Beards

I've had a beard since 1976 when many men grew beards for the Bicentennial.
The last few years my beard has been very short.
I used to have a full beard -- a big black beard -- and it looked great.
But even as the hair on top of my head has thinned out and doesn't grow
as it used to, the hair on the bottom of my head doesn't grow the same either.

Pat has challenged me to let it grow out more fully again.
So I'm taking up the challenge.
I will try to look more like Jesus.

Fashions change.
Sometimes beards are in -- sometimes they're not.
Most of the presidents of the United States wore beards.
Some people are suspicious of men with beards.
Are they trying to hide something?
Are they disguising a physical fault?
Are they attempting to cover up their true identity?

Some beards make a man look sophisticated.
A beard may make a man look as if he is a homeless bum.
Some beards look evil.

We know that Jesus had a beard; we see it in all the pictures!
In Isaiah, in one of the Suffering Servant Songs, we have these words:
"I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." (Isa. 50.6)

I love the pictures of the full-bearded Walt Whitman and Abraham Heschel and Ulysses Grant and Sigmund Freud and Ernest Hemingway and John Knox.

St. Augustine of Hippo wrote: "There are some details of the body which are there for simply aesthetic reasons, and for no practical purpose - for instance, the nipples on a man's chest, and the beard on his face, the latter being clearly for a masculine ornament, not for protection. This is shown by the fact that womens' faces are hairless, and since women are the weaker sex, it would surely be more appropriate for them to be given such a protection." City of God (c. 410) book 22, chapter 24

Well, Augustine wasn't a feminist.

The Old Testament gives this instruction about beards: "Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." (19.27)

Jesus promised us that our heavenly Father watches over us with care. He said, "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matt. 10.30) I assume that includes the hairs on the 'bottom' of my head too. I'm not going to try to count them. But I'm going to try and grow them.

Just call me Rabbi McLaughlin.