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Our Sunday Best
Reaching for excellence in grooming and worship
By Garry J. Moes
One of the lingering legacies of the social revolution which reached its zenith in our country during "The Sixties" is the denigration of noble excellence. The revolution's ideal of class leveling has become thoroughly ingrained within our cultural norms, though few now recognize its socialist origins. From the French Revolution on, egalitarian leveling has always occurred at the lowest common denominator — the thought being that since the poor have not the means to reach the levels of the aristocracy, aristocrats, in the interest of equality and fraternity, must level downward. This ideal achieved profound moral stature during The Sixties, and, once it became a moral issue, it was embraced warmly by much of the church, which by then had become disposed toward all manner of socialist mores.
Perhaps nowhere was this disposition more obvious than in the trend among churchgoers to dress commonly while attending worship services. Whereas once on a Sabbath morn we happily donned our "Sunday best," many now found great moral virtue in coming to worship in the uniform garb of the counterculture — tattered jeans, holey T-shirts, dirty sneakers and even more weird trappings of the revolutionary times. Much of this was driven by a sense of guilt which the socialists successfully instilled within the middle and upper classes. God's regard for the underclass and our solidarity with them somehow now required that we look like bums in His presence. It was all so humble.
James Rutz, in his popular book of a few years ago, The Open Church, approved of this movement toward "come as you are" worship. He offered a rationale based on his own dubious historical analysis which claimed that the practice of dressing up for worship had its origins in the Middle Ages when aristocrats sought to distinguish themselves in attendance at the great cathedrals from the rabble who were building them.
The trend toward downward social leveling remains with us, and while substantial voices are beginning to be raised decrying the deterioration of decency and standards of civility, the church remains a bastion of cultural banality. Visit many middle class churches today and you will find street clothes the norm — even the moral ideal. In some, even the (disgusting) extremes of style and "grooming," such as body piercing and gang fashion, are accepted.
All of this flies in the face of historic Judeo-Christian perspective and biblical standards. From the beginning, God has required our highest and best — especially in the context of worship. Indeed, He has always demanded that He be approached only with spotless perfection. The sacrifices in Old Testament worship were to be taken from the best of the flocks and herds, animals without blemish — the prefigurement of the Lamb Without Spot or Wrinkle, Holy and Without Blemish (Ephesians 5:27). The New Testament's continuity with this spirit of the sacrificial system is set forth in such places as Romans 12:1, where St. Paul calls on Christians to offer themselves "as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" — their "spiritual worship." To which Paul immediately adds, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world" (vs. 2). He calls for a renewing mental transformation which will distinguish and approve of God's good, pleasing and perfect Will. That Will includes setting as our cultural ideal all such things as are "noble," "lovely," "admirable," and "praiseworthy" (Philippians. 4:8). As hymnwriter Howard B. Grose put it, "Give of your best to the Master ... Give Him the best that you have."
Marla McCrorie, writing on this subject in the teen-age girls' magazine Brio, published by Focus on the Family, anticipates the usual objection: "...the Bible says 'Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart!'" (I Samuel 16:7). McCrorie responds: "But what does your heart look like? And how does your clothing reflect the attitude of your heart?"
She offers a test of beauty and modesty with the following questions:
Sadly, Brio's editor blunts this excellent article with a note adopting the old misclaim that God loves us just as we are ... that God "loves you just as much in a dirty T-shirt and sweat pants." Well, maybe ... or maybe not. The scriptural fact is He despises us as we were and sacrificed Himself to ensure that we did not remain as we were — dressed in the filthy rags of our unrighteousness. He redeemed us that we would be transformed into the likeness of His perfection and glory
