Open heaven by nakedness

What will the voice say of you when the heavens open?

We read in Genesis that after Adam and Eve sinned they saw that they were naked and so hid and covered themselves. The story says God came searching for them, and after finding them trying to hide, God led them out of the garden and the heavens were closed. From then on, nakedness was seen as a shameful condition.

We read in the gospel of Matthew 3:16 how Jesus redeemed that nakedness through his baptism story: after Jesus was baptized and behold, the heavens were opened.  Prayers that commemorate that event say "the voice of the Father thundered," which stand in stark contrast to the Genesis story of God speaking to humankind in the cool of the evening.

To redeem our nakedness, Christ stripped himself before entering the Jordan. By so doing, Jesus shows that shame is not the proper response to nakedness, but rather, we should instead respond by conversion of heart, mind and way of life.

Matthew's account goes on to say that when the heavens were opened and the voice of the Father was heard, the voice proclaimed This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. The darkness of ignorance was split to uncover, enlighten and spotlight that true nakedness is not something to hide, but something to convert into truth.

A prayer for commemorating this event reads "May all who share in Christ's baptism follow in his path of service to humankind, and reflect the glory of his kingdom."

We are to "reflect the glory" of God by our uncovered, converted selves. The legendary Adam and Eve failed to understand this. According to the ancient story, Adam and Eve thought they would obtain Divinity through the fruit of the tree of life. It is Jesus who shows us we obtain real glory through stripping off our false selves and entering into a true and courageous conversion. The authentic fruit comes through baptism, our refusal to hide our condition.

For Hebrews 4:13 says: Nothing can be hidden from the Divine Presence, but everything is naked and uncovered before the eyes of him of whom we speak.

Baptism is the way we stand before God, naked in the truth of ourselves, and our willingness to be different. Then, when the heavens open, Divinity will not say, "Where are you?" but instead, "You are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased." 

Remaining naked before our God

In the spiritual life, we have a standing invitation to become and remain naked before God. It is the message that starts in the book of Genesis, where we see humans trying to “hide” from God because, as scripture records, “we saw that we were naked, and we were afraid.” The fear wasn’t being naked, but being naked before God. And we cannot help but wonder, why such foolishness?

We make that choice ourselves, every time we decide we cannot bear the truth, and decide to hide instead. It comes, not when we think we are above ground and on an even keel with God, but when we feel less than what we should be, and think hiding will protect us. Yet who was ever was healed by hiding?  We are only healed when we stand in the light and acknowledge our very real selves.

Light and grace comes to us when we decide to be naked before God by choosing to know rather than remain ignorant, to accept responsibility instead of turning a blind eye, to acknowledge our role rather than deny our part.  

Nakedness is essential to a real relationship with the Divine. It is our ability to walk with God, instead of hiding and pretending, being ashamed in front of the one who already knows. It is living in light, not in darkness. For the attempt to hide is as empty as darkness itself.  It offers us nothing but the spooks of our imagination.

Let us enjoy the light by standing truthfully before God. It is only then that we will be clothed in light, a light that reveals. 

The choice is ours. Will you become naked before God?

To Be Found Naked

Lake Ontario - so much water!

The past 15 years I've been attracted to the sense of nakedness. Oh my gosh, you say. No, not that kind. The nakedness of Genesis, where suddenly aware of their natural state, but guilty of their act of eating the forbidden fruit, the first parents try to hide from the God who knows all. Pretty stupid, I say. But then, when we try to cover things up, it is quite obvious to all what we are doing. We tend to be the only ones fooled.

Nakedness as finding the truth, yes, that is what attracts me. And with that thought, I'd like to return to the thought of water, to its life giving properties, and its destructive ones as well. Olivier Clement writes of baptism that the water we are immersed in is a sort of tomb. The water closes over the neophyte like a tomb. For the tomb to become a womb the Holy Spirit must supernaturally intervene. The Spirit given 'from above' brings the human being to a new birth, clothing with incipient but real light the whole being, the heart, the mind, the desires, all the faculties, the very senses (Roots of Christian Mysticism, 104).

The thought is consistent with nakedness, as well as water. To be naked in scripture is to be without pretense, which means we are grasping truth. To be baptized means we are throwing off the old and putting on the new. What Clement suggests is that what is clothed is the heart, the mind, the desires, etc. with the light of God. Quite a thought.

Baptism also addresses how to channel water from destructive to fruitful: the Holy Spirit. The very water we are practically drowned in (in some rites) becomes the vessel for the Holy Spirit to descend (better than a life guard, even the most athletic one). For the Spirit doesn't come to save us. He comes to sanctify. To cloth us with light, a transparent light that reveals, not covers.

Now do you understand my attraction?