you'll hit your mark
but it ain't for free
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in the past year or so, I’ve really stepped up my Sunday morning fashion game. It was one of those COVID hobbies, I suppose. It began with a COVID sale. And since then, my Sunday attire has consisted almost exclusively of slacks and a formal cleric. Complete with cufflinks. And even an occasional bespoke blazer to set the whole ensemble off.
Now, I’m not exactly sure where this desire to dress up came from. Maybe it was an attempt to interject a little show into these pared-down services. Maybe it was because I was feeling a little older and thought I might as well dress like it. Or maybe it was because everything else felt out of control, and my attire was one thing I did have some power over. Whatever the exact nature of the cause was, though, I can’t help but notice how my fashion choices were never just about my fashion choices!
And I’m not alone in this, either. Am I? While our duds may show off, they also obscure. Our outfits not only reveal what we like, they also seek to conceal what we don’t! Don’t they? It could be something about ourselves or our circumstances; no matter what, though, our wardrobe choices try and put out of sight just as much as they try and draw attention.
This is no great secret, either. In fact, a big part of dressing well is the art of knowing where to draw the eye. The irony, though, is no matter how good you are at playing this game, none of us want to have to play it. Certainly not all the time.
While it may be fun to dress up—and if that’s your thing, I hope you make a to-do of Sunday morning and get your share of compliments, too. But, even if getting all decked out is your thing, no one wants to have to preen all the time. In fact, quite the contrary! What we all want most of all is to be seen at our most shabby and still found desirable!
We all want to be seen for who we really are, even at our most unlovable, and loved nonetheless! The trouble with your fashion choices is, the better you are at making them, the more you become confined by them! After all, isn’t that what happened to Jacob in today’s scripture?
Jacob’s playing dress-up in today’s passage. And the mark is none other than his older brother, Esau. This should come as no surprise, either. Esau, not Jacob, was the one who lived the charmed life. Esau was the one who everyone couldn't help but notice. Esau was a natural. A hard worker. The kind of guy who played, and started, in three sports. When Isaac asked Esau, not Jacob, to go out and hunt for the meal, it was just one of the many times Jacob was overlooked in favor of Esau.
That time, though, instead of taking it, Jacob decided to do something about it. So he went and riffled through Esau’s closet, put on Esau’s finest vestments, and did his best impression of his older, more successful brother. And while the act wasn’t entirely convincing, it was good enough! Good enough for Isaac to give Jacob, not Esau, the blessing. That blessing Esau had taken for granted his entire life!
However, getting what he had always wanted didn’t play out for Jacob the way he expected. Instead of strutting around on the catwalk, Jacob fell lower than he’d ever been in his entire life. Jacob wasn’t sleeping outside, using a rock for a pillow, because it was his idea of a good time. No, Jacob was on the lam!
Jacob’s little caper sent his brother, Esau, into a blind-rage! And Jacob knew full-well he couldn’t stand up to Esau, either. So instead of facing inevitable doom, he went on the run.
And it was right there, at that dead-end of playing dress-up, that God showed up and showed out for Jacob! And God didn’t step onto the scene to play fashion police or image consultant, either! No, God was there to make some promises to Jacob. And unconditional ones, at that!
…Buried in the middle of Galatians, the Apostle Paul compares God’s promises to a nice set of threads (Gal. 3:27). But there’s a big difference between our clothing and the garments of God’s promises. Whereas our attire seeks to conceal, the raiments God has to give only reveal!
First and foremost, God’s promises show us a thing or two about who God is. But, in putting on God’s promises, you are also freed to see yourself as you really are! Even at your most run down.
In fact, that’s the best way to see things on this side of the dim mirror. You see God best by looking at God’s love for you! God’s love for you that’s the same on your best day as it is on your worst! AND once you’ve seen yourself covered from head to toe in that love, you’ll finally be able to see yourself as you really are, too!
…When Jacob fell asleep, he dreamt of angels ascending and descending a great ladder to heaven and back. And that’s no great surprise. Jacob’s spent his entire life scheming how to get from one rung to the next on the ladder of life.
And you and I, we’re not so different from Jacob. Are we? We, too, are busy trying to climb those ladders of life. That’s why our clothing reveals and conceals! We, too, are trying to hide our deficiencies and accentuate our charms. Like Jacob, we’re trying to get a leg up on life!
Take a gander at God, though! Not only is God not caught up in that game of ladder-climbing, God's gotten off the ladder entirely! God’s standing right next to Jacob! With him, there in his rock bottom!
And that’s right where God’s taken Thy stand with you today, too! Right next to you! God’s not waiting for you to get all gussied up before God’s going to fall for you! No, you’ve been the apple of God’s eye since day one. Good days and bad ones, alike!
At the cross, God promised God’s love for you would never be contingent upon you or your wiles. Quite the contrary. In fact, at the cross, God came down to you decisively. Took Thy stand with you wholeheartedly. And poured out all Thy love for you conclusively!
And in that happy exchange, you’ve become the very beauty of God!
And if you think I’m speaking generally, or about someone else, think again. I’m talking about you. Yes, you. God loves you! Jesus went to the cross for you! Jesus plied his forgiveness specifically upon you at his cross! And in that love, you are absolutely head-over-heels lovely yourself! As Luther said, “God doesn’t love you because you’re beautiful. No, God loves you, and that makes you beautiful.”
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