The Church in Drag

When a young student of rhetoric came to him who has his hair arranged in a rather elaborate fashion and was in general richly dressed, Epictetus said...

What is it, then, that makes a dog beautiful? Is it not that excellence appropriate to dogs?

What is it, then, that makes a horse beautiful? Is it not that excellence appropriate to horses?

So what makes a human being beautiful? Must it not be the presence of that excellence appropriate to human beings, namely: justice, temperance, self-control - in a word, virtue.

So then, if you make yourself such a person, you can be sure that you will make yourself beautiful; but while you neglect these things, whatever contrivances you employ to appear beautiful, you will necessarily be ugly.

-The Discourses of Epictetus, Book 3 Chapter 1

A fantastic argument! Shall we apply it to the Church? What makes the Church beautiful? Is it not that excellence appropriate to the Church? Of course it is. And what is the nature of this excellence?

The pure preaching of God's Word - Law and Gospel.
The proper administration of the Sacraments.
Orthodoxy. Catholicity. Virtue.

You get the drift.

So then, the Church should busy itself with these things in order to be beautiful as Church.

What would Epictetus the Stoic say about Church Growth, Contemporary Worship, and all the other gaudy baubles that are contrived to make the Church beautiful and appealing apart from the Word and the Sacraments?

"While you neglect these things, whatever contrivances you employ to appear beautiful, you will necessarily be ugly."

Thanks, Epictetus. Thanks.

VALE!