6-29-14

“Admirers or Followers?  

The Choice is Ours”

Matthew 10: 34-39; Joshua 24: 14-15

Are you a Christian? Interesting question, is it not? In today’s world of mass media the word “Christian” has been just about totally stripped of any real meaning. In fact, there are thousands of persons who currently strive to follow Christ 24/7, but for whom the designation “Christian” is so tainted that they refuse to use it. If you ask them if they are a Christian they will likely reply that they are a “Christ-follower,” i.e., that they strive to follow the person and the way of Jesus Christ.

Is this what we have come to after some 2000 years? The cause and person of Jesus Christ has been so distorted and abused that some of his most ardent followers refuse to allow this adjective to be applied to them. Why? What is causing this?

Part of the problem is the misuse and abuse of the word “Christian.” We apply this to businesses, nations, and institutions — which is patently false. They may have individuals who are Christians, and they may have principles and values which are central to Christianity, but an institution cannot have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship is only possible for persons, for individuals who have responded with a commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior.

Central to this issue is the reality that the church has promulgated a false faith, a pseudo-understanding of what it means to follow Christ. We have urged people to accept Christ as their Savior and be baptized so that they can go to heaven when they die. That is all well and good as far as it goes...but it does not go near far enough. We have given them salvation on their terms, without any inkling at all of the commitment and transformation needed to genuinely follow Christ with their lives. In the words of Soren Kierkegaard we have made people into admirers rather than followers of Christ:
The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, and songs he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength, with all his will to be what he admires. And then, remarkably enough, even though he is living amongst a “Christian people,” the same danger results for him as was once the case when it was dangerous to openly confess Christ. And because of the follower’s life, it will become evident who the admirers are, for the admirers will become agitated with him. Even that these words are presented as they are here will disturb many – but then they must likewise belong to the admirers.1

Followers of Christ are not afraid to “take up their cross and follow him,” for they have already surrendered their lives to Christ, totally and completely. For followers of Christ the questions in any given situation are simple: What does Christ need? What would Christ do? How would Christ respond? The follower of Christ has already “taken up their cross,” so risking their fame, their fortune, and their very life for Christ is no big deal. That decision was made when they committed their life, wholly and completely, to Jesus Christ.

However, for admirers of Jesus the situation is a bit different. Their “acceptance of Christ” was about them, not Christ. It was about “going to heaven when they die,” not giving their life to Christ. Their Christian life is about what God can do for them, about how Jesus loves them and wants them to be happy, fulfilled and have every last want be met. Admirers of Jesus stand at a distance from any cross, from any realm of sacrifice — for they are not willing to risk their neck for Jesus or anyone.

These words of Jesus in Matthew 10 cause admirers problems, do they not? They even cause us to step back and reflect. Too often we think Jesus saved us so we can have nice little families, nice little homes, and nice little lives. Then we read a passage such as this and we are stunned, shaken to our core. Jesus says that he came not to bring peace to our families, but a sword...and that he would totally disrupt the family unit. Ouch...

Jesus does not idly state these words about taking up crosses...words which are repeated more than once by Matthew, just in case we missed them the first time. Jews knew what taking up the cross was all about...Golgotha (the place of the Skull) existed long before Jesus was crucified there. They had watched as the Romans had crucified literally thousands of their country men and women. These words about losing and finding life are not idle words to them. These words about commitment, sacrifice and experiencing loss and even death for the sake of following Christ — they are sacred words that the early church held onto — for they knew what Jesus meant. For us, these are words which go against the grain of our church culture of “niceness” and everything we hold near and dear as we admire Christ.

VBS begins tonight, so I don’t want to rattle too many cages. But let’s just understand something: we are not trying to make “Jesus admirers” out of your children. We’re really not. We’re trying to make “Jesus followers” out of them. We want them to so love Jesus, to be so devoted to Jesus, that they grow up, leave home and go follow Jesus wherever that journey may take them. They may go to Archdale, Asheboro, Romania or even Zambia as they follow Jesus. We want them to be such devoted followers of Jesus that the entire world is open to them as their venue and calling to serve Christ. We want them to see no boundaries, to feel no restraints, and to hold back nothing in their desire to serve and follow Christ.

