“Stronger Than Dirt”
By: James L. Brewer-Calvert
February 26, 2016
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.”
– Psalm 51: 10
When I was a kid a neighbor passed on to us a cat with no tail and no manners. The Calvert family has a long history of tending strays and adopting wildlife. However, this cat in particular strained our capacity for unconditional love of God’s creation. My brothers named the cat Ajax because Ajax the Cat was “stronger than dirt.” No amount of soap, perfume, or beauty cleansers eased its all-powerful aroma. We can testify that no training sank in. Clearly Ajax believed that the word housebroken was meant to be taken literally, as in “What in this house can I break next?” Indeed, Ajax proved to be stronger than dirt.
We like to be clean. We invest great amounts of precious resources to look nice, to smell nice, to be appealing and pleasing to one another. We even apologize if we break into a sweat. Two female college classmates argued over whether one of them was sweating while studying for a tough exam. One said to the other, “I don’t sweat; I glow.”
Throughout the liturgical Season of Lent we explore and tap into the cleansing power of God in Christ. As much as we scrub, swipe and swab on the outside, what we truly crave is to be clean within. We pray and pray for God to help us attain that most precious of gifts: to be healed, washed, purified, sanctified, renewed, and forgiven on the inside. We recite Psalm 51: 10 with all our might: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” While both Ajax the cleanser and Ajax the Cat may be stronger than dirt, the Good News that Psalm 51 proclaims is that nothing in the world is greater than the cleansing power of God. God cleanses us from the inside out.
Often it is our past that is in need of being cleansed and forgiven. Some folks are blessed with short memories. They’ve learned the discipline to move on from painful past experiences. Football coaches tell cornerbacks who get burned on a deep ball to have a short memory, saying, “Shake it off and get ready for the next play, the next pass.” This week baseball players reported for spring training, and a common piece of advice for relief pitchers is to have a short memory. Ball coaches say, “As sure as dawn follows the night, you will get shelled in a game, and you’ll saddled with the loss; learn from it, shake it off, forget it, and get ready for the next ballgame.” Shake it off. Singer songwriter Taylor Swift has made a career from transforming past pains into one chart-topping record after another. Swift writes:
My ex-man brought his new girlfriend
She’s like “Oh, my god!” but I’m just gonna shake.
And to the fella over there with the hella good hair
Won’t you come on over, baby? We can shake, shake, shake
Shake it off. Let it go. Move on. Don’t look back. Don’t hold grudges. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself permission to forgive others as well as to be forgiven.
Okay, let’s be real, my friends. This is so much easier said than done. We have long memories, so it’s no wonder forgiveness does not come easily. We are so busy looking backward into our histories that we lose track, ignore, dismiss, and even miss what God is saying to us today, in the present. And often we nurse grudges, bitterness and resentments. We nurse our past hurts and harms and hates, tending and nursing them, giving them a special place in our hearts and minds, letting them keep us from sleep and slumber, allowing them to distract us from current events. When you have a painful past that needs to be dealt with, the gift of forgiveness is given to yourself as much as to anyone else. Where there is no forgiveness there is no life.
Be kind to one another because you may not know the burdens other people bear. The odd part is that the soul you most help may be your own. Anthony De Mello said, “An unwillingness to forgive others for the real or imaginary wrongs they have done is a poison that affects our health – physical, emotional and spiritual – sometimes very deeply. You commonly hear people say, ‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget!’ or ‘I want to forgive but cannot.’ What they really mean is they do not want to forgive.”
Forgiveness is stronger than dirt, cleansing the forgiver as well as the forgiven. A story is told of a grocery owner who passed away quite unexpectedly. Many costumers had purchased food on credit. After he died customers refused to pay their debts to his widow and children. In vain the family tried to get reimbursed. Finally one evening the mother called her children into their backyard. She placed the outstanding bills in a pile on the barbecue grill and set them on fire. Even though the family needed the funds the bills represented, she understood that what the family needed even more was peace of mind.
Jesus said, “When you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven.” We have the God-given power to forgive and move on. What burdens do you need to place at the base of the Cross? Give them to God. Leave them behind. Then walk away. Move forward. Let Christ, who places within you a clean heart and a new and right spirit, be your strength.
As always, First Christian Church of Decatur, I am delighted to be your pastor. Shalom, James