Dangerous Things

We live in a time when people are thrown into boxes labeled left or right, conservative or liberal, traditional or contemporary.  Labels are dangerous things.  They inform us ahead of time that we can close our mind to what some might say or believe and that we can start applauding ahead of time what others are about to say.  Labels become like ear plugs.  They keep us from hearing what is being said and they certainly keep us from listening. 

 

I suppose Jesus encountered the usual gamut of people on the side of the roads He walked.  Some thought He was Messiah material.  Some thought He was a radical revolutionary.  Some were rich and some were poorer than dirt.  Some were so poured in concrete they had to be pillars of some entrenched establishment and some just looked His way with a desperate hope for mercy.  To read the gospel is to come to the conclusion that He took folks seriously.  He listened to them.  He did not agree with everyone, but He allowed them to keep their beliefs even if every indication pointed to their making a mistake. 

 

I am not always sure how to relate to everyone around me.  To be honest I have more trouble with those who are condescending, or those who fail to regard me and others with some measure of seriousness than I do the theological or political labels they wear.  Perhaps, the "condescending one" is just another label.  It does seem that we are called by our faith to live with a tension created by living faithfully to our fundamental beliefs about what it means to walk with God and offering acceptance to those who would attack us because of those beliefs.  The easy way to respond to that tension is through compromise.  The hard way is to cling tenaciously to the way revealed through the Word even though it never measures up to majority approval.