Pastor’s Message – March 2026
“White as Snow”
By Rev. Dr. Carla A. Romarate-Knipel
(photo credit: Frank Burkhauser)
16 Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.
17 Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
18 “Come now, let’s settle this,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
I will make them as white as wool.
Isaiah 1:18, NLT
As I write this message I would pause in between typing these words and look at the snow-laden branches of the trees that I can see from the windows of my study at home. The snow has finally stopped falling leaving over a foot of evidence that we indeed had a blizzard as forecasted by meteorologists. It is so quiet except for a few moments when a bird breaks out into song. Or an avalanche of snow comes roaring down from our roof burying our poor winter-weary spruce bushes underneath its wet weight. Snow, snow, snow. We’ve had enough of it since its debut on January 23 just a few weeks after the first day of the new year. But here it is again blanketing our streets, sidewalks, backyards and front yards. The whiteness can be blinding! And yet, I am still in awe of the beauty of snow especially when it is fresh and new. I can appreciate the prophet Isaiah using it as a metaphor to point us, the reader, to the pristine purity that God bestows on us when we receive mercy and forgiveness. For our sins to be likened to scarlet like blood that is washed away and replaced by snow is quite a figurative contrast. I wonder what that really looks like in real life?
I think Isaiah gives us several clues how scarlet becomes white as snow in verses 16 and 17. It is interesting to note that I usually think of God as the one who is washing and cleaning me up. In these verses God is saying to us, “Yes I can really give you a good scrubbing, but first help me out by doing your own cleaning up.” What kind of cleaning up is God talking about? Verse 17 gives us some clear answers:
17 Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
These are things humans like us can actually do. To do good not because we are trying to earn God’s love. But to do good because we are already Beloved by God. To seek justice not so much in the courts of law (although this is also part of the work) but as a way of living that treats others not just fairly but as God would treat us. To help the oppressed who are not able to help themselves because they are powerless. In Isaiah’s and Jesus’ times the orphans and widows were the most disadvantaged and vulnerable. In our days orphans and widows are not just literally orphans and widows (although they too are in this group of people that God wants us to care for and defend). They represent all who are targeted by the ruthless and heartless rulers of the world who are power-hungry at the expense of those who have not enough resources not just to survive but to have a meaningful life. To defend and fight for them are what God through the prophet Isaiah constitute “Washing and cleaning yourselves.”
This leads me to conclude that God, like a good parent gets us involved in cleaning up our lives. Isaiah also reminds me in this poem that sin is not an abstract thing. Like love it is relational. When we sin, it’s not just us who gets broken, those close to us and around us are affected. Sin is personal as well as national. As our U.S. constitution begins with the preamble, “We the People …” Our experience of sin is not just a lonely “I,” but also a collective “We.” We break individually because of sin, but the repercussions are felt by the community. To be forgiven, to be made whole, to be cleansed, means we do our part and then God does what God alone can do: turn our sins that are like scarlet and make them white as snow… or wool (but this is a metaphor for another day).
As we journey through Lent and survive the literal and spiritual blizzards of life, may we listen to God’s message to us through Isaiah and do our part of washing and cleaning through acts of goodness, mercy and neighborly love. And tired we may be of snow, may it remind us of God’s abundant forgiveness, a blizzard of mercy, if you will that prepares us for the springtime of new life and the hope of Easter celebrating our Risen Lord Jesus.
Stay safe and warm, spring is coming!
A Blessed Lenten season to you all!
Yours in Christ’s peace,
Pastor Carla
