I know that the collar is still eschewed by some in Lutheran circles, perhaps many. I know that many still think of it simply as personal preference. In reality it is more serious than a fashion statement. A clerical collar clearly marks you as a minister of Christ's Church and is a walking billboard of liturgical, confessional, and orthodox Christianity. I have no proof but I have the deep suspicion that the real reason some Lutherans do not wear the collar is that they do not want to bring that attention to themselves.
It is attention. Nearly everywhere I go in the community someone will either recognize me or my parish or the Christian faith because of that little bit of plasticized fabric worn around my neck. I get asked for money, for prayers, for advice, for counsel, and a host of other things -- only because they see my clerical collar. I have had babies dumped into my arms on airplanes and even a mother ask me to take her son into the restroom (obviously pre the abuse scandals!). But most of the time people come up to to me with concerns for the faith, with questions about doctrine and piety, and with stories of their own struggles in the faith over time. The clerical collar opens mouths up even if it does not open many doors anymore.
If I could have my way, I would make it a rule that every Lutheran pastor had to wear a clerical collar. It will never happen, of course, even if we were about to pass laws on such a thing. Lutherans instinctively resist authority (even the authority of God!). Nobody would give me the time of day after such a rule was laid down! But the reason I believe it should be made has nothing to do with personal preference. It has everything to do with the fact that the pastor in clerical collar is a walking billboard for the faith and for the Church even when he says nothing or does nothing particularly religious or winsome. If for this reason only, it would be worth it to make every pastor purchase and wear a clerical collar.
But you are free to disagree. You may be wrong but I think I am pretty much on target with this. Pastors and priests who ditch the collar are trying to preserve the anonymity that will prevent them from being outed as a man of the cloth when they want to be incognito.
19 comments:
The clerical collar is certainly more befitting for the office of the holy ministry than a polo shirt or Hawaiian shirt. You are quite correct. Good job and let us always encourage our pastors to faithfully adorn their sacred office inwardly and outwardly, with all glory to God, as faithful servants of Jesus.
"Pastors and priests who ditch the collar are trying to preserve the anonymity that will prevent them from being outed as a man of the cloth when they want to be incognito."
J.T. Mueller noted (Christian Dogmatics, 1934, p. 655): "We therefore rightly distinguish between believers as spiritual priests and believers as called ministers of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries." And then Mueller quoted another Lutheran:
"Though we all are priests, yet we all neither can nor should for this reason preach, teach, or rule. But from the whole throng we must select and choose some to whom we entrust this office; and whoever conducts it is not a priest on account of his
office (which they all are), but a servant of all others." (Martin Luther, St. L., V, 1037, §253)
It might also be noted that, while there is likewise no proof, but only a suspicion of the motivation, some Lutheran pastors may not wear a clerical collar so that they are not confused with Roman or Episcopal clergy (especially with the ongoing perversions in those church bodies). With no proof being provided, this suspected motivation is, at least, a positive one.
This ascribed motivation might also explain why all Lutheran pastors do not wear a miter and carry a crosier.
There is definitely something to this. One of the things I have done recently is buy and wear a crucifix outside of my shirt so that it is freely visible. I did so for a few reasons. First and foremost to remind myself who I belong to. When I am tempted to act in a way that would bring shame to the name I bear around my neck, it helps to bring me to repentance and moderate my thoughts, words, behavior, etc. But to your point it has also marked me to people I come in contact with and has opened doors to conversations that might otherwise not have been broached, and allowed me to share the gospel. We are all called to an identity as priests that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness. May we not run from that identity.
If a Lutheran pastor wants to make it really clear in public that actually he is a Lutheran pastor, then he might take a hint from Buzz Aldrin (MIT, Doctor of Science, 1983).
At a time several years ago, my wife and I were without a parish home, and we began to frequent an LCMS parish in our town. We were quite regular in the Adult Class, and occasionally stayed for worship (but never taking Communion). It came to pass, that I received a letter in the mail, signed by the Pastor and the Head of the Board of Elders, telling me that I was not welcome in their parish if I persisted on wearing clerics. I had been at pains to to put myself forward, not to challenge the parish leadership in any way, but my black shirt was too much for them.
The letter was followed by a visit to my home from the Pastor and the Associate to make sure I knew that it was only because I wear a black shirt with a collar that makes me unwelcome. When these two LCMS clergymen came to my house, both were wearing a suit, white shirt, and a necktie. Even on official unwelcome visit, they wanted to look like businessmen rather than clergy.
It appears that, at least some LCMS folk think that a collar may only be worn inside the Chancel Rail.
Fr.D+
Continuing Anglican Priest
Anon @ 9:12 AM: "The clerical collar is certainly more befitting for the office of the holy ministry than a polo shirt or Hawaiian shirt."
But then there is the Hawaiian shirt with clerical collar.
A few years ago, the Rev. Matthew R Hilpert, then pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Kaneohe, Hawaii, wrote an article, "Aloha Clerical Shirts and Aloha Stoles." The article includes pictures of various shirts and stoles in liturgical colors.
"A clerical collar clearly marks you as a minister of Christ's Church"
Well, not exactly... since even Lutheran seminarians have been seen wearing clerical collars even though they do not have a Divine Call as a pastor of a congregation, nor have they even graduated from a seminary. (And for Loeheists and Grabauites, they are not even ordained.)
