How Humility Handles Our Need to Be Noticed
"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'
Matthew 23:5-7 (NIV)
"My Bible is bigger than yours. I sit in the big chair and don't forget to call me Reverend." How silly and petty does that sound? Sadly it happens in too many churches. Today's reading makes me want to cry, "Uncle, I give." This lesson really hits home and right where we live. The need for status symbols, recognition and titles. This is an area where many struggle. We have to live in the right neighborhood and house, drive the right car and wear the right brand of clothes and God forbid that someone would forget or not use my title. How enslaved have we become to our status symbols, our need to be noticed.
When I arrived at Ole Miss in 1971, as a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ, one thing that became really clear was that to be accepted you had to wear certain brands of clothes. It was Corbin slacks, Gant shirts, Puritan sweaters and Bass Weeguns. Students were judged by the clothes they wore. One day the other staff and I wore our clothes inside out so the labels would be visible just to make a point. The students in our ministry began to see how they had become so attached to their symbols that they were excluding others and that sin was hurting the kingdom of God.
I wonder how often we let this need to be noticed get in the way of building the kingdom of God because people don't meet our standards. Our relationships are diminished by these three status seeking issues.
In our church and lives we cannot afford to be caught in these traps. Pray that we will not allow social status to keep us from reaching our community with the gospel of Christ.
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