“John came clothed in camel’s hair saying . . . He must become greater, I must become less.”  The Gospel According to St. Mark

“Whoever exalts himself will be lowered, and whoever lowers herself will be exalted.” Jesus the Christ in The Gospel According to St. Luke

Iona is never far from my thoughts.  I learned a lot in the ten weeks I spent there, about myself, other people, church and most importantly God.  Iona brought healing and gave me a new perspective and greater appreciation for things I’d never previously paid attention to or appreciated.  One of those was humility.  Iona taught me about humility by providing an apron in place of an alb. 

As a pastor I had worn white Sunday garments that symbolized the covering that came by Christ in baptism, and a stole that represented a yoke which symbolized the work one supposedly submitted to when serving God.  Those finely pressed priestly robes provided yet another ego boost by reminding me that I was a little bit different, a little bit more, a little bit better than everyone else; or so I thought. When I arrived at Iona I was just another volunteer, nobody special.  I was responsible for cutting vegetables, cooking soup, washing dishes, sweeping and mopping floors and scrubbing toilets.  I wore an apron to do all of those tasks.  It was a subtle reminder of what it means to be a servant. It was a daily call to humility.

Wearing garments serve as powerful reminders for our place in life.  John the Baptist came wearing camel’s hair, proclaiming that Jesus must become greater, and he must become less.  The early monks wore very plain, rough robes made of coarse wool.  I believe that St. Augustine popularized this style of dress.  Nuns wore plain, black habits.  Hudson Taylor, one of the great missionaries in history, eschewed the clothing of the western world and donned the fashion of the Chinese people whom he was trying to reach. 

The purpose of what one wears on the outside can be multi-faceted.  To some it is a uniform indicating the job that they do.  To others it is a statement of affluence intended perhaps to try and impress others with one’s status.  Still others might wear garish or outlandish clothing to draw attention to oneself.  But for a person of faith who is travelling on the Way, what one wears on the outside, if it is “different” at all, serves as a reminder to oneself of what, and who, is on the inside. 

But the hairy garments of humility are not to be taken literally, as though we should all dress like a weird holy man or woman.  They are figurative, and come in different shapes and sizes, each designed by the divine to fit us perfectly. They might take the shape of harsh words that someone speaks to us; a conversation that doesn’t quite go as we had hoped which leaves us pondering why the person was so caustic or critical.  It might come in the shape of an experience that we can’t control, like trying to cope with Covid, for example. It might be the loss of a lucrative job which cascades into a seeming cavalcade of other catastrophes.  Or it might be an unwelcomed diagnosis of a disease or the death of a loved one.

Here’s the thing about wearing the hairy garments of humility; though at first they might feel uncomfortable and be ill-fitting, in time we will adjust to them and they will fit us perfectly.  We will, by the working of the Breath of Heaven, adjust to this new fashion.  As we do a miraculous thing will occur: those garments will gradually seep into our inside and in the process transform us into someone we could’ve never imagined.  In time we might even recognize that had it not been for those hairy garments of humility we would’ve never become the person we were intended and needed to be.  It is then that we will be grateful for having been given the privilege of wearing those garments.

I haven’t worn an apron since leaving Iona.  Maybe I should start again.  But I do have a hoody sweatshirt that I put on most mornings that says “IONA” on it.  It’s getting old, the pocket is ripped and it’s a little threadbare.  But it still serves the purpose of not only taking the chill off in the morning, but reminding me of who I am and what is most valuable, and what hairy garments of humility God might still have waiting for me to wear.  What do your hairy garments look like?