Clothe yourselves, therefore...

I took a wonderful class on world religions last year that has stuck with me in a lot of ways since I finished it. There is much beauty in the world's religions, and, from a Christian perspective, much darkness as well. But one of the things that has really struck me is how some religions have distinguishing marks, most especially modes of dress, which make their adherents visibly distinguishable from the rest of our pluralistic society. This is especially notable for me because I live in British Columbia's Lower Mainland, which is somewhat unique in that it has the largest population of Sikhs outside of India, as well as a large Islamic population. Sikh men and Islamic women stand out in a crowd because of the manner of their dress, and their choices have meaning in their expression of worship of the Guru or Allah.

I have been particularly interested in the Sikh tradition, mainly because I think it has the most in common with Christianity among the Indian religions. For example, this is a quote from a Sikh describing their worship: "a good worship is when the Spirit is seen in front of you and touches your passions. Passions are touched when we dare to admit the truth, when we opt for the depth of love over the little lies (of ego) that seek not to rock the boat. Passion lets loose when ideas come together, when someone says something that you knew, but couldn't articulate, when the separate pieces fall into places. Passion lets loose when people are called to remember their truest selves, when we break out of the little boxes that define and separate us. And, of course, passion lets loose when we sing. Really sing, not reading ahead for the words sung" (L. Ungar, quoted from "Do Sikhs Worship GURU GRANTH? Yes, But!" by Harbans Lal).

Sikhs have 5 particular items or distinguishing marks that they keep about their person. I won't list them all here, but suffice it to say that each one has significant meaning for their faith and their individual commitment to that faith. In thinking about these distinguing marks, I was drawn to question why Christians don't have something similar to mark us.

It could be argued that wearing a cross is one way to mark yourself as a Christian, but I think that in this era when (a) crosses are worn as decoration by a great number of people who don't profess the Christian faith and (b) when it is widely argued that the cross is not a uniquely Christian symbol (Dan Brown is not the first person to suggest this, by the way), the cross has lost some of its currency as a Christian identifying mark.

The first important point to approach is the question of whether or not a visible Christian symbol would be appropriate. Dressing in a certain manner or wearing a symbol on one's person that says, "I am a Christian" also implies that those who do not wear that symbol are excluded from the "club," if you will. Whereas theologically it is to a certain extent correct to say that there is an us-and-them reality to the Christian message, I don't think that many Christians would like to have that message broadcast too widely at this point, since exclusivity is definitely not considered a positive characteristic in the postmodern pluralistic world. Not that I am suggesting that the Christian message should be made subservient to the whims of culture, but I think it is vitally important to keep our cultural context in mind when we are forming our message to our neighbours.

The other question, of course, would be what kind of symbol would truly be appropriate for Christians to wear. Islamic women, for example, cover their bodies or their hair because of certain beliefs about the sexually provocative nature of women's bodies. Christians (for the most part) don't have the same kind of belief; the Bible certainly doesn't command that women cover their bodies because women's bodies are sexually provocative. In fact, Jesus pretty frankly lays the responsibility for lust on the luster, not the object of lusting (Matthew 5:27-28). There is a passage (1 Cor 11:5) that some have interpreted to mean that a woman should cover her head while praying or prophesying, but that passage is difficult to translate and has had many layers of cultural interpretation laid over it in the past 1900 or so years. Even if this passage is correct, it only seems to apply to women covering their heads during worship, not all the time.

Essentially, I think, a visible expression of Christian identity would need to be something commanded by God. But I can't think of any Scriptures that give clear commans for what a Christian should or should not wear to show to the world who they are. Instead, we are given commands to clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27), and to clothe ourselves in fruits of the Spirit, with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12). A very different kind of clothing than a turban or a veil, perhaps, but in our culture, this clothing might be no less noticable than a visible reminder of our faith.

It could probably be argued that compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience are not exclusively Christian virtues, and I wouldn't be able to argue against that after studying world religion. Many of the world's faiths share a similar emphasis on these virtues. But I do wonder about the power of the Holy Spirit as He moves among the world's peoples and touches their hearts wherever they might be and in whatever religion they follow. I wonder about how little we truly know about how God might be bringing His Shalom to the world, preparing hearts for the Gospel. I don't know, but I do wonder.

New school year/New Creation

I am hoping to manage to keep something resembling a regular blog this year. I didn't manage it last year; I think I had too many thoughts running around in my head all the time to get any of them on virtual paper. But this year I will have only two classes per semester and then maybe I'll have some time to blog the stray thoughts away.

The first Chapel of the year is always a good one: probably somewhere around 200 or 300 people all joining together in song and prayer. It's a beautiful thing. The message today was given (as it always is at first chapel) by Regent's President Rod Wilson, and this time he spoke to us from 2 Cor 5:11-6:2, exhorting us to live as new creations, not seeing people and Jesus in the old way (the "fleshly" way), but seeing them through the eyes to the eyes of heart (I'm paraphrasing liberally here). The "take home" passage, if you will, though he actually deliberately made an effort not to give us "ten easy steps to the new creation" was from 2 Cor 5:16-18, particularly the little phrase "All this is from God." He repeated it a number of times, and let it ring out and hang in the air for us. It's impossible in one of those situations not to reflect on one's surroundings. I thought : "Yes, all this is from God: this group of people all committed to growing in and glorifying Jesus, singing their hearts out, studying and laughing together. And all that surrounds us is from God: a place of natural and urban beauty seldom surpassed and a city filled with a multicultural throng that sometimes disturbs my sense that I am in Canada (and exposes the subtly racist image of "what Canada is" that lay somewhere in my subconscious)."

Okay, it's a bit of hyperbole to suggest that I actually thought all that stuff, colons and all, in that moment, but hopefully you can play along with me.

Finally, our absolutely incredible worship leader, a woman with a knack for finding the best possible song or hymn to close a worship service, gave us the following hymn to leave on. It's sung to the tune of "Good King Wenceslas" so you can sing it at home if you like to get a sense of how it might have sounded being sung by a large group of worshippers heavy on the bass and tenor side (Regent is a theological graduate school sometimes mistaken for a seminary, so there are more men in the mix than is usual in most North American churches). I thought the words to this hymn were lovely and beautifully apt and something worth thinking more about, so here you go:

Text: Christopher Idle, based on Isaiah 35
Music: from Piae Cantiones, 1582
The words of this are copyrighted, so if you want to use this in a worship setting, please do so only with a CCLI license
Its CCLI number is 105540

When the King shall come again
All His power revealing,
Splendour shall announce His reign,
Life and joy and healing:
Earth no longer in decay, hope no more frustrated;
This is God's redemption day longingly awaited.

In the desert, trees take root
Fresh from His creation:
Plants and flowers and sweetest fruit
Join the celebration;
Rivers spring up from the earth, barren lands adorning;
Valleys, this is your new birth, mountains, greet the morning!

Strengthen feeble hands and knees,
Fainting hearts, be cheerful!
God who comes for such as these
Seeks and sakes the fearful:
Now the deaf can hear the dumb sing away their weeping;
Blind eyes see the injured come walking, running, leaping.

There God's highway shall be seen
Where no roaring lion,
Nothing evil or unclean
Walks the road to Zion:
Ransomed people homeward bound all your praises voicing,
See your Lord with glory crowned, share in His rejoicing!