Most of all, we want them to see that for true followers of Jesus Christ, there are no cultural barriers that the gospel cannot transcend — and does not compel us to transcend. Jew, Greek, slave, free — all are one in Christ Jesus according to Paul. Democrat, Republican, wealthy, poor, straight, gay, NRA or ACLU — you pick the divide and Jesus compels us to follow him from one side to the other.

There are several persons whom I have admired through the years. Some of these preceded my lifetime and others I knew. One who preceded and died before I ever knew him personally was Clarence Jordan, the founder of the Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia. It was set up to be an interracial community before anyone knew what Civil Rights were all about. Jordan himself was a pacifist as well as an integrationist and thus was not a popular figure in Georgia, even though he came from a prominent family. In the early ’50s Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to represent legally the Koinonia Farm. They were having trouble getting LP gas delivered for heating during the winter even though it was against the law not to deliver gas. Clarence thought Robert could do much through a phone call. However, Robert responded to Clarence’s request:

“Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”

“We might lose everything, too, Bob.” “It’s different for you.”

“Why is it different? I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church on the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ What did you say?”

“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”

“Could that point by any chance be — the cross?”


“That’s right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”

“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple. You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer, not a disciple.”

“Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?” 

“The question,” Clarence said, “is, ‘Do you have a church now?’”2

Every day that we live we are presented with a choice: will we today be followers or admirers of Jesus?

“I would like to but $3.00 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation;
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.4

“...and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”5

1 Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations
2Stanley Hauerwas, cited in “When we don’t ‘carry’ Jesus far enough,” June 21, 2004, Odyssey Web Site, odyssey.blogs.com 3 Overland Park Jewish community shooting, Wikipedia.
4 Wilbur Rees.
5 Matthew 10: 38-39

6-15

“OF SHEPHERDS AND FATHERS...”

Psalm 23; John 10: 1-10

A college religion teacher was leading a tour of Palestine as a summer school class. He gave lectures as they visited the important places. One day as their tour bus was going through the countryside he was lecturing on the Good Shepherd. He noted that there was a difference between shepherds in Palestine and those in the United States. Whereas American sheepherders go behind the sheep and drive them where they are supposed to go, Palestinian shepherds lead their sheep and they faithfully follow him everywhere. He painted this wonderful picture of the warm relationship between the Palestinian shepherd and his flock. Just then the bus had to stop for a flock of sheep that was crossing the road. The students started to laugh when one their classmates asked, “Dr. Jones, why is the shepherd behind the flock and driving them across the road?” The professor was shocked to see that this was true. He jumped off the bus and went up to the shepherd saying, “I have always been told that shepherds in Palestine lead their sheep and the sheep follow because they love their shepherd and trust him. Why are you driving these sheep?” The man responded, “You are absolutely right. Shepherds here do lead their sheep. I am driving these sheep because I am not a shepherd, I am the village butcher!”i
The 23rd Psalm is one of the most beloved in all of Holy Scripture. Even those who are biblically illiterate and/or estranged from God know this Psalm. There is a magnificence about this Psalm which transcends its words and context. From it we all gather nurture and peace as we envision God looking down upon us and caring for us. There is a wonderful convergence this morning of this text and this day — Father’s Day. Let us look at this Psalm and allow the truths which it tells to enlighten us not only about our Heavenly Father, but also about the roles and responsibilities which we, as earthly fathers, have given to us.
INTIMACY: The Lord is my Shepherd. We must pause at this beginning phrase and acknowledge Christ as our Shepherd. In the 10th chapter of John Jesus portrays himself as the Good Shepherd who loves and takes care of the sheep. He says, “My sheep know my voice.” If Jesus Christ is our Shepherd, then we will know his voice. An American was visiting a village in Africa and saw sheep grazing all over town. He asked, “How do the owners know which sheep is theirs?” Came the reply, “The sheep know.” At dusk he watched in awe as the shepherds called and each sheep ran to the voice of his shepherd, not another. I googled this very event this week and to my surprise saw several videos of shepherds doing this very thing. When another called they ignored the voice. When the shepherd called, they all came running.
So it is with we who are fathers and our children. We should know them intimately, from the inside out — and they us. You cannot call yourself a Father if you ignore your children. Children know if you matter to them — and when they know it, they respond. If you know & love your children then they will prosper in that love, live out of that love, and face life with a confidence that they gain nowhere else. Children — both boys and girls — need the love of their father in order to handle the challenges of the teenage years. Without the security of this love and relationship they live in limbo, wondering if they are worthy of being loved or if they have what it takes to make it in life. When a young person knows the full acceptance and love of their father then they are enabled to grow, develop and prosper as God intends.
!
PROVISION: “I shall not want.” As the Shepherd, the Lord provides for our needs, both physical and spiritual. The Psalmist illustrates what it is that he shall not want:
• green pastures—food;

