Sometimes it’s best not to question certain practices and norms, because when you start to question you start on a slippery slope to rebellion against that which our fathers and forefathers held in high regard.
Take for example clothes.
I do believe that clothes makes the man. I do believe that fashion makes a statement about the person wearing it. I am not against people dressing up for the occasion, I understand it and applaud it in it’s appropriate setting.
Every day I get ready for work and for at least three of the working days of the week I’ll put on a shirt and a tie. Lately I’ve picked up the habit again of wearing a jacket/blazer. I only have one at the moment so I look to wear it sparingly in the hope of getting another soon. I used to wear the get up often before the YMCA job in my professional life.
I understand that this is conforming to a cultural setting that expects these standard in their professional lives. I get it. I got it. I don’t have a problem with it as such. There are reservations, but this is more about the façade of professionalism which is the biggest obstacle to real relationships in successfully serving people. The main point is, though, that I get clothes in different settings.
In thinking about it in regard to church life and spiritual formation it’s rather interesting as my background goes. One of the first places where I got the shirt and tie business from was from church. It was the expected norm to attend church in formal wear. Not a visit from the royal family formal wear, but something close to it for every regular weekly main service. Midweek sessions would allow the slight relaxing of the uniform although smart casual was still the way to go.
In fact it’s not over-doing the point to suggest that a man’s holiness was measured by his conformity to the dress code and the measure of manhood – to be the man – was to look the part. (Remind me to tell you the issue about the briefcase as well, that is a classic example of godliness by looks alone.) In any (brief)case it was quite clear that the set-up was as follows. We are entering ‘His Holy Temple’ and so we need to dress accordingly for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. This is His holy presence so we need to reverence it with our solemn manner and high praise as well as attire fitting to entertain the presence of the Holy God.
That stuff is understandable … until we check some things out in greater detail. First of all is the Holy temple of the Lord the service construct that we put together every week? Is the sanctuary really that construct that man has designed and put together as space? Is this where God ‘chooses to dwell’ in the light of the victory of the Son and outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Really?
What about the book of Hebrews and the theme of that being about placing faith in someone who is far greater than the copies and shadows that were before Him including the temple construct that we often refer to? What about the encouragement from Paul that suggests that the Body, Bride and Living Temple of God is now the collected group of people who follow Jesus Christ?
Didn’t something change when Jesus came, lived, ministered, healed, taught, preached, discipled, suffered, bled, died, resurrected, encouraged and ascended with the later imparting of His Holy Spirit? Wasn’t there a new covenant set that meant that all that was previously associated with tabernacles and temples and buildings made with hands had now been fulfilled and better manifested in structures not made by human hands?
Or am I missing the point?
Where I’m coming from, is that if indeed there was a change then the reference to physical buildings, rooms and places as ‘sanctuaries’ and ‘holy places’ may miss the mark a bit then the repercussions could be significant. If God chooses now to dwell with His people wherever they are congregated, the people-space dynamic takes on a different meaning.
If that is the case then it also has a bearing on the clothing issue, but let me take it a bit further … in a soon coming blog entry, which is but a formality.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 