A cluttered closet

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar--when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene-- during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation' " (Luke 3:1-6a).

From 1935 to 1959 there was a weekly radio show called Fibber McGee and Molly. It was one of the first situation comedies, and a running gag was that McGee never threw anything away. Where did he keep all the stuff that was either "too good to throw away" or that he "might need some day"? In his closet of course! Frequently, McGee would be hunting for something and remember that he had it in his closet. When the door opened, the radio audience heard an incredible racket as everything imaginable fell and buried McGee. When the clattering finally ended, McGee would always say: "I gotta get that closet cleaned out one of these days." "Fibber McGee's Closet" eventually became a catch phrase for hopeless household clutter.

How many of you would feel comfortable showing me your closets? I suspect that most of you have at least one "Fibber McGee's Closet" somewhere in your home. And what might we find if we opened it up? Dirty socks? Worn out shoes? Old sporting equipment? Clothes that have gone out of fashion or don’t fit anymore? Gifts you bought ages ago and forgot you had stashed away? Shoe boxes filled with old letters, trading cards, or other memorabilia? Your high school year book? A box of pornography? I even knew a person who, when going through his closet, found a container filled with fuzzy things that had once been brownies!

We shove things into closets because we don’t want to deal with them, we don’t have time to deal with them, or we just can’t bear to part with them. But Christmas is coming up, and we love to exchange gifts. Where’s all that new stuff going to go? Clearly, we need to clean out our closets to make room for the gifts of Christmas.

Just as our closets need cleaning out, so do our hearts. In a couple of weeks, we will welcome the greatest Christmas gift of all—Jesus, the Son of God born of Mary. When Jesus comes to us, where does He live? In our hearts, of course! But when we look at all the stuff cluttering our hearts, is there room for Jesus? Let’s consider how our hearts resemble "Fibber McGee's Closet."

Many closets are filled with clothing that has gone out of fashion and with old shoes that are worn and cracked. We hang on to them for sentimental reasons—we felt good wearing them. In the same way, our hearts are filled with nostalgia for the fun times we used to have. Over the years, we eventually stopped doing some things because our friends are gone, life has gotten too busy, or we just don’t have the energy like we used to. But some of those ‘good old days’ were really nothing to be proud of. Sure, you won that fight in the parking lot—but doesn’t God forbid us from harming our neighbors? Maybe you were able to keep throwing back drinks while your buddies were passed out or sick in the bathroom—but doesn’t God forbid drunkenness? How many times have you been proud of your sins? It’s long past time to hang your head in shame and apologize to God for those sins of the past.

Perhaps your closet is filled with a heap of dirty clothes. So often, laundry gets pushed to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list. Of course, soiled clothing is unhealthy—it can lead to skin rashes and worse. But with everything going on in your life, it is hard to make time to keep things washed. In the same way, how often do you clean your heart? Jesus washed you with the waters of holy baptism, but how often do you reapply that washing by asking God to forgive your sins? Do you find it hard to make time for the Lord? How often do you confess your sins to Jesus? Do you pray as often as you shower or bathe? How frequently do you come to God’s house, to hear the wonderful truth that Jesus’ blood shed on the cross has cleansed you of every spot and stain? For your continued spiritual health, you need Christ to cleanse you regularly.

Maybe your closet contains your high school yearbook, dusty from years of being buried under other stuff. Should you open it, you’d be reminded of a time when you were exploring life, days when everything was filled with excitement and potential. School was where you learned about life—school was where you picked up the skills needed to recognize danger and make plans for the future. But since graduation, have you kept on studying? Is life still filled with the wonder of discovery and new possibilities? Or has life become boring and directionless? It happens with religion, too. Young men and women get confirmed and figure they have graduated, that there is nothing else to learn about the faith. They never read their confirmation Bible or any devotional literature. But if I were to ask them what they remembered from confirmation class, how much of that learning still sticks? Do you remember what you learned years ago in high school algebra or civics? The ugly truth is that we forget—knowledge gets buried and forgotten just like a yearbook in a closet. People who are successful in their professions are always refreshing their education through attending conferences and reading professional journals. The only way that you can keep your religious education from slipping away is by studying the Bible, God’s textbook for successful living. You can find new enthusiasm for life by spending time with God’s holy Word.

