Scripps Sunday #6

I heard a podcast today where Jan Richardson was being interviewed and read this blessing below called "Blessing the Body", and she also quoted Barbara Brown Taylor who said something along the lines that at some point every now and then, you've just got to take off all your clothes and stand in front of the mirror and say, "This is God’s address." (I dug up the real quote from the book below). 

Blessing The Body

This blessing takes

one look at you

and all it can say is

holy.

Holy hands.

Holy face.

Holy feet.

Holy everything

in between.

Holy even in pain.

Holy even when weary.

In brokenness, holy.

In shame, holy still.

Holy in delight.

Holy in distress.

Holy when being born.

Holy when we lay it down

at the hour of our death.

So, friend,

open your eyes

(holy eyes).

For one moment

see what this blessing sees,

this blessing that knows

how you have been formed

and knit together

in wonder and

in love.

Welcome this blessing

that folds its hands

in prayer

when it meets you;

receive this blessing

that wants to kneel

in reverence

before you:

you who are

temple,

sanctuary,

home for God

in this world.

-Jan Richardson

AN ALTAR IN THE WORLD

Barbara Brown Taylor

Since at least one of the reasons I remain Christian is because of the seriousness with which Christian tradition honors flesh and blood, I am always surprised at how easy it is for me to become an oaf – usually by saying something obvious about the human body in the presence of those devoted to the soul.  In the case at hand, it was saying something about Jesus’s body that got me in trouble, but I can just as easily descent into oafdom by saying something about my own body or the bodies of other people when we are supposed to be speaking of spiritual things.

For instance, I can say that I think it is important to pray naked in front of a full-length mirror sometimes, especially when you are full of loathing for your body.  Maybe you think you are too heavy.  Maybe you have never liked the way your hipbones stick out.  Do your breasts sag?  Are you too hairy?  It is always something.  Then again, maybe you have been sick, or come through some surgery that has changed the way you look.  You have gotten glimpses of your body as you have bathed or changed clothes, but so far maintaining your equilibrium has depended upon staying covered up as much as you can.  You have even discovered how to shower in the dark, so that you may have to feel what you presently loathe about yourself but you do not have to look at it.

This can only go on so long, especially for someone who officially believes that God loves flesh and blood, no matter what kind of shape it is in.  Whether you are sick or well, lovely or irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important for your spiritual health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, “Here I am.  This is the body-like-no-other that my life has shaped.  I live here.  This is my soul’s address.”  After you have taken a good look around, you may decide that there is a lot to be thankful for, all things considered.  Bodies take real beatings.  That they heal from most things is an underrated miracle.  That they give birth is beyond reckoning. 

When I do this, I generally decide that it is time to do a better job of wearing my skin with gratitude instead of loathing.  No matter what I think of my body, I can still offer it to God to go on being useful to the world in ways both sublime and ridiculous.  At the very least, I can practice a little reverence right there in front of the mirror, taking some small credit for standing there un-guarded for once.  This is no small thing, in a culture so confused about the body that most Americans cannot separate the physical form the sexual.  Comment on the beauty of a child’s body and you risk being viewed as a potential predator.  Make an observation about your own and you risk being called seductive. 

(pp 37-38)