"It appears that, at least some LCMS folk think that a collar may only be worn inside the Chancel Rail."
Well, at least two, according to your anecdote, presuming no pertinent details were left out.
In addition to serving as a parish pastor, I teach part-time at a nearby Concordia University. Among other things that means teaching an Introduction to the Bible course to Chinese students, who are fresh from the People's Republic and have arrived to do their "senior year abroad" at our school. Last year, one of my students remarked that she had been to Chinatown, where she had noticed a (Chinese) man standing outside the local Roman Catholic church. He was wearing a clerical collar, just as I do.
She asked, "Is this some kind of uniform?" I said, "Yes," and marveled that someone with no previous exposure to Christianity could figure out what many Americans raised in the church cannot. 我的学生很聪明!
或许多在教堂长大的美国人不是很聪明
Does anyone who regularly reads this blogs and the comments think that Richard Strickert offers anything of value to these blog posts by Pastor Peters?
At this point in his life Strickert is a member of a congregation in schism from its church body. It has declared itself independent. The last time something like that happened in American Lutheran History, Stricker's big hero, Carl Vehse, turned tail and ran back to Germany.
How ironic that Strickert has now chosen to align himself with a pastor/Bishop promising him a pure church, and in the process, declaring itself to be the true visible Church on Earth, consisting of a dying congregation in Austin, Texas.
Go figure!
I must agree with Anonymous...Richard Strickert is a soul-sick individual. His comments on this blog prove that beyond any shadow of a doubt. If he actually thinks his comments here and elsewhere are making any kind of a difference, he is delusional. What a sad, sick old man he is.
McNonymous @4:24 PM - Thanks for providing ample space for me to live rent-free in your head... while you again squat to excrete similarly irrelevant lies and ad hominems in your posts, which newbie poster, "Tom Schmidt" @6:39 PM seems to enjoy sniffing.
Carl, I appreciate your trying to communicate in Chinese in response to my post, but I must tell you that Mr. Google Translator is quite lousy. To point out just one of the errors Mr. GT made, he used 是 to link a subject and an adjective--one of the first things American students learning Chinese are taught never to do. The result is that the Chinese statement resembles those English notices in some Chinese restaurants in the US: you can figure out the gist of what they are getting at, but boy do they sound weird.
As for the two other most recent commentators, why not deal with the substance of Carl's comments rather than make an ad hominem attack that he is a "soul-sick individual"? I don't always agree with him and sometimes he gets stuck on his hobbyhorses, but that doesn't mean he's always wrong or contributes nothing to the conversation. If nothing else, he is usually full of useful online links to matters Lutheran and otherwise. In this thread he made two claims that are worth some consideration: First, seminarians are wearing clerical collars, so that is not per se a sign you are dealing with an ordained minister. I would agree with that assessment and add that historically the wearing of a cassock (of which the clerical collar is a shortened version) was not limited to ordained clergy, but also to those preparing for the ministry. Second, he had a link to a pastor serving in Hawaii, who defended the use of Hawaiian clergy shirts on the grounds that they were very formal dress, unlike the connotation they have on the mainland. You might be surprised to find that this clerical collar-wearing pastor agrees. One is not bound to a particular style of haberdashery for all time, since even the clerical collar is a development from earlier clerical dress. And yet I would argue for a conservative approach to clergy dress within the particular culture one finds oneself. For me, serving in the United States,that would mean wearing a clerical collar.
There is absolutely no reason to deal with the "substance of Carl's comments" when we all know the person making this comments is Richard Strickert who has absolutely nothing to contribute of any meaningful substance but is determined simply to repeating the same old hog slop he dumps on any web site he possible can. He is now a member of a congregation that has declared itself to be an "independent" congregation led by a schismatic pastor. You, James, can more than feel free to exepend your mental energy on this man, others of us have had hid "number" for many years and simply and always pity him.
Thomas Kagen
Thomas, I've had my run-ins with Vehse/Strickert and I've been annoyed with him more than once when he's been triggered by a word (e.g., "catholic" or "mass") and so won't read a post or take the substance of an argument seriously, despite the apostolic injunction against logomachy. But he's been relatively well behaved on this thread. Why not reserve your remarks for those occasions when he is truly acting out of bounds? Why not reward present good behavior instead of dredging up past bad behavior? The former seems to me to be a better way to persuade people to behave well in the future.
Kellerman, good luck with your engagement with Richard Strickert. Assuming you have nothing better to do with your time, you may find it quite "interesting" ... the rest of us no better and have no use for this poor, pathetic, sick human being. But...enjoy.
Newbie poster "Thomas McKagen" @ 3:42 PM responds to my posts in the same way McNonymous and newbie "Tom McSchmidt" have responded, by hurling ad hominems and their own irrelevant mental feces. Newbie McKagen even flings a false ad hominem at my pastor, which is equivalent to, without any substantiation, accusing McKagen's mother of being a crack whore.
From their posts, neither McNonymous, nor McSchmidt, nor McKagen have demonstrated that they are ordained, or Lutheran, or even Christian.
Post a Comment