Body language

Christian Century, Jan 16, 2002 by Stephanie Paulsell

There may be times in our lives when we will be called upon to take the coat from our back on the spot and give it to someone in need. But my friend's simple practice is a way of keeping in mind every day our obligation to clothe others, a way of holding those others--whose names we may never know--in our minds and our hearts. It is a daily preparation for giving.

We are called upon to clothe others by a God who clothes us at baptism and offers us again and again, never giving up, the clean, beautiful garments of mercy, justice and kindness to wear. Because God has compassion for our nakedness, God is a God who clothes. The Book of Genesis imagines God making clothes for Adam and Eve, who had been shamed by the knowledge of their nakedness. The Book of Ezekiel describes God clothing Israel, who is imagined as a child abandoned in the wilderness, dirty and naked, her umbilical cord uncut.

   Then I bathed you with water and washed off the blood from you, and
   anointed you with oil. I clothed you with embroidered cloth and with
   sandals of fine leather; I bound you in fine linen and covered you with
   rich fabric. I adorned you with ornaments: I put bracelets on your arms, a
   chain on your neck, a ring on your nose, earrings in your ears and a
   beautiful crown upon your head.... Your fame spread among the nations on
   account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of my splendor that I
   had bestowed on you, says the Lord God (Ezek. 16: 9-12,14).

Our nakedness is never beyond the reach of God's desire to clothe and adorn us. Our bodies are never so exposed that we cannot be clothed in the garments that God offers us new in every moment. Kay knows this. During the last days of her mother's life, she offered her mother a bath. The gesture echoed the bath in which her mother was first clothed in the garments of faith. And Kay's mother knew it. Together they were teaching each other how to die, how to live in the desire "not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (2 Cor. 5:4).

Stephanie Paulsell teaches at Harvard Divinity School. This article is excerpted from Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice (forthcoming from Jossey-Bass, a Wiley company). Used by permission. [c] 2002 by Stephanie Paulsell.