Wednesday, January 15, 2003
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Wednesday, January 15, 2003 |
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God doesn't read designer labels ... By JOHN HATCHER It's the big question or dilemma come Sunday morning. If I go to church, what will I wear? I mean, these kinds of questions are important. After all, everybody will be watching me! In fact, the matter of clothes keeps many a one away from church for several reasons. The first reason is that a lot of folks just don't think what they have to wear is good enough for all the dressed-up folks at the church house. What with all the designer labels that abound every Sunday morning. It's tragic that many people stay at home Sunday mornings for fear that their wardrobe remains inadequate. Second, many folks don't want to get all gussied up to go to church. Men, for example, who wear a coat and tie all week, want a couple of days without a knot around their necks. And the men who work by the sweat of their brow don't want to get into an ill-fitting Sunday suit. They feel strange wearing such. Many women, liberated long ago to wear pants in public, don't own a Sunday-go-to-meeting dress or are just down right uncomfortable in such. However, there are some churches, even today, which frown on women wearing pants to church. Only men should wear pants. Bear with me a digression: in the Chinese culture, it is considered bad taste if women do not wear pants. Dresses are out! That tells me that Sunday dresses belong to the realm of culture not Christianity. So, what can you wear to church? I suggest modest clothes. Blue jeans are okay in our church. I even have seen in warm summer months, some of our men wearing Bermuda shorts. What? Wear Bermuda shorts to high, holy worship, you say! Yep. Isn't that pushing the envelope a little far? Personally, I would not wear shorts to church, but my theology holds that it really doesn't make a dime's worth of difference (as long as the shorts are not provocative). When the Prophet Samuel was commissioned by God to go to Bethlehem to anoint King Saul's successor, God told him that outside appearances were inconsequential for God "looks on the heart." A proud father, named Jesse, paraded his handsome sons before Samuel and although they had been to the gym six days a week, Samuel asked Jesse if he had another son. Reluctantly, Jesse beckoned David from the pasture where he was tending the flock. He probably smelled high to heaven and his clothes were ragged and soiled. But as soon as Samuel put his eyes on him, he said, 'That's him" and then and there anointed David as Israel's new king. So, whether all you have is a clean pair of worn jeans, get on down to a friendly church. Even if you have a few extra pounds and are a little embarrassed about your weight, get on down to a church that accepts people regardless what they look like. And if you like to wear one of your many Armani suits, you, too, put your fine threads on and find your way to a church house. It's about the condition of your heart not the condition of your closet. |
