goodwill

I know that this is probably hard for you to believe, but I am often questioned about my hair, my clothes, my music, etc. Why would you…? Well, mainly because I love people who wear this, or have that. I don't want to make those people feel uncomfortable around me. Ever wonder why leather clad, tattooed bikers don't feel comfortable in a room full of charcoal suit evangelists? Or why jeans and t-shirt folks don't feel comfortable with a bunch of sweater vest and khaki clad promise keepers? I know, you're thinking, "but you're just trying to please people." But that's just the opposite of what I was trying to do. I was trying to make people feel accepted and not confuse them as to what is important. Ever wonder why the creator of the universe put on an earthsuit to come down and hang out with people?
A lot of people I know feel like the clothes you wear to church show reverence for God, that God perceives and understands, and demands respect in the same way that the Queen would, or the Pope. And that God demands a superficial submissive show of respect in the same way that culture demands that we bow to the whims of protocol for an audience with the Queen or the Pope. We have to dress accordingly, look down, and kiss his ring.
I guess the Queen or the Pope can't really know if we respect them unless we show it by our submissiveness to meaningless, superficial things. They can't see if, deep inside, there is any substance to our procedural show of submission. They probably don't care if, deep inside, there is any substance to our procedural show of submission.
I also know people who understand that this is goofy thinking – that God feels respected only if we dress to impress him - however, will forego attending a gathering for which they feel they are inappropriately dressed. I've done it – felt self-conscious about what I had on, and so skipped out. This is probably fine, when it comes to restaurants, but for a worship gathering?
Truth is, I think that even if God didn't simply know our hearts, without any outward behavioral act, and he did need us to do or behave in certain ways before he would know that we respected him, I think he would use very different criteria by which to decide whether we were true. I think he would know because we chose to do what he asked, rather than some made up thing that really had nothing to do with what he had expressed as his desires. I remember that when Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, he answered, "love God and love people." We are also told that if we say we love God, but don't love people, we are lying. So let's just say that God does need us to do something so that he'll know we love and respect him. It has to be loving people. We can put on whatever clothes we want when we go to church, or sing whatever songs we want, but if we don't love people, God is not going to be duped into believing that we love and respect him.
But there is a deeper irony. When we exclude people by behaving in a way that we mistakenly believe shows reverence for God, we are missing the point. You can't love people and exclude them. And you can't love God without loving people.
Just Sunday morning I was part of conversation that was discussing the kids' dress for church. During the conversation, someone said, "I just feel strange letting my kids wear that to church, my mom would have a fit!" Ah, but no one really seemed that concerned about whether God thought it inappropriate, which is also ironic because this is the very issue that I mentioned in the opposite context at the beginning of this ramble. If by "dressing down" you are trying to please people, and by dressing up you are trying to please people, it makes sense then that God would use other criteria to judge our love and reverence for him. It certainly explains why he created naked people in the Garden of Eden.