“LET YOUR FAITH PEEL OFF THOSE LABELS”

JAMES 2:1-10

2:1  My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?

2  For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in,

3  and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet,"

4  have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

5  Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6  But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?

7  Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8  You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

9  But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

10  For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

Here’s a question for you.  It has to do with those tags or labels, if you will, that you find on mattresses. You know the ones that I’m talking about right? They’re the ones that warn you not to remove them “under penalty of law.” Now here’s what I don’t understand. First of all why aren’t you supposed to remove them and more importantly if you do remove them what are they going to do to you?

Those labels just don’t make sense. Even so many labels do make sense. Many labels are very helpful.  For example labels can be helpful when you go to the supermarket.  They tell you what the expiration date is for the food that you buy.  Labels can also be helpful when you do your back to school shopping.  They let you know if the clothes you buy are going to fit. They also tell you how to wash and clean the clothes that you buy; although sometimes you can’t trust the instructions on those labels. A teenager found that out one day while he was doing some clothes shopping. After finding a shirt that he really liked he brought it to a sales clerk along with a question.  “Excuse me,” he said, “but this label says shrink resistant. What does that mean?”  “Oh,” the sales clerk said with a smile. “That means the shirt will shrink but it doesn’t want to.”

There are all kinds of labels. We even have labels for people. A good example of that is when you’re at a party and someone says, “What’s your sign?” You then answer by saying, “I’m a Gemini or a Pisces or a Virgo.”

That kind of label is harmless.  Most of the time, however, the labels that you put on people aren’t harmless at all.  That’s because those labels conjure up all kinds of negative images.  Those negative images pop into your mind when you hear that someone say, “She’s a welfare mother” or “He’s an illegal immigrant. He’s a Muslim from Pakistan. She’s a pro-choice feminist. He’s a convicted pedophile. She’s a student with special needs.

 By the way, ministers also know what it’s like to be labeled. That’s why I’ll sometimes fudge the truth a little if I’m at a social gathering where people don’t know me. If someone asks me what I do for work I won’t tell them that I’m a minister. Instead, I’ll say that I work in the counseling field. Why?  Because if you say you’re a minister it can really kill a good party. People suddenly become very careful about what they say and do. Or they’ll give you a hard time because they have an ax to grind when it comes to organized religion. Or they’ll start telling you all their problems.

That last one’s very similar to what doctors deal with when they go to a party and people start telling them all about their aches and pains. One doctor, however, came up with a very creative solution to that problem. When a colleague him what he did when that happened his answer was simple. “I just nod sympathetically,” he said, “and tell them to stand there in the middle of the room and undress.”

When it comes to people labels can be incredibly harmful and hurtful. That’s because behind all those labels is a belief that the person is either lazy or stupid or dangerous or all of those things and more.  Those negative attitudes can be seen in the request that an old man made shortly before he died.  While lying in his hospital bed the old man sent a message to his doctor and his lawyer.  The message said that he wanted to see both of them right away. Now the old man was very rich.  So, the doctor and the lawyer immediately dropped everything and rushed to the hospital. When they got there they found the old man very weak and barely able to speak.  Finally after standing there for a few minutes the lawyer put his hand on the old man’s shoulder. “You said you wanted to see us,” he said.  “Is there anything we can do for you?”  “No,” the old man whispered.  “It’s just that I read once in the Bible that Jesus died between two thieves and I wanted to see what it was like.”

Yes, when it comes to people labels can be harmful and hurtful. That’s why God doesn’t believe in labels. If you’re not sure about that another look at what James wrote in his letter to Christians back in the first century. James was troubled because some of the Christians that he knew were playing favorites. Apparently, those who were rich were being welcomed with open arms while those who were poor were hardly being welcomed at all.  Unfortunately, they were putting labels on people that basically said, “Rich is good” and “Poor is bad.”

I guess those early Christians were a lot like us. They labeled people too. So, James reminded then that they weren’t supposed to do that. They weren’t supposed to make distinctions.  They weren’t supposed to play favorites. Why? Because, in God’s eyes, everyone is equal and should be treated with the same love and respect.