• still waters—water from which one can easily drink;
  
• restores my soul—rest and refurbishment of our very being.
  Can we believe that God really wants to provide for our needs—even physical ones? Yes we can, if we remember that God does so in conjunction with our willingness to be responsible, to practice good stewardship, and to work at whatever we are able to do. God has never promised to meet our wants—God has promised to meet our needs. Too often I have encountered those who somehow expected that God would drop their needs right in the middle of their lap. My experience has been that as we work and serve God blesses us far beyond what we deserve. When the Lord is our Shepherd, “we shall not want.”
  As it is with God, so it is with our fathers. We live in a world where it is difficult if not impossible to have a one income home. Whether for good or for bad, the model of a father working and mother at home has all but disappeared from our cultural perspective. However, a father can still work with his wife and take responsibility to see that his children’s needs are met — needs far beyond those of a roof over their heads, clothes to wear or food to eat. Children have needs of acceptance, encouragement, and leadership which are vital to their development. Husband and wife may both work to “bring home the bacon,” — but both are also needed to ensure that the needs of their children are met to the best of their ability.
  !
  GUIDANCE: “He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.” As the Shepherd, the Lord leads us both in the right paths and through the dangerous valleys that await us. When we live life God’s way—then life works. This sounds extremely simple—and even Forest Gump-like in its philosophical approach. However, it has been proved true time and again. God really does lead us to where we need to be and walks with us through the trials that confront us. As Christians, as those who have pledged our lives to Christ, we are not immune to suffering and tragedy and even death. However, we go through these things so much better because of the power and presence of Christ in our lives.
  There is nothing more inspiring than seeing a father, a grandfather, an uncle or a friend providing a worthy and strong model for a young boy, a teen-ager, or even a young man. We all need role models to look up to and after which to model ourselves. One of the great crises in the modern, moderate Protestant church is the absence of men to serve as role models for the children. Children do not need just to be taught by women when in church. To do so is to tell them that church is for women...real men don’t have anything to do with it. Your children may be grown, but it is still vital that you be here and involved so that other children will know that this is important to their lives. Studies have shown that for boys, their entire attitude toward God, Christ, and the church is shaped more strongly by their father than their mother. All of us are needed to ensure that our children develop in their faith walk with Christ. All of us.
  !
  SECURITY: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.” God’s protection is provided for us in our hour of deepest need. The 5th verse requires some historical/cultural background in order for us to properly understand it. In Middle Eastern culture one was obligated to provide lodging and security to a stranger who asked for up to two nights and days. There being no motels or inns and this was the culturally developed pattern of providing safety for travelers. The Psalmist is affirming that God provides this safety and security for him even when enemies surround him. The blessings of God are his in abundance — the anointing of oil and the cup overflowing.
  

