Labels

In the junkyard, we put labels on things because labels are useful. Chevy parts here. Ford parts there. Toyota parts somewhere else. A junkyard without some kind of organization is chaotic.

Of course, junkyards aren’t the only places we use labels. We use them with things we consider part of our faith. We call something Christian or biblical or orthodox – or taboo – and stick it on the appropriate shelf.

Maybe we should give those labels more thought.

Imagine you’re running a junkyard and this guy with a funny accent walks in looking for an alternator for his Buick. So you put an alternator from a Chevy on the counter.

“This is a Chevy part,” he says, arching an eyebrow.

You answer in classic junkyard language. “Uhuh.”

“But it fits my Buick?”

“Yep.”

“And once you put it on the Buick, is it a Buick part?”

“Nope. Still a Chevy part.”

“But it’s on the Buick.”

Observant bastard. “Yep.”

“And the Buick won’t run without it.”

You’re about done with this guy. “No, it won’t. Or at least not for long. But this fixes your problem. You want it or not?”

Instead of answering, he finds a stool by the counter and sits down.

This isn’t good. Then you accidentally make it worse. “Actually, GM used the same damn alternator on both cars. We only call this one a Chevy part because of that little Chevy label.”

Now he smiles. Great. You can tell he’s going to be here all afternoon.

But the guy has a point. There’s nothing essentially Chevy about the alternator. GM used the same part on both cars. We call it a Chevy alternator because we happened to pull it off a Chevy.

Which brings me back to faith.

I’ve accumulated a lot of things with CHRISTIAN written on the box. Some came straight out of Scripture. Others came from pastors, books, parents, friends and churches. Still others came from American culture, politics, business, philosophy, or simply the assumptions of the time and place I was living in.

That doesn’t make them bad. But it does make me wonder how often I confuse where I found something with what it actually is.

We Christians are particularly good at putting the word “biblical” on things. Biblical marriage. Biblical leadership. Biblical economics. Biblical politics. Biblical parenting.

Or maybe we use Christian. Christian conference. Christian chamber of commerce. Christian sports league.

Sometimes the label fits. Sometimes it tells us a lot less than we think it does.

Jesus seemed to have a knack for noticing that. “You have heard that it was said…” That phrase shows up again and again in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes something comfortably sitting on the proper religious shelf and starts messing with it.

In the Roy Goble translation he says stuff like:

• “You know murder is wrong? Of course you do. But what about anger?”
• “You know adultery is wrong? Fine. Let’s talk about lust.” 
• “Love your neighbor? Absolutely. Now let’s talk about your enemy.”

Jesus wasn’t telling people to throw away everything they had been taught. He was asking them to look more closely.

That’s still worth doing. Every now and then, I need to pull something off my theological shelf and ask where it came from. Did Jesus actually teach this? Is it Scripture, or my interpretation of Scripture? Did I learn it from church, family, culture, politics, a podcast, or some guy who preached a convincing sermon decades ago?

If it came from somewhere else, that doesn’t mean I have to throw it away. Maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s wise. Maybe it works just fine.

After all, the Chevy alternator worked just fine in the Buick. At least it did once he got off his stool.