The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
In Vayikra 21:8, the Torah states וְקִ֨דַּשְׁתּ֔וֹ כִּֽי־אֶת־לֶ֥חֶם אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ ה֣וּא מַקְרִ֑יב. Rashi explains that we learn from here that we are to honor Kohanim by giving them the first aliyah when we lain, the option to lead benching (and recognition when they don't) and the first selection of the nicest piece of food.
R' Frand quoted the Shulchan Aruch Even HaEzer which states that in our era, if a stranger comes to town and says that he is a Kohain, he is not believed and he is not permitted to duchan.
This opinion is disagreed with by the Rama, who states that we do afford the stranger the kavod of a Kohain. He explains that the concern with an unknown who claims to be a Kohain is that he is only making this claim in order to eat Terumah. However, since in our generation there is no longer any Terumah which is given to a Kohain to eat, there should not be a concern that the stranger is lying about being a Kohain.
R' Frand then quoted the Chassam Sofer, who asked - but if we give a non-Kohain the aliyah of Kohain and any other applicable kibbud in this generation, aren't we violating וְקִ֨דַּשְׁתּ֔וֹ?
R' Frand explained that according to the Chassam Sofer there is no problem at all, since you are being mechabed him because you believe that he is a Kohain, which is what is required under the mitzva.
R' Frand quoted R' Pam Ztl who said that this should give peace of mind to someone who is being honored as a Talmid Chacham, but does not believe that he personally is worthy. The mitzva of honoring the Torah and its sages is a mitzva which is fulfilled when the actor believes that he is honoring the Torah. Even if you have doubts about your personal worthiness, the person who honors you is fulfilling the obligation to honor the Torah.
R' Frand also alluded to the flip side by quoting the Rambam Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah which writes that a Talmid Chacham needs to be very careful not to create a Chillul Hashem. R' Frand explained that even if the person does not believe that he is a Talmid Chacham, it matters what others think when they view him. [I recall hearing R' Mansour say many years ago that any male Jew who walks with a yarmulke and a female who wears sheitel is viewed by the outside world as a Rabbi/Rebbetzin].
R' Frand closed the vort by making reference to the recent Lufthansa incident where a few Orthodox Jews did not wear masks in transit and the airline banned all Jews from getting on connecting flights. Obviously the airline was wrong to punish hundreds of people who did not violate the mask rule because of the few who did, but we do need to be aware of the way that the world views us when we do something wrong.
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