"Wash Me!"

How does a car get so dirty that someone finally decides they need to write in the automobile’s accumulated dirt, “Wash Me!”?

I discovered this question in Peter W. Marty’s column in Christian Century. (February 26, 2020, “Gradual Grime”)  Rev. Marty makes the point that it happens gradually. The owner of the vehicle may be too lazy or too frugal to wash a vehicle that is just going to get dirty again, especially in winter, driving on salt-laden roads.  It’s not that the owner wanted the filth there, but it gathered little by little.

You get used to the dirt after a while. You think, ‘I’ll wash it later, when it’s more convenient.” Then someone comes along who is embarrassed for you (I assume they are not feeling sorry for the car) and shames you with the infamous finger-inscribed plea to bless your car with some water.

Friends, I don’t want to be the one to tell you (or I guess I do, actually): we all badly need a bath! You should care about the accumulated grime. The dirt and grime of our sin accumulates, not necessarily because we want it to, but just because we live in a sin-infested world. Do something about it now. The longer you wait the less likely it is you will get it done.

Why bother with church during Lent? It’s like walking through a fountain flowing with water. It doesn’t’ hurt, I promise. You want to be clean for Easter, right? Now is the time to let the baptismal waters get to work on that grime.  Use Lent to write a message in the dirt: ‘Wash Me!’  Jesus offers free washes every Sunday!

And God Laughs

Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain? (Psalm 2:1)

As I watch the news unfold each day it is easy to conclude that the world has gone mad. It is difficult to know who is an ally with whom and who is an enemy. Historic alliances crumble. Who is friend and who is foe is difficult to discern from month to month. And, in the worst of all developments, ‘truth’ has become a matter of personal opinion, not fact.  Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” is one we still ask.  It is enough to cause me to despair of whether peace can ever be known again in our land, much less in our world.  How then, in the midst of all that we witness, can we find any hope?

I find hope in the words of the most ancient of songs, where the Spirit tells us that the nations and the peoples ‘plot in vain’. They are not in control of my destiny. They cannot stop the march of hope through history. We who believe in God have no need to fear the futile fantasies of the nations, for they are mere minions.  Or, as Artur Wieser compares the nations leaders to God:

“A race of pigmies is face to face with a giant!...It is only when we know the overwhelming power of God…that we achieve that inward superiority, fearlessness and serene confidence which is so graphically expressed in the magnificent picture of God who from his exalted throne smiles at the manikins and mocks at them.” (Psalms, A. Wieser p. 112)

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them. (Psalm 2:4)

While the nations conspire to pursue evil among us our God laughs, for he knows that all they do is in vain.  He who laughs last…

Kind Is Not A Four-letter Word

“Why is hate so easy and love so difficult?” (Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, p. 328)

Coach Tom Izzo, when he was asked about the reaction of disgruntled fans to another loss, lamented how Michigan State ‘fans’ took to Twitter to lambast his players, the teenagers he was trying to coach into becoming better athletes and men.  The following morning, on a sports talk show, the hosts discussed Coach Izzo’s complaints. One of the hosts, a woman, proposed that sports fans using Twitter and other social media be a little more kind to each other. The rest of the panel, in unison, laughed out loud at her preposterous suggestion.

A Facebook Friend posted a lament about her close family friend who had blocked her entire family after their Facebook posts revealed that they held differing political opinions. Comments came from several other who had likewise been ‘un-friended’ by Friends because of the hate they have towards each others’ political opinions.  My Friend asked, “Can’t we just be kind to each other?”

The answer right now is ‘no’, we are all buying into divisive, bullying speech driven by the easy emotion of hate.  God’s people are supposed to be driven not by hate but by love. And this is perhaps the challenge God’s people can meet: to give the act of being kind a revival. It will require great sacrifice and greater humility. It will require thick skin, and maybe even formation of support groups for the kind.  But, there is no shame in being kind to your friends or your enemies. You are not ‘selling out’ if you refuse to engage in hateful speech or writing every time someone offends your pet political or social views.  When people attack your views with name-calling and narrow-minded labels, do not respond with hate.

Love them by being kind.  Pray for your social media ‘enemies.’ Remain their “Friend”. Don’t post things about them in social media that you would not say to their faces. Try to be more kind.

Let your kind responses serve as salt, bringing some good flavor to a tasteless society. (Matthew 5:13) ‘God, help me to be believe that ‘kind’ is not a four-letter word. It is a pathway to peace. Amen.’