I was recently told I preached the best 3 minute sermon ever. I’ll title it “What makes us clean”. Let me set it up for you.
I was sitting at my desk, diligently working on something of vast import, I’m sure, when a co-worker introduced me to his visitor. “Nathan is our resident foster care expert and runs Spokane127, based on James 1:27, the verse that talks about taking care of orphans, and that second half of the verse no one ever talks about.”
“I talk about it,” I quickly corrected him. “I have lots of thoughts about it. Would you both like to hear them?” They affirmed they would, so I sat right there at my desk and shared this message with them.
So in the Old Testament, there are all these laws and regulations about ceremonial cleanliness: what makes one ceremonially unclean, mostly things like leprosy and diseases, blood, dead things, etc. Touching any of these things renders one unclean for a time and the priests and people were required to perform certain washings before they could enter or serve in the temple again.
I think this is why the priest and the Levite in Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan passed by on the other side of the road. They didn’t want to disqualify themselves from whatever service they were heading towards. They had a task, a ‘higher calling from God’ to serve somewhere and needed to make sure they could keep that appointment.
Now compare this to Jesus. HE comes on the scene, is constantly interrupted, and often by ‘unclean people’ wanting to be healed. Jesus touches them, and they become clean. He doesn’t become unclean; rather, they become clean. He touches the leper and he becomes clean. Same with the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus makes them clean; they don’t make Him unclean.
So then, what makes us clean?
Look again at James 1:27
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
I think there is a temptation in the Church to read that second part like the priest/Levite in the Good Samaritan story might. “Stay away from the world, so as to not become stained, corrupted, unclean. We don’t want to disqualify ourselves from the work God is calling us to.” But that is not what makes us clean. Jesus makes us clean. And that is not our calling, to just ‘stay clean’. There is a reason those two things are together in that verse. Both are important. Let’s remember what (really WHO) makes us clean, so we can visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction. We can step into the chaos and mess of the vulnerable that God calls us to serve with confidence. We meet them where they are, bringing the light and life of Jesus with us, not only staying clean ourselves, but also inviting them to be cleansed as well.
We need this mindset in the ministry of foster care as much as (if not more than) any other ministry. The trauma, instability, desperate cries for connection in the form of poor behaviors, and all the other possible issues that come from the wounds in the world of foster care
Church, let’s step into the chaos of this world boldly, without fear, trusting and looking to Jesus to keep us clean as we bring His healing to the world.
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