Clutter Around the Altar

Homiletical Idea: If we have relationships in our life that are sour, then it will keep us distanced from the Lord until we resolve those problem relationships. We must first be right with our fellow man and then our slate can be clean that we may approach the altar to worship the Lord.

History Repeated

Today I want to tell you a story about a time in my life that I was not exactly the most considerate person to be around. You see I grew up in a home where love was not shown in traditional ways. There was a lot of joking and jesting that often left me and my siblings feeling dejected and hurt. My stepfather would make remarks that were meant to be funny in his mind, but would cut down to the very core of your feelings. And even when I knew that he was not trying to be hurtful, it hurt because of other things that were said and the result was a build-up that caused me to have very low self-esteem.

As we all know, children become a product of their environment in large degree and such was the case for me. Although I was able to overcome the feelings of low self-esteem with the help of some really good friends, I became what I disliked the most in my step-father. I would jest very harshly with people. I would try to press their buttons just to see if I could get a rise out of them. It wasn't that I wanted to manipulate them. I just wanted to have fun and often that came at the expense of others feelings.

Ginger had a group of friends from church that she hung around with. Her friends were over at our house all the time and I did my best to pick on them and torture them. It was not that I did not like them. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I loved them very much and would have done anything to help them and I did just that on more than one occasion. If they needed work done on their cars I would do it. If they needed help on a project that all of them were working on then I would give them a hand. But while we worked or hung out I was always jesting and carrying on with some sort of picking.

It was not until several years later that I realized the damage that I had done. As a result of my incessant jesting and teasing, the girls began not to want to come around us that much. They seemed to always have things they needed to do and often it was not with us. One day when I was talking to a friend of mine who ended up marrying one of Ginger's girlfriends he told me how my teasing had really hurt his wife and that because of that she did not want me to come over to their house. When I was there she was nice and would smile like all was well, but I knew something was not right just by the way that she responded to me and it troubled me when my friend shared with me what was going on.

Transition to Text

At this time in my life I was really beginning to seek the Lord's will for me. I wanted to get rid of the many obstacles that were in the way of my becoming closer to God. As I read and studied I came across a passage in the Bible.

**Read Matthew 5:23, 24**

I think there is a huge principle that we need to catch here today friends. We may need to take a close look at our lives and see if our brothers and sisters have something against us. That is exactly what the Lord impressed me to do when I came across this passage many years ago.

Eating Crow

After I prayed about it and talked about it with Ginger I decided that needed to go to each one of her friends that I knew that I had probably offended. The results were very encouraging. When I approached the first one she was really shocked. At first she even thought it was a trick to suck her into some other scheme I had cooked up. But when I began to talk to her she soon realized that I was genuine in my desire to make things right with her. I explained to each one of them that teasing and jesting was how my family showed their love. As a result of that, I thought that I too had to act that way to show others that I loved and cared for them. The part I forgot about as I got older was how it made me feel to always be on the receiving end of the teasing. The Lord helped me to recall just how rotten I felt when I was being teased. So I expressed to each of them how genuinely sorry I was for all the pain that I had caused them and I asked them to forgive me and I praise the Lord they all did.

Unintentional Results

The part that I did not expect to happen was on the spiritual end of things. Once I yielded to the Holy Spirit and made right the wrongs in my relationships it was amazing to me how much more I was able to discern the will of God in my life. By God's grace I was freed up from the bonds of my past. I began to see what it really meant to express love toward those that I care about. Jesus tells us that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). The same holds true in our human relationships. If we truly love our friends and family then we will treat them the way that we want to be treated: with love and respect.

Communion Context

As I think about communion and what the various portions of the service represent my mind is drawn to the Ordinance of Humility. The foot washing portion of the communion service is the part that should bring about true reconciliation with our brethren. Christ told us that He did not come to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). How much more should we be willing to serve if our Lord Jesus humbled Himself to come and serve all of humanity? How long will we let bad blood stand between us and our fellow friends in the faith? It is my prayer today that we would follow the counsel that the Lord has given us.

**Read John 13:12-15**

Christ is Our Example

Jesus is always our example and the One who will model the behavior that He expects us to make manifest in our lives. I have heard people say before that it is silly to still wash each other's feet now days. They say that our feet are clean and we really have no need to just go through the motions. But friends I am here to tell you this morning that it has nothing to do with whether or not your feet are dirty. Communion and the Ordinance of Humility are about washing away the dirt in our hearts. It is about taking this opportunity to right the wrongs that may have cropped up in our lives. When you kneel down to wash another person's feet I pray that your heart and mind will go back to the scene of the Lord Jesus humbling Himself to wash the feet even of the one that He knew would betray Him. Are we willing to humble ourselves and reach out and serve those would seek to do us harm? I pray that we are.

If you are sitting here today and you know that there is something that you need to take care of I pray that you would covenant with the Lord in your heart to make right the wrongs of the past as soon as you are able. It may require you to go to some people that you have not spoken to in years. It may require you to humble yourself and take the first step even though you did not instigate the wrong-doing. Let me ask you a question today friends. Did Jesus do anything that warranted the death sentence that He was given? The answer is of course, "No." Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that Jesus was tempted in all ways like just like us but He was without sin. But even though He did nothing wrong, He still chose to come to earth and make everything right for us in the eyes of the Heavenly Father. So if you have been wronged consider being the one to act first. It may just be the very move that leads you to fully surrender to Jesus.

Clutter Around the Altar

Some of you may be wondering why I chose the title for the sermon that I did today. And you may ask how do we get clutter around the altar? What altar. The clutter comes when all of God's children are willing to attempt to make right the wrongs that they have wrought in their lives. If all of us would be willing to follow the counsel Jesus gave us I think we would see many gifts piled up around the altar while we were out righting the wrongs of the past. How much more free would your life be today if you were actively seeking to reconcile with those in your life with whom you have some trouble in the past? I pray that each of us would walk that path that leads to a deeper spiritual connection with the Lord and in turn to those that we hold most dear.

May this service today remind you of the awesome example that the Lord has given us. As He was being crucified He asked the Father to forgive them for not knowing what they were doing. Jesus would have been fully justified in being angry about His lot in life because He, unlike us, was totally innocent, but even when He was being nailed to the cross He was thinking of how to reach out to others. That is what service is all about, and that is what Jesus wants us to embody as we seek to reconcile with and server our fellow man. Surely it is better to have clutter around the altar while we reconcile our differences than to go about our lives as if nothing were wrong. Please search your hearts today friends and ask the Lord to guide you in righting the relationships in your life.