Rummage Sale
10-05-08
I’m not one to back down from a challenge. So, when someone challenged me to preach on how the Kingdom of God is like a Rummage Sale, I decided just to go for it. One of my jobs as a pastor is to help folk view the world through theological glasses; to see God at work in our everyday lives and activities. So why not the rummage sale? How can we look at the almighty church event and see the Almighty God at work? I’m up for the challenge, as I hope you are.
And while we celebrate World Communion Sunday, that day where we celebrate the Body of Christ around the world, I bet you there will not be a lot of sermons on the Rummage Sale. You know, I was a little nervous titling this sermon Rummage Sale. I thought, "what if this title goes into the paper and people think that we are extending our Rummage sale to Sunday?" Soon throngs of people would be at the door this morning and be a bit annoyed and confused when all they got was this silly sermon. We could of had a riot on our hands.
In any case I did want to pay tribute to that great festival that happens in churches around the country: the annual Rummage Sale. All year boxes are packed, closets are stuffed, and doilies are made in anticipation of the big event. Just when another penny will break the box, reception halls and parking lots, gyms and lounges are filled wall to wall with stuff; glorious, wonderful stuff!
As you might sense, I love rummage sales. I don’t know about you, but I find them to be the perfect cure for those blue days when I’m sad about the state of the world, when my hair won’t do anything except stick up funny, when my clothes are feeling a little tight, and when I have no money. At first, the adventure seems well…far from promising. I walk into the white-elephant space and it smells like someone’s musty basement and it is dirty and torn with use, and nothing looks worthwhile, but then, I begin rummaging. I mean I have both hands in the pile, I have tuned out the gossip and the music around me and I am digging and rummaging. Have any of you been there? Have you been in a moment when you are rummaging in hope of finding something?
I keep digging through all the uninteresting and average stuff…and then…suddenly… I find it. I hold my breath, my body shakes with excitement, my pulse quickens (Ok so I get carried away). I found it! This incredible one-of-a-kind thing and it really looks like it is in great shape, it is so cheap and I found it so it is all mine. I just can’t believe it. I start breathing again and look back at the table and as if I have put on some magic glasses, or Tinker Bell has come and spread magic fairy dust all over the table, and suddenly, fascinating and valuable things are popping up everywhere, so I gather them in my arms as they cry out to me," Melissa, Melissa you must buy me too!"
When I take my myriad treasures to the cashier and find that they cost me a whopping $5, I leave the rummage sale so happy to have made such wonderful discoveries, and sometimes my clothes even feel a little looser.
Now if you are the rummaging type, or if you like garage sale hopping, then you know that rummage can be placed in three distinct categories. Sometimes you get lucky and find the really nice stuff. This category, by far the most expensive category, includes good furniture such as decent couches, desks, lamps, electric keyboards, and this category also contains the used but in great condition electrical equipment such as radios and televisions. Then of course, this is also where you will find the fancy clothes… the fur coat kind of deal, the $20.00 turtleneck that has been marked down to a quarter. These items are usually first to be purchased. For instance, I had an office desk in my last home office that was a rummage sale find. I paid twenty dollars for a solid oak desk. It was so heavy it stayed with the house when we moved. The hope of finding this good stuff is what brings droves of people to our sale. This rummage is what I call the "highly functional rummage."
Then of course there is that stuff that does not necessarily have much usable value- but it is unique and interesting nonetheless. This weird stuff, such as odd toys and games from childhood and things that were once really popular, and you can’t believe anyone ever made it or wanted it. This is the rummage I love to find. Like the cookbook I have that contains nothing but recipes for toast! Or the odd-looking clock that you realize is the state of Nebraska. Things like that. Do you know what I’m talking about? I call this rummage, "Not Really Valuable but Highly Interesting."
The third category of rummage is the 10 and 20 cent items that have been labeled as junk., like the ancient, crocheted pillowcase, that was nice twenty years ago, but that God only knows who has drooled on it since, or a ratty old handbag, or a forty-year-old, rusty star-shaped gelatin mold. The reality is that at the end of the sale this stuff gets boxed back up and thrown out with the rest of the trash.
