Ohio
may be in the Midwest but it can be Africa hot about the time your second crop
of hay is harvested. The work day for this unskilled laborer started late
morning once the sun had burned off all the dew and Esther had the hayfield
raked neatly into parallel rows. Up on the ancient tractor, farmer Dave is
excited about how fast the baler is spitting out seventy pound loaves of alfalfa.
Standing in a cloud of dust and chaff on the wobbling wagon, racing to catch
the next discharge from the chute and securely stacking one hundred forty of
them, I was less enthused about crop yields. Large round bales were invented because the
generation of youth after me refused to catch, carry, stack, un-stack, carry, un-load,
catch, carry, re-stack, un-stack, carry and finally feed seventy pound bales to
unappreciative farm animals. Anyway, after the first few wagons, it all became
a burr of various forms of discomfort; the worst being up in the oven-like barn
loft precisely stacking the bales at a rate of speed only illegal immigrants will
tolerate these days. Dave was just trying to makes sure he got the crop in
before possible late afternoon thunderstorms but I could have sworn he was
maniacally laughing as he frantically unloaded those wagons unto that conveyor shooting
bales at me like a machine-gun. The best part of baling hay was Ester’s dinner
at day’s end, the cold hard cash Dave shoveled my way on the ride home and the
hot shower.
While
Esther didn’t mind my sweat, filth and aroma when she stuffed me with comfort
food and Dave never mentioned why he kept the windows down on the International
Harvester pickup on my ride home, my own mother pinched her nose, made me shed
me togs at the back door and go to the basement to shower. The first layer
removed by that iron rich fluid was the chaff that had attached itself to me. I
didn’t mind how feeble the water heater was because the cooler streams lowered
my skin temperature as the plant parts swirled down the drain. The hot water
eventually rained down on me dissolving the caked Ohio clay from all the places
it had sneaked into but I still smelled like a farm animal. To get the stink I
had to get down the bacteria level with some serious soap and a wash rag.
Sometimes
church is one of those desperately needed showers. Stroll in the front door covered
with chaff, the meaningless stuff [weeds[i]]
that chokes out all I should or could be doing; I just want to get clear of
this debris. The traditional hymns[ii], great
literary works [set to old bar tunesJ], used to be that well water that rinsed away all
the chaff. Like a long shower that gets hotter, more music, yes, even some modern
tunes[iii] are
those steamy, cleansing steams that dissolve the filth that invades the cracks
and crevices of my character. My wife keeps a clean house but it’s amazing how
much dust collects during a three week hiatus and it is amazing how much of our
culture’s soil piles up on me during a week.
A
smelly teenager needed soapy scrubbing to attack smell and the unseen but
stinky stuff is still the hardest
contamination to remove today. Paul warned of this when he talked about the
leaven or yeast that can spoil a whole batch.
Galations 5:7-10 You were
running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of
obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race
in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only
takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread.
Communion
is my cleanser for the unseen, the stink that cannot be ignored. There’s no
taking the cup unworthily; the uncomfortable questions have to be answered.
Psalms
139:23 Search
me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:24 And
see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Have
you got a place where you can go each week and wash away the world you have to
live in? John 17:14-16[iv] tells us that we live in the world but are
not to be ‘of’ it. We are meant to live this life in the middle of sin and
strife yet somehow not become it-not let it stain us. Bombarded on every side
by language, visual stimulus, ethical quandary, and shrinking from truth, a
weekly ritual of spiritual hygiene can be invigorating. But it’s more than the
obvious that needs washed away. Fear, worry, anger, greed, envy and a host of
petty distractions can make us soiled, stained and stinky to the point of
needing a thorough scrubbing.
For
a long time it bothered me that the world could affect me like that, after all,
I was supposed to be the light and salt[v].
If I was a brand new creature[vi]
why did I feel like I needed a bath by the time Friday rolled around? Rather
than worry about the “why” I have learned to appreciate the “what” my Father
has for me when I come to his house. God has a rejuvenating ‘shower’ of himself
for each of us that can launch us into the next week.
A
couple decades back, my weekend refuge was a church where the popular
discussion was “the Deep Things of God”. For them that was code-speak for their
pet doctrines but a friend of mine cut through it all when he proclaimed, “The
deepest thing of God is his ability to take a sinner stained the darkest black,
wash him in the crimson blood of the Lamb, Christ Jesus and he will emerge
washed white as snow!” The God who washes us in forgiveness has a Good Hot
Shower of His Spirit waiting for us anytime we need to wash away the chaff, the
dirt and the smell of this world.
[1]
Tome #33. Since October 2008, life has driven me to my keyboard. If you’d
like any information about 1-32 just send me an email and I’ll plug in the
gaps.
[i]
“The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news,
but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting
everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
Matthew 13:21-23
Matthew 13:21-23
[iii]
Is it me or is some modern church music little more than mindless repetition
and recycled 60’s touchy-feely?
[iv]
John 17;14-16 I have given them
your word and the world has hated them.
For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take
them out of the world but that you
protect them from the evil one.they are not
of the world even as I am not of it.
[v]
Matthew 5:13-16
[vi] 2
Corinthians 5:17
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