"Anointing with oil…is a means of God's grace and blessing intended to bring restoration of wholeness and health."
So reads a portion of the For All Who Minister, a Church of the Brethren guidebook for worship. A very clinical definition of what I find to be one of our more embodied and also spiritual rituals of the church. Anointing is one of those times in worship when we are invited to make connections between our physical selves and our own spirit and God's Spirit.
We're heading into the Song of Songs in our next two Sundays, a text that is deeply sensual and very much about embodied love and desire. It's also a text that has been interpreted spiritually about the passionate relationship between God and God's people. In both senses, the body - the human body created by God - is held up as good and beautiful. When we offer anointing this Sunday, that is how we will bless. Your pastors will be present to offer this blessing, not just for "restoration of wholeness" but to affirm the beauty and wholeness that is already present within you.
Biblically, anointing is also about setting something or someone apart for God's purposes. And this sense to is one we bring to our ritual. We are blessed to do God's work in the world with these bodies, and our desires and passions are blessed too.
One of my most precious memories of accompanying youth a Mennonite Youth Convention was when youth were invited to receive anointing during a worship service. I watched as hundreds of young people, at a time in their lives when they may be wrestling the most they ever will with body change and body image, understanding desire, heightened emotions, were blessed with oil and told that they were good. They were and are God's beloved.
At every age we need these messages of blessed goodness and rightness. May we all receive this anointed blessing this week. And whether or not you are with us in worship, know that you too are anointed, good and beautifully made by God
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