Whiter Than Snow

 

Today’s Scripture

            Psalm 51         Isaiah 1:18

 

            Children’s Presentation:  Making a clear liquid red, then neutralizing the solution making the red solution clear again.  Our sins have polluted us.  Christ is the neutralizing agent, making us clean again by his suffering and death.  (Water, NaOH, Phenol, White Vinegar)

 

            Message:  Cleaning up is an ongoing thing in our lives.  When the winter snows fall, they are so pretty until the shrinking and melting begin.  A dirty gray spoils the once pristine blanket over the earth.  How many times does one wash hands during a day?  No matter how many times you vacuum and dust, the house still needs cleaning.  It just doesn’t stop.

 

            I have an Arctic fox pelt here.  When we trapped this fox, he was a pretty nasty yellow-looking thing.  He had dirt from his travels.  He had grease from the food he had eaten (either walrus on the beach or another animal inland.  Papa Ningealook took this pelt and rubbed it with snow and corn meal.  That took the impurities out.  The pelt did not clean itself. 

 

            The Bible has several accounts of cleansing.  That was a ritual commanded by God that people would cleanse or purify themselves when they came into contact with something “impure.”  You see, God is a clean freak.  He does not want any spot or stain on you, that is any spot or stain of sin.  You see, with sin, you cannot stand in his presence.  Just as one little drop of Phenol discolored the entire pitcher of water, one little sin is all it takes to ruin you.

 

            John the Baptist pointed to Jesus saying, “Look!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  You and I are like Naaman who could not cure himself of leprosy.  Simple water as commanded by God through Elisha cured him of that terrible disease.  We cannot cure ourselves of sin, not even one of them.  God commands a washing with water and his word to cleanse one of that sin.  In the waters of baptism you are washed in the blood of that Lamb of God.

 

            Now think about washing something with blood.  It won’t come clean, will it?  But God does miracles, like that with Naaman.  The water in the Jordan river was no great water.  It was probably not the cleanest stream one could find.  But it cured Naaman.  With Jesus blood, you are washed “whiter than snow, than pure wool.”  In the Revelation to John, there were those wearing white robes.  They were the ones who had been washed in the blood of the lamb, [Rev 7:13-14]

 

            Today we do not have white robes for you – that is something we know will be one day.  But today we do have some snow-flakes for you as a reminder of this passage of Isaiah, that you are now whiter than snow.  Let us take a moment for each to write your name on a snowflake and hang your flake on the tree.  When we see trees covered with snow, how pure they look.  When we see our scarlet sins made white like snow, we know how pure God has made us in the waters of baptism, in the blood of the lamb.

 

 

            Psalm 103:11-12 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;  as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

 

            Jesus takes away the sin of the world.  That is all-inclusive and does not leave any sin out.  That is a great comfort to each one here, and the great comfort we have to give to others.  God loves you that much.  God loves each person that much. That is why he made you in his image.  That is how he wants you again.  That is why he sent his own son Jesus into this world, to complete that task that you and I cannot do.  That is why he cleanses you as he does, whiter than snow, back into his perfect image again.  Just like it was impossible for water from the Jordan River to cure leprosy, it is impossible for blood to clean something that is filthy already.  But God performed the miracle with Naaman so you can now believe the next miracle, that with your sins.  God does not stop at the surface, at skin and flesh, but he goes all the way to the core, cleansing you even into your very soul.  It is because he loves you that he wants you with him in all eternity, with each spot perfectly cleansed.