Thursday, March 12, 2015
You Need a Shower!
In most cultures there are some things you cannot say to
another person, even if you are good friends: they are too intimate, personal
and they violate unspoken rules against trespassing. One of them, almost
universally accepted, is to tell somebody that they need a shower. Your mother got
away telling you that, at least when you were young, and maybe your friends
after you had worked out. But normally this topic is taboo. But that does not
mean that we don’t know people who could use somebody who would tell them exactly
that…
Just as necessary, yet just as awkward to broach, is the topic
of spiritual hygiene. In our current climate it is almost impossible to tell
somebody that they need a cleanse, that their spiritual house is due for spring
cleaning. Yet we all know people who are unpleasant to be around, who look
unhappy, who are covered by the grime of life, who need a spiritual shower. But
who will tell them? Centuries ago, the church instituted what
amounts to “showers for everybody” season. Like in some families, where some
evenings are reserved for “all the kids to get a bath”, God’s people has picked
some times during the year when everybody is supposed to get clean.
The foremost of those seasons are the forty days of Lent.
During 7 weeks before Easter you are encouraged to get into some personal,
spiritual hygiene: get a wash, a scrub, a cleanse, exfoliate…spiritually.
But far from this being an exercise in
self-cleaning, the church puts before us objective means of disinfection:
examination of conscience is a practice intended to help us look at various
aspects of our life and consider where we have strayed. Confession, either to a
brother or sister, or to an ordained minister, is a way to get it out into the
open and deal with it. Prayer and fasting is a type of dieting where we
re-calibrate our intake of food and consider what we really feed on, not only
physically but also spiritually. Almsgiving helps us get out of ourselves and
actively pursue the good of those less privileged than us. The list goes on…
When we read this we can be tempted to assume that these things
are good for other people, but that we don’t need them. Just like people with
distinct BO we are the last to realize how desperately we need a bath. Which is
why the church has decided that we are
all going to get into the shower once a year, “whether we need it or not”. As
Psalm 51 says: “Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.”
So before you decide that Lent is not for you, think again…and
if you dare, ask a friend whether you need a bath.
# posted by tino @ Thursday, March 12, 2015 
