Consider the clothes of our congregation,
how they glow!
Clothes of every color, light and dark, bright and muted,
a rainbow of raiment as varied as the lilies of the field.
Thank you, God, for clothing us;
we all have something to wear.
This despite the fact
that some of us have stood at our closets
lamenting, “I have nothing to wear.”
We come to worship with expensive Italian shoes
and twenty-year-old Birkenstocks
and running shoes from the thrift store.
We come to church with ironed pants,
skirts and dresses, short and long;
we even come with holey jeans.
Few of us toil and spin to make our clothes,
and we confess, God, that we give hardly a thought
to those who clothe us with their labor.
In a world where disconnection breeds contempt,
where ignorance leads to neglect,
and apathy can mean the difference between life and death,
clothe us with wisdom.
Show us the connections between:
what we wear and what we believe,
who we are and who we affect,
how we love and how we spend our money.
Help us to read the labels and to know our origins.
You are our Designer, we are fashioned by you.
Your garment of love, tailor-made,
a design lovely in every season.
I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.