Doing God's Laundry

I like to believe that it’s in our nature, as human beings, to care for others. Love is demonstrated in practical actions: an ironed shirt, a lift home from a night out, a mug of tea… There are many ways to show that we love someone.

Anglicanism, the tradition I call home, puts an emphasis on the practical side of worship as a means to show God that we love him. Attend an Anglican parish and you’ll notice a lot of ‘stage props’, for lack of a better word. These aren’t mere adornments or decorations; they’re fully part of our worship, sacred objects with which we can interact.

Indeed, these ‘props’ often call to mind items from our homes, which is appropriate in God’s ‘house’. Out of all the services in our prayerbook, none is more hands-on than the Eucharist. Holy Communion calls for a large number of items. Think of all the ‘kitchenware’ used around the Lord’s Table: from altar linens to candles; from patens to purificators.

There are protocols to follow – table manners, if you will: proper ways to prepare the feast (again, the domestic language!); and there are certain procedures, too, when we clear up after ourselves. All that we touch, as we serve in the sanctuary, needs to be treated with respect. It isn’t our property, not even collectively; this is God’s property we have in our hands.

Table Manners in the Sanctuary

Consecrated by the local bishop – as the Lord’s ‘kitchenware’ is – to the service of God and of his people on earth, it is our shared responsibility to care for it well: his altar linens will need changed; his candles will need replaced; his patens will need rinsed; his purificators will need washed.

‘Christ has no body now but yours’, as a famous poem says. Practical care for the things of God, then, falls to those on earth who love him. It’s kind of like when we help loved ones do the things they’re no longer in a position to do. Christ, who first loved us, wants us to love him, in turn. He has called us, now that he has ascended, to be the stewards of his household until he comes again.

There are parallels in the stewardship of our own homes: bed linens will need changed, as altar linens do; lightbulbs will need replaced, as candles do; plates will need rinsed, as patens do; towels will need washed, as purificators do. Good housekeeping at home shows respect for those we live with. Good housekeeping in church is a beacon of love towards God and our fellow believers.

When we clear up after Holy Communion, it isn’t merely to restore the sanctuary to ‘factory settings’, or to get everything ready for its next outing. It’s a sacred and significant act, in and of itself; we demonstrate our love to God as we keep his house in good order.

Fortunately, church isn’t all about holy chores; otherwise, nobody would come! There is, in a healthy fellowship, all you would expect in a happy home: we chat, we laugh, we share meals, and more. Practical service – or, as a friend of mine would say, ‘doing God’s laundry’ – stands out as just one avenue through which our love is manifest in parish life.

Sometimes, however, our practical care for the things of God is not recognised as the worshipful act it is, or – worse – is even denigrated as meaningless ‘ritual’. Nobody needs to be convinced that we worship when we sing hymns and canticles; but some definitely need to be convinced that proper care of altar linens, for example, is an act of worship. Hence, this article.

Innovations like single-use communion cups deny some of our parishes a chance to minister to Christ and to each other in these practical ways – in this instance, the stewardship of the chalice. Notice, too, how the same ‘kitchenware’ is used in a parish for decade after decade. It becomes a token of our communion, our Christian solidarity, with previous generations.

Clean Linen and Sacred Love

In the Bible, we read about men and women who ministered to the Lord. This, of course, was a long, long time before Thomas Cranmer, who shaped Anglican worship in its modern form. There was Mary of Bethany, who anointed Christ; and there was Joseph of Arimathea, who wrapped and buried him. We bear the same gift as Joseph of Arimathea when we ‘do God’s laundry’. That is, ‘clean linen’ (Matthew 27.59)!

I hope I’ve persuaded you that even the seemingly mundane – from ironing a surplice to polishing the parish brassware – can be deeply spiritual. Just as we keep a good house for the people who live with us, we keep a good sanctuary because we love God and those who kneel with us.

Nothing we do to serve Christ is insignificant, even the humblest of our ministries.