What a long line at WaWa this morning!  I was there on my daily visit to buy coffee, and although it was rush hour both on the road and inside the WaWa there was only one register open.  Thankfully, a guy appeared to open another one.  I made a move to get into the new line, and  a road crew member wearing a reflective vest got there at the same time.  Not just because he looked like a linebacker, I waved him in front of me.

“No, no.”  He said.  “I just want to ask you a question.”

“Okay,” I answered, not sure where this was going.

“Was Lot Abraham’s son?”

An easy one.  I’ll take Bible for $200, Alex.

“No, they were related.  But Lot was Abraham’s nephew.”

“Oh. ”

I started to walk away, my duty done.  But he wasn’t.  Done, I mean.  “Who were those people who came from Lot?  Descended from him?”

Suddenly I had another Jeopardy flashback – the first time I rang in my first game – I stood there the same as contestants I’d made fun of on TV with blank stares like they had no idea why their podium had lit up –  “Who did that?”   Now I was one of them.  I had nothin’.   Those few seconds as time ticked down to Alex’s “Ooooh, sorry” were both too short and forever.

I had nothin’ for the man in the reflective vest, either.  I racked my brain.  “I don’t know.  It’s in Genesis, though.” *

“Oh, okay.”  He said.  And he walked out of the store.

So, that was not the best example of why I wear a clerical collar.  But, does sort of illustrate why I wear the collar most of the time (on days I work, anyway).

Lots of Lutheran pastors choose to make wearing a clerical collar the exception rather than the rule.  And that’s fine.  I understand the reasons for not wearing one – it can be off-putting, especially to folks who haven’t been around churches much or at least in churches where pastors wear clerics.

But I do have my own reasons for my choice.  It’s not because it took me 9 years of part-time study to finish seminary and I earned it, by golly!  No, that’s not it.  Nor is it a desire to exhibit some kind of spiritual authority or to get leniency from State Troopers.  Nope, in fact I drive more carefully when I’m wearing the collar because I feel like I’m not just representing myself.

It’s also not that it makes hospital visits a lot easier because you don’t have explain to medical staff why you’re showing up.  Although that is a benefit.

And it’s even not because I’m so surprised to be a pastor that I need the reminder every time I look in the mirror (although that might have been part of it early on!).

The primary reason I choose to wear a clerical collar is something I heard a pastor say a long time before I was one:  “I don’t take off the collar when I go to the store; you never know when someone there might need a pastor.”

If I hadn’t been wearing the collar, I probably wouldn’t have had the discussion a while back with the Sandwich Artist (that’s really what they’re called) at Subway about how she drifted away from her faith and how she was feeling like she really needed a blessing right then.  I wouldn’t have had the encounter at another WaWa with the Assistant Manager who had a few things that were bothering him about the Bible.  And I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to pray with the Grocery Store checkout lady who was feeling overwhelmed with health and family issues.

That is why I wear a clerical collar.  Most of the time – not on my day off, not around the house, not to bed (the plastic tab wouldn’t be real comfortable).  But out and about on days I’m not off  . . . you never know who might need a pastor.

And while I’m on the collar, some folks have asked why I wore one  on Jeopardy, but only on the second of the five regular shows I was on.  Well, they want you to wear different clothes every “day” (although five games are taped in a day, you bring several sets of clothes in case you win so each game looks like a new day).  I didn’t wear it for the first game because I had no idea how I would do – I  wanted to embarrass only myself if disaster struck.  I wore it the second game because I had won . . . and who knows if there would be a third game.

And something about the collar before that second game as I described it in the blog I wrote about my Jeopardy experience:

As you can see in this picture, I did wear a clerical collar the first of my two games on the J! Tournament of Champions.