9-20-2017

Good Morning All,

             Zechariah 13:1; “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”

      I sat and listened as the speaker was telling about his journey of faith.  It had been a rocky journey.  He had divorced his wife of 15 years and abandoned his children.  He left a good paying job and wasn’t working at the time.  He had turned to alcohol to dull some of his pain and was living on hand outs.  This was the shape he was in when he began to talk to one of the volunteers at the shelter he was staying at.  The volunteer steered him to a pastor who steered him to a counselor who began the process of healing this man. 

     Two years before the man’s divorce, he was in a car accident.  He wasn’t seriously hurt but a child in the other vehicle died.  The investigation claimed it wasn’t his fault but he could not shake the guilt.  It kept him awake at night; it caused him to lose concentration at work so his performance suffered.  He withdrew from his wife, his children and his family.  He quit his job; he quit his marriage and he wanted to quit life.  He told his counselor that he was just a dirty person.  The stain of his actions could not be washed away.  He felt he deserved to wander alone for what he had done.  The counselor opened his Bible and started looking at verses like the one we use today.  God opens a fountain to cleanse his people.  John speaks of God cleansing us from all unrighteousness.  Eventually, the Spirit worked in this man’s heart and he began to heal.  He was healed because he was cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 

     There are many of us who always feel dirty.  We look at our life and some of the things we have done and we wonder if we could ever be clean.  Maybe we were a little too wild and care free.  Perhaps you caused pain to someone.  Perhaps you stole from your parents or another loved one.  Maybe you were the class bully; maybe you have something in your past that is just painful to remember and the guilt remains so the stain remains and you feel dirty and full of uncleanness.    

     Yet we are cleansed.  We are cleansed because God saw our uncleanness and sent Jesus into this brokenness to heal us.  He uses Baptism to remind us that we are clean.  We are washed and purified.  In Baptism, we die to sin; our sins are drowned and we are raised to new life in the resurrection of Jesus.  In the resurrection, we look forward to our new life in Christ, forever forgiven and cleansed from all our unrighteousness.  We are cleansed of the stain of sin.  We are named, claimed, washed and redeemed by his love.  In his mercy, we are cleansed.

Father of all cleansing, when I feel dirty and unclean, you send your Spirit to go forth in the washing of my Baptism and I remember your words; I remember you claimed me as your own.  Help me to see your love, help me to cling to your truth.  Help me to cling to the certainty of your love.  Move the hearts of those who feel so dirty and unloved.  Bring your healing and your peace into their life.  Guard your children this day.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret