This past Wednesday evening at Mass on the Grass, our summer Eucharist, I asked the question, what do musicians do in order to be better musicians? And the Mass on the Grass ensemble, barely missing a beat – sorry – replied unanimously, “practice!”
It’s the same for athletes, chess players, chefs. You play a difficult passage over and over, at different tempos, in different rhythms. You run laps, repeat routines, you scrimmage with your teammates. You do the physical thing over and over so that it becomes second nature, so that the music is beautiful. What we practice we carry with us into the world and to whatever we face there – a concert hall, a sports field, a chess board.
I asked about practice on Wednesday because we were celebrating, a day early, the feast of one of our saints in the Episcopal church, Adelaide Teague Case. You may or may not have heard of her – she was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1887, and she died in Boston just three years after the end of World War II. She was an educator who encouraged the faith formation of children; she preached frequently; she supported women’s ordination, decades before it would become possible, and she was the first woman to become a professor in an Anglican seminary, at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Professor Case was an advocate for peace, and believed that Christian faith holds the power of transformation and reconciliation, that it could change, and has changed, the world. And, as her bio at Forward Movement puts it, she “is said to have discovered these things not in theology or educational theory, but in a life of common prayer and faithful eucharistic” – and that word – “practice.”[1]
Faithful Eucharistic practice. It’s not arbitrary, our use of the word “practice” when we talk about spirituality. Around Lent in particular, we hear that phrase, spiritual practice – taking on a regular discipline of prayer or meditation or forgiveness or creativity or service, spending time with a particular activity or state of being, that brings us closer to our faith and closer to God. We practice it until it becomes second nature, until we carry that practice out into the world – maybe into the concert hall or onto a sports field – or into the classroom, or the office, into our homes, into the streets. We practice until the music is beautiful, and the practice transforms us, transforms our relationships with each other, and – as Professor Adelaide Case believed – transforms the world.
Paul, in his letter to the Galatians[2], which we read from this morning, uses another image to describe that transformation that begins with us and then is carried into the world:
As many of you as were baptized into Christ, he writes, have clothed yourselves with Christ.
And he follows that with one of the scriptures that we Episcopalians probably hold closest:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
These two sentences I believe form the heart of today’s Epistle reading.
First: Christ, who, out of love for us, once clothed himself with our humanity, and now clothes us with his divinity.
And: We are loved, all of us, no divisions, no greater than or lesser than, no hierarchies – the poorest and the most vulnerable among us are as valued as the most powerful. Episcopal priest Lauren Winner wrote a book titled Wearing God[3], and she writes that the categories of people Paul writes about – men, women, enslaved, free, Gentiles, Jews – in their time were identified in particular by what they wore – there were even laws stipulating what they must wear. But, she writes, this idea that Paul writes about is new –“On Paul’s terms,” she says, “Jesus is not the kind of clothing that creates social divisions but the kind of clothing that undoes them.” In being baptized by the Spirit, we are all given new garments – garments that transform and shape us in love.
Winner plays with that idea, of being clothed in Christ – what does it look like, she wonders – she asks, “What does it mean to understand myself as clothed with God? What does it mean to imagine God as a warm winter coat?” – or perhaps, on this day, a cool summer dress – “As a handmade bespoke suit? As a beloved cardigan sweater… chunky purple wool, with fisherman’s knots?”
And as I wondered along with her, I could’t help thinking of those Jesus T-shirts – I found them advertised on Etsy as Christian Condiment shirts, I don’t know if you’ve seen them[4]…
“Mayo Light Shine for Jesus – Spread it Around!”
“Catch Up with Jesus – Lettuce Praise and Relish Him – ‘Cuz He Loves Me from my Head To-ma-Toes….” Ok, they’re pretty awful, but fun.
I’m not sure Paul was talking about Jesus T-shirts, or about warm winter coats or purple cardigan sweaters… though thinking about what kind of clothing God might be does prompt us to think about how we think about God… do we find peace with God? Comfort? Dignity? Laughter? Joy?
I don’t think Paul is saying that by being baptized we’re putting on some kind of uniform that identifies us as part of some sort of club or group – he is saying, I believe, that we are putting on a life. We are taking on a new way of being in the world – we are putting into practice a new way of living, and taking that back out with us. In experiencing the sacrament of baptism, we are transformed, and through us, God can transform others. That is one of the gifts of baptism, the first of the two sacraments that were given to us by Christ.
And Professor Case found transformative Christian faith in the second sacrament given to us by Christ – the practice of the Eucharist. Just as our baptism isn’t meant to only transform us in here, the Eucharist we celebrate in this space isn’t meant to only feed us in here. The sharing of the table in the Eucharist is a practice and a preparation for the sharing of the table that we do in the world outside.
In baptism, we are named beloved, and in turn we go back out into the world and name everyone else beloved. In the Eucharist, we are fed with Christ’s body, and in turn, we go back out into the world and share that body with everyone else.
Here, in the church, we are clothed with Christ, and we go back out into the world and seek Christ in each other. Here, in the church, we are clothed and fed and loved by Jesus, and then we go back out there and clothe and feed and love.
These sacraments, these practices of faith and transformation, right now seem more important, more resonant, than ever. Friday, June 20, was the first day of summer. It was also World Refugee Day. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, nearly 123 million people around the world are currently displaced “as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.”[5] Theologian Diana Butler Bass breaks down those numbers – she says that more than 1 in every 67 people in the world, she writes, was a displaced person at the end of 2024.[6] More than 1 in every 67 people in the world.
We heard last night and this morning about U.S. actions in Iran, and we pray for peace there. We pray for peace in Israel and Gaza, in Ukraine and Russia and Sudan. We pray for our ministry partners in Haiti and Honduras and the challenges and the violence that they face. We pray for peace in our own country, where so many are afraid for their futures. We pray at Trinity for our community and every day of the week, we literally feed those who come to our doors, who have no shelter, no safety, not enough resources.
Back to Galatians.
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female
There is no longer Republican or Democrat,
millennial or boomer, protestor or Christian
There can be no longer
refugee or native,
prisoner or student,
gay or straight,
white or Black, politician or citizen,
wealthy or poor
for all of us are one in Christ Jesus.
Let us gather at this table and every table as the family of God.
Let us wear Christ in the world.
Amen.
[1] https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/calendar/adelaide-teague-case
[2] https://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp7_RCL.html#nt1
[3] https://www.harpercollins.com/products/wearing-god-lauren-f-winner?variant=32207399944226
[4] https://www.etsy.com/listing/666721134/christian-condiments-shirts-catch-up
[5] https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/world-refugee-day/
[6] https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/i-was-a-stranger
