Good Friday 2010

You know the bishop's committee is evaluating the vicarage for renovation so your new pastor has a safe, comfortable place to stay. There's much work to be done - plumbing, replacing bits and pieces here and there, and painting.
When renovations are being done or when buildings are going up, nothing says "construction" like hammers pounding on nails. There's just something special about the whack, whack, whack of a good solid hammer hitting the nail right on the head. It feels like this is the real thing! Oh, skill saws whine, but saws cut things apart instead of putting them together. Concrete mixers growl, but they usually lay down foundations instead of building things upward (unless the concrete mixer is in Uncle Oli's or our son's hands. They've made walls out of poured concrete, standing them up when they're solid). But for me, it's the sound of the hammer, driving nails into wood that really says, "building!" Hammers nail board to board; hammers nail the frame together, hammers nail the roof in place; hammers nail the dry wall on. Hammers and nails, that's what building really is.

Now something else about hammers and nails. They create holes. When you drive in that nail, it pushes aside the material, and it creates a hole.

This is the cross we've used every Good Friday since I came to Grace Church. We've just carried it around the Stations of the Cross. If you look closely you'll see the holes from where we've nailed our sins every year. Can I get rid of these holes? Can I push the old material back in? No, I can't move these wood fibers back where they came from. They won't go back. The hole is still there. Driving nails causes holes.

Today, in addition to the slips of paper for our sins we're passed out some nails. So each of you should have a nail. You don't have hammers or boards, but you do have nails. And if you handle your nail for any length of time, you'll be reminded of one important fact: nails can hurt.
First, if you want to be built up, you will have to endure some pounding. Somebody will find your weak spots and pound away at them. Just as we look for the hard knots and avoid them if we want to drive a nail into a board, in the same way, somebody is going to look at where you are not solid, where you are not secure, and they are going to pound on that.

Like the repeated pounding of the hammer on a nail, it can hurt to be told what you don't want to hear. Nails hurt. But often folks think that we have to be hit with the unpleasant truth about ourselves in order to be built up. It's painful. Nails hurt. But they say it's for our good.

They rejected Jesus. When Jesus stood to teach, they tried to punch holes in His theology. When Jesus went to heal, they pushed to punch holes in His compassion. When Jesus tried to love Jerusalem, they punched so many holes in His motives that He looked out over the city and wept! It's not easy when people punch holes in everything you stand for. It is not easy to deal with that coworker who belittles you because you're too honest to take home office supplies. It's not pleasant for a teenager to be out with the crowd and to be told she's no cool because she won't join them in at the wharf for a drink or something more interesting after the prom. It hurts when they drive holes in your values and in your beliefs.

But give thanks when it happens! Give thanks. Because you will not know what you really believe until you have to defend it. You will not understand how precious your values are until you have to prove them to someone else. You will not know how right you are until you have to stand up for the truth. If you don't have anybody trying to drive holes in your comfort zone, you'll just sit here, fat and sassy, but you won't grow.

Take your nail - don't get worried. I'm not going to ask you to drive holes in yourself or in each other. Our liability insurance isn't that good! (Can't you just imagine somebody telling her personal injury lawyer, "My pastor made me drive a nail through myself!"?). But now take that nail - press its point into your hand or your arm, just enough that it stings a bit. Hold it there a moment and move it away. Now look at the place where you held it. What do you see? Some kind of mark? A change in skin color, a little indentation, maybe a scratch. A hole, even if a very small one. And it hurts!

Jesus was despised, rejected, questioned, criticized; but because of that, God was able to use Him in a tremendous way.

When holes get punched in you, you get changed. You have an opportunity to grow. Nails driven in your comfort zone hurt. But if you truly want to be built up, be prepared to encounter pain. Hold on to your nail - keep it in your hand for a moment.

Now do you want the truly good news? The good news is that nails, used properly, join things together. Nails, hammered in by a skillful carpenter, join things firmly. Nails hold everything together so that the building will not fall. And that's good news. It's good news because in such a simple a thing as this nail, there is tremendous power to build.

How incredibly important it is that you are all built together! You belong to each other! You are built together by God as His spiritual house; you matter to one another! Your lives are joined.

We share a common pain: the pain is that we all are sinners, all of us. We do not need to keep pointing out one another's defects. The Holy Spirit does a fine job of convicting us of our sin.

We also share a common joy: the joy is that we are forgiven when we turn to Jesus. That joins us together - His nail-scarred hands hold us together. I think rather than catching each other doing dreadful things and driving holes in each other, after all the world does that often enough, I believe we are called to build each other up. I don't mean that we should lie to each other about how well we're doing. But support doesn't only mean criticism. We need to support one another. Holding one another accountable can also mean catching each other doing good things too. .

We share many hurting places: job failures, anxieties, health worries, and family life struggles. You may think that you are the only person in this room that's going through it. But I would guarantee you that someone here has seen it, someone here has suffered it, someone here has dealt with it, and someone here has been delivered from it. We share many hurting places; but we also, by the grace of Christ, share salvation. We share experience, we share knowledge, and we share a living, healing Savior. And in the fellowship of those who have been nailed together, built up, into God's spiritual house, the good news truly comes alive.

Take your nail now, and give it to someone near you. Find somebody else to give your nail to. And accept somebody else's nail. What do you feel when you get somebody else's nail? What does it feel like? It feels very much like your own nail, doesn't it? They're all about the same! Your issue is like his issue; her problem is much like your problem. God gives us to each other to understand one another.

And do you feel the warmth of that other person's hand? The metal of the nail is warm, having been handled by your brother or your sister. It is his warmth that you feel. It is her hand that has touched what you hold. You are a part of one another. You belong to one another. You are a spiritual house, being built up. Praise God for giving us to each other in His church!

One day they pounded on Jesus' hands, His strong carpenter's hands. They pounded; they pounded, until they put raw, red holes in those hands. Nails that hurt. On that same day they took nails, huge nails, and a hammer, and they crossed His legs and joined foot to foot and feet to timber. Nails that hurt more deeply than you or I will ever imagine. Despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
But it was for us. It was for our forgiveness. It was for our growth. It was to join us together. He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes we are healed. We are healed!

If you truly want to be renovated, to be built up, prepare to encounter pain. Just make sure it doesn't come from each other. The pain of Jesus Christ will heal you. The blood of Jesus Christ will save you. And the heart of Jesus Christ keeps pounding, pounding, pounding with love for you. Do you feel it? Amen.

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