Hopefully this doesn't start a massive outcry... even though I get the feeling it might. Still, this is one of those weird ideas that's been hanging on my brain since... well, since as early as I started taking religion seriously at all. It mainly stems from the fact that I hated "dressing up" for church, because nobody could give me a good reason for it and I've always hated dressing up for things. I've since come to the conclusion that dressing up for church is an actively bad idea, simply because we only dress up, culturally, for important meetings and very formal things. At least... guys do 
. If I were meeting Obama, I'd probably dress up for it--but if I were Obama's son, I wouldn't. We dress up when the meeting is 'distant' from us, either at formal parties, or with important people we don't know very well, or things of that sort. Since church basically exists solely because Jesus died to close that distance between us and God, I find it both inconsistent with the message, and quite frankly annoying to do.
At the same time, though, I think there's a fairly convincing argument to be made for not wearing any clothes in religious settings. Out in the world, clothes make perfect sense. For one, it's illegal to be naked in public. For two, anything than hinders the message you're trying to convey to the world is best to avoid. Just like I don't think it's good to eat beef if you're in India, and like Paul said he follows Jewish Law when ministering to the Jews, you have to respect peoples' culture when you're in a foreign land. ...but at the same time, we're in a nation where we're lucky enough to have religious freedom, and church always seemed like it aimed to be a kind of "foreign embassy" for people whose home is Heaven, where they can make their own rules and don't have to worry so much about fitting in. At least... I've always thought that was the idea.
But God first gave clothes (animal skins) to Adam and Eve in Genesis, after they were ashamed as a result of their sin. The symbolism is actually kind of interesting/noteworthy as well, because an animal had to die immediately, to make things 'right' again. Now although one might say "God gave us clothes, so we should use them," I want to point out that that's not necessarily true. In the Old Testament God allowed for divorce, and when Jesus came he said "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. [proceeds to correct their faulty understanding]". Basically, Moses' law was not God's ideal, but it did still limit the effects of divorce-sin. Now that Jesus was here, he makes the ideal known as part of his war against sin and death.
It seems a bit like clothes follow a similar pattern. The ideal in the beginning was that Adam and Eve be naked. Because of sin, clothes were given which made the effects of their sin easier to bear... but were obviously a temporary solution (that really was "the first sacrifice", if you think about it--using animal skins to cover themselves). When Jesus died and was resurrected, sin was put to death and its power was broken. Every week, people go to church to (in part) celebrate the fact that they are free from their sins--wearing the temporary, imperfect, Jesus-stand-in as they do it.
So my questions are: what ought Chrisitians wear in religious gatherings? Is "I'd be ashamed if I didn't" a (Biblically) morally-right answer? And finally, what are your actual reasons for wearing clothes to church?
. If I were meeting Obama, I'd probably dress up for it--but if I were Obama's son, I wouldn't. We dress up when the meeting is 'distant' from us, either at formal parties, or with important people we don't know very well, or things of that sort. Since church basically exists solely because Jesus died to close that distance between us and God, I find it both inconsistent with the message, and quite frankly annoying to do.At the same time, though, I think there's a fairly convincing argument to be made for not wearing any clothes in religious settings. Out in the world, clothes make perfect sense. For one, it's illegal to be naked in public. For two, anything than hinders the message you're trying to convey to the world is best to avoid. Just like I don't think it's good to eat beef if you're in India, and like Paul said he follows Jewish Law when ministering to the Jews, you have to respect peoples' culture when you're in a foreign land. ...but at the same time, we're in a nation where we're lucky enough to have religious freedom, and church always seemed like it aimed to be a kind of "foreign embassy" for people whose home is Heaven, where they can make their own rules and don't have to worry so much about fitting in. At least... I've always thought that was the idea.
But God first gave clothes (animal skins) to Adam and Eve in Genesis, after they were ashamed as a result of their sin. The symbolism is actually kind of interesting/noteworthy as well, because an animal had to die immediately, to make things 'right' again. Now although one might say "God gave us clothes, so we should use them," I want to point out that that's not necessarily true. In the Old Testament God allowed for divorce, and when Jesus came he said "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. [proceeds to correct their faulty understanding]". Basically, Moses' law was not God's ideal, but it did still limit the effects of divorce-sin. Now that Jesus was here, he makes the ideal known as part of his war against sin and death.
It seems a bit like clothes follow a similar pattern. The ideal in the beginning was that Adam and Eve be naked. Because of sin, clothes were given which made the effects of their sin easier to bear... but were obviously a temporary solution (that really was "the first sacrifice", if you think about it--using animal skins to cover themselves). When Jesus died and was resurrected, sin was put to death and its power was broken. Every week, people go to church to (in part) celebrate the fact that they are free from their sins--wearing the temporary, imperfect, Jesus-stand-in as they do it.
So my questions are: what ought Chrisitians wear in religious gatherings? Is "I'd be ashamed if I didn't" a (Biblically) morally-right answer? And finally, what are your actual reasons for wearing clothes to church?
