Scripture Readings: 1 Samuel 16:4-7
Ephesians 2:1-10
Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"
Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the LORD."
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:4-7
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. -Ephesians 2:1-10
Jesus never turned anyone away from the house of his father because they were dressed “inadequately” for the service. As a young adult, and all throughout my spiritual journey I have never come to church so that I could show off my outfit for others to see and approve of. No, church means much more than appearances to me. Church is the place that I come to worship my heavenly father with those who feel the same way that I do, it’s a place of comfort and healing. I feel that worrying about the clothes that I “should” wear would impede of the spiritual impact that I should be getting from coming to church rather than receiving the message that I am inferior to those who dress nicer than myself. This false message that God prefers those who dress in more formal attire has run the churches long enough and does no good in sharing the word of God with those who are in need.
I have heard plenty of excuses for why people don’t want to go to church, the most appalling and disturbingly common excuse that I have heard however, is one that we as Christians should be ashamed of, it’s the excuse that “I don’t have any nice clothes to wear.” Are we really letting the judgments of others interfere with creating a spiritually healing center where we can all worship God together, comfortably?! It’s rather hubris for us to think in such a way where we can make ourselves feel superior with something as material as clothing. What comes next, not approving of those who don’t drive decent cars? And who get’s to make the decision on what is an adequate way to dress for church? God created us naked, obviously God didn’t feel that any clothes were necessary in living our lives for him. When did church become a popularity contest for who can dress the best and a jury to decide who is not wearing the appropriate style?
How can we preach love and acceptance when all we ever do is put others down because they don’t dress well enough for church? As a follower of Christ, I am unable to sit back and watch people being put down for wearing a wrinkled shirt to church. It is not ok that people focus on their outer appearance rather than taking their Sunday mornings to relax their minds and come to a feeling of peacefulness. Our main goal on Sunday morning should not be to make sure that our hair in perfectly straight or that our pants and shirt are not wrinkled but to ready ourselves to put our whole mind and body into worshipping God and giving him the thanks that we have the protection of clothing that others are not so fortunate to have.
Are the homeless not invited to our worship? If they are, do these rules regarding the appropriate church-service-appearance apply to them also. Or should we just kick them to the curb as well? Who cares if they can’t afford the decent clothes you wear, maybe if they appreciated God more, than they wouldn’t be in the situation that they happen to be in. That shouldn’t be the congregation’s problem we’re just supposed to tell people that we believe in loving one another, we don’t actually have to practice what we preach, nope, that’s the pastor’s job.
In doing research to prove my points that God does not judge us based on our outward appearance, I came across an article that states that the human ability to have unconditional love for one another is nothing more than a myth. “That is because humans are naturally self-biased and the human heart is so deceitful that one can fool himself into thinking that he is loving unconditionally, when in fact he has all kinds of conditions.” With articles like this out there, our portrayal as Christians should be taken even more seriously. Our main goal should be to show God that we can walk in Jesus’ footsteps and show others the love and acceptance that God has shown us in Jesus’ death on the cross, which saved us from our own sin and temptation. With the chance that we have been given to live eternally in the love and grace of God and Jesus, we have an obligation, which should be taken with open arms, to show others who we are and what we believe. Having this nagging prejudice looming over our unconditional love for others is critically harming the message that we originally intended to get across.
The clothing that I am wearing should have no reign over the words that am speaking. Will Jesus stand at the gates of Heaven on judgment day and turn away all those who are wearing ripped jeans and dirty T-shirts. Will he look down on those with un-brushed hair shaking his head saying “They must not have led a life of love and compassion because there are way too many knots in their hair.” No, Jesus will embrace those who have lived there life in his foot steps, no matter how “inappropriate” they may look.
We will give God the thanks that he deserves in giving us the protection of clothing, we will not abuse this gift from God and use it against others to make ourselves feel more powerful. We shall pray that we can release these feelings of prejudice and no longer let our views on the outward appearance of others hinder the message of God’s love for all. Amen
May The Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
Biblical verses such as these have plagued women of faith throughout centuries, it is rather unjustified to say that women are incapable of leading a congregation into worship. As I have demonstrated in giving my sermon I am quite able to lead a thought provoking and heartfelt worship, yet I am a woman and my appearance is not that of a professional, as some may care to say.
Throughout history, women have been persecuted for preaching and teaching their religion by those who are a part of the same family of faith. In this day and age it is absolutely ridiculous for people to believe that women are not equal to men. Whether they are a strict bible-following Christian or an Atheist, the women of the world have proven that they capable of everything that men are. Often women are told where their place is and what they should be doing at, almost every moment in their lives, as is also the case in many different faiths and religions. However, the roles of women vary in every different denomination of Christianity, some church’s only allow the women to be as much as a Sunday school teacher, and there are some denominations that preach equality among both men and women that are welcoming to the idea of a woman becoming a minister, though, it is still frowned upon by many.
There are several theories that people have come up with to explain why women are excluded from ministry and teaching. One of these theories is that Paul the apostle restricts women from teaching because in the first century, women were typically uneducated. However, when Paul mentions his opinions of whether women should be able to preach or not he does not mention anything about educational status. If the education of a person mattered in order for them to be capable of spreading God‘s message of love, than the majority of Jesus‘ disciples would not have been qualified.
Other theories consist of ideas such as that Paul may have only been writing to Timothy specifically about the women of Ephesus. The city of Ephesus was mostly known for its temple to Artemis, this temple was made in honor of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature. The temple gives the reason to disallow women to preach because the church may have felt that if women were put in some type of power that they may come to believe in the goddess, Artemis and look up to her causing them to no longer follow the ways of traditional Christianity, in which they are to have no other idols than God. However, the book of first Timothy does not mention Artemis, and Paul does not mention the worship of Artemis as a reason for the restrictions in first Timothy.
It is often said that the reason that women are inferior to men is that Eve was deceived into eating the apple which caused both her and Adam to be banished from the Garden of Eden. Religious scholars often claim that women’s punishment for falling into their temptations is childbearing, this should not be seen as a punishment but as a gift because women were given a maternal ability that men are forced to live without. It can also be argued that because women have this maternal ability they are more skillful at making people feel comfortable because they have a motherly compassion about them which in turn, would seem to make it easier for women to share with others the love of God that will be more likely to move them onto the path of righteousness.
When God created man and woman they were created as equals. They were not looked upon with differences that made either of them superior to the other but rather with differences that complimented each other. When Eve was seduced into disobeying God’s orders to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge a curse was put on the entire land which would impact humanity for years to come. This curse not only infected mankind with inequality of men and women but also the land where the weeds would consume the beauty. Then one day a Savior would come, Jesus died on the cross to cancel out the transgressions of mankind. When Jesus died all sin would be obliterated thus causing women to be equals to men once again. However, as the weeds continue to consume life, women are still seen as inferior to men and this will continue until we are willing to put a stop to the hatred and discrimination. God never intended for us to use our freewill to grow these weeds of sin and temptation that consume the rights of women.
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