Told him I’d be back with a trailer.” He wiped his gloves on his coverall legs, and climbed down off his ladder to get the next beam. I joined him on the ground and nodded to show him I was still listening.

“I mean,” he continued, “from the time I thought about that money in the drawer until the time I was sitting back at my desk after buying the stupid thing it wasn’t forty-five minutes. And nobody knew. So now I’m thinking, where am I gonna hide this thing? I can’t tell my wife. Plus, how am I gonna come up with the money to put back in the bag before anybody notices? And then I started feeling trapped. I’ve paid for the snowmobile. I got no place to put it. I’ve used company money. I got no easy way to get the money to pay the company back. I have to hide it all from basically everybody in my life. My heart started beating really fast. I could hear it. I could swear the boss could, too, when he came back from wherever. So I go out in the parking lot and call the guy up on my cell phone. I don’t want it after all. Will he give me back my money? And he says, ‘No! All sales are final. When are you gonna come get your sled off my property?’”

“Now I’m sweating. And this cold chill crawls up my spine. I feel like I have to go to the bathroom except I don’t. What am I supposed to do? I tried to think of a way out but my brain is just going around and around. Pretty soon I’m going around and around—walking around the parking lot and I don’t even know it. Then my phone rings and, honestly, I did go to the bathroom right then, just a little. It scared me that much. I look down at the screen and it’s Jenny.

“Do I answer? My head says ‘no’ but my hand acts like it’s on some robotic arm, raising the phone up to my ear. ‘Hey’, she says.

“I just stood there and didn’t say a word. ‘You there?’ I hear her finally ask. And I just blurted it out. Told her everything. I get about halfway through it and I’m thinking, ‘How bad is the yelling gonna be when I’m done?’ but I can’t stop. I tell her everything.

“Then she says, ‘I’ll meet you at that guy’s house in twenty minutes.’ And she hangs up before I can tell her NO. Then I get really afraid. I tried to call her back and tell her not to go, but she doesn’t answer. What choice did I have? She’s only about half as big as me but when she’s mad she can really let ‘er rip with that mouth of hers. I’m imagining what she’s gonna say to this guy. Maybe he’s not the kind of man who will take that from a woman. I’m thinking I better get going.

“I pulled up about half a minute after her, it looked like, ‘cause she was already at the front door. The guy answers it before I can even get out of my truck. He looks at her, and then over at me, and then he gets this hard look on his face. ‘No way!’ he yells. ‘Sale’s final!’”

“She says something to him I can’t hear, since I’m not up on the steps yet and she’s facing him and talking very quietly. He narrows his eyes and gives her a look, but then he spins around and disappears. I get up to the door just in time for him to shove open the screen and throw the cash at her. It fluttered down to the doormat. She looks at me like, ‘Well? You gonna pick it up?’ So I did and without a word we walk back to our vehicles and drive back to my office. Now the whole way back I’m wondering what she said to this guy. How did she change his mind? So when we got there I asked her. ‘All I said,’ she answered, ’was, “Do you go to church?”’

“And you know what? She hasn’t said a word to me about the whole thing since. Not one word. Everything between us has been just great. That’s why I feel like your fingers. I got out of getting crushed and it was only by the grace of God.”

The End. Of the story. But it is not the end of God’s grace. The man who wrote our Bible passage for today knew all about his own evil. He called himself “the foremost of sinners.” Yet he also knew the joy that comes from the freedom forgiveness brings. Even more did he know that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus came to save not the perfect. He came to save those who have stolen, those who have wounded, those who have lied, and those who have cheated. If you feel trapped by your own dark side, remember this: Jesus saves us. We know he does because he has given us the gift of faith. Now: What will you do with the incredible freedom his grace brings you?