Creative Repurposing -- FPC sermon excerpt
21 billion pounds.
That’s how much clothing Americans throw away each year. Shorts and skirts, tank tops and t-shirts, blue jeans and underwear — millions of tons of textiles.
The youths of our church are responsible for at least a few tons. They sure know how to dress.
Fortunately, not all of it ends up in the trash. About 2.5 billion pounds of clothing winds up in resale shops and what are now called “vintage emporiums.” Today, there’s no more second-hand clothing — it’s called “vintage.” And sales are booming.
But vintage clothing merchants are not the only ones turning trash into cash. According to Fast Company magazine (February 2009), more than 290 million tires are scrapped each year in the United States. Used tires are now being turned into playground covers and athletic fields.
And how about worm waste? I’ll bet you haven’t thought about the value of worm waste. Worms are very good at this, producing their body weight in waste every 24 hours.
Yes, it’s gross.
Also profitable. A company called Terracycle converts this garbage into environmentally friendly plant food, generating millions of dollars in revenue. You can buy this worm-waste plant food at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Whole Foods.
The fancy name for turning trash into cash is “creative repurposing.” An old shirt becomes vintage, a used tire turns into a playground cover, and a cup of worm waste — splat! — suddenly hits the shelf as plant food.
This is much more creative than recycling. It’s repurposing.
God has been doing this for years, most powerfully through the gift of his son Jesus Christ. In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul says that “we ourselves are Jews by birth,” people who have been working to be made right with God by doing “the works of the law” (2:15-16).
This is an important point, so let me explain. Paul grew up believing that he would be justified — made right with God — by doing what was correct according to the laws of the Bible. Paul was a champ at this, bragging that he had reasons to be confident: “a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee … as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians. 3:4-6).
Blameless? Yes, blameless, says Paul. When it came to being made right with God through works of the law, he was pitching like Stephen Strasburg.
“Yet whatever gains I had,” he writes, “I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ” (vv. 7-9).
Hebrew, Pharisee, blameless law-abider. It’s all rubbish, says Paul. In fact, what he really says, using the Greek word skubala, is that it is “excrement.”
Worm waste.
We don’t have to be Jews by birth to understand what Paul is talking about. He was playing the religious game according to the rules he grew up with, and was doing very well with it. He was throwing hundred-mile-an-hour fastballs, like Stephen Strasburg in his Nats debut. Then Paul discovered that God was creating a whole new ballgame. The rules were suddenly changing.
We run into the same trap when we focus on work and money — goals which our culture constantly encourages us to pursue. We work hard to acquire great jobs and wealth, only to discover that these enticing goals can get in the way of having a right relationship with God. We get ahead in the world, only to discover we are falling behind with God.
Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, says that “We tend to worry about drugs, drinking, and pornography. But it’s not bad and nasty things that are our biggest problems.” Work and money are great goods, and because they are great goods, they can become counterfeit gods. “If God is second place in your life and one of them is first,” concludes Keller, “you’re cooked.”
Work and money. These are the goals we pursue today, just as Paul chased the goal of being made right with God through works of the law 2000 years ago. But they don’t really make us happy, by themselves. They are counterfeit gods. Put them in first place, and you’re cooked.
But the rules are changing. God is playing a whole new ballgame through his son Jesus. God is now in the business of creative repurposing.
“A person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,” writes Paul. “And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law” (2:16).
The Jews were correct to want to be justified — that is, made right with God. But what Paul discovered is that the “works of the law” don’t get the job done. They are the old tires, clothes, and worm waste that God needs to repurpose. And so God changes them into “faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith in Christ is what makes us right with God. Not works of the law. Not money. Not success in our careers.
Only a willingness to put our complete trust in Jesus Christ. That’s what turns us into people who are right with God.
That’s how much clothing Americans throw away each year. Shorts and skirts, tank tops and t-shirts, blue jeans and underwear — millions of tons of textiles.
The youths of our church are responsible for at least a few tons. They sure know how to dress.
Fortunately, not all of it ends up in the trash. About 2.5 billion pounds of clothing winds up in resale shops and what are now called “vintage emporiums.” Today, there’s no more second-hand clothing — it’s called “vintage.” And sales are booming.
But vintage clothing merchants are not the only ones turning trash into cash. According to Fast Company magazine (February 2009), more than 290 million tires are scrapped each year in the United States. Used tires are now being turned into playground covers and athletic fields.
And how about worm waste? I’ll bet you haven’t thought about the value of worm waste. Worms are very good at this, producing their body weight in waste every 24 hours.
Yes, it’s gross.
Also profitable. A company called Terracycle converts this garbage into environmentally friendly plant food, generating millions of dollars in revenue. You can buy this worm-waste plant food at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Whole Foods.
The fancy name for turning trash into cash is “creative repurposing.” An old shirt becomes vintage, a used tire turns into a playground cover, and a cup of worm waste — splat! — suddenly hits the shelf as plant food.
This is much more creative than recycling. It’s repurposing.
God has been doing this for years, most powerfully through the gift of his son Jesus Christ. In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul says that “we ourselves are Jews by birth,” people who have been working to be made right with God by doing “the works of the law” (2:15-16).
This is an important point, so let me explain. Paul grew up believing that he would be justified — made right with God — by doing what was correct according to the laws of the Bible. Paul was a champ at this, bragging that he had reasons to be confident: “a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee … as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians. 3:4-6).
Blameless? Yes, blameless, says Paul. When it came to being made right with God through works of the law, he was pitching like Stephen Strasburg.
“Yet whatever gains I had,” he writes, “I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ” (vv. 7-9).
Hebrew, Pharisee, blameless law-abider. It’s all rubbish, says Paul. In fact, what he really says, using the Greek word skubala, is that it is “excrement.”
Worm waste.
We don’t have to be Jews by birth to understand what Paul is talking about. He was playing the religious game according to the rules he grew up with, and was doing very well with it. He was throwing hundred-mile-an-hour fastballs, like Stephen Strasburg in his Nats debut. Then Paul discovered that God was creating a whole new ballgame. The rules were suddenly changing.
We run into the same trap when we focus on work and money — goals which our culture constantly encourages us to pursue. We work hard to acquire great jobs and wealth, only to discover that these enticing goals can get in the way of having a right relationship with God. We get ahead in the world, only to discover we are falling behind with God.
Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, says that “We tend to worry about drugs, drinking, and pornography. But it’s not bad and nasty things that are our biggest problems.” Work and money are great goods, and because they are great goods, they can become counterfeit gods. “If God is second place in your life and one of them is first,” concludes Keller, “you’re cooked.”
Work and money. These are the goals we pursue today, just as Paul chased the goal of being made right with God through works of the law 2000 years ago. But they don’t really make us happy, by themselves. They are counterfeit gods. Put them in first place, and you’re cooked.
But the rules are changing. God is playing a whole new ballgame through his son Jesus. God is now in the business of creative repurposing.
“A person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,” writes Paul. “And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law” (2:16).
The Jews were correct to want to be justified — that is, made right with God. But what Paul discovered is that the “works of the law” don’t get the job done. They are the old tires, clothes, and worm waste that God needs to repurpose. And so God changes them into “faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith in Christ is what makes us right with God. Not works of the law. Not money. Not success in our careers.
Only a willingness to put our complete trust in Jesus Christ. That’s what turns us into people who are right with God.
posted by Henry Brinton | 12:24 PM
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