It seems we find numerous ways to let people know who we are.  I once knew a person who occasionally tried to perform simple magic tricks.   While he was a bit clumsy in his technique, he still had a yellow diamond-shaped sign hanging from a little suction cup affixed to a car window proclaiming, “Magician On Board.” 

In martial arts, there is a system of rank denoted by the color of a practitioner’s uniform belt.  One time when I mentioned my sons to the Grand Master of the Tae Kwon Do schools in which I practiced, he didn’t ask their ages, he simply queried, “What belt?”

When I lived around Washington, D.C., I often noticed tourists who let others know where they were from simply by clothing they wore:  ball caps, sweatshirts, jackets, and t-shirts revealed the answer to the question on everyone’s mind.  (I also suspect that when they returned home, they wore similar apparel or carried tote bags emblazoned with “Washington, D.C.,” or  “FBI,” or “National Gallery of Art,” so the homefolks would know they made the pilgrimage to our nation’s capital.)

Sean Daly of the St. Petersburg Times wrote a piece about the “I Voted” sticker handed out to those who exercised their constitutional right on election day.  He satirized the pride and the peer pressures inherent in being a good citizen.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds his listeners (and the modern reader) of behaviors distinctive to those who would follow him:  “You have heard it said,” Jesus remarked numerous times about matters such as anger, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, enemies, almsgiving, prayer, and more.  Then, he continued with something along the lines of, “but, I say to you…” and he gave his expectations and instructions.

I think Jesus really cut to the heart of the matter in Matthew, chapter 7:  “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit…Thus you will know them by their fruits.”

Someone else has said, “Great sermons are not preached, they are lived.”