A Sunday school teacher once asked a little child, “What are you drawing?” The answer came quickly, “God.”
“But, the teacher said, “no one knows what God looks like.”
“Well”… replied the child, “They will when I’m done!”
What do you think that God looks like? What image or images come to mind? In these past weeks, I’ve been exploring Biblical images for God including: Christ as King and as the neighbor in need, God as a potter, and the Lord as our shepherd. But these are just a few of the images for God in the Bible.
In today’s scripture from Isaiah, God is described as one who “has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness.” What does a garment of salvation and a robe of righteousness look like? I don’t know. But then Isaiah describes a scene we do know and invites us to imagine God as one who clothes us with our very best, adorning us like a bride and bridegroom dressing for their wedding. Like the best man checking the tie of the groom and the bridesmaids helping the bride with her dress - God wants to make us our very best.
The clothing image continues in the New Testament. Paul declares that in baptism we have been “clothed with Christ” Galatians 3:27and Romans 13:14 In her book, Wearing God, Lauren Winner takes a closer look at what that could mean, to be clothed in Christ. She imagines wearing God not only as a jewel or as a jacket - something that is external or that simply accessorizes and enhances her appearance but also as long underwear hugging close against your skin. She wonders, what does it mean to wear Christ so close that we can feel God pressing in on us? She also reflects on what how we act, depending upon what we wear. She says, “I feel different when I am wearing different clothes. I act different. I let my Talbots suits and my vintage shirts remake me in their image. I want to let Jesus do the same.” 1
Lauren Winner’s reflections made me wonder: how do we “wear Christ” and let Jesus remake us in his image?
Sometimes being clothed with Christ - wearing Christ -- can be uncomfortable and even exhausting. It was for a night nurse. Every night she puts on Christ when she puts on her PPE. This was the job that she had trained to do, and yet she told her pastor that her work on the covid19 floor was like ‘walking into fire every single night.’
For example, the other night “she had a 33 year old in her care. Suddenly he spiked a fever of 104. Alone in the room with him, she immediately began to pack him in ice to bring his fever down. Only there was not that much ice in the room so she called out for more and while she waited, she started soaking paper towels in water and using those instead.
She shouted to him as she worked, “All you have to do is keep breathing! I’ll do the rest!”
He kept breathing – even though it hurt – and the fever came down. When she ended her shift, he had made it through the night. But she was exhausted – still. She and her colleagues had been doing this day after day, night after night. On top of the hard work, she suffered the emotional burden of feeling like the ‘only one’ present to encourage, to hold, to pray. 2
Except of course, she’s not alone. She put on Christ with her PPE – and so brought Christ – and the rest of us – as Christ’s body -- with her. And while it’s true that the infectious nature of the coronavirus prevents us – and even more importantly the friends and family of this young man and the pastor of this nurse from being able to be physically present to get more ice or to hold his hand, it doesn’t keep out Christ.
Nor does it keep them or any of us, as Christ’s body, from praying. Our heartfelt prayers go out not only for him and people like him – whose job is to keep breathing… but also for her and nurses and medical personnel like her who can easily get overwhelmed, exhausted and discouraged and feel as if they are walking into fire every night and that they are alone and responsible for doing “all the rest.”
In the light of this challenge, praying from a distance doesn’t always feel like enough. But, as the body of Christ, our heart-felt prayers mean and do more than we can imagine. For as we put on Christ, and become the body of Christ, and we pray for her – and all those like her – we ask and we trust that Christ will not only be there but will also be the one that does “all the rest.”
In Jesus’ first sermon, he reads our Isaiah scripture and in addition to proclaiming Good News to the oppressed and freedom for captives, he proclaims that he came “to bind up the brokenhearted.” And he does.
This is another image of who God is – the one who binds up the broken hearted. That includes this overwhelmed nurse and the young man and his family and friends and all those whose hearts are breaking because of the challenges and the consequential limitations we face because of this virus.
And, dear friends, it includes you and me too. When your heart is breaking, God’s word for you is to “just keep breathing and let God do the rest.” For Christ has come to bind up the broken-hearted and to proclaim Good News to all who feel oppressed and freedom for all who feel captive.
Christ has come as a healer binding up our wounds, as one who frees us and as one who proclaims Good News. God comes in unexpected ways, dressing us with righteousness and who even clothes us with Christ. These are just a few of the Biblical images for God. So.. what do you think God looks like? The teacher didn’t say what the child drew. But the Bible gives us lots of images of what God is like and of what God does for us to ponder and explore. No one image can contain God. But, hopefully by expanding the Biblical images that we explore, we can not only see God in new ways but also be encouraged and encourage others that God is still at work bringing us hope and joy in new and surprising ways. Thanks be to God!