So, when you come right down to it, Christianity is a faith that is supposed to take the labels off of people.  After all Jesus didn’t label people. In fact, Jesus went out of his way to reach out to people who had been labeled in one way or another.  He reached out to the poor, to sinners and to people who were considered unclean because they were disabled or because they weren’t Jewish.

If you’re serious about following Jesus then you need to get rid of those labels. That isn’t always easy to do though.  Just look at James. He chided his fellow Christians for labeling people. James, however, was guilty of doing the same thing. He did that by suggesting that people who are rich are basically cold and callous and cruel. His bias can be seen in the series of questions that he posed to the Christians who were reading his letter.  He asks, “Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?”

It’s hard not to label people.  Most of the time you don’t even realize you’re doing it. So, how can you avoid putting those labels on people?  Here are a few suggestions.  First of all, remember what Jesus did and what happened to him.  Jesus took the labels off of people and embraced them with love and respect. He did that even though it meant that a lot of important people ended up putting some damaging and damning labels on him.  They called him a trouble maker.  They called him a blasphemer and a friend of sinners.  Then after they put all those labels on him they nailed him to the Cross. All that pain and suffering because of a few simple labels.

Here’s something else to consider.  When you put a label on someone it really says more about you than the other person.  That’s because people who are quick to label are often insecure or a little too full of themselves.  That’s the conclusion that a writer came to while doing some research for a book about faith in America.  The author did his research by visiting a number of churches around the country. He started off by visiting a church in San Francisco.  While he was there he was surprised to find a golden telephone beside a door leading into the sanctuary.  Next to the golden telephone was a sign that said, “Phone calls $10,000 a minute.” When the author asked the pastor about it he was told that the phone was a direct line to heaven.  The author thanked the pastor then left to visit other churches around the country.  His journey took him to churches in Seattle, and Chicago, then on to Dallas, Baltimore and New York.  In all the churches that he visited he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign next to it.  That changed though when he got to Portland, Maine.  Upon entering a church in that fair city he saw the same golden telephone. This time though the sign read, “Phone calls 25 cents a minute.”  The Author was surprised by that.  “Pastor,” he said, “I’ve been to church all across the country and in all of them the cost to use the golden telephone and make a call to heaven was $10,000 a minute.  Your sign though says it’s only 25 cents a minute.  How come?”  The pastor just smiled. “Son,” he said, “that’s because you’re in Maine now and this is God’s country.  That means it’s a local call.”

People who are quick to label are often insecure or a little too full of themselves.  So, when the temptation is there to label someone it’s always a good idea to take a good look at yourself. It’s always a good idea to stop and ask yourself why you need to put that label on that person. It’s also a good idea to stop and take a good look at the person who’s on the receiving end of that label.  You see, most of the time the labels disappear when you take the time to get to know the person behind the label.

That’s what happened one afternoon in a church hall where some children were rehearsing for a pageant.  The pageant included some upbeat songs and difficult choreography. One girl in particular was having a hard time learning the dance steps. No one seemed to notice that she was struggling though including the friend who had invited her to be in the pageant. One boy who did notice was a boy the other children called Cash Box.  He got that nickname because he always seemed to have a hand full of coins in his pocket.  Now this boy was different and not very popular.  So, he used sometimes used that change to “buy” a few moments of friendship.  Well, Cash Box may have been different but he was the only one who noticed when the girl became very embarrassed and quietly walked out of the hall.  He found her a little while later standing by a bulletin board with tears in her eyes.  The church’s youth pastor stood happened to see them standing there and he wondered what this boy who was different might say.  What he heard touched his heart.  “Hey,” Cash Box said.  “I saw you in there. Don’t worry.  This song’s kinda hard.  Don’t really know it myself. But we can’t learn it standing out here.  C’mon. Let’s go back in. You won’t be alone. I know what it’s like to be alone.”

Labels are good on food and clothing and maybe someday I’ll understand why they put those labels on all those mattresses. Labels though don’t belong on people. Jesus didn’t put labels on people and imagine how much better this world would be if we peeled away all the labels so we could see and love the people behind the labels.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

September 10, 2006