One of the most profound lessons I have learned in almost 30 years of ministry is that people usually pass labels back and forth with a particular agenda in mind. We like to see ourselves as part of the “in” crowd, our theology and morality gaining us the most acceptance within the communities we desire to be part of. We call this agenda all kinds of things: “faith of our fathers”, “old time religion”, “conservative values”, “my parents taught me”, “new age movement”, “conservative”, or the like. The truth is, we want to be seen as one who fits into the crowd we have chosen to participate in. We choose our churches for largely the same reasons we choose the books we read or the neighborhoods we live in. We shop around, find a community, store, or church that will help and encourage me to hold on to my values, live out my life agenda, and smoothly flow through life with the least amount of friction and as few road blocks as possible. We do not intentionally seek out and read books we disagree with, or shop in shopping centers based on the need of the store owners, or migrate to churches precisely because they are in need of the very gifts God has graciously placed within us. We are conformists through and through, and if there is any passage of Scripture that is at the core of the post modern church critique I offer it is the first two verses of Romans 12. You see, there are many ways to conform to the patterns of this world, and such conformity is often more powerful within the church than outside the church, simply because we do not understand the subtle power of conformity that operates within our church walls. The Labels we use are quite simply conformity in unison, a symptom of our desire to conform and cause others to do the same.

We feel that our labels are harmless enough, that some how they enable us to distinguish “us” from “them” But Labels are a symptom of something much deeper than this. Labels help us build walls. Labels empower us to walk away from one while holding fast to another. In Jesus’ day they often served the same purpose. Tax Collector, Prostitute, Leper, Gentile; these were all labels that religious Jews used to avoid people and build walls. Jesus dropped the Labels. When he met a prostitute, she became a woman. When he met the woman caught in adultery, he saw a forgiven daughter of God. When he encountered a Roman soldier with a sick child, he called him an incredible illustration of faith. And when he met a tax collector hated by the Jews, he called him a disciple. It was not so much Jesus changing labels as it was his refusal to use them. Do we really believe that a gay person is wholly defined by the labels we use to describe him? Do we really believe that “drug addict” gets to the essence or history of a person? Are we really trusting in the power of God’s grace when we say “divorced person” in fact disqualifies a person from church leadership? Our labels are sure signs of our conformist tendencies to build walls among people groups, dis-fellowship from our brothers and sisters for a variety of (personal) reasons, and excuse our deeply human tendency to migrate toward people who make our theology and our lives easier to embrace and defend.

I have always been fascinated by the story of the time Peter steps in to stop Jesus from going to Jerusalem toward certain harm or death. (See Matthew 16:13 ff) In the first place, Peter is profoundly praised when he identifies Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus seems genuinely excited as He announces He will turn over The Keys to The Kingdom to the Disciples. But the story gets better. Jesus then tries to help them understand that the only way this can happen is through his personal suffering at the hands of the Jews and Romans. Peter will have none of this. I am tempted to believe that the praise of Jesus a few verses earlier prompted him to think that it was his personal responsibility to protect The Messiah, the way some people believe it their personal responsibility to “safe guard the truth”. Praise often leads people to embrace a very high view of them selves, and Peter had just such a high view. The thing is, he is dead wrong, without any idea he is dead wrong. He is so certain of this place among the disciples that he announces to Jesus – “There is no way I will let anything happen to you!!!” Jesus’ response is pointed and surprising. “Get behind me, Satan!!” The man who had just identified the Messiah now becomes the instrument of the Devil. The lesson here is applicable to us all. There is never a time when we are not potentially a servant of God as well as the enemy. One moment we can be in the center of God’s will, proclaiming for all the truth God reveals to us. The next moment we can be as far from God’s will as humanly possible, taking our stand for agendas that are as far from God’s desire and purpose as we can possibly be taken. Only the humble can admit this truth. The key to the Christian life is being able to discern the difference between the two. And the only answer we are given is a constant and continual willingness to be transformed by the renewing of our minds according to Truth. Now the simple question: How can our minds be in a constant state of renewal if we present ourselves as having already arrived?

Labels are the enemy of transformation. Once I categorize myself and others, often based on categories I have adopted in order to fit into (another word for conform) particular communities, I have imposed a limitation upon myself, my theology, and my growth, which will work to restrict rather than to liberate. Transformation is an ongoing process in the New Testament. The Kingdom is continually moving and growing, sanctification is a process, and the call of God upon our lives is in no sense a done deal or a finished project. Peter, blessed of God, recognizes the Messiah before others do in one breath, then becomes an instrument of the Devil as He misunderstands the Messiah’s mission in the next breath. “You (yaw or you-ins, for its plural) shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.” Labels create bondage, Truth liberates. It is one thing to understand that God’s Truth is eternal, believable, understandable, and teachable. It is quite another thing to believe I’m the one who has it, therefore listen only to me. And one will cease searching for Truth if they have convinced themselves they already have all the truth they need to make a judgment about you and me, prompting them to label those who stand outside their particular version of truth. Transformation implies change and growth. Labels create roadblocks and conformity. I challenge you to join me in growing beyond the closed door our labels often create, becoming with me a “Work in Progress”, one label I can live with.   (More to come, peace/out)