Our deepest and most basic affirmation of faith is that God never abandons us. We may not see the hand of God in the moment and we may not feel the presence of God but do not worry, God is there and God’s hand is there. Just as the shepherd knew his sheep personally and intimately — so God knows us. Every evening the Shepherd would call the sheep and they would come to him to enter the fold. He would stand at the door through which only one sheep could pass — and he would stop each sheep, check it for bites or scratches, anoint whatever wounds were there, and then let it pass into the fold. He would give each animal a cup of cold water to make sure that it would not grow thirsty during the night. Then, after all were secure in the fold, the shepherd would sleep in the doorway so that no wild animals would come after his sheep.
A deep sense of security is one of the great responsibilities of parents and especially of fathers. Our children need to know that whatever life may throw at them, we are there, standing with them, to take it on. In centuries past children were looked at as expendable, as workers on the farm or in the factory. With the coming of the 20th century and the child labor laws and increased education we see our children in an entirely different light: as gifts of God to be grown and developed as did Jesus “in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man.”
The story is told of how a herd of young male elephants in the Pilanesburg National Park in South Africa — largest in the world — were going wild and destroying endangered white rhinoceros. They were virtually uncontrollable. The park rangers finally realized that these of young males had no older bull elephant around to control them and teach them how to act. Some older bull males were flown in and within a few weeks the younger elephants had calmed down and the rampaging ceased.ii
We have seen this in our own society, have we not. Most teenage boys or young men who get into trouble are either from a fatherless home or a home where the father is all but absent. Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it well over 40 years ago:
“From the wild Irish slums of the 19th Century Eastern Seaboard to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: A community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken homes, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any rational expectations for the future – that community asks for and gets chaos.”iii
As men we must realize the role our God has created for us and fulfill it to the best of our ability. Our church needs us, our society needs us, and most of all — our young men and women, boys and girls, need us. The need us when they are young and they need us when they are older. Everyone needs a father — and a grandfather! “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want...”
Robert U. Ferguson, Jr. Emerywood Baptist Church
1300 Country Club Drive
High Point, North Carolina 27262 June 15, 2014
i Paul Larsen, unpublished sermon on Psalm 23.
ii http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/12/16/251672253/why-we-need-grandpas-and-grandmas-part-1 iii http://thesestonewalls.com/gordon-macrae/in-the-absence-of-fathers-a-story-of-elephants-and-men/

6-1

What Are You Wearing?
Colossians 3: 12-17
Have we looked around at the variety of clothing that we are wearing this morning? Some of us are in suits and ties, wearing our “Sunday best.” Others of us are in casual clothes as if ready for the golf course or the shopping mall. Some of us are “dressed to kill” whereas others are dressed for comfort. Why do we wear what we do? Why does one person wear a particular color or style of clothing and another something entirely different? I am usually pretty good about picking clothes that match, but occasionally, as I leave the house, Debby will say to me, “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? Are you really going to wear those together?” To which I want to say, “No...I just put them on to get a reaction out of you!

Why do we wear clothes? Most of us would say that we wear clothes in order to conceal parts of our body which we do not wish others to see. That’s not all bad – I am not in favor of universal nudity for anyone over three years of age. Clothes may conceal what we want to conceal, but they also reveal far more about us that we have ever dreamed. God may have made clothes for Adam and Eve to cover their sin, but we have taken clothing to such a state that it states to all who we are and how we see ourselves. A woman who wears tight fitting clothes is often saying, “Look at me – I need your affirmation of my self-worth which comes through my body.” A young man with bulging biceps and washboard abs wears a muscle shirt to show off the fruits of his labors and in so doing is saying, “Look at me – this is who I am!” Whether we are farmers in overalls or executives in three-piece Gucci suits our clothes say as much about us as any statement we wish to make. 

As human beings we divide ourselves into tribes or groups. Part of belonging to a tribe is wearing the uniform or symbols of the tribe. Go to an athletic contest at a college or university and see the supporters of each team dressed in the appropriate colors or wearing clothing emblazened with the logo of their team. We criticize gangs for wearing their colors, but in reality they are doing what humans have done for centuries: using clothing to express our identity. Clothing reveals our tribe, the societal group in which we feel the most comfortable. An offshoot of this is our concern with the logo or brand of clothing which we wear. If a shirt does not have a horse or a crocodile or some other “status symbol” then many will not wear it. Why do we believe a Polo shirt is worth more than a K-Mart special? Price alone does not establish value, but it does establish a “status symbol.” 

