Dirty Cars Welcome

Sometimes Ali watches movies in the morning while I help get Caleb off to school.  This morning she choose an old standard that she hadn't seen in a while:  Boz.  If you're over 7 years old, you probably don't know who Boz is.  He's the friendly green bear who loves Jesus and helps 2 little kids make good choices.

I know I've seen this particular show a hundred times at least, but today as I was putzing around  (doing I have no idea what, hopefully something amazingly productive) one particular scene struck me as odd.  Maybe even a little irritating. . .

Let me set up the scene for you:


The children are playing in their grandparent's yard.  There is a giant green bear named Boz.  There is also a red pickup truck in the driveway covered in mud.  

The Grandfather joyfully exclaims, "Hi children!  Why don't you help me wash the truck?  We're going to church tonight and I want it to look really nice."

First, let's take a moment and gasp in horror together.

(gasp!)

Now, let me explain why I think gasping in horror together is appropriate and necessary after that scene.

I'd like to start by reading you this verse from Romans 8:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  while we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.

That is the beauty of the gospel of Christ!  Here we are - broken, messy, sinful people - and our holy, awesome God chose to send His only Son to die in our place so that through him we could be made clean! 

We didn't have to get clean before Jesus died for us.  He died for us while we were STILL dirty and stuck in our sin!!  This is the wonderful hope that we hold out to the world around us:  there is a way to find peace with God - to restore fellowship with our Maker - and it doesn't require us to get our act together first!

So what does this have to do with a dirty red pickup truck?

Well, when we say things like that ("better wash the truck before we go to church!"), it perpetuates this completely false notion that we have to get our stuff together before we go to church.  It makes us feel like we have to wear a mask to hide our sin and shame from the rest of the body of Christ.  We have to put on our fanciest clothes and act like nothing ever phases us because we've got it all together. . .

Now don't mistake me - there isn't anything wrong with dressing up for church or not bursting into dramatic tears every time someone asks us how we are.  But sometimes we are all too quick to let our outer "cleanliness" be a clever coverup for our inward dirt.

In Luke, when the Pharisees are mad at Jesus because he was hanging out with "dirty" people, Jesus responds this way:

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus knows we're dirty.  He knows we're sinners, and guess what?  He wants to hang out with us anyway. . .

If we're going to carry the dirty pickup truck analogy a little further, I think we could say that we are all dirty pickups, and that church is supposed to be the car wash.  We don't wash our cars before we go to the car wash, do we?  No, we take our dirty, gross cars just as they are, fully believing that the car wash will do a mighty work in getting them clean.

You don't need to be perfect to come to church.  You don't even have to dress up.

If I were in charge of the signage in our parking lot, I think I'd make a bunch of signs that say this:

Dirty cars welcome.  
Sinners welcome, too.

Come with an open heart, ready to be filled with the love of God.

Come with an open mind, ready to hear truth that can rock your world.

Come with a determined spirit, ready to put the truth you hear into action.

Come in your dirty car, and let the blood of Jesus wash you clean.

Come however you want. . .


just come.