Clothed in Christ

This image is based on Romans 13:11-14 in which Paul writes to the church in Rome chastising them for drunkenness and revelry, for giving into the “flesh.” Just fyi Paul is not talking about the body and passion as wrong but rather when we give ourselves over to pursuits that are selfish. He then tells the church in Rome to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, like you would a piece of clothing. When I drew this there had been a recent shooting at a queer club (Club Q) in Colorado Springs. Queer friends and colleagues have have shared in the past with me how gay bars and clubs are sanctuaries for the queer community - places where they are free to be their whole authentic selves. Sanctuary is a term we use in the church to refer to the space where we hold worship services in our building. If we were to look for Christ today where we would find him? I don’t think we would find him in churches, but rather at gay bars, handing out pride flags for people to wear like a cloak. A cloak that is a tangible representation of Gods love, a love that is other oriented not self oriented. So I drew exactly that, Jesus (the person in purple) handing out the cloak of Christ - represented by a pride flag - to those dancing in the gay bar.