Heart Tracks - Sunday Best?

Sunday Best?

He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
Ephesians 5:27....."The Church right now has more fashion than passion, is more pathetic than prophetic, is more superficial than supernatural." Leonard Ravenhill

"Dressing up in our Sunday best" was a term much used in an earlier day in our culture. People, no matter what social strata they may have belonged to, generally wore their best clothes when they attended church services. They saw it as a sign of reverence for the God they came to worship. Much has changed since those days, but this is not a writing about how we dress for church. We do need to come to His "house" in awe and reverence, but it is not what we're wearing on our bodies that matters, but what is in our heart. And that is what I want to speak of today.

I wrote in my prayer journal last week, "Has the Church become nothing more than the world dressed up in it's 'Sunday best?' " I grew up in a working class home in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. While church was not a regular part of our lives, there were periods when my family did try to have a church life. When we did, all of us would attend wearing our best clothes. Clothes that we didn't wear the rest of the week. They were worn only for special events, and.......for church. The rest of the week found us in regular every day clothes. Clothes that fit into the demands of the world, work, play, and so on. When Sunday came around again, the clothes came out. When Sunday was gone, so were the clothes. What went on in church influenced one day of our lives. The rest of our lives were under the influence of what was happening in the world outside its walls. If "going to church" is still a part of your life, how much of that life is no different than what I speak of here? To what degree are we "dressing" in our Sunday best for a few hours per week, and then going out "clothed" in the value system and morality of the world we live in the rest of the time? Do we put our "Sunday best" values and morals back in our drawers and closets come Monday...and leave them there? Are we really nothing more than the world going to church, dressed in its best?

Ravenhill's above words sting, and they should. They confront us, challenge us, and deep down, we know how much truth there is to them. In our efforts to be "relevant" to the world, we have in many ways accommodated it, and become powerless in it. We go to church, but in too many ways, we aren't the Church. This goes beyond trying to reach out to communities, doing good works, and so on. It is living a life alive in Him wherever we are, whoever we are. It is not only allowing Him to shape us into the reality of Ephesians 5:27, but having that state as our hearts desire. We are to be clothed in Christ, in His holiness at all times in all places. This clothing never gets put away. Indeed, He can't be put away. To what degree are we trying to do so?

Is your belief system, your walk of faith in Him just a matter of a once a week wearing of your Sunday best, or, do you live your life 24/7, clothed in Christ? My dad always wore his green work shirt and pants through the week. That's how I remember him. He had a suit and dress hat, but I only saw them on those Sundays we went to church. How do people see and remember us? Clothed in the morals, values, and ways of this world, or in Christ and His Kingdom? Are we really nothing more than the world dressed up in its Sunday best?

Blessings,
Pastor O