The Curmudgeon's Corner - Sunday Best

Sunday Best

Now that I’ve passed the half-century mark, my beloved spouse is ever-vigilant to point out those moments when I, as she so gently puts it, “start talking like an old man.”  One of the ways I’ve noticed that she’s right is that I use words or phrases that no one under thirty seems to understand (I come by it honestly, my grandfather, to the day he died, referred to the refrigerator as the “icebox.”)  For instance, no one talks about “skipping a groove” lately (since music no longer comes from vinyl records), or wears “spectacles” - and being “gay” has definitely changed from when I grew up.  Another one of those phrases that you never hear anymore is “Sunday Best.”

Remember when people got dressed up to go to Church?  Men always wore shirts and ties (if they didn’t have a suit on), dress pants and shoes (hard shoes, mister); women wore dresses or skirts that were long in the hem and high in the collar (and if you’re Catholic like me, women used to wear hats – which was considered shockingly modern by their grandmothers, who always wore veils.)  And the kids were dressed up too.  Remember those little clip-on ties you had as a kid?  Boys hated getting dressed for Church. Girls loved it – they got to wear little hats and white gloves.  And this was every Sunday, not just Christmas and Easter.

                                            Church Clothes - Good

Now, as Cole Porter put it, “Anything Goes”; shorts (and I’m not talking about those baggy things your grandfather used wear to the beach – I mean shorts - as in short - as in way too short for church); tube tops, and flip-flops and kids dressed like rag mops – these are a few of my least favorite things.  Of course the older generation sets a better example: they only wear their best jeans to church. 

                                        Church Clothes - Not So Good

Whenever I bring this up (after the customary eye-rolling), I’m usually given one of three reasons why I’m being hopelessly old-fashioned:

1. At least they’re here  -  I have to admit that’s a hard one to argue against; especially if they’re really there to worship God.  But if there’s one thing that God wants to teach us, it’s to think about others and not ourselves.  So while you’re letting it all hang out, it may be keeping the people around you from focusing their attention where it needs to be, on God – and not you and your fashion choices.

2.  Hey, I’m just being me, and God loves me just as I am – Again, one that seems to be inarguable.  I’m no theologian, but it seems to me that God loves us more often in spite of how we’re expressing ourselves.  He wants us to better than we are – that’s why we come to him.  But the converse is true too, we are called to love God.  So look at it this way, if you were going to meet someone you really love for a special occasion celebrating that love; how would you dress?

3. Times (and fashion) changes, and we should too – It’s not so much a question of style as appropriateness.  When we go to church, we’re supposed to be setting aside the things of this world, to commune with the spiritual.  Unfortunately, we live in an age that is both casual in its attitude towards faith and hyper-sexualized.  Clothing that would have gotten you arrested for walking down the street a generation ago, is not only okay in public now, it’s a right.  But we’re not in church to make public statements about our selfish inclinations, nor to show off parts of our body that are best reserved for the wedding night.

In the end, we dress respectfully for people and things we respect or want to obtain – we dress for proms, job interviews and retirement dinners, a night on the town, for weddings, funerals and public events.  Sunday Best used to mean that with all the other important and pressing needs and events of life, worshiping God was still the number one priority, the action that deserved our very best.  So this coming Sunday, take a few extra minutes and show God and your brothers and sisters that they really mean something – give ‘em your Sunday Best.