In his time, Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to such things as a mustard seed, yeast, a pearl, and a coin. But if Jesus were living today, I wonder if he would not also say, "The Kingdom of God is like a big rummage sale! I think that the Kingdom of God is very much like a rummage sale. It is the joy of a mustard seed that grows beyond a shrub into a tree tall enough to shelter the birds of the air. It is like yeast that grows into enough bread to feed 500 people. It is the surprise of finding a hidden treasure in a field, or that one beautiful shiny pearl among many. It is the reward of finding that very valuable coin. Often the Kingdom is hidden in plain view, maybe on the leaf of a weltered plant that provides shelter for something from the heat, maybe it is on the face of the guy who holds a sign by the parkway that reads, "Will work for food."
Perhaps the Kingdom of God is the moment in which a bit of justice appears to turn the bleakest of situation into the most hopeful situation. The Kingdom of God is a surprise of the holy, the joy, the pounding heartbeat and holding of breath that occurs when you vividly feel the presence of God. It is the shiny thing-a-ma-bob lying in plain view where you least expect to find it. It is the tired face that you encounter on the other side of the table.
I would even suggest that we often feel like human rummage, worn out and used up by the world and stamped with a second-hand price tag that is much lower than our original worth-and is it not because of these painful, discarded, feelings that we most fervently seek relationship with God? Perhaps, had a bunch of shoppers wandered into church this morning expecting a rummage sale, that’s exactly what they’d find.
And like any rummage sale, maybe the people of the Kingdom of God can be divided into three categories as well. There’s the highly functional set, filled with church leaders and successful people. We may admire or emulate these members, because they naturally attract others. Next there is the "Not Really leaders, but Highly interesting" category, the people who are capable and interesting, yes, but don’t have time, or they haven’t found the right niche for themselves, or they are too young to take on any responsibility, or are too old and tired to lead as they did in the past. Persons in this category are highly lovable and we get great enjoyment from time and energy spent connecting with them. This is where most of us find ourselves.
And then there is what one might call the high energy, group. These are the people who have been labeled as useless. These are the folks whose stories are rich, but the stories are rarely heard. These are those people in society that need our time, but any effort we make on their behalf is not that fun. And if we are really honest with ourselves, life would be a whole lot easier if we could put them in a box and get rid of them somehow.
Ah, yes the Kingdom of God is like a giant rummage sale. And the good news that Jesus taught us is that GOD LOVES RUMMAGE! However, Jesus went on to say, "God is not your ordinary thrift sale shopper." Most everyone else enters the sale and immediately begins salivating over the great furniture and the high profile items being offered, while others like me are seeking out such spiritually transformative vehicles as a "Hungry, Hungry Hippos Game". But God is like the shopper who goes directly to the rusty star mold and the ratty handbag, and she gathers them in her arms and becomes so excited and grateful to have found them that her eyes light up over all the other stuff, and she wants to buy it all- even the nice sofa beds and TV sets. God takes the old, and through God’s touch even the most useless, worn-out rummage becomes new and exciting.
Can you imagine being the rummage sale cashier, and this person comes up to you and gleefully exclaims, "I can’t believe I found this dirty plastic cup. Do you know how long I’ve been looking for one?" But that’s the God Jesus knew. That’s the God Jesus embodied; the God who shows extravagant love and attention especially for the dingy, useless junk. That’s why Jesus, according to the gospels, spent most of his time befriending and hanging out with those people who society had labeled useless: the prostitutes, lepers, widows, aliens, poor, and the last. That is why Jesus pointed to the little mustard seed and yeast.
That is why we gather with Christians around the world at the communion table this morning. We gather in remembrance of a God that through Christ established a powerful and new covenant with God’s people. We gather in remembrance of God-incarnate, who gathered in the worn and burdened, who gathered in the furry and the rusty, who gathered in the shiny and the dull, who gathered in the incomplete and the torn, who gathered the old and new around the table of God and gleefully exclaimed, "I can’t believe I found these beautiful and diverse people! Oh what a new and meaningful life I have to offer them!"
Perhaps that is one of the points of the parables: The Kingdom of God is like a giant rummage sale…and that is great. At this sale we find hidden treasures, hidden in plain view, the pearls, the yeast, the seeds, the coins, we find the highly functional rummage, we find the delightfully odd and eccentric rummage. But the really Good News is that at this Kingdom Rummage Sale we also find lots and lots of seemingly useless rummage. And that may be the rummage that can actually lead us to salvation. Thanks Be to God. Amen
Blessings,
Melissa