We Are God's Hands

"And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these." Matt 6:28-29

I am no longer sure what is in fashion or not. I know that I like long skirts. In the summer they are cooler than slacks or jeans and in the winter I can wear boots and long underwear under them instead of panty hose and no one is the wiser. The problem the market is not inundated with long dresses so my closet doesn't have an abundance of them.

Fortunately, one of the perks of being a pastor is that I don't have to think too much about what I'm going to wear. Shirt, collar and a skirt or (sadly) slacks. Sometimes, I wear my pink or purple shirt with blue jeans; depending where I'm going or what I'm doing. An alb on Sundays covers up anything I might be wearing underneath. At the little church in Aura, without air conditioning, I have threatened to wear my swimsuit underneath in the summer. The temperatures raise even more once the pews are filled with God's children. No one would know. I leave the house in an alb and return in the alb. No, one knows what I'm wearing underneath anyway.

Society spends an awful lot of time and money on worrying about what we should wear when there are a whole lot more important and pressing things to worry about. There are hungry children and multitudes of cold children who don't have the option of deciding which jacket to wear because they have none at all. There are the sick and the persecuted and the dying who need tending to. There is enough to take care of in this world to have time or money to worry about what we will wear. God uses us to help clothe and otherwise care for those in need. We are His hands.

May He help us to understand that rather than worry about which sweatshirt we should wear, we should be busy being His hands to feed and clothe those who are truly in need.

God's Peace - Pr. J

P.S. Toys for Tots Benefit Concert at Zion this Sunday at 2 pm in support of the children of Baraga County. See you all there! 

Matthew 15 - What To Wear?

“Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 'Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.'”  (Matt 15:1-2 NRSV)

On occasion, I have heard a whisper or two about how someone dresses "for church" or how a child misbehaves in "in church." (I have church in quotes, because the term in church is used rather than the term "at worship.") Tradition has taught us that there are certain ways we should dress for and act in "church." These are traditions that have come down through the generations. I'm thinking Jesus probably did not change clothes to go to the temple or to preach as he was traveling from city to city. During the time Jesus ministered, here on earth, one of the big "no, no's" was to not wash before you eat. There were whole rituals set up to ensure that hands were washed - rituals that were not to be broken.

We have the religious and we have the faithful. The religious might also be faithful, but often they will remind us of the Pharisees and scribes who faithfully accused and persecuted Jesus. The man-made laws and traditions certainly set them apart from other people; but did they set them apart because of their faith in God or because of the faithfulness to man-made traditions and laws?

Not long ago, one of our members was dropped off by one of their children for Worship. I invited the daughter to join us - but - she said she couldn't come in because she had a pair of those pants on that sort of look like pajamas. Consider this, who exactly are you dressing for? Who are you afraid of offending? Man or God? Do you not pray at home, in the shower, in your pajamas, in the garden, in your running clothes, at work? Do you run to change clothes before you go before God to speak with Him, in prayer, on all of these occasions? Personally, I don't think God cares what we're wearing.

As that child of God, who felt that she was not dressed for "church" declined my invitation to join us at Worship, I thought of Adam and Eve in that garden, naked. God didn't care that they were naked. After they ate of the tree of knowledge, it was they who cared, not God. Since they were ashamed, God made them clothes to cover themselves with and then closed the garden off to them so that they might not eat of the tree of life and live forever.

I like tradition almost as much as the next person; however, let us be mindful that sometimes these traditions separate us from God rather than bring us (and others) closer to him. It is faith in the One who shed His blood for us and not what we wear that reconciles us to God, our Father, in His eternal kingdom.

"This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,    teaching human precepts as doctrines." (Matt 15:8-9)

God's Peace - Pr. J
P.S. The winter that I was snow-mobile trail boss in southern Ontonagon County, I often went to Worship Services in my snow-mobile suit, simply because I did not have time to change and had to get back out on the trails immediately after worship. It was either not change or not Worship. Which would you choose?