Only Your Hairdresser Knows for Sure
“Does she… or doesn’t she? Hair color so natural that only her hairdresser knows for sure.” Some of us are old enough to remember the advertising campaign that was sponsored by Clairol, the leading manufacturer of hair color products in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But few of us, I think, are aware of the impact of that campaign on our society and our own lives. Even fewer, I would guess, have stopped to wonder what that campaign has to do with our faith and our Christian witness.
In 1955, an unknown woman, working in an arena where men dominated the scene, introduced an advertising campaign that revolutionized American society and changed the way in which all of us think about our hair. Her name was Shirley Polykoff and she is one of only five women who have ever been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. Shirley Polykoff, a young woman working for Foote, Cone, and Belding, was assigned to the Clairol account and was responsible for increasing sales of hair coloring. But, in those days, only “fast” women colored their hair. Shirley had to figure out a way to convince the American public that even respectable women not only could… but would… color their hair.
Shirley came up with the advertising campaign that changed personal hair color from a genetic reality to a personal choice… primarily by convincing American women that they could color their hair and no one, apart from their own hairdressers, would know that they had done so. The masterstroke was to include photos of children posing with the models whose hair color matched theirs. In this way, Clairol convinced all of us that ordinary women… the woman who lived next door… mothers with healthy, normal children… colored their hair. It was like telling us that coloring our hair was as American as “motherhood, apple pie, and the American flag.” And it worked! The percentage of the female population of this country that colored their hair went from only 7% before the campaign to over 50%.
That advertising campaign has long since disappeared… although, on the Internet, you can purchase a single page of a ladies magazine from 1958 carrying that advertisement for a mere $9… more than ten times the cost of the entire magazine in 1958! What is even more amazing is how our society has been transformed by the concept that we do not need to keep anything that has been bestowed upon us genetically. If we don’t like our hair color, we can change it. After all, as Clairol asked us long ago, “If you only have one life to live, wouldn’t you rather live it as a blonde?” …or, perhaps, a redhead… which was even more racy than being a blonde back then. If you don’t like the color of your eyes, there are now contact lenses in every color imaginable… and even patterns that can make you look like you have cat eyes… or alien eyes. If you don’t like the shape of your nose… or your chin… or your ears… or any other part of your body, you can change it to suit yourself through the miracles of cosmetic surgery. And, if you don’t like the mood that you are in, there are all kinds of drugs available to change that for you, too.
If that weren’t enough, we changed other things as well. We have resculptured the land to create rolling hills where none existed before… created artificial sand traps and bunkers to make our golf game more interesting… and lakes and streams where only dry land existed… stocked with whatever fish we desire. It has truly gotten to the point where you cannot tell by looking at it what is real… and what man has been created. “Does she… or doesn’t she? Well, “only her hairdresser knows for sure.“
But, to borrow another advertising slogan, “Mother Nature is not fooled!” A wise man once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time… and all of the people some of the time… but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” For those of us who have surgically changed our body parts… or artificially elevated our moods… or cosmetically enhanced our appearance… there comes a time when the gap between was is real… and what is fiction… is exposed. And when that happens, it can be devastating. Quite often the gap between the fiction we have created and reality is so large that we actually need professional help to find our true selves again. Is it any wonder that those who hide behind a façade either abandon it altogether because they become weary of the effort of sustaining it… or they get so completely lost in the fantasy that they no longer know who they really are?
Jesus said that he came into the world to save sinners… and, in our scripture for today, Jesus reinforces that message saying, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” This statement comes after the Pharisees have asked Jesus’ disciples why Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners. When Jesus hears the question, he responds by saying that “those who are well have no need of a physician… but those who are sick.” I have often wondered whether the Pharisees saw themselves as the ones who were sick…or whether they simply assumed that Jesus was speaking about the tax collectors and the sinners when he spoke of those who were sick and needed a physician. Interesting, isn’t it, that those of us who may be the most critically ill may not even recognize the fact that we are sick?
Are you… or aren’t you? Like “Does she… or doesn’t she?”, it is a question that often haunts us. Are you… or aren’t you?… truly the Christian that you profess to be? Or have you created a acceptable façade on the outside to cover the ugliness inside… the ugliness you don’t want anyone else to see? Are you… or aren’t you?…sick enough to need the Great Physician? Beautiful on the outside, perhaps, but with a cancer of sin destroying you on the inside… eating away your heart and your soul? Clairol used to say, “Hair color so natural that only her hairdresser knows for sure.” Can we say “A lie so convincing that only your Heavenly Father knows for sure?”
You see, the Pharisees worked hard to keep all of the laws of the Jews… believing that keeping the law kept them righteous before God and would lead to eternal life. They built lives that were so bound by the law that they could not see the love with which God created the law in the beginning. How many times did the Pharisees chastise Jesus for showing love and mercy to others in violation of some code of the law? They didn’t get it. Do you? Are you one of the righteous? Or are you one of the sinners that Jesus came to save? Do you even know? Or are you living a lie so convincing that only your Father in Heaven knows for sure what is real… and what is not? Can you feel the weight of the lie you are living? (Pause) Are you ready to lay it down? Are you… or aren’t you… in need of the services of the Great Physician?
Parents, have you been deliberate and intentional about sharing what is important about your faith with your children… regardless of their ages… or have you just been paying lip service to that… and delivering them to the church building… hoping that someone here will do the job for you? Children, have you given honor to your parents… showing them the respect that God demands… or have you simply existed under the same roof… waiting for the day you can be free? Elders, have taken seriously your responsibility as leaders in this community of faith… your responsibility to teach others what it means to be a Christian… have you gotten to know each member of this congregation by name… do you know their stories… or have you just shown up for your committee meetings and a monthly session meeting… and hoped that some other elder would do the nurturing and teaching part for you? Adults, have you reached out to the youth in our midst… telling them that you care… showing them that they are important to you… as well as to Jesus… nurturing their Christian faith as you have promised to do… or have you just left that to the parents… because you feel uncomfortable around youth… and you don’t want to get out of your comfort zone? Members, have you actively participated in the life of this congregation … regardless of how menial the role… seeking ways to serve others… or have you just shown up for worship on Sunday… and lived the rest of your life as if this church doesn’t exist? Are we here today living a lie… exhibiting a Christian façade… or does it really mean something for us to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ in this world? Are we really the people we pretend to be… or has it all been cosmetically enhanced? Are we so busy trying to look like good Christians that we have forgotten what it truly means to love our neighbor as ourselves… or forgotten who our neighbor is? “Does she… or doesn’t she?” Well, “only her hairdresser knows for sure.” “Are you… or aren’t you?” Guilty of looking like a Christian, but not being one? Living a lie so convincing that only your Heavenly Father knows for sure?
The good news for today.. and every day… is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus came for you… and for me… because, as the Apostle Paul writes, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Each day that God gives to us is another opportunity for us to renew our relationship with God. Each day, we can come to before our God again and find mercy… through God’s boundless grace and the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each day can be a new resurrection… each day can be a new Pentecost …each day can find us closer to the throne of grace… each day can bring us home again to be welcomed back into our Heavenly Father’s arms.
That is what the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is all about… it is about mercy… not sacrifice… about reality… not pretense. It is through the sacrament that we come again into God’s presence and share the feast that has been prepared for us… knowing that we do this in remembrance of the One who gave himself for us in order that we might be reconciled to God… and to each other… in him. Come… share the Lord! Amen.
Matthew 9:9-13