Lent@Landmark: Day 21

There’s no class in seminary that teaches the Biblical standard on “church clothes.” It’s been debated enough, for sure. I’ve spoken to people who were pretty indignant about the clothing choices of their fellow worshippers on a Sunday morning. There are just some things that, to some of us, are “unacceptable.”

We have actually spent a good deal of time and energy on deciding what is “unacceptable” when it comes to our Sunday morning experience. Clothes, lighting, seating, music, flooring, windows. Sometimes we find things simply unacceptable.

Fortunately, God doesn’t care about our standards of “acceptability.” What does it take to be acceptable enough to approach God in worship or in prayer? Consider the beginning of Psalm 130.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. (Psalm 130:1)

Not from the pews, not from the choir loft, not from the chancel/platform, not from the chapel. Not from the fitting room at an expensive clothing store, nor from any altitude resulting from any effort on our part. This cry to the Lord comes from the depths. That’s not a place you climb to, it’s a place you reach by sinking, or by falling.

Thanks be to God that God hears us because of who God is, not because of who we are, where we are, or how acceptable others think we are.

You are acceptable. God says so. Amen.