Clothing can also reveal our age and/or our generation. I have discussions with my sons about the generational differences in casual dress. My generation prefers boat shoes with no socks whereas theirs prefer tennis shoes or sandals. (The older generation prefers Hushpuppies but that’s another subject.) I once had a pair of bell-bottom, lime green, polyester, Sansabelt golf slacks. They disappeared from my closet several years ago and no one will own up to the crime. The only explanation I ever get is that they were “out-dated” and made me look older than I am.

Clothes not only express who we are but also psychologically mold us into who we wish to become. Gail Ramshaw put it this way:
“In Washington, D.C., are two clothing displays you ought not miss. One is in the American history wing of the Smithsonian, where you can lace yourself up into a nineteenth-century corset. You immediately understand why all those heroines spent all those novels fainting right and left. In a whalebone corset, you cannot bend at the waist; you must perch at the edge of your chair; and, most to the point, you cannot take a deep breath...
“Not far away is the Holocaust Museum where, if you are brave enough, you can see the piles of shoes that the S.S. guards stripped off the Jewish prisoners before, totally naked, all their human protections torn off, they were showered to death. Perhaps the bare feet helped the guards to justify the murders, as if their prisoners, only unclothed skin and bones, were no longer human beings...
“We have shoes on our feet and bows around our neck, and we like our clothes. In this culture, as in most, clothes protect us - give us sexual privacy, indicate our socioeconomic status, bond us with others who dress similarly - reflect our personality - However, though we choose not to admit it, even our jeans are something like corsets; for while announcing me, my clothing to some degree contains me, shapes me, forms me - I have been molded into something that people would rather see than me.”i 

The Bible is not silent about clothes. Adam and Eve began “naked and not ashamed...” but soon were wearing clothes of fig leaves and later from skins provided by God to cover what had become shame to them. The Old Testament scholar, Gerhard von Rad, says of this passage: “God himself had the shame of men covered, he had through this covering of them a new possibility given and thereby established a basic element of human culture. ii George Herbert said it this way: “Nothing wears clothes but man; nothing doth need but he to wear them.”iii 

All this Bible talk about clothes raises the question of what clothing means for us and for God.

• ♦  Psalm 104:1-2 says that God is clothed in light. In Exodus 28:2ff. Aaron, the first of priests, is said to be dressed in “sacred vestments” to give him honor and holiness. It does appear that, at least in this text, “clothes make the man.”
  
• ♦  Psalm 132 talks about the clothing of priests. God’s priests are said to be “clothed with righteousness” (v. 9).
  
• ♦  In Isaiah 61:10 the prophet talks about God clothing him with “a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland.” Clothing is again here, as it was earlier in Genesis, an expression of grace. The clothing makes something out of me that I would not be without the special clothes. I put on this robe and I am a priest. Put on another robe, and I’m a judge.
  

To give someone clothing is to give something of yourself.
♦ So Jonathan and David exchanged clothes, and “the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David” (1 Sam 18:1).

• ♦  Elijah gave his mantel to Elisha (1 Kings 19:19-21). It was his way of him giving his whole authority by giving him his clothes (2 Kings 2:12-14). With the clothes comes the power.
  
• ♦  The biblical writers speak of the clothing of Jesus as having power. If the woman merely touched the hem of his garment (Lk 8:42-48, Mk 5:25-34, Mt 9:19-22), she would be healed. Later, in the book of Acts, if the sick touch the apostles’ garments they are healed (Acts 19:12).
  
• ♦  When the prodigal son returns home he is given the best clothing as a sign of his sonship (Lk 15:21). A robe, a ring, shoes show forth to all that the son has all that the father has. Our clothes show forth our identity, our deepest personality, our commitments our tribe. iv
  
  
  What does all this have to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ? In our text from Colossians Paul uses clothes as an image of the virtues which we are to have and to display in Christ Jesus. Because we belong to Christ we are different — from the inside out. Just as the clothes one wore in Paul’s day revealed the status and social group to which one belonged, so the virtues one displayed in one’s life revealed the inner person. 
  
