We can be liberated from the soul-sickening shallowness of hiding our shame with pietistic garb. We can actually embrace the life of Christ and find the motivation and power to live in authenticity by faith.

Every once in a while I hear a version of the question, "Can a lily that blooms in the desert unseen by any man or animal fulfill its destiny?" It always challenges me to reexamine the being/doing dynamic. Is the value in being or in being seen? Without question, the need to be seen is powerful in our souls. Our desire for affirmation will drive us to unhealthy attitudes and actions if not acknowledged.

May I tell you my first conscious confrontation with this powerful dynamic? I had gone to college with the help of a football scholarship. I desperately wanted to succeed on the athletic field, but I also wanted to please God. I had promised Him that I would use the platform that comes with being an athlete to proclaim His word. Actually I was afraid that I couldn’t compete with the speakers and preachers who could really cut it. I needed that added platform for anyone to listen. I did pretty well and lettered as a freshman. The future looked fairly bright. Then I was injured. I went to the hospital for several weeks and was diagnosed with pneumonia as well as an injured hip. Then the doctor came into my room and told me I was being tested for tuberculosis. I could imagine my life in a secluded sanitarium. The future seemed bleak to me. During this time I came face to face with my own sense of value. Would I be valuable if my life were spent in a sanitarium instead of on the public platform? Had I failed God? Was I so incapable that my assignment was seclusion? I shall always be thankful for the grace of His presence in that moment. I was completely assured that Jesus loved me unconditionally. I reached the point of actually being excited if the sanitarium were my destiny.

I wish I could report that I never had to fight that battle again. Actually it is one that is constantly before me (and us), I think. I still wonder how others see me. The temptation is to be a POSER. And the worst poser of all is the religious poser. He or she tries to cover unaddressed shame with pietistic garb. These were the frontline enemies of Jesus as He sought to bring real, liberating life to His own ethnic people. Their leaders had divided into several sects emphasizing some feature of what they would consider the superior life. It was not enough to be Israel, the chosen people of God. There was the need to be even more special than that. So, only those who measured up to a superior level of dedication would be the accepted group. They progressed or digressed from ethnic superiority to educational superiority to dedicational superiority in their need to be special. Special was not enough. "Superior" had become the standard.

This is always the pattern when "flesh" tries to impress God. I can remember growing up hearing about the "Baptist bride." This was a group of believers who were convinced that only the elite and fully committed would be given special favor with God. The other less committed would get into heaven, but just barely. The Baptists weren’t the only ones who fell prey to this way of scratching the "need-to-be-special" itch. It is in us all and will pop out when we neglect to find our value in being related to Jesus the accepted One.

A look at the classic posers can be helpful.

Descriptive language of the posers: they "walk around" in their garb to impress those who see them. It is obvious their main interests are being seen rather than being. They love the "greetings." The titles bestowed and repeated by others make the desolate soul feel good for the moment. And the "best seats in the synagogues" are important not because they are more comfortable, but because they tell others you are superior. They mistreat the widows knowing that because they are superior the same rules do not apply to them as to others. God will overlook injustice for those who are tight with Him…won’t He?

Posers are threatened by authenticity. Jesus came with His kingdom in tow. It is a world where equality, love and generosity rule. Well, anyone can see how that would be a major threat to those who depend on inequality (if I am superior, you can’t be), dominance and greed. So what does a poser do with Jesus and His kingdom? Jesus can be outright rejected. This usually means we have to trump up some charges in our minds that justify the rejection. Or, He can be reduced to the chaplain of the inferior and victimized. We can applaud His work among the needy while keeping our pietistic garbs in good fashion.

What makes a poser? The simple answer is unaddressed shame. None of us can tolerate being naked in our incompleteness. We, like Adam and Eve in the original garden, will hide behind whatever we can find when we become conscious of nakedness. Any bush will do. Just anything to cover the raw nakedness of being Adam’s descendant! The sense of rejection, awareness of our inner rebellion, the evidence of our cowardice, and the fragmented sense of indignity…it is just too much to handle without covering. So we look for the garb that will best negate the shame. The respectable clothes are the best. In the religious posers’ culture, the best clothes are religious. Things associated with God will surely deflect shaming glances. So they wore the clothes, spoke the language, and did the stuff holy people should do. Are we guilty as well?

In a secular culture, however, the most respectable clothes are more associated with popular success. The reflections of achieving the American dream are the most popular garb: the right suit, the right car, the right neighborhood, the right schools, the right invitations to the right parties, the right clubs etc. It doesn’t matter that inside we are fragmented isolated, fearful and desperate. We look good. And being seen is more important than being.

The trouble is that it doesn’t work. We all hate it. We hate it in others. Have you ever heard anyone say they liked a poser? We hate it in ourselves. Alone when no eyes are watching, we hate it. So is there a solution? YES. There is a gospel for posers. Jesus offers a life as confident as the lily that blooms unseen in the desert. He says that we can be still and be real.

He offers the model. We as humans needed a man to conquer shame. He did it. If we want to know what a shameless life looks like, we have the picture. In a sentence we could say it is the life of love. Unfortunately, that word, love, has lost much of its meaning. Paul in his letter to Corinth describes it for us.

This life of love is so powerful that trouble does not disturb it. Mean people can’t destroy it. Self does not define it. Time does not diminish it. And nothing can stop it. But if we don’t have it, nothing else matters. All the garb is worthless.

But we have more than the model. He actually gives us the life in the person of the Spirit of God. God sees and evaluates us as we exist "in Christ." We are loved and favored because of our relationship with Him. We can face God anytime without shame because we are "in Christ." He also has impregnated us with the seed of His nature, and we enjoy the process of not just being seen by God as shameless, but we are transformed by His indwelling life. Each time we discover need in us, we find supply in Him. It is then our choice to believe His supply will fill our need. As we act consistently with our choice, we find the transforming power of the life of love changing us on the inside. We can afford to be real. We are covered by the most respectable garb in the universe… the righteousness of God.