Life Lessons from Nature (Autumn series)
The Gospel According to Bissell
Broom and Mop Christianity
This is a fun little sermon focusing on how one can be a Broom and Mop Christian.
Scripture: Romans 12:2; Ezekiel 36:25; Psalm 51:10
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Today’s sermon is about mops and brooms.
That’s right. You heard correctly. Mops and brooms. What it means to be a mop and broom Christian or more correctly what it means to be a broom and mop Christian.
If you had met my mother, you would have met this woman who not only knew how to clean a house but how to clean a house that you could literally eat off the floor. Every day we would sweep our floors multiple times and often mop at least one of our floors.
My mother would have been considered an OCD or a fanatic when it came to housekeeping. She loved to have her floors, her bathrooms, her cabinets, her cushions, her rugs, her beds, her silverware and everything that could be cleaned – cleaned.
One of my first jobs as a young teenager was to help a couple of ladies clean their houses. My sister had helped them before and was now married and so they thought since I had also been taught by my mom that they would give me a try.
I cleaned their houses for years until I found a better job working at one of our local department stores. I was very familiar with cleaning toilets, scrubbing floors, polishing furniture and vacuuming floors. I knew what it meant to clean and polish a brash bed and how to use a car polisher with some Johnson’s Paste Wax on both the tile floors and the wooden cabinets.
With all that being said did you know that Christianity; following Jesus has a lot of things in common with cleaning?
It has been said: “Sometimes you have to take what life gives you because life is like a mop.”
It has also been said: When something falls on the floor, you don’t say – It’s not my job to clean that up.’ Instead, you say, “Should I use a broom or a mop.”
Brooms and mops.
They have been around for a long time.
And there are all kinds of brooms and mops.
+There are Straw and Corn Brooms.
+There are Plastic Brooms.
+There are Angled brooms, Whisk brooms and Hand brooms.
+There are dust mops and wet mops along with steam mops and sponge mops.
+There are mops made out of cotton and others out of microfiber and still others out of strips of various materials.
The mop and broom business are booming businesses. China makes and sells the most brooms and mops while we import more than 2 billion dollars’ worth of brooms each year. It is a multibillion-dollar business with brooms outselling mops.
So, what in the world would be a Broom and Mop Christian?
It’s a person who is a servant and ready to do some work.
A broom or a mop is made for more than something to lean on. It’s a tool. It’s made to use. It’s made to do work.
So, too is a follower of Jesus.
Listen to Jesus words:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. – Matthew 16:24
Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:28
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." – Matthew 25:35-40.
And we could add to those:
"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." 1 Peter 4:10-11
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13
As followers of Jesus, we are to help one another and that requires work. And sometimes that work is dirty and messy both literally and figuratively.
Some things need a broom.
In our own lives there are times that we mess things up and everything falls apart. There are things that need to be swept up and cleaned up.
In other people’s lives there are the same things that happen. Things fall apart, things get broken and they need someone to help them clean it all up.
And then there are those times that people literally need help with a broom to clean up their homes, their cars and other areas of their lives. They need someone with a broom to step in and
+Sweep up the dirt, the dust and the girt.
+Make the beds, clean the bathrooms and do the laundry.
+Pick up the broken bottles, crushed cans etc….
+Remove the cobwebs from the walls, ceiling, and walls.
Remember the Parable of the Woman with the coins. (Luke 15:8-10)
She had ten coins that had been marked as her wedding dowery. One day she noticed she had lost one.
Suddenly she felt like her future was in doubt. Without those 10 coins she would never be able to get married. That is one of the reasons why she was so desperate to find that coin.
What did she do? The Bible says that she got out her light and began sweeping everywhere in her home until she found the coin. After that, she threw a party.
Sweeping until she found the lost coin.
Jesus used that parable to teach us and challenge us that we need to in the same manner take the time to use the light (ourselves) and sweep (look for, hunt, gather, welcome) until we find those that need salvation.
So, in many ways we need to be Broom Christians.
+People that are not afraid to get dirty and to deal with dirt – whether it is our own dirt or other people’s dirt.
+People that are doing their best to clean up their own world and the world around them.
+People that will take the time to sweep up as many people as they can to help them find Jesus.
I guess it wouldn’t be a bad thing to be known as the CHURCH OF THE GOSPEL BROOM.
Some things need a mop.
Now, what about that mop?
Well, you can’t start with a mop. That’s important.
If you start off with a mop and then go to the broom, you are going to have some a mess of trouble.
Broom first – then mop.
It’s like another story Jesus shared – the story of the swept house.
You find it in Luke 11:24-26
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
Now, I am going to take a little license here and say what that person needed to do was to finish the job with a mop.
Sweeping with a broom is just the first step to a clean floor.
You must go further and do some deep cleaning with a mop.
+With a mop (wet mop) you can get rid of the messes, stains and the grit that gets stuck to the floor that a broom is unable to remove.
+With a mop you can kill bacteria and germs.
+With a mop you can restore the shine.
+With a mop you can put down a sealer and/or a layer of wax that will preserve and protect.
To take Jesus’ story and add to it –
Once you have the house clean
+Apply the water of the Holy Spirit all around.
+Allow the Holy Spirit to do a deep clean – allow the words God said to Ezekiel to take root and totally clean everything.
“Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from your idols, will I cleanse you.” - Ezekiel 36:25
+Allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse you from all your sin.
““Do you no know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” – Romans 6:3-5
+And then receive and live under the sealing of the Holy Spirit by walking in the Spirit and being guided by the Holy Spirit.
Moping always comes after sweeping and sealing and waxing comes after mopping.
That’s it – rather simple isn’t it.
+Let God sweep you clean.
+Let God do a deep clean.
+Let God’s Holy Spirit come in and seal and put His protection and power upon you and in you.
Now, I know that we have looked at things a little differently and perhaps you have never thought about yourself as a Broom or Mop Believer but hopefully you can take the idea of both and allow it to help you.
+Ask Jesus to sweep away the dirt of sin in your life.
+Ask the Holy Spirit to do a deep clean with His Power and Presence.
+Ask the Holy Spirit to put His Protection upon you and in you.
Now, like most things we must keep on sweeping and mopping because well – LIFE.
The Devil will forever try to put his dirt and grime back into our lives.
The Devil will forever try to stain us and take the polish off our faith.
So, we must continually keep our spiritual broom and mop around ready to do the job.
Deborah Ann Belka wrote a little poem that I found very insightful and interesting.
It’s called A MOP and BROOM in EVERY ROOM
Listen to it as we prepare for Holy Communion this morning:
I wander through my mind,
go from room to room
and in each one I find
a mop and a broom.
In the room of rebellion,
with all its dirt and grime
I sweep away all my sins
He washes away the slime.
In the room of panic,
with all its anxious fears
I sweep away my concerns
He washes away my tears.
In the room of sorrow,
with all the loss I’ve known
I sweep away my grief
He washes away my groan.
In the room of anguish,
with all its hurt and pain
I sweep away my faults
He washes away the stain.
In the room of doubt,
with every regret and qualm
I sweep away my disbelief
He washes me in His calm!
This morning as we prepare to take Holy Communion let’s think of Jesus knocking on our door with a broom in one hand and a mop in the other hand. Let’s invite him to come in and help us keep our lives and our hearts not just clean but deep cleaned, well waxed and polished in His Presence and Power.
Holy Communion
