Clean shirt, new shoes
And I dont know where I am goin to.
Silk suit, black tie,
I dont need a reason why.
They come runnin just as fast as they can 

Top coat, top hat,
I dont worry coz my wallets fat.
Black shades, white gloves,
Lookin sharp and lookin for love.
They come runnin just as fast as they can
Coz every girl grazy bout a sharp dressed man.

Sunday I preach from Romans 12:1-2 & Romans 13:8-14, speaking from the topic “Clothed with Christ.”  Sunday’s sermon will be all about how mixed up theology leads to mixed up values.  If the theology is right, then values, morals, and ethics fall into place.  I believe we make a mistake trying to first our actions when what ails us is our thought processed. 

 A proper understand of our “identity” will necessarily impact our lifestyle, but the opposite is not necessarily true. 

 As I though further about this, I remembered a story I read by Tony Campolo. 

When he was a boy growing up in Philadelphia, Tony Campolo and his best friend devised what they considered a brilliant and creative Halloween prank – one which, by the way, they never carried out.  Their plan was to break into the basement of the local five-and-dime store.  (To explain to children and young people, that’s a mini Wal-Mart.)  They never planned to rob the store, but had they carried out their dream, it would have been far worse. 

  Their plan was to get into the store and change the price tags on all the merchandise. They imagined what it would be like the next morning when people came into the store and discovered that radios were marked at a quarter each and the price of hair pins had suddenly been raised to five dollars a package.  With a great deal of delight, they wondered what it would be like in the store when no one could figure out what the prices of things really should be.     

  In recalling his boyhood plan of Halloween mischief, Campolo said that he often thinks that the world in which we live is trying to play that trick on all of us.  At times, it appears that somebody has broken into our lives and changed the price tags—the value—attached to practically everything. 

What makes matters worse it that we often play along with this malicious devilment!  We have a tendency to treat with loving care those things that are of little worth, while at the same time making great sacrifices for that which, in the ends, has no real lasting value. 

 It seems to me that our religous culture has caused up to switch some pricetags. 

What are some way that we’ve switched (or participated in the switching) of “the price tags” in our society?

 What does it mean to be “clothed with Christ” – and how will that impact our sense of identity and our expressions of faith in daily living?