“Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is a sermon interpretation of Malachi 3: 1-4.

John the Baptist was a messenger sent by God to prepare people for the coming of Christ. He said: Prepare your hearts for the coming of Christ; cleanse yourself from the sin that is deep within; and be washed in the waters of baptism. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

First, you and I bath or shower every day, every morning and every night…with some form of scented soap. As consumers, we have many choices; there is shelf after shelf of scented soap for your choosing. You can smell like Oatmeal and Almond or…Aloe Vera or…English Lavender or…Peach Blossom. For myself personally, I prefer this green soap called Original Irish Spring.

Now, the second step in the American rituals of purification, after you have bathed or showered with scented soap, is to wash your hair. Once again, we have hundreds of options for shampoo.

The third step in our rites of purification is some underarm deodorant. We all use them; that’s just the way it is. We have unlimited choices. Here is Mennen’s Speed Stick. Your underarms can smell like…cool spice…or musk…or fresh. Here is a Lady’s Speed Stick, so the women too can do this rite quickly. You can smell like a lemon, like a lime, like a lemon-lime, like menthol and just regular.

The fourth and last step is to use some form of cologne or perfume. Here…you can smell like a Brut…or a Baron…like leather…Russian …or English …or you can smell like the Old Spices from your mother’s kitchen cupboards. But its true: every one of us go through these rituals of purification on a daily basis.

The Bible, too, is concerned about cleanliness. Both the Old Testament and New Testament have laws concerning clean and unclean. Jesus said, “Unless you are clean, you cannot be my disciple.” But the Bible’s focus is not on the cleanliness of the skin but on the cleanliness of the inner heart; not on the cleanliness of the flesh but the cleanliness of the inner spirit; not on the cleanliness of the body but of the inner soul; not on the outer shell but on the inner person. Jesus was enormously concerned about cleanliness, but his focus was on the “inside” of the cup and not the “outside. And John the Baptist, echoing the same theme, said: “Prepare for the coming of Christ to the earth”…prepare for the coming of Christ into your heart by being cleansed of your sin which is deep within in order to prepare for God to enter in. The Bible is very concerned about inner cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

John the Baptist lived at a time when the culture around him was being corrupted, corroded, contaminated, as it always is. His culture was infected with spiritual cacogenics that polluted the cultural waters that he drank and the cultural air that he breathed. Everything in his culture around him was infected by these spiritual cacogenics. Their marriages. Their values. Their ethics. Their families. Their way of life. Their ways of religion. Everything was contaminated by life in the city. And so were their inner hearts. John the Baptist shouted: Come out to the wilderness; come into the desert; and cleanse yourself of the sin which is deep within. May your inner cup be washed clean. May your inner heart be purified in order to prepare for the Christ to come and live inside of you. Prepare. May your heart be prepared to receive the Christ.” Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

In order to understand John the Baptist more clearly, we will use the Old Testament prophecy from Malachi for today which compares the Baptist to “launders soap.” Launders soap. That is an anemic translation. In the Revised Standard Version, it is called “fuller’s soap” which was used to wash the filthy hands of blacksmiths. In the Jerusalem Bible, it is called “fuller’s alkaline.” Not merely soap but alkaline. I mean, super strong stuff. You know, like some of this soap in my grocery basket: Like Lava with pumice or Borax or Fels-Naptha. It is the kind of soap which really digs in and gets the grease and dirt out.

God always sends us messengers like John the Baptist to be like “fuller’s soap” or “refiner’s fire.” For Ebenezer Scrooge, the messenger came in the form of a dream that confronted him with his sin that was deep within. For us, our divine messenger may be a pastor, a husband, a wife, a parent, a grandparent, a child, a friend, a co-worker, a counselor, a coach, and a teacher. But be assured, God always sends us messengers to confront us with our sin that is deep within. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

One of God’s messengers to me was John Keller. How I remember John Keller, my fuller’s soap, my refiner’s fire. I was a young man, on internship at a hospital, in chaplaincy training, in group therapy that was part of that chaplaincy training. At that point in my life, I was struggling intensely with a sense of inferiority and superiority; having both an inferiority complex and therefore a need for a superiority complex. Consequently, I felt I was better than Herb, another young pastor in our group. For me at that point in my life, Herb represented all which was beige and boring; he was the essence of beige and boring. I had a need to be better than beige and boring because I was afraid I was beige and boring. And so I looked down my nose at Herb, thinking that I was superior to him. Of course, I tried to cover up these feelings of superiority, but Herb knew, and I knew and God knew. But worst of all, John Keller knew, and he was willing to be my fuller’s soap and my refiner’s fire. I was in need of much refining. I can feel those conversations as if they were yesterday, John persistently asking me about my inner self, my need for self-surrender, my need to be cleansed of those debilitating inner qualities. “I had a right to those qualities,” I said over and over again. “It’s not my fault that I am six years younger than my nearest sibling; it is not my fault that I am sociologically like an only child; that I was spoiled rotten. My parents put up with my self-centeredness and still loved me. Why couldn’t he?” But John never let up with his persistent fuller’s alkaline soap, gently telling me that I would never be happy with the shape of that sin which was deep within me; that my life would never really light up; that I wouldn’t be content until I was confronted and cleansed of that sin that was deep within; that I needed to “let go and let God” his favorite phrase. John Keller was right. John Keller has been one of God’s many messengers to my life.

I don’t know the shape of the sin that is deep within your life. But be assured that God will always send you messengers…friends…family…someone…somewhere…God will send you messengers for you to confronted with your sin which is deep within…in order for you to be cleansed, and purified and forgiven.
And don’t you forget, inner cleanliness is next to godliness.

Sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart, edited by Ministry Depot