Laundry, Baptism and the Sacred Ordinary

Today is laundry day.  Having just come home from Ohio for Thanksgiving, I get to turn around and head out to Cran Hill Ranch for a week of silence and solitude at the Pastors Prayer Cabin.  In order to do that, I have to have some clean clothes . . . so it's laundry day.  Which, of course, is an ordinary every day task that reminds me of baptism.

You know what this looks like.  The worn and stinky are gathered from the places they have been tossed; laundry baskets, bedroom floors, gym bags, or in our case, from plastic bags we have kept separate throughout our week with family.  It's stunning to realize how quickly it all piles up.  With great care the colors and whites are separated, each garment placed in its appropriate pile; and then one by one the piles are immersed into the cleansing power of the washer.  Soon, the bell tolls, and clean clothes are moved from one machine to the next as the dryer puts the finishing touch on the old is gone and the new has come.  Is there anything more naturally comforting than warm jeans from the dryer or clean sheets stretched out fresh waiting for a new night of sleep?

Eugene Peterson, in his contemporary translation of the bible called The Message, writes this of David's confession in Psalm 51: "Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life."  I like that translation because doing laundry reminds me of what God has done for me through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  He's made me clean from the wear and the stink of my dirty laundry called sin.  Not just sort of clean . . . but snow white and laundry fresh clean.

I wonder how much we recognize these every day baptismal reminders surrounding us all the time.  The dishes moving from the dinner table to the dish washer to the cup board speak of God's baptismal promises.  Cars entering a car wash covered in mud and grim exit out the other side with a show room shine.  Bed head and crusty sleep boogers are washed away in the jets of a shower head and we stare at a new person in the mirror.  "New mercies every morning" the bible says, and a simple shower reminds us of such.  Even a rainy day, where mercy is falling like a sweet sweet rain, can remind us of those powerful life giving promises at work within every single one of us.

Our culture teaches us to look for the extraordinary in the sensationalized and overly dramatic.  God's way is different.  God teaches us to look for the extraordinary in the simple ordinary things of life . . . what some theologians called the "sacred ordinary."

We find the sacred ordinary in things like bread and wine which invite us to a holy table . . . in things like the vine and branches of a tree in which we are to abide to bear fruit . . . in things like the simple power of light that shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it . . . and yes, even in things like laundry where the stink and stench of piled up sin are washed away.

Today is laundry day . . . and laundry day reminds me of "sacred ordinary" promises God has made in my life to wash me clean.  Not even warm jeans can compare with that.