  
  Did we hear the first part of the twelfth verse? “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved...” These attributes which we are to wear come as a result of what God has done in our lives. They/we are God’s chosen ones, i.e., those whom God has elected to be God’s people. We wear the clothes of the kingdom by God’s choosing, not ours. The result of God’s election, God’s choosing of us, is that we are deemed “holy and beloved.” Just pause with me a moment and think through the ramifications of this statement. These qualities are not something we have done — they are what God has said about us in Jesus Christ. In Christ we are holy and in Christ we are loved. 
  
  As a result of this new status we are to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” These attributes, these clothes which we are to now put on, come to us as a result of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. We do not earn nor deserve them — they come as a gift, a gift of grace.
  Have you ever had an old sweater or shirt with which you just could not part? (I tend to agree with Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, who said: “...beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”) I know I have — and Debby will say to me, “That sweater/shirt is too old and looks drab. Wear one of your nicer ones.”
  “But I don’t wish to wear a nicer one...I want to wear this one.”
  

Why? Because it fits me in all the right places. So it is with these virtues of Christ. We are called upon to so live out these virtues that eventually they will fit us like a suit of old clothes. We wear them because we could think of wearing nothing else.
In the movie The Lion King the spirit of the dead king says to his son: “You have become less than you are.” One commentator noted that this is a parable about Christian salvation.
To be saved by Christ does not mean that we are radically changed into something we are not. Rather, it means that we become as we are, that we are clothed in new garments that reveal our true nature. Therefore in baptism in the church of the first centuries, the newly baptized was given a new white robe showing forth to all the new status of the baptized - we had returned to our true nature as children made in the image of God. We had become as God intended us to be.v

For Paul the relationship we have with Christ is one of total union. Elsewhere Paul will speak of “dying to self and rising to new life in Christ.” The idea is both simple and profound: as believers in Christ we are one with Christ – our identity is no longer that of ourselves, but of Christ. As we wear clothes to reveal who we are, so we are to put on Christ to reveal who and whose we are. In putting on Christ we gain a new identity but also new relationships. When we put on Christ we put off all other status symbols which are but reflections of our broken world. Our logo is now Christ and we all stand on equal footing before Almighty God. As much as clothes were and are used to separate us into class and economic strata, so how much greater does Christ break down, eradicate, and supercede those worldly distinctions. When we put on Christ we put on the one who unites us wholly with others.

Consider this perspective on our being clothed with Christ:
Special clothing signifies a change, a change from the way we act at work, to the way we act at a party. We are naked, frail creatures, says Genesis. We are not so much physically naked as spiritually naked. We are called upon to fill roles that are too big for us. We must act, decide, function in ways that frighten.
A doctor once confessed to me that one reason why he wore the white uniform, and the mask, and the rubber gloves, was not only for hygiene, but also for encouragement. “If you are going into surgery to cut on another human being’s body, you need to be a doctor, even when you don’t feel like it. When I put on all this stuff, I’m a doctor, no matter how I feel about it.”

What about us? Are there some days when we do not feel like a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ? On those days can we remember the clothes of our soul that we put on at baptism, even Jesus the Christ? Can we remember that through Christ we have a new identity, a new status – Christian? Can we recall that through Christ we have a new tribe – the Body of Christ, the church? Can we recognize our new standing before God: forgiven? What are you wearing this morning, anyway?

i Gail Ramshaw, "Rechely Clad," Weavings, January/February 1996, pp. 30-31
iiGerhard von Rad, The Theology of the Old Testament I, 1957, p. 163
iii George Herbert, The Temple, The Church, Providence, stanza 28. ivFrom Will Willimon, “Who are These Robed in White.”
vAllyne Smith Jr., "Image and Likeness," Weavings, January/February 1996, pp. 26-27