Check your Pits

Your Pits Stink.

New York City, the city of dreams. The ones that are both easily lost as well as easily gained. One of the main tourist destinations in the world showed me a valuable lesson that I was convicted of in my own spiritual life. As i sat on the subway riding from the bronx to broadway i had an event that literally still to this day. It makes me gag even just thinking about it. I was sitting down with my good friend across from me on the other side of the subway. A man sat next to me and when he sat down my world was literally rocked. He was dressed as if he had just come from the gym. Nike and UnderArmour clearly received a pretty penny from him as he was decked out from head to toe. He was listening to music on his iPhone and anyone who saw him would guess he was a well off individual. But when i took a deep breath in through my nose i nearly threw up in the subway. The stench of body odor this man was giving off was literally enough to kill a man. I do not doubt that it may have made people pass out on the platform as they waited to get on the train. Gagging i sat there trying not to make any faces or expressions that he would see and be offended by, nor did i have the nerve to tell him he reeked of stench. All i wanted to do was say to him, “man your pits stink!” As he exited the train a few stops later i exhaled quickly almost gasping for air and those around me gave out a chuckle, because apparently we were all thinking the same thing about this one individual.

But that got me thinking. This one moment provoked inside of me a deep contemplation of the series of events that most christians see on a weekly basis. So many times we as a church body find ourselves praying and pleading with God to bring in the people, to soften their hearts, and to give us opportunities to reach out to them and show them the gospel. But yet we want God to do all the work. We want them to have their lives cleaned up before they enter the church so we are no left to “clean the mess” that is left in their life. We sit in church, know their history, know their problems and sins and yet we act as if their sin is a contagious disease that is gonna spread. The stench of their sin drives us away back into our “holy huddles.” Then once they feel uncomfortable or no longer want to be apart of our community they leave and we are left chuckling amongst ourselves about the laundry list of sins that they had. We sit in our pews as if we are pompous priests who have it all figured out. Instead of trying to mentor and disciple them we just try to spray cologne on their stench, cover up the problem and try to disguise it rather than remedy it. The problem in the church today is not the stench of sin in our congregation, but rather the stench of religion that we have become accustomed and complacent with. If we look at Christ’s ministry we dont see him among the religious much. To put it bluntly and specifically Christ did not hang out with the churched. Instead he rather chose to hang out among the sinners. He spent his time building relationships with the thieves, liars, prostitutes, sluts, addicts, and the possessed. His ministry wasnt to the church. If Christ were on the earth today would he really be able to step into the church or would the stench of our pompous religion drive him right back out of the door. Would we be too concerned with covering up the sinners stench with the “cologne” of our religion or would we be comfortable with allowing Him to step through every part of our church as well as our lives. We think just because we are saved we have it figured all out. But yet we meet people in our community who are dying and going to hell and have nothing figured out in this life. The “heathens” enter our church and well greet them but yet we wont sit with them, we don’t take the opportunity to build a relationship with them becuase they are the “town alcoholic, town whore, town prostitute, or drug dealer.” We need to get over ourselves and allow people to enter an environment where they feel comfortable with coming to Jesus as they are sin and all rather than building an environment where we just get our ego’s stroked and are able to make it to the next Sunday to just get our “holy juice” fix. When are we as a church going to realize that our complacency is failing us and cheating us out of accomplishing the Great Commission? We need to be in the world but not of the world. We need to come to the point where the “stench” of the sinners doesnt drive us away but rather draws us to the hurting, lost, misguided, and unsaved. The world has enough fakes and frauds in it, the church as a whole needs to wake up and remove themselves from that label. We need to stop tearing down the sinner and rather build them up in Christ. We need to mimick the attitude of Jesus in reaching out to the lost instead of holding our breath, gagging our way through service because of the stench of the people sitting next to us. And in reality have we really smelled ourselves lately? So what does your church smell like? Is it that sweet perfume with a hint of a reeking stench or is it real, honest, and loving the stench of the sinner as they walk through the door.

Maybe we as the church of today we need to check our pits.