clothe yourself in love

July 31, 2022 • Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings: 1 Corinthians 12:21-26 (New American Bible, Revised),
Colossians 3:9-10; 14-15 (Complete Jewish Bible), Gen 3:7 (Amplified Bible)
Becca Love, COTV, guest preacher

[You can view the full worship video recording at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQw-qSRlo

Good morning…  

Last week Dwight presented us with a question: Is there a sight or a sound that provides you with instant joy? My answer last Sunday came easily because I had just spent my Saturday at the beach, which is one of my favorite places on earth. Specifically, the eastern tip of Riis beach, a spot which, for decades, has been a type of sacred gathering place for queer folks. There are many things I love about the beach: I love the water, I love the sun, I love the sand, I love the heat, all of that. But the thing that makes this corner of Riis Beach really stand out in my heart, is something else. Riis in the summertime is absolutely teeming with people who have come to be themselves as a part of a loving, joyful, exuberant community. Walk up and down the beach and you will see people of all shapes and genders and ages and backgrounds and you will see people nearly bursting with creative expression and joy, and, yes, adornment. In addition to all kinds of swimsuits you’ll see necklaces, sarongs, beads, feathers. Even nudity is worn like a robe, proclaiming a fullness of self in the eyes of all who are present to see. There is a collective joy and a sense of love in that space where people are wearing themselves fully and watching others do the same. Every time I go to Riis, my eyes are opened and my awareness increases. I am able to fully see the image of God in these others and likewise be seen. And simply by being seen in that space, decked out in my own flamboyant looks, I gain a more full knowledge of who I am as a part of that community. I feel the most like myself and I feel that much closer to God.

The first time the bible mentions clothing is in Genesis 3. Of course, that passage is often pointed to as not a great moment for clothing as many translations present the clothing as a type of punishment or a way to cover up shame when the first two people see each other’s nakedness. What I want to focus on, however, is that this passage is arguably about the first time these people really see each other. This particular translation reads: “the eyes of the two of them were opened [that is, their awareness increased.]” Of course, they had observed each other before this moment, they had interacted, but the idea that their eyes were opened and their awareness increased says a lot about their next action: “they fastened fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” Now, I recognize I’m jumping all over scripture this morning, but I want to now connect this moment in Genesis to this idea from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Paul writes, Never lie to one another; because you have stripped away the old self with its ways, and have put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of its Creator.

I would say that to increase awareness is pretty similar to having fuller and fuller knowledge. And if having fuller and fuller knowledge brings us closer and closer to the image of our creator, then is it possible that those first two people in Genesis had their eyes opened, their awareness increased, they became fuller and fuller in knowledge, and for the first time really saw each other, closer and closer to the image of their Creator? They saw in the other something closer to the image of God. And in seeing that image of God in the other, they became aware of their own physical presentation, and they adorned it with fig leaves. They dressed themselves.

Church of the Village is an online and onsite community and part of that is that we do have a physical building with various physical elements. We have the stained glass windows and the high ceilings, we have the communion table and the altar, which have been lovingly designed, decorated, and adorned. The baptismal font is made of the physical pieces of the old pews, which were partially repurposed into this new physical structure. In addition to these visual elements, our worship services include music that we are able to take in and then join with our own voices. We take communion, whether by receiving the physical sacrament by hand or by visually observing it, we taste and we see. We are reminded. We are renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge. We are physical beings with physical senses, given to us by a God who loves each one of us. The truth is, we are loved by God unequivocally whether or not we decorate altars, pray, sing in the choir, or taste the bread and wine of communion. However, these physical experiences offer sites of joy, community, and an increased awareness of that love. 

Through these ritual practices we draw closer to ourselves, become more fully able to be ourselves in community, and thus build a church that is increasingly whole and ready to receive and share the love of God. Our daily act of dressing is not only about presenting ourselves to the world, though that can be a holy act. It’s an opportunity to decorate and adorn the physical gift of senses that God has given us. It is about attuning ourselves to who we are as children of God, created in the image of God, and intended to move as one individual part of one single body of the Church.

Turning to yet another piece of scripture, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians compares the body of the church to our physical bodies, highlighting the importance of each part in order to create the whole. Paul writes, “God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. 26 If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Paul’s letter to the early church in Corinth was a plea for them to let go of the dissension building within the church there. Paul presents the physical human body as an example of perfect balance and distinct gifts. Specifically, Paul suggests that those parts of the body which we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor. The parts of ourselves that we hide, disparage, or find less honorable are perhaps the parts that we can surround with greater honor. 

Of course, there are times when we hide parts of ourselves not because we find those parts less honorable but because there can be risk in revealing those parts of our identity. The reality is that, as much as I love seeing a beach full of queer people expressing their full identities through joyful adornment, this is a world that is not always safe for queer people, as well as a number of other vulnerable populations, many intersecting. There can be real risk in wearing markers of our identity, and there can be real risk in letting people see our full selves. Without being seen, however, it is that much harder for us to find our people. For this reason, we sometimes put ourselves at risk to communicate who we are, which is a member of a community. This was the case among the members of the early church, as well. Jesus’ life was full of risk. He was the leader of a movement that questioned hierarchy and defied many cultural expectations. He advocated for a dissolution of empire, an act which threatened the powers that be, and put his life in fatal danger. Living his life was risky in many ways, and the parts of our identity that may present risk are perhaps also aspects of ourselves that can help us identify with the life of Jesus. The parts of ourselves that scare us are parts that also connect us to our humanity and thus Jesus' humanness. 

It is that humanness in Jesus that makes the trinity possible. The trinity is united yet distinct; a relationship that depends on the distinct identities of each part but is also characterized by the ultimate connectedness and glory of each individual part. The distinction between God, Jesus, and Spirit are what makes it possible for them to be inextricably linked, operating in perfect balance, an awesome union, powerful and beautiful beyond our wildest imagination.

Adornment and dress, at its best, is about dreaming into existence a world where we are safe to wear our full identities, where all bodies are seen as holy and we are continually renewed into fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of God. When we allow all of our parts to be given distinct yet connected glory we are expanding ourselves and hopefully allowing others to do the same. We are dreaming of an expansive future with God, one beyond our wildest imagination. These practices don’t distract us from God, they move us closer to God, reminding us of who we really are.

In her book Queer Virtue, the Reverend Elizabeth Edman discusses the uneasy moment of Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is an exuberant moment in the story of Lent, when people welcomed Jesus back from a harrowing journey, not knowing what was still to come. In the moment of Palm Sunday, we see a homecoming that is absolutely teeming with people who have come to be themselves as parts of a loving, joyful, exuberant community. They are in the midst of risk, of danger, but they are fully themselves and they are together and they celebrate both of those things. They adorn the donkey and they decorate the very path upon which Jesus travels.

I want to share a brief passage from a Palm Sunday sermon by the Reverend Winnie Varghese, given in 2014 at St. Mark's Church in the bowery. Varghese says in her sermon, “We have in the moment of Palm Sunday, a brief vision of what the reign of God might look like… They risk themselves to sing aloud a memory of who they knew they could be because God had told them they could be those people.”

Dress offers us the opportunity to adorn ourselves with dreams of who we believe we can be as a people. Let us all be seen fully, and may we clothe ourselves with love, moving closer and closer to the image of God.  

Copyright © 2022 by Rebecca Love
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