Leonard, my dear friend from Sierra Leone came up to me and asked me a question in my dream. The conversation progressed like below:
L: "Paul, what do you think it means to be a citizen of a country? Like Japan, or Korea, or Sierra Leone, or Target?
P: What do you mean by "Citizen of Target!?"
L: Well like the store... I guess I want to know what it means to be a part of a organization...
Please forgive me for the absolutely absurd progression here with Target and all.* Remember it was a dream. I've once heard a friend of mine describing a dream where a bus on the street morphed into a elongated bomb with a lit fuse (the kind you see in Pac-man) complete with tires to roll down the street. The bomb was blaring threats about the whole city blowing up (no kidding...).
Anyway, the point is, my dream is a little more coherent than the crazy bomb scenario. Considering that it is a dream, it made me think of stuff, which is cool. Ok, lets go on...
Then came his actual, deeper question.
L: What do you think it means for somebody to be apart of the church?
Then I pondered in bed why I was getting asked such a question. In that half awake state, I found myself imagining how his question could be answered.
Then my thought was interrupted by another thought that arrogantly cut in line. Apparently it couldn't sit quietly sit in cue like the other well behaved ones. It exclaimed; "washing machine!" Clearly another absurd incoherent thought.... or is it?
Well, you know, being part of church really is just like being in a washing machine. The more I think about it, the more it comes into focus! A great big washing machine with millions of pieces of clothes in it. Not like a Japanese washing machine which can only handle a few pieces at a time. This great washing machine labeled "the church" is an ever expanding washing machine! As filthy articles of clothing get added, it magically makes room for more. This washing machine however, seems to be stuck on a never ending cycle. It is continually going through cycles of wash and rinse day after day. Do you remember those old-school washing machines that didn't require the lid to be closed in order for it to run the washing cycle? For safety reasons and for ease of use, it would only progress into the spin cycle when the lid was closed. Its kind of like that. After the countless hours of washes, God will peek into the washing machine and find all the murky gunk is gone. Then he'll close the lid allowing the washing machine to complete its full cycle into the final rinse and spin. He'll later clip us on the clothes line to dry (because He's a tree huggar, and I dont like the tumble dry analogy). Then we will see the prophesies of the old unfold before our eyes.
Am I taking this too far? well, read this from the Bible: After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands." -Rev. 7:13
-or-
All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. -Rev. 3:5
Lets get back to the wash and rinse cycle. Have you ever washed one very badly soiled piece of clothing with other relatively clean ones? I have. You know, I'm a potter, and potters get oh, so very dirty after a full day of hard production work. The red clay is especially known for permanently leaving red spots on your clothes no matter how many times you wash it. Throw one of those pieces of clothes into the wash mix, and you have a recepie for a washing machine's nightmare. All the whitie-tities now define a new sort of pink as their white. I believe its the same in the church. We all 'rub off' on each other. By rub off, I mean, we get into each other's business. All our stinky, moldy socks as well as our finest christmas sweaters that need their moth ball smell removed all thrown into one wash. Some of us bring in filthy addictions like porn and alcoholism, and others bring in stale, religious, I am better than thou-ism. All washed in the same tub of swirling purifying water.
Am I saying that by entering into that washing machine, you will take on the mess of other people? Not necessarily. Consider this: I cleaned my bathroom the other day. There was dust everywhere, the mirror was all apecked with toothpaste and spit, the wash basin was no longer the original color... it really needed some attention to say the least. An hour later, when everything was clean, I didn't look at all the dirty rags and say "Man, these are dirty!" and walk away. Instead, I walked back into what used to be a wretched, nasty bathroom, and enjoyed its cleanliness while it lasted. See, its not about how dirty we may get in the process. Its about how clean its gonna be. What's even better about our washing machine analogy, is that the clothes don't have the ability to do much. It sits there and enjoys the ride, creating friction. Must I say it again? It seems to be the same in the church. We enter into the family forgiven, but the nasty stuff is usually pretty persistent. The smell of nicotine doesn't just pick up and leave. It needs some water and friction...
Speaking of friction, did you know that it is crucial for the washing machine to have more than just a few pieces of clothing in it? There is such a thing as a optimal water to clothes ratio. If the machine is full of water but it does not contain enough clothing, the cloths don't get as clean as they could get. This is because the clothes rely on each other. Water and soap will clean, but the friction that increases as more pieces of clothing is added to the water is crucial to the cleansing effect of this marvelous invention. I personally take this idea usually to the other extreme. I will practically move my whole room into the washer. The poor washer groans hard as it tries its best to create that friction with no avail. Don't tell my room mates, but once I smelled a burning motor... Yeah, my washer is not magical like the church. It never makes room for more.
For some of you who are reading this, what I'm suggesting may sound like a disaster! God's ways can seem like that at times. Every good boy or girl should know that you are supposed to separate the whites and colors. We all know that a red Christmas sweater shouldn't be washed together with a table cloth. In God's washing machine though, I get the impression that it works like when I wash clothes. Not that we should overload the washer (if you remember, we can't overload it, since it magically makes room for more) but that we put everything into the same wash (Sorry mom. I've quit separating my wash long ago, and never had a problem.). The precise reason why this works is because our goal for staying in this washer is not to retain our own dirt, nor to retain our own preferences, but to be made clean, and to be changed into what He wants us to be. Like it or not, at the end of the day when God peeks in and decides it's ready for the spin and dry cycle, there will be but one color left in that magical washer: White as Snow.
Y'all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. That is, we are all in a common washing machine of Jesus Christ. If you're in The Washer, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. -Mostly from Galatians 3
P.S. Thanks Leonard for approaching me in my dream and asking such a great question. You inspired me :)
*Writer has no affiliation with Target® nor does he really ever go shopping there. This blog was not written as an advertisement to get holy people to go there. If anything, it proves that a person can still be sane, and dream about Target. Some side effects associated with shopping at Target may include but not limited to: Death caused by traffic accidents involving speeding red shopping carts, nausea caused by licking the bar code scanner, and a tendency to jump towards red objects thinking its gonna have to be a good deal. Target takes no responsibility for the apparent hypnotic shopping-craze effect of the Concentric Circle Logo®.
