God's Almighty Cleaning

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 13 BCP 232)

I have loved living in St. John's Rectory the last five years. However, I am not always thrilled about having to clean it. Eight bedrooms, two staircases, three bathrooms, lots of spaces for dust and bugs and random stuff to collect and make a mess. Cleaning can be a specific process. Sometimes I forget this fact and dust after I have cleaned the floors and then realize I got dust all over the floors again. Cleaning takes time and energy and attention to the details. The wood floors need the wood floor cleaner, not the kitchen vinyl floor cleaner. Thankfully though, I do feel happier after everything is clean and neat and smelling fresh. 

The Collect for this coming Sunday uses the metaphor of the Lord cleansing the Church. Somehow I don't think the original authors were referring to the Church building. The word in Greek they used was 'ekklesia', meaning the assembly, the congregation, the people. We will be praying for God to cleanse us! While our buildings and homes need cleaning on a regular basis, our spiritual lives do too. Even in our spiritual lives, dust and grime and little shadows can crop up and cause issues. 

Thankfully, God, as Jesus did in the Temple, is willing to clean us out. God comes into us as the Holy Spirit with wind and fire to blow and burn away everything that no longer is helpful. God's spiritual cleaning does require time and energy and attention to detail, but in the end, we are so much better for it. While transition times are always difficult, now is the time to invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts for some spiritual cleansing. Come, Lord, and make us clean!