Also buried in that closet are cards and letters from people you haven’t seen in years. How sad that you have lost touch like that. But our careers are so important—we work long hours to achieve success, we move from one city to another in pursuit of our goals. Yet where do family and friends fit into our schedules? Do they only get whatever time we have left over once all our other priorities have been addressed? In the same way, does God get shoved out of our schedules? Is time at work or preparing a meal or relaxing on the golf course more important than time spent worshipping in God’s house? Is your relationship with God only a priority at Christmas and Easter? Freedom from sin and death are the most important things in the world, and they only come to those who are friends of Jesus. The other great blessing we receive from God is the love of relatives and friends. When we attend a funeral, is our attention fixed on the deceased person’s home or career or collection of antiques? No, the memories we treasure are of the times we spent together. It is time for us to stop squeezing our relationships into our schedules and start building our schedules around our relationships.

It’s annoying to look through the closet and find a gift that you bought ages ago, but never gave because you forgot you bought it. It just goes to show how frequently we take our loved ones for granted. How often do you buy flowers or bake a special treat to show someone how much they are appreciated? Not nearly often enough, I’d wager. And we treat God the same way. How often do you praise Him for keeping you warm and fed and healthy and safe? How often do you thank Jesus for suffering and dying for your sins? How often do you give the Holy Spirit credit for the things you only accomplished because He was helping you? We need to think about God and our loved ones more often than we do, and communicate how grateful we are to have them in our lives.

And then there is the truly ugly stuff—the box that you hide from the other members of your family because you’re ashamed of what’s inside. What’s in that box? It might be pornography. It might be your stash of illegal drugs. It might be where you hide your lover’s letters from your husband. It might contain receipts for things you’ve bought that you know your family cannot afford. Each of us do things that we try to hide from the people we love, because we know what we’re doing is wrong and could cause much hurt if discovered. But we cannot hide our sinful deeds from God. He is everywhere and sees everything. Sooner or later, He will call each of us to account for every time we indulged in sinful pleasures. It’s time to make a clean breast of it. Stand before Jesus with your head hanging down; lay your stash at His feet and ask Him to take away your love for it. The things in that box are addictive; they need to be treated as such.

Our souls are like closets filled with things that need to be taken to the curb so that our hearts are ready to welcome Jesus as our Christmas guest. When we have company stay for the holidays, we can’t just shove junk into the closet to hide it, because our guests need that closet space. What kinds of things does Jesus put into our hearts when we accept Him as our guest? He places clothing on our hangers, as we read in Isaiah chapter 61: he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. On the shelf we find something to wear on our heads, as described by James (chapter one): Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. Jesus even makes room for body armor, as we read in the sixth chapter of Ephesians: put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. When Jesus occupies our hearts, we are filled with the gifts of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

God tells us how to prepare for receiving Jesus into our hearts. He says, fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds (Deuteronomy 11:18). But left to our own devices, we are helpless to make our hearts ready for Jesus. We look at the impossible heap of junk in "Fibber McGee’s Closet" and have no idea where to even start. We need Jesus’ help in sorting through the clutter in our lives, identifying what is useless and unhealthy. Since there is so much that needs to be taken away, we cannot carry it to the curb by ourselves; thankfully, Jesus has the strength which we do not. Jesus even lowers Himself to take on the job of garbage man—He suffered and died in our place to take our sins away from us—as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12). The only way our hearts can be made worthy of Jesus’ occupancy is by asking the Savior to help us in cleaning them out.

We are scheduled to welcome Jesus as our heavenly guest in just two weeks. You’d better get that closet door open, let the mess tumble out, and give Jesus a call to come and roll up His sleeves!