Don't Touch the Dirty Dishes

I have come to believe that one of the many promises to us from God is that this life (and all the moments we are given) can be meaningful, with every breath capable of being seen as a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift that is our life. Yet I still sometimes wonder if I try and stuff meaning into moments where maybe there is none.

This may explain why last year in March, when me and Lisa and the kids found ourselves in the same quarantine that you did, and when so much that adds richness and flavor and meaning was suddenly put on pause, I often found myself telling Lisa:

“Don’t touch the dirty dishes.”

Amidst a longer stretch of not leaving the house and uncertain about when and if we would ever be allowed to have communal worship again, there were several occasions I bemoaned to Lisa that with each day that passed, each day where I was unable to do so much of what I cherished about being a priest, I felt as if something that held quite a bit of meaning - being a priest - was slipping away.

Yet for some reason, what seemed to cap the quarantine days off with a sense of meaning for me was to stand at our kitchen sink and wash the dirty dishes. This seemingly mundane and ordinary task suddenly became extraordinarily sacred for me, so much so that I would playfully, but also with a hint of seriousness, tell my sweet wife Lisa when she neared the kitchen,

“Don’t touch the dirty dishes. They’re mine.”

I was convinced that it was a holy moment; that as I scrubbed those dishes every night that somehow the heavens were opening up as angels burst forth into song.

I am sure that there is much here for me to explore with a therapist, but I also think God is quite fond of taking the ordinary and mundane and transforming it into something sacred and extraordinary, continually offering us meaning in moments where we think there’s none.

Where suddenly ordinary water in one of our great Bible stories from the Book of Exodus becomes a channel of safe passage through the red sea as Pharaoh and his army angrily pursue God’s newly freed people.

And where suddenly ordinary water, through Holy Baptism, becomes the sacred manner in which we usher new saints into God’s graciously crafted story of love and acceptance.

This means that when we are talking about water (yes, even dirty dishwater), we are also talking about safety and forgiveness, and acceptance. We’re talking about life anew and sins being washed away as we welcome people into Christ Church.

With God, mundane stuff becomes sacred stuff. This Sunday, we will see this occur as many candidates go before the Bishop for Confirmation, Reception, and Reaffirmation.

We’ll see something as ordinary or simple as the placing of one’s hands on someone’s head, or the holding of one’s hands in another. These will occur in a church filled with prayer and faith and love, and we will see those simple gestures suddenly flooded with sacred meaning.

Come join us this Sunday, where you will see God turn the ordinary into something beautiful and sacred. It's what God does.

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