We Call That a “Habit”
August 20, 2006 at 10:56 pm | In Church, Humor |Every so often, it occurs to me that a lot of Protestant and evangelical layfolk don’t really want to act like laypeople at all. They want to act like they’re part of a religious order community (and though they’d never support the old practice of oblates), right down to their tiny little kiddies.
Enter the Armor of God Pajamas.
Now, I don’t particularly object to this. It’s just that we in the Catholic world, east and west, have a similar custom. It’s called “members of religious orders putting on their habits”, not to mention “priests putting on their vestments“:
“The priest or bishop who is about to celebrate, having washed his hands, taketh the amice, and covereth his head with it; and this he hath in the stead of the ephod or super-humeral, or of the Breastplate of Judgment; nay, even now it may be called the super-humeral. This signifieth salvation, which is granted through faith; whereof also the Apostle speaketh, saying unto the Ephesians, PUT ON THE HELMET OF SALVATION.”
(It goes on from there, with tons more symbolism and scriptural citation.)
Another very common accessory is the “yoke” that is “easy and light” — represented for the religious by the tabardy thing that monks and sisters of certain orders call a scapular (because it go over the scapulae, shoulders), and which inspired the stylized cord ones that many laypersons wear.
So I agree that re-inventing the wheel can be fun and useful. But sheesh, let the kids enjoy the lay state every once in a while, huh?
5 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
But we are all priests!
Rev 1:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Comment by Joy — August 22, 2006 #
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Comment by Joy — August 22, 2006 #
1 Peter 2:4-6 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
The Living Stone and a Chosen People
4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Comment by Joy — August 22, 2006 #
Yes, the lay Christian state, like the lay Jewish state, is a priestly state. But it’s a priestly state that means you don’t spend all your time doing priestly things, or, contrariwise, that whatever normal things you do _are_ priestly things. No further religioning it up required.
Besides, I still don’t see why the boy gets a helmet and the girl gets a veil. Have you ever tried to sleep in anything that hangs down your shoulders like that? Sheesh, it takes practice to sleep with long hair. And even nuns take off their veils at night.
Maureen, who even as a child thought Underoos were intrinsically creepy. But this is much worse.
Comment by Maureen — August 23, 2006 #
And do little kids even know what armor is? I was obsessed with Roman soldiers and Knights of the Round Table when I was a kid, but I didn’t want to wear armor to bed. BTW: My minister pointed out that Paul probably had a soldier chained to him night and day when he wrote that particular passage. Armor was on his mind.
Comment by Joy — August 24, 2006 #