Dear St. Paul’s Friends and Family,
The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matthew 23:11-12)
The literary proverb, “the clothes make the man” has been around for quite some time. Mark Twain expanded upon it adding that, “Naked people have little to no influence on society.” Erasmus, a noted 15th century priest translated it from ancient Greek sources, thus making the proverb more accessible for modern audiences. Its meaning is fairly evident. If you want to be somebody, you’d better look the part. “Dress for success” as my grandmother would say!
My initial foray into looking the part happened in seventh grade when I joined the boy’s junior high basketball team. I was always one of the biggest boys in my class, so the coach was excited to see me join the team. I started the first three games before he finally figured out that I really wasn’t very good at basketball. During that time, I also learned that even if you weren’t very good player, you could at least look like you were a serious player. The addition of Nike socks and Air Jordan shoes could make all the difference in the world. Unfortunately for me, my parents weren’t as ready as I was to jump on the dress for success bandwagon, so I made do with the off-brand gym shoes from K-Mart whose bold branding stated, “Got it all for basketball!” In retrospect, I doubt that Air Jordans would have helped me be a better player!
Jesus was making a similar point in the scripture lesson for this Sunday. He was referring to devotional apparel that many devout Jewish men in his day wore when he was criticizing the Pharisees for making their phylacteries broad and fringes long. Prayer shawls with fringes were donned during worship and prayer. Similarly, phylacteries were also worn and are small leather boxes that contained important passages of scripture which they tied to their foreheads or arms. The Pharisees were an important group within the ancient Jewish religious community. They were part of a lay renewal movement whose chief mission was to increase piety among the general population by encouraging more rigorous adherence to religious law.
The problem was that some Pharisees let their newfound influence go to their heads. They began to have a following, and before long found out that making a show out of their piety would help them gain more followers. They dressed for success with more ornate prayer shawls, clothes, and phylacteries! Jesus wasn’t buying it. The religious rigors that they were demanding out of others was not being matched by sincere practice on their end. Jesus’ advice was to listen to their teaching, but to not follow their example. Instead, Jesus called for a new kind of devotion, one born not out of worship acts, but out of how one lived one’s life. He counseled an ethic of life based on service and humility. He said, “The greatest among you will be your servant.”
Jesus’ teachings about faith and devotion are especially pertinent today. We continue to live in a world where clothes make the man (or woman). There are plenty of folks trying to look the part, but not really delivering the goods when it comes to humbly serving their neighbors. Leaders and influencers of all stripes think it’s enough to slide on the proverbial Air Jordans of their field with hopes of fooling enough people into following them even if they fail to serve the greater good of those they aspire to lead. The church is even guilty of such duplicity. The bitter irony of this type of failure is that not only are we failing to be genuinely ourselves, but we are also failing to model ourselves after the Servant of the Servants, Jesus Christ himself.
May the Holy Spirit guide us into renewed devotion as we seek to follow Jesus as our most authentic selves. May the Spirit also remind us that God’s love is not dependent upon our achievements or aspirations, but rather, God loves us without condition. God loves us for who we are.
Blessings on your journey!
Pastor Matt