Washed Clean

Washed Clean

based on an idea by Daniel Henderson

Tools:

2 Clear Glass Bowls

1 small bottle of Iodine

1 bottle of Film Fixer

1 Purificator or Handkerchief

Preparation:

Fill the two bowls with approximately 1 litre of water, in one bowl have approximately 150-200mls of fixer in the bottom [adding the water could be part of the story]

Talk:

The Lord Be With You

I want to show you something quite special this afternoon, something that illustrates very clearly what God does for us.

I have here, in these very bowls, some water, as you can see: plain ordinary water. Now these two bowls represent the world, and as the world is over 70% water, it is quite right that they are full of water.

Now, here I have a hankerchief, a plain ordinary handkerchief, and I think, even, that it’s clean. This handkerchief represents us, people in the world; and as you can see, when I dip it into the clean water, it stays nice and bright and shiny.

However, the world isn’t really as clean as all that is it? There are lots of nasty things going on, people killing each other and hating each other, simply because they live in the wrong part of town, or because they have different colour skin; people arguing and stealing and telling lies, all things that make God very sad about the wonderful world that he created: failing to love God, failing to follow God’s laws and failure to treat other people as we want to be treated.

So, to show this, I am going to add a few drops of some of this badness into the bowl of water, just a little, because I am sure that there is just a little bit of badness in the world, not a lot, but see what happens - the little bit of badness spreads throughout the earth and makes the water all mucky and brown.

What happens when I dip the nice clean hankie into the water now [put hankie in iodine solution, and it goes black] - it makes it dirty and stained: we are affected by the badness in the world, and we are marked by it; see how the hankie goes black - and sometimes we even make the badness worse by adding our own badness: a bit of lying, a bit of cheating, a bit of stealing and a bit of failing to love God as we should.

Now, in this other bowl, we have a slightly different world, a world which is touched with the love of Jesus Christ in it: he loves each and every one of us, no matter how black and dirty we think we may me, no matter how clever we are or how we look, he simply loves us no matter what

Watch what happens now, if I take the cloth that is us, marked with sin, and put it in the Jesus bowl, [put cloth in fixer bowl, and it will turn clean again] it takes away our sin, and makes us clean again, and you can see that the hankie has gone back to white again, as it has been touched by the love of Jesus.

However, and I think this is the clever part, this story does not just end with the wiping clean of us, and the making of us clean from sin: watch what happens when I take the cloth that has encountered the love of Jesus, and put it back in the dirty, sinful old world again [put the cloth from the fixer back in the iodine solution – the iodine will clear and the ‘water’ will be clean again], the love of Christ which has changed you, has the power to change the world, and the effect of sin can be covercome.

Let us Pray:

Dear Lord, we know that there are so many bad things that happen in the world, but help us to see that these bad things are not caused or made by you, but that they are the result of people turning away from you, and going their own way without listening to your commandments. We know that you feel for each and every one of us, when something bad happens and to show that love for us, you sent your Son, Jesus Christ to take away that sin, that badness for us. We saw with wonder and amazement, the really cool way that you wiped out our sin, and we ask, Dear God, that through us, showing the love of Christ in the way we treat each other, can make this world once more, sinless and clean.

Amen.

Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord

[dispose of the water carefully, as it is both poisonous]