I don’t wear a clerical collar.
Many Lutheran pastors I know do, which sometimes leads to cases of mistaken identity.
“Good morning, Father.”
“Father, would you say a prayer for me?”
“Hey Father, can you bless my dog?”
My pastor friends always smile and politely explain that they aren’t Catholic – priests aren’t the only ministers who wear clerical collars.
Though clerical collars may at times cause slight denominational confusion, they are always a clear and unmistakable sign that the person wearing one is a minister of some kind.
Uniforms do that. They help people immediately identify a person’s profession.
Policemen. Firemen. Doctors. Nurses.
Even the people behind the counter at McDonald’s.
The Apostle Paul wrote about the uniform we are to wear as Christians. “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,” he told the Roman Christians (Romans 13:14). In his letter to the Colossians, he described the uniform in more detail: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… and over all these virtues, put on love” (Colossians 3:12,14).
In other words, Christ on the inside should show Christ on the outside.
When we see the compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love that Christ has shown to us, something begins to change. We see our families and friends, our jobs and our homes, sins forgiven, and the simple fact that we are still alive after all the foolish choices we have made.
When we truly grasp the great love God has shown us, it will show in what we say and do.
Being a Christian means getting up every day and putting on a uniform of kindness, patience, humility and love. But that’s hard to do.
Our uniform is hard to put on. It’s hard to keep clean. People treat us differently when they see us wearing it.
And because of that, sometimes we become undercover police officers.
Police officers have some of the most recognizable uniforms in the world. Yet, some officers purposefully take off their uniform so that the bad guys don’t recognize them. They go undercover. They try to blend in with the crowd.
That is the temptation for us as Christians, for us as churches, even for us as clergy.
We are not like the world.
We should stand out.
People should be able to identify us immediately as Christians – not by the clothes we wear, but by the way we live, the way we speak, the love we show.
So, clothe yourself with Christ. Wear your uniform proudly – not to draw attention to yourself, but so that others may see the love of Christ in you.
Pastor Andrew Schroer has been a pastor for over 25 years and is currently serving at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Edna, Texas. You can find his latest books, “364 Days of Thanksgiving” and “364 Days of Devotion,” on Amazon. com.
