When I was in kindergarten, Matt Levering and I discovered what was, and still is in my memory, the most epic, mud-splattered, dirt-cluttered, filth-clustered sink hole to end all sink holes (which just so happened to be conveniently located in my very own backyard.) That afternoon, we adventured, we explorers we, into the great pit: our own sooty version of sheol I guess you could say. The events that occurred in the two hours after our discovery are somewhat blurred, but I do remember at one point loosing one of my shoes after sloshing through the amorphous gunk, engaging on a rescue mission (with the assistance of my Radio Flyer red wagon), and eventually sludging our way to the front door, covered from foot to waist in pure, 100 percent, unadulterated, mud. Mud caked in every crevice unclothed by our now sierra brown jeans. Needless to say, a bath was out of the question, but the outdoor hose was certainly a certainty.
Gotta love the good ol' days.
Adults don't get dirty. When I was around Princeton, I see very few mud-caked university professors. I think such a phenomena is not uncommon in most urban areas. More often than not, we are encouraged to clean up for our meals, for our dates, for social luncheons and private dinner parties and for every event in between. Dirtiness is a sign of disorganization, uncouthness, and a total lack of urbanity which separates man from beast. We are dirty only by utility: if the telos is worth its weight in mud, then so be it. Otherwise, we avoid jumping through the puddles, wadding in the swamps, shoveling through the compost, or changing any soiled diapers, if possible. We attempt to clean up our messes so we carry around sanitizer, we shower constantly, we cover our odor with perfume, cover our skin with lotions, bathe our clothing in Tide, and scrub every inch of skin we can to become the epitome of spotlessness. This is perfectly fine with me, as I personally have no qualms about those around me NOT being covering in the gunk and grime from their daily grind. However, that which is worth something, often of impertinent value, often comes at the price of our cleanliness.
Last Sunday, Nassau Presbyterian had Brain Blount speak; a former Princeton Theological Seminary Professor of New Testament studies who is now president of Union Presbyterian Seminary down in Virginia. In his sermon, he reflected on Revelation 7:9-17, which reads:
After these things I looked and beheld a massive crowd, of which no one would be able to count, from every nation and culture and from every people and language standing in the presence of the throne and the lamb, having been adorned in white clothing with palm branches in their hands, and they announced in a great chorus saying:
"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits upon the throne, and to the lamb."
And all the angels encircled the throne as well as both the elders and the four living creatures and they fell upon their faces in the presence of the throne and they worshiped God saying:
"Truly, Blessing and Glory, Wisdom and Thanksgiving,
Honor and Power and Strength,
be to our God forever and ever, Amen."
And one of the elders asked saying to me. "These people adorned in white clothing, who are they and from where have they come?" And I answered him "My lord, surely you know." And he said to me:
"These are the who come out of the great struggle, and have washed their clothes and whitened them in the blood of the lamb.
Because of this, they are in the presence of the throne of God
and they praise him day and night in his cathedral,
and he who sits upon the throne will prepare shelter for them.
They shall not pine or be parched any longer,
nor shall the sun or the heat strike them,
For the lamb at the middle of the throne shall tend to them and will lead them to bubbling streams of water.
And God will wipe every tear from their eyes." Revelation 7:9-17 (my translation)
What an ironic statement! To be cleaned we wash not in Tide or Snuggle...we wash in the blood of the lamb. To truly become white, we first must become dirty. Moreover, to be washing in the blood of the lamb, one must first arrive dirty.
Christians are dirty people. In fact, all people are dirty people. Two types of dirty though.
First, we are caked in the dirt of sin. Every inch of our lives is, in some way or another, pervaded and clouded by that dreadful gunk. Life is not simply a cruise, a ride to sit back and enjoy. To be brutally honest, we live each day in a terribly terrifying struggle (thlipsis in the Greek). We constantly see the horrors of famine, genocide, injustice, war, and disease each and every day. Thousands of children die of malnutrition, tens of thousands killed by preventable sicknesses and millions go to bed having endured a day filled with more sorrows than we could ever imagine as slaves of the body, figures of abuse, or products of broken homes. Moreover, we find ourselves heavily leaning towards the wrong. We seem to have a constant calibration which pushes us in a direction of disobedience, pride, and hate. We indulge in our gluttony, play servant to our stomachs, and deny our birthright as children of God by turning our face in the midst of our daily actions.
Me included. Life is dirty.
But, there's another kind of dirtiness. Dr. Blount spoke about this using a story from his childhood. As a kid, Blount played football, well, actually he sat on the bench for the football team. But each game day, he, along with the rest of the team, would (nonetheless) proudly wear their school colors around their torso as a badge of honor. However, Blount soon noticed a difference between his jersey and the others. The guys who played had jerseys discoloured and torn from use, pieces of grass still stuck in the tiny perforations, whereas Blount's was washed, dried, and even ironed for his daily wear (not to hard to keep a clean jersey clean). In short, Blount always hoped that he could, at least once, get out on the field and get dirty. Roll around in the muck. Proudly wear the badge of masculinity which said "I fought the fight".
Christians, Blount said, need to get dirty. We cannot simply sit around, hiding from the devastating depravity of our world and our own human natures. Rather, we must go and, through our faith, let the dirtiness of our actions glisten through the blood of the lamb. This may mean going to dirty places, being with dirty people, and mucking through the sinkholes and swamps of our society. We may get hurt, heck, we may even become so entrenched in the dirt that our own community may question our motivation. However, regardless of the dirt caked upon our spirits, let us never forget that in tribulation and trial that those who come to their heavenly Father will have their clothes...
...washed in the blood of the Lamb
Love to you all
B.
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