‘Wash your face,’ said Jesus (Matthew 6.17). He did not say this because those who heard him speak were frowsty noddle-heads just out of bed. He knew that we human beings like to put on airs and make an impression. Our faces are in fact valuable assets. One face in history was so valuable that it brought about a naval force of s thousand ships setting out to give the Trojans a good hiding. The Trojan war dragged on. The two champions Achilles and Hector slugged it out. Year succeeded year. The war eventually came to an end thanks to a wooden horse and what we would now call a special forces operation to open the enemy gates to storm-troopers. And the reason for it all? In Marlowe’s words it was a face that launched a thousand ships.
Such faces are few and far between. Most of us have quite ordinary faces and we make them as presentable as we can. If we’re men, the fashion is to shave them. If we’re women, the fashion is to paint them. Why? Because we know that our faces tell other people what kind of person we are. We roll our eyes. We raise our eyebrows. We pout. We glance playfully. Our faces speak for us. Words are hardly necessary. We reveal whether we are alive to the conversation or on the point of nodding off. Faces are not only valuable assets. They are revelations.
So when Jesus told us to wash our faces, he was referring to one of the most significant things about us. Whether we’re big or small, alert or lethargic, the place to see the real person is in the assemblage of eyes, lips and cheeks that make up the face. We are not being told to camouflage our true feelings or hide our personalities. Nor are we to give too much consideration to the impression we are making on others. We need to have a proper estimation of ourselves. It is no good pretending. We must just be ourselves. That includes not taking ourselves too seriously.
TWINNED WITH ELDORET
‘Journeying through Lockdown’ is the theme of the stylish current 32-page online magazine of St James’s, Clitheroe, Lancs. Members of the congregation tell in ‘Network’ of their ups and downs and positive outcomes. One disappointment has been the cancellation of a parish trip to Eldoret, Kenya, to visit their twinned church, the King’s Highway Church. Notwithstanding this, the church is busy with a recovery programme for addicts and alcoholics in Lancashire (the 180 project), a youth band, a proposed new building, a newly arrived ordinand in training, Alpha – a packed programme that is keeping the church on its toes.
I thoroughly recommend a visit to the King’s Highway website. Make for Gladys’s story, a heart-warming YouTube account with family and location shots that is the next best thing to experiencing daily life in Eldoret and a purposeful life in response to the Gospel. For background see ‘Driving round Eldoret’.
If you have a comment on this post please send an email to Revd John King at johnc.king@talktalk.net Edited extracts may be published. To forward this to a friend click on the chain icon below.
Comments