Clothed with Christ - June 3
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32; Ezek. 36:22-27; Eph. 6:10-24; Matt. 9:18-26
Today’s Reflection
When I was 19, just finishing my sophomore year at university and looking for a summer job, my friend Nicole helped me to get a job as a camp counselor a few hours away, just outside of Tampa. Now while there were some things that I liked about being at camp, overall being a counselor was pretty far out of my comfort zone. I wasn’t the fun, joking around, outdoorsy counselor—I was just the one who was good at leading the Bible studies and making the crafts and the snacks. But a few weeks into the eight weeks of camp, a new person entered the mix. Alison was a bit older than us college students (in her 30s or 40s) and had come all the way from St. Andrew’s, Scotland, to visit friends in Florida—but also to volunteer for a month at our camp. Alison filled in as an extra person with arts and crafts and wherever else she was needed. To me, it kind of felt like God had sent her to be my mentor and encourager as I fumbled my way through being a counselor that summer.
At the end of her month at the camp, Alison and I made plans that I would visit her sometime that fall when I’d be studying abroad in England. And as we parted ways, I still remember when she wrote down and then prayed for me one of her favourite prayers, a prayer that she called a hedge of protection. That prayer was the very passage we read today from Ephesians 6 about putting on the full armor of God. Alison explained to me that she liked to imagine that she was really putting on each piece of the armor—and would even sometimes go through motions as if she were buckling a belt or putting on a helmet and so on to make this prayer for spiritual protection feel more tangible, and more real:
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
When I think back now on that year, when I was just 19 years old, I see now how I was taking some risks, trying out new things as I tried to figure out what to do next in life. After camp, I went home for a few weeks to prepare for an even bigger, riskier adventure, which is that I was leaving the country for the very first time—and that I’d be gone for three and a half months, fully immersing myself in a different education system and a whole different way of life in Nottingham. I did take the train up to Scotland for a long weekend that November—and once again, I was refreshed by Alison’s gift of hospitality and encouragement. I was encouraged by her faith in a God who wants to cover each one of us with a hedge of protection—a God whose attributes we can clothe ourselves in as we wear the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and the shoes that allow us to deliver the gospel of peace.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes of “putting on the armor of God.” And then, in his letter to the Galatians, Paul says that, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.” Lauren Winner, an Episcopal priest and professor at Duke Divinity School, wrote a whole book titled Wearing God, which is about the metaphors woven throughout the Bible—metaphors that express our relationship with God in ways that we can see and hear and feel in our daily life. Winner digs deep into the implications of clothing ourselves with Christ, talking about our level of closeness with a God who wants to clothe us—clinging to us, right up against our skin, taking on our shape and our size, and even all our bumps and curves and rough edges.
And being clothed with Christ also carries connotations of being protected in Christ. While Paul talks of God as being like armor, Winner talks about God as being like a soft, cozy sweater. We put on a sweater to keep us warm, or a raincoat to keep us dry. Being clothed with Christ, or putting on the full armor of God, means that we are both protected by and close to God. God can be as close to us and as comforting to us as our favorite hoodie or sweater. Not only that, but being clothed with Christ, and putting on the armor of all the attributes of God, impacts who we understand ourselves to be as well as who others experience us to be. When we are putting on Christ, we are going to make choices that move us more and more in the direction of wanting to share with others this comforting, protective clothing of Christ.
Becky+
Questions for Reflection
What spiritual practices do you have (or could you imagine having) that help you sense that you are wearing Christ or putting on the “armor of God”?
Daily Challenge
Today’s reflection is an excerpt from my sermon, “Clothing Ourselves with Christ,” given August 22, 2021, which you can listen to in full here.