Its better than circumcision.....

Christians are not visually distinct from the rest the people in the world. Unlike medieval Europe and Nazi Germany, where Jews were forced to wear particular items of clothing to mark themselves, Christians have no such indicators. There are some sects, such as the Amish and the Mennonites, who have adopted a distinctive dress, but this is only obvious in the present. When the Amish and Mennonites were formulating, the dress they chose was very similar to others around them. Their dress is characteristic today because it has been frozen in time.

We are basically indistinct from other people, and yet we know our eternal home is not in this world. We blend in when it is convenient to do, and people walk by us without knowing that we are carrying the Divine Majesty within us. We feel the pull of the eternal world on our soul, even while we are getting the kids dressed for school or filling the gas tank.

This conundrum is nothing new to disciples of Jesus. The second-century Epistle to Diognetus offers a self-portrait of the early Christian community:

    “For Christians are distinguished from the rest of men neither by country nor by language nor by customs. For nowhere do they dwell in cities of their own; they do not use any strange form of speech. … But while they dwell in both Greek and barbarian cities, each as his lot was cast, and follow the customs of the land in dress and food and other matters of living, they show forth the remarkable and admittedly strange order of their own citizenship. They live in fatherlands of their own, but as aliens. They share all things as citizens and suffer all things as strangers. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and every fatherland a foreign land. … They pass their days on earth, but they have their citizenship in heaven.”

Genesis 17:1-27
"When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the sovereign God. Walk before me and be blameless.   2 Then I will confirm my covenant between me and you, and I will give you a multitude of descendants."  3 Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, and God said to him,   4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer will your name be Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you.   7 I will confirm my covenant as a perpetual covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.   8 I will give the whole land of Canaan - the land where you are now residing - to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God." 9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.   11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder of the covenant between me and you. 12 Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants. 13 They must indeed be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of my covenant will be visible in your flesh as a permanent reminder. 14 Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from his people - he has failed to carry out my requirement."  15 Then God said to Abraham, "As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; Sarah will be her name. 16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. Kings of countries will come from her!" 17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed as he said to himself, "Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"   18 Abraham said to God, "O that Ishmael might live before you!"  19 God said, "No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual covenant for his descendants after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes; I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year." 22 When he finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. 23 Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) and circumcised them on that very same day, just as God had told him to do. 24 Now Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised;   25 his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day. 27 All the men of his household, whether born in his household or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him."

Abraham and the other males of his family were to be marked physically as a sign of the contract between them and God. It would intimately separate them from the rest of the world. They would be set apart as a people, as a reminder of the covenant and promises made. Every eight-day old boy would be brought into this exclusive club with a painful initiation.

Christians are circumcised as well, but internally. Our hearts are circumcised by the Holy Spirit, both male and female. We have been marked as separate from others, with the pain coming from a renunciation of the world’s desires and placing one foot on earth and one already in heaven.

Still, maybe we should wear cool hats or something.