Baptism is a deeply personal symbol of faith, but it is also very public. As a man in south Georgia discovered, when something too private shows up in a baptism, it can be embarrassing.
This particular man assists the pastor of a Baptist church in getting on his waders and his robe before entering the waters of baptism. His responsibilities also include keeping the baptismal robe and baptistry clean and ready for the next baptism.
What happened one Sunday, however, completely surprised this man’s wife. The service seemed to progress smoothly and beautifully. The pastor baptized several people in celebration of their new faith in Christ. Then there was a wonderful time of worship through music and sermon. Feeling spiritually refreshed, this lady got into the car with her husband to go home. But before he drove off, he reached down, threw a bra into her lap, and asked, “Is this yours?” After recovering from shock, she asked what he was doing with her bra in the car.
“When the pastor put on his robe to do the baptism, it fell out,” he explained. Apparently when he took the robe home to wash and dry with other household laundry, static cling caught the bra in the robe and kept it there until that inopportune moment.
This gave new meaning to the expression, “airing your dirty (or in this case, clean) laundry”!
As embarrassing as that was for the lady, the truth is that we all have “dirty laundry” in our past that could potentially fall out at the most embarrassing moments. As Moses warned the Israelites, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23, NIV). Isaiah 1:16-18 says that although your sins are as scarlet, God can wash them white as snow. How is this possible? Revelation 7:14 says believers have their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who sacrificed Himself on the cross for us. You see, the Bible assures us that if we confess our sin, God is faithful to forgive our sin and cleanse us (1 John 1:9). If you’ll pardon the pun, it’s all going to come out in the wash anyway, so why not come clean now and get right with God, by faith in Christ?
(Copyright 2012 by Bob Rogers. Email: brogers@fbcrincon.com. Read this column each Friday in the Herald. Visit my blog at www.bobrogers.me.)
