Cleansing the House

Cleansing the House
Acrylic on Board 30x20
 

We had seen them for years, decades even. Every September they would emerge in
droves from under the bricks on the patio. It was kind of creepy, kind of odd, but we, or
at least I, never considered the portent of the situation. I generally err on the side of
exaggerating the negative consequences of a situation, and my husband errs on the
side of saying "it's fine" when he doesn't want to deal with something. We both failed to
pay appropriate attention and were dismayed to find that the termites had made a home
in our basement walls.
 

And so now we must begin treatment to get rid of the creatures which, like teenage
boys, would literally eat us out of house and home. We call in an expert. He drills holes
in the walls, and makes holes in the dirt, and he pronounces us thoroughly infested. But
he has a plan, he will lure them to poison. It will be a seasonal ritual--bait, wait, check
the traps. And again--bait, wait, check the traps. Eventually our house will be
pronounced clean.
 

This morning I'm wondering what things I've allowed to go unfettered in the home of my
heart. What has silently moved in and been allowed to grow, eating through and taking
the place of goodness, joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, and self-
control? I look, and with clarity given by the Holy One, I see bitterness, envy, strife,
pride, greed, sloth, gluttony, anger, the love of money, the love of power, the desire to
be right and to fight for such, self-preservation--my rights, my space--DO NOT ENTER,
my choice, my life!
 

All of these things are far more destructive than subterranean termites, these things
affect eternity, and they are far more costly to remedy.
 

There was a time when houses literally needed to be cleansed. In addition to rituals for
dealing with defiling molds or skin diseases and instructions regarding what to do about
unusual bodily discharges, the book of Leviticus gives instructions for cleansing a house
from defiling molds. In each ritual, some living thing gets sacrificed (and the ways in
which the goat or the pigeon, or the sheep or the dove, are to be killed and processed
are very specific.) There is a lot of blood.
 

To cleanse a house, first remove contaminated stones and scrape the inside walls.
These materials are to be taken to an unclean place outside the town and new clay,
plaster, and stone to be installed. If the defiling mold reappears the whole house is to be
scrapped--stones, timber, all the plaster, everything, taken down and thrown into the
unclean place outside of town. But if the defiling mold has not returned, the priest shall
pronounce the house clean and then perform a ritual to purify the house.

Leviticus 14:49-53 "To cleanse(purify) the house then, he shall take two birds and cedar
wood, and a scarlet string and hyssop, and he shall slaughter the one bird in an
earthenware vessel over running water. Then he shall take the cedar wood and the
hyssop and the scarlet string, with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain
bird, as well as in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.
 

He shall thus cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water,
along with the live bird and the cedar wood, and with the hyssop and with the scarlet
string. However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So
he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean."
 

Rituals are filled with symbolism.
The priest, a holy person set aside to intervene between God and man.
Hyssop, an anti-microbial, inhibits growth of bacteria and fungi.
Cedar, used to preserve things from decay.
The Scarlet string, a reminder that the shedding of blood was always required for
atonement.
Two birds, one slain, the other dipped in the blood of the sacrifice bird and allowed to
go free. One pays for the freedom of the other.
The water and the blood foretell the sacrifice that would atone once and for all--"when
they came to Jesus and found that he had already died, they did not break his legs.
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of
blood and water."
 

My house--my spirit, soul, and body, have been defiled by sin. Cut it out, scrape it off,
haul it to the dump. It will come back. The ancients had to procure birds, find a priest,
wait for him to perform a ritual, and then continue on with their lives until they needed
another cleansing. But Jesus came as hyssop and cedar, priest and dove. His death
was the perfect and final sacrifice. I am sprinkled with his blood and taken to an open
field outside the city, and I am free.