Worry - Part 4
Clothes
Matthew 6v28-30
4th August 2012
We've been looking at this saying of Jesus:
Matthew 6v25
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what
you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?"
This week, we'll focus on clothes. Jesus said:
Matthew 6v28-30
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the
fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
When Jesus said this, he was talking to people who struggled to find enough clothing to keep off the sun, the rain and the cold. Today (at least where I live) things are very different.
People of my age are probably the last in England who grew up not worrying about clothes. We had enough to wear, and the idea of being fashionable hardly registered with us. We had our school uniforms, and maybe another pair of trousers and a few shirts and jumpers, and a coat. And that was it. The idea of buying clothes of a particular brand never occurred to us.
As my children were growing up, I was shocked to discover that some schoolchildren were being made miserable because they wore clothes of an unfashionable brand. Others were attacked and their shoes were stolen. Now, another generation on, clothes manufacturers write their brand names in huge letters on their clothes. Am I the only one who thinks that looks really naff?
It seems that, when there isn't enough to worry about, we invent new things to worry about. perhaps it would be truer to say that advertisers are very clever at making us think we need things we really don't need, and schoolchildren are very clever at tormenting those whose parents are poorer or more sensible than their own.
In recent years, I've sensed that society is pulling back a little from this extreme brand consciousness. This may be due in part to the economic recession we're currently (and deservedly) experiencing. If so, it will return as (if?) we recover our economic well-being (I say "if" because the self-induced Euro crisis may destroy European economies for decades to come).
Why do we feel a need to wear fashionable, expensive clothes? Mostly, I think, it's because we fear rejection if we don't.
And our desire to be fashionable goes well beyond clothes. Many young women are making themselves ill in order to look fashionably thin. Others have been made to feel ashamed of their God-given body shape and invest inexpensive surgical "enhancements". Interestingly, there's a considerable reaction to this with many others becoming obese, perhaps because they've given up trying to attain some imaginary ideal.
I confess. I don't really understand why people want to buy large numbers of expensive clothes. And I certainly don't understand why people pay small fortunes for expensive, fashionable shoes or bags. Although I do understand that one can get an adrenaline rush when in the shop, it's more than neutralised when one receives the monthly credit card bill.
Jesus said that even Solomon in all his splendour was worse dressed than the lilies of the field. I'm sure that Solomon had a very large wardrobe, and everything in it was expensive. And he looked nothing like as well dressed as a flower.
And Jesus asks us, If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Contrary to what the advertisers would have you believe, contrary to what you hear in the school playground, the office or the nightclub (I imagine) fashionable clothes do not make you look good. This year's fashions are no better or worse than last year's, or next year's. They're only made different because they entice the foolish to spend their money every year.
As Christians, we really ought to know better.
Christian women, may I remind you of:
1 Peter 3v3-5a
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery
and fine clothes.
Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is
of great worth in God's sight.
For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.
And may I say to us all:
1 Timothy 6v6-8
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Of course God will provide us with enough clothes. But wait! Jesus says, If that [better than Solomon] is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you? We are clothed far more splendidly than Solomon!
Isaiah 61v10
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with
garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns
his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.