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Sunday, September 12, 2010
Appearance
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:7
7But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
I have mentioned before that one of the favorite shows of the Herships family is Biggest Loser. We are always amazed at the transformation that takes place over those few weeks. You can watch them change little by little right before your eyes. Along with their physical appearance you can also watch their personalities change as well. They come out of their shell. They smile more, they laugh more. Their appearance changes everything.
The other show that Laura and I have watched for years is What Not To Wear. Clinton and Stacy go through someone’s closet, throw out a bunch of the person’s lousy clothes and then give them money to buy new clothes that work for them and help them figure out what looks good on their bodies. The guest also gets tips on Hair and make-up. Again, we watch, week after week transformation. It is just so cool to watch these people blossom.
Having said all that, I have mixed feelings. On one hand I love seeing people transform into these new, amazing, confident people. On the other hand, I struggle with how much our physical appearance affects, and in many cases determines, our emotional well being. I know if I lose a pound, I’m happy, if I gain a pound I’m sad.
This is not an accident. There are many people in the world, with salaries attached, to make sure that there is always something wrong with us…and if we just hand over our credit card…THEY can fix it. Here are a few facts you might not know.
The FASHION INDUSTRY draws in $47 billion dollars a year.
According to current estimates, The COSMETICS INDUSTRY, including toiletries and cosmetics, comes in at over $45 billion in the U S and 66 billion, annually, worldwide.
For the PASTIC SURGERY INDUSTRY, over 10.2 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2008, according to statistics released by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. The second most common procedure was liposuction.
And last but not least…
It is estimated that the DIET INDUSTRY alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion dollars a year in the U S. They sell temporary weight loss because 90 to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight.
We might know that beauty is only skin deep but that is not stopping us from doing everything we can to make that skin look GOOD.
As I have said before, I am often preaching to myself when I am up here. While I have not had liposuction, and don’t buy make-up, I have spent my fair share on gym memberships, have more than a few pairs of jeans and must admit that I do have a favorite moisturizer. See me after for the name.
Why do we spend so much time, money and effort trying to look good? It must be important to God. After all, it is God we want to please, right? God is the source of our pleasure correct? How we look must matter to God.
I was very tempted to use the Book of Ecclesiastes as the sermon text today. After all, one of its most famous sayings is “Vanity of Vanities.” The word vanity in the Hebrew Bible takes on a meaning that goes beyond our understanding of being caught up in our looks. The Hebrew word is hebel and it literally means “vapor.” Some scholars say the modern day equivalent is “absurd.” The key point of the word though is how transitory life is. Nothing lasts, including our looks. Appearances…don’t…last.
Understand that I am not saying it isn’t important to put our best foot forward. I think it is very important to be healthy and to do our best to eat right and exercise so we can be healthy. I just think there are a lot more people at the gym trying to get a six-pack and lose some of their rear end than there are people trying to lower their cholesterol.
I should also tell you where the idea came from to preach a message on this topic.
Many of you know Marcus Borg. He is a professor of Religion at Oregon State University. In his book, The Heart of Christianity, which I will be leading a class on in the next few weeks, he says that we are caught up in what he calls THE THREE A’s: Appearance, Achievement, and Affluence. We will be looking at these topics over the coming weeks.
This week we are focusing on our appearance, which is not that unusual for many of us. At some point in our lives we start to focus our lives on the outside more that on the inside. Theologian Frederick Buechner calls this, living our lives from the outside in, rather than the inside out. There becomes a shift when we start to concentrate on what Thomas Keating calls, “Our False Self.” This is not nearly as important to God as our true self, our real self, our inside self. Our Souls.
This is the point of our passage today? Our story today comes from 1 Samuel. The two books of Samuel were found on a single scroll in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Bible Scholars also tell us that 1 Samuel was not all written by the same author. In this part of 1 Samuel we are told part of the story about how David became anointed by God. Jesse brought out all of his sons, except David, to show them to God but God kept saying, “What else have you got?” Finally God said, “Is that everyone?” And Jesse said yep…well except for David. He is the youngest and ruddy and hasn’t been on What not to Wear. He surely isn’t the one. Guess what? God saw things differently.
God ALWAYS sees things differently. That is the nature of God. God is not concerned with the things that take up all our mental space. What do our bodies look like? What do our clothes look like? What does our car look like? What does our home look like? God doesn’t care if your car isn’t waxed, your backyard is a mess, your jeans are torn and you need to lose 20 lbs. God sees our heart. It tells us right here, “Do NOT look on his appearance or the height of his stature…the Lord does not see as mortals…they look on the outer appearances but the Lord LOOKS ON THE HEART.”
How’s your heart? I know even with my line of work, I spend more time on outer Jerry than inner Jerry. Better than I was, not as good as I could be.
We live in a world where appearances matter. We got a letter a few weeks ago that we had to cut down three trees in our back yard because they were dying and unsightly. It cost us over $400. That’s $400 that we could have used. Now I want our yard to look nice but there are thousands of dead tress in the Rocky Mountains and people are always taking pictures of those! They go on vacation to be in the woods…woods with no HOA. But we have to keep up appearances. We live in Highlands Ranch. I know it’s good for resale value and it keeps the neighborhood looking great but boy do you know how many jeans and hair products I could have bought with that money?
It is interesting to note that nowhere in the Bible do we get a physical description of Jesus. It is safe to say, he didn’t have wavy brown hair and blue eyes. His looks were not what drew people to him. He was not George Clooney. It was his soul. It was his heart. It was the way he treated people. I sometimes wonder if it isn’t a preacher’s job to remind people (and themselves) that if you want to attract people to you, worry less about your weight and more about your heart condition.
How is your heart? Is it open? Is it loving? Is it the kind of heart you want God to see? I hope it is…for all of us…because that’s all God is going to see. God cares more about the size of our heart than the size of our waist.
I want to close with a story I heard a long time ago about Jesus. Jesus gets invited to a party and is very much looking forward to it. He wants to arrive early but knows that’s not what the “cool” people do, so he waits till it’s time for the party to start. When the time arrives, Jesus gets to the front door and knocks. The host opens the door and lets Jesus in. As soon as Jesus walks in we see the scenario. It’s a formal black tie affair. Everyone is in formalwear. Tuxes, ball gown, high heels and patent leather shoes. Everyone is dressed to the nines. Everyone except Jesus. Jesus didn’t get the memo. Jesus is wearing jeans, and sandals and a long sleeve t-shirt.
What would Jesus do? WWJD. Literally, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? What happens next?
Talk about that with the people around you for a few minutes and then I’ll tell you the rest of the story.
Ok let’s come back. So Jesus is at a party and underdressed. What does he do? I will tell you first how mortified I would be to be Jesus. That would just be awful. I’d probably look at my blackberry, pretend I had an emergency and turn and run out the door. But I’m not Jesus and I have a long way to go. What kind of answers did you all hear? The answer lies in three words. HE WOULDN’T NOTICE. He wouldn’t notice the fancy gowns or the shiny shoes. He wouldn’t see who was wearing what designer. He wouldn’t care if the tuxes were double or single breasted and who was wearing a peak lapel (those are very in this year you know). He would see their heart. That’s all.
I encourage all of us to start looking less at people’s skin condition and more at people’s heart condition. I pray for the day when I can be anywhere at any time and not only not notice what others are wearing/or driving but that I don’t care what I am either.
That would be a transformation that leaves Biggest Loser in the dust.
Amen.