A couple weeks ago I was in the other Big D (Dallas, Texas) for a few days.  It was the end of a two year journey where a few of us from Woodside would connect with 11 other multi-site churches from around the country to talk shop, collaborate and dream.  This was our fourth trip and the last time, at least for a while, that I’d have to maneuver through what seemed to be a random mix of one way streets without Michigan lefts.  As best I can remember, I only tried to turn into oncoming traffic twice… or maybe it was three times, you’ll have to ask pastor Vince or Beth McKenna. 

One of the landmarks we always passed by on the way to our hotel with the hot tub that wasn’t so hot, was Texas Stadium.  The first trip down, the Cowboys were still playing in the old hole-in-the-roof stadium.  But, by the third trip the stadium was sitting empty as the 1.15 billion dollar Cowboy Stadium, complete with two 175ft. Mega-Jerry Jones-Tron HD screens (the biggest in the world), took its place.  I couldn’t help but think about Texas Stadium’s twin sister up north, Detroit’s Silverdome.  They are massive visual reminders of what happens over time… stuff gets old and breaks down.  But, then came the surprise.  This last trip, as we drove down the highway I thought I took a wrong turn.  Things didn’t look familiar.  The landscape looked different and I couldn’t put my finger on what was out of place.  Then pastor Vince said, “Look at that.”  It was Texas Stadium lying in a heap of twisted metal on the ground as massive bulldozers pushed around the debris.  The city imploded the stadium and was beginning what looked like an overwhelming and neverending task of removing every bit of evidence that a stadium once stood on that soil.  It had to take months to plan the explosion/implosion.  I bet you can youtube the day it came down in 25 seconds.  It’s going to take months to clean up the mess.  And it had to cost a fortune, maybe even as much as the Jerry-Tron, to tear it down. 

All at once several sermon illustrations and questions starting popping to mind.  I wonder what was sacrificed for this to happen?  I wonder if someone, some big shot in big D, had to say NO to something else so that that he or she could say YES to this project?  I wonder why Detroit doesn’t tear down the old for the new?  And I wonder why when the new finally comes, we leave the old to rust away?  I wonder why Detroit’s leaders debate and fight and argue while building after building becomes vacant and slowly deteriorates for years to come as drugs, violence and broken windows move into places where life and business once thrived when Dallas unanimously approved the destruction project?  I wonder if we’ll ever roll up our sleaves and tear down the old?

The truth is, it costs too much.  Too many other things would have to change for the old to be done away with.  Too many sacrifices would have to be made to make it look as if a stadium never stood on this soil.  Too much effort would be required to renovate that old train station or skyscraper into something different, something new. 

I think this happens with people too.  Following Jesus means that the old stadium, the old self, the old way of life is to be imploded.  It’s to be destroyed.  The renovation is so extensive and extreme that what replaces the old is fundamentally different.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says it this way.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  The Bible lets us know that the name of these old buildings and stadiums are things like pride, greed, sexual immorality, anger, gossip, envy, idolatry and the like (check out Galatians 5 and Romans 1 for some more).  The new stadiums are called love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control.  It’s not enough to leave the Silverdome when you have Ford Field.  It’s not enough just to build up Detroit Metro while letting Michigan Central Station sit and rot.  The old ways have to go.  They have to be imploded.  They have to be reconstructed with something fundamentally different, something not world-like but Christ-like. 

But there is a heavy cost to the project.  There is sacrifice.  There are things that we have to say NO to so that we can say YES to something else.  It seems like an overwhelming neverending task.  And it will take hard work and months, years, maybe even a lifetime to finish.  Why?  Because there’s a lot of junk sitting on the ground.  The metal is all twisted up in big heaps and the earth needs pushed around for a while to clean it all up and start building something new.  But, God’s bulldozers are bigger than we think and the forethought he gives to imploding our old ways so he can build new ways is rooted in love, compassion and the beauty of what could be.  It hurts when old ways are destroyed.  Sometimes we hate to see them go.  Sometimes we don’t want them to go away.  They’ve got too much history, too much sentimental value.  But, when they sit around they do what everything else does… break down and decay.  They decay our souls, and eventually, they take over the skyline of our lives.  Sure, if you stand far enough away and catch a glimpse of the landscape during a sunset it looks pretty good.  But don’t get too close because you’ll see, smell and experience the reality and consequences of an addiction to the old ways.  It’s not a pretty site and it’s not a happy ending. 

The point is, let God build tear down the old and build the new into your life.  Stop fighting over the cost, the time and the sacrifices that would have to be made and start setting the explosives for an implosion.  Then, one day, a visitor will drive by and say, “Wow, look at that incredible stadium!  It’s beautiful!”  And that’s when you’ll say, “You should’ve seen the old one.  It didn’t have a Jerry-Tron and had a big hole in its’ roof.”  To God be the glory!