A TIMELY TOPIC , FEBRUARY 4, 2008:

INSPIRATION ON THE RAIN

Growing up in Washington state, it seems like second nature to me. But having lived in southern California now for most of my life, I’ve become quite spoiled without the inconvenience of it. Still, you have to love what it does to the air, how it washes away the grime from streets and greens the foliage. In fact, it gives rise to new growth and awakens all of nature with the promise of spring.

Rain metaphors abound in the Bible. It’s often associated with abundance and renewal. No wonder that water became the means for baptism and the symbol for life itself. Recently, something Jesus did during the Last Supper has given me pause. Do you remember what followed the breaking of bread and the partaking of wine with his disciples? He actually washed the feet of each one of them. As the narrative conveys, this was an extraordinary event. Why would he do this?

In this week’s Bible Lesson studied around the world in our church, one of the chosen verses is from the book of Psalms, chapter 51:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me...The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

We’ve all experienced such feelings. Perhaps during a touching scene in a movie or in expressing deep sincerity to someone we care about. It may even evoke a torrent of baptismal tears! So, what is this yearning to be good? This discovery that we have a caring heart? Could it be that we are natively good and pure and that in our best moments we want God to wash away our pride and want, to become new and childlike again?

The subject for this weeks Bible Lesson is “Spirit,” one of the names for God in the Bible. And the lesson illustrates how cleansing our thought is the beginning of living closer to God and discovering our unique purpose. When our mind is free of impositions, we can actually be cognizant of God’s voice speaking to us, guiding us, and conveying what is true about us and our neighbor. This truth known heals.

Back to Jesus. The symbolic gesture of washing feet, was a lesson for all of us. Shrouded within this simple act was the message that the sum total of wrongs we suffer from do not really belong to any one of us and that they can be washed away by seeing past the lies, forgiving the misconceived wrongs, and binding up the wounds of strife. Jesus said, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, they whole body shall be full of light.” In this walk of life, we unthinkingly absorb the crude inventions of grosser humanity, and with compassion and clear vision, we too, can wash away the grime.

Please join us this Sunday, February 10th at 10:00 a.m. at First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, for a Bible Lesson sermon on “Spirit”. See our website www.CSLCF.org for more information.

Dean Boesen, Lecture Committee