Come as You Are

In the past few months I have had three separate people come to me worried about whether their clothes were appropriate for worship or not.  Most of the congregation were dressed dressier than they were and with the economy as it is they couldn't afford to buy a new wardrobe just for church.

My answer;  You are fine just as you are.  God doesn't care what is on the outside.  God cares what is in your heart.

"It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Matthew 15:11

This is actually about clean hands, but I think it still fits.  Here are a couple illustrations of how I think that scripture applies here.

A church worked hard at evangelizing the neighborhood children.  The children who lived around the church were from the families of blue collar factory workers.  Their parents were not Christian and did not really appreciate their kids coming to church, but they came faithfully anyway.  They sat in the front row so that they could take notes on the sermon.  Then they would bring their notes and their questions up to the pastor afterward.  It was nothing short of a miracle.  But within a month or two a motion was brought before the session.  "Those children must be told how to dress properly for church or be asked to leave."  The youth pastor argued vehemently that their families couldn't afford to buy them fancy clothes, and that the parents would use the request as a reason to tell them that they couldn't come."

Who was doing the defiling in this story???

A church formed a praise band and started a contemporary service with the specific intent of attracting college students and the unchurched 20 somethings in the neighborhood.  With that in mind they specifically decided to dress casually; shorts, jeans, t-shirts, tennis shoes, and sandals.  They wanted to dress like those they were trying to attract.  It was working, slowly but surely.  Then, they were told that their attire was inappropriate.  It reflected poorly on the church and the congregation.  They were told that if they wanted to keep their service that they must at least wear khakis, and polo shirts; no jeans, shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes, and the men could definitely not wear sandals... 

Ummmm, what kind of foot wear did Jesus and the disciples wear?  They wore sandals! 

My current congregation decided to have a Pentecost picnic and invite all of the neighbors.  For a whole month we explained that we wanted everyone to come in picnic clothes; jeans or shorts.  We want the neighbors to feel welcome and comfortable.  Not everyone in the congregation was comfortable with that decision, but I still feel that it is the right one.

So many people are leaving or being turned away from Jesus because the church only looks at what is on the outside.  Jesus cares about what is on the inside.  He reached out to the poor, to the common worker, to the woman at the well.  He came for those in society where God's word was most needed.  Jesus was accused of being unwashed and inappropriate too.

I believe that Jesus would say to us all, "come as you are."