First Sunday after Christmas C (RCL Propers), December 27, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
1 Samuel 2:18-26 A boy wearing a linen ephod. His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year.
Colossians 3:12-17 “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another…forgive one another.
Luke 2:22:40 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem.
O God of love, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
This morning I have taken our readings from the Revised Common Lectionary instead of the Episcopal exception to the Revised Common Lectionary, because the latter called for the Gospel reading to be the prologue to the Gospel of John. As beautiful as it is, I do believe that I said everything I could think of to say about that (for this year anyway) on Thursday night!
The readings from the first book of Samuel and from the Gospel of Luke sound like they go together, they do, because Luke is alluding to Samuel in his story of Jesus. Samuel is alluding to the Torah. They are stories of real humans with real parents – real Jewish humans with devout parents, who travel to Jerusalem each year for Holy Days. Just before our passage from Samuel is the song of Samuel’s mother, Hannah. Just before our passage from Luke is the song of Jesus’ mother, Mary, singing Hannah’s song about the blessing of God in the reversals of fortune that God’s mercy and justice brings. Finally, they are stories that assert that God’s embrace is wide enough to cover the whole earth.
Tucked in between these readings on this first Sunday in Christmas is a portion of the Epistle to the Colossians, and it’s to that which I want to turn. Several weeks ago, in a local office I will not name, the seasonal good will and yuletide cheer came to an abrupt end when a memo was sent from the head of a large department via email to all employees about the dress code. The memo listed in some detail clothing and footwear considered inappropriate. The list included: halter tops, midriffs, jeans, sneakers, beach shoes, etc. I guess the unseasonably warm weather was raising not just the sea level, but the fears that workers might over-expose themselves to one another!
Whatever productivity might have been possible in the weeks before the Christmas break came to a full stop as employees were much perplexed by the words and pondered in their hearts what sort of greeting this might be! Who had been wearing a halter top or a midriff? Beach shoes? The list read like it was taken from the Suffolk County House of Correction lobby where clothing requirements for visitors of inmates are prominently displayed.
It’s got me thinking of dress codes – of how much I disliked the expectation of my own managers when I was a Human Resources executive – that I would function as their fashion police, telling employees when they were improperly attired. I always wondered why their own supervisors couldn’t give that feedback. I do love to dress up, but I do not appreciate list of unacceptable attire.
I’m sure I was influenced as a child in the early 1960s when my dad, a young minister, led an urban mission congregation (what would now be called an emerging church) in the gritty city of Joliet, IL. The congregation regularly placed ads in the local paper, the Herald Tribune, that invited people to come to church in casual clothing. This was quite startling in an age when jacket and tie were expected church attire for men, and dresses and head coverings were expected for women. “Come as you are,” the advertisements invited and encouraged – you don’t have to dress up to impress one another or God. In the summer, my siblings and I got to go to church in shorts and t-shirts, unlike most of our friends. My dad presided in loud Bermuda shorts and colorful collarless shirts. (No one mentioned my father’s curious requirement that all must wear shoes to meals at our house.) Even though I do love to dress up, some of my favorite Sundays here are ones when folks wear clothes suitable for greening, or cleaning or gardening after church. And best of all, I love it when people wear what they feel good about wearing, whether it’s fancy or casual. To even have choices about what to wear is a privilege that dress codes take for granted.
I do understand the benefits of certain dress regulations for identification, safety and hygiene. Beyond that, the hope behind dress codes is always that behavior will improve, distraction and confusion will be minimized, perhaps respect enhanced. But alas, as much as we wish clothing made the man or woman, we know it’s not true. I went to a Roman Catholic grade school and I can tell you that uniforms do not create uniformity. Dressing up doesn’t prevent people from dressing others down. Clothing designed to command respect, does not prevent the wearers from behaving badly. I think the problem with dress codes, to me, is that they indicate an attempt to control, and compliance is a requirement for inclusion, for acceptance or advancement.
There are proverbs in cultures around the world that teach about clothing – most of the ones I read in my search the other day didn’t translate well, but I was taken by this Romanian proverb: “many bring their clothes to church rather than themselves.” And this Russian proverb: “when you meet a man judge him by his clothes; when you leave a man, judge him by his heart. That’s what the dress code in Colossians seems to be all about – about the heart – and actually, I think it’s more of a dress covenant.
It’s more of a covenant, because just before our passage from today, the writer of Colossians has reminded the Jewish-Christian community that, having clothed yourselves with Christ, in the image of the Creator, there is now no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.” If the Jewish world was divided into Jews and Greeks, the Greek world was divided into civilized and barbarian. For Greeks, barbarians were further subdivided, with the Scythians being the lowest of the low. [1] The point is shocking – the writer is asserting that there is no difference between people in Christ. The categories we create of better-than and less-than are meaningless when it comes to the Christ. Each is valuable to God – both worthy of and in need of redeeming. It’s already true, in Christ, the writer asserts. We are already forgiven. We are already loved.
Therefore, the writer of Colossians urges the gathering, the church, clothe yourselves with compassion (rather than wearing disdain or a scowl); with kindness (and not scorn); with humility (and not arrogance); with meekness (and not haughtiness); with patience (and not irritation or exasperation). You don’t clothe yourselves with these things in order to belong, in order to be acceptable, in order to succeed. You clothe yourselves with these things because you already belong, you are already acceptable, you are already beloved, whether you have achieved the highest forms of civilization or you are the lowest kind of barbarian. In Christ, you belong. In Christ you are beloved.
The other thing about this reading is that the “you” here is plural. The instruction in this dress covenant is for you all to clothe yourselves in love – do it together. This is good, because none of us can do this work alone, of forgiving and forgiving, of bearing with one another’s endless mistakes and missteps, but together, in community, we can take turns taking the lead, reminding one another, modeling for one another what it means to be compassionate, kind, humble, meek, and patient. You all do that for me, week in and week out. Hopefully I take my turns as well – although, I can assure you that some days are better than others!
What does any of us need to put on to remind us to be compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient? Above all, love. When we reflect on our life as a parish at Emmanuel Church, let us pray that when others see us, they can tell that we do have a dress covenant – so that others see us and know that this is a community that values love above all else.