Thought for Today
Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
1 Samuel 16:11 And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here."
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?"
Everyone who lives alone or is an ‘empty-nester’ knows that most recipes are designed to serve at least 4 people, some to serve 6-8 people. Leftovers are ubiquitous in the lives of those of us living alone or as couples. When our last child went off to college, Greta and I soon bought a collection of various sized containers in which to store leftovers for later use. Early on in the learning experience, we discovered the necessity of labels. Without carefully labeling those containers with the identity of the contents and the date we froze them, they became useless blocks of frozen ‘somethings.’
I thought about labeling this week as I prepared a double recipe of our homemade chili. We like to keep a supply in the freezer for nights when neither of us feels like cooking. It’s also handy when one of our children drops by unexpectedly at mealtime.
Labels are important in life for more than just leftovers. Labels help us identify and understand things. Just as a can of some food without a label is useless unless we open it to find out what’s in there, other things in life have little or no utility for us unless they are somehow labeled and identified. No, I don’t need to put a label on a chair to know that it is a chair anymore than I would need to put a label on a label maker to know that it made labels. But more than once, as we have gone through one of our periodic purging’s of the house, one of us has asked the other, “What in the world is this? Where did this come from?” Without some sort of label, otherwise potentially useful items are discarded.
If we label things, do we also label people? Obviously! When we do, how do we label them? How do they label us? It has been alleged that everyone who talks to me more than 2 minutes knows that I am a Texan. Supposedly, after 3 minutes they know that I am an engineer. Mysteries abound! But, should I be labeled a Texan when I live in New England? Should I be labeled an engineer when I have not practiced engineering in many years and am now a minister? While we are at it, shouldn’t I be labeled a husband, a father and/or a grandfather? How do we capture the totality of who and what a person is with a single label? Yet, that is exactly what humans universally seem to attempt.
Who was Moses? Was Moses the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter? Was Moses the brilliant military commander of Egypt’s armies as depicted in the movie The Ten Commandments? Or, was Moses the son-in-law of Jethro, the one who kept Jethro’s flocks? Traditionally, Moses is known as the Great Lawgiver. For me, Moses has always been the one sent by “I AM” to free God’s people from slavery and to lead them through Sinai toward the Promised Land.
Similarly, how do we label David? David was Jesse’s youngest son. David was a shepherd. David was also a musician, a psalmist, an armor bearer to King Saul. David was, like Moses, a talented military leader. All indicators are that David was also a poor father and not an especially faithful husband. How do we capture the totality of the great king who united Israel and Judah into a single nation, who established the monarchy, who arranged the death of Bathsheba’s husband with a single label?
For Christians, the issue of labels can be difficult. Was Jesus a carpenter, the son of Joseph? Yes, he was. Jesus himself said, “Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you . . . 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Only the son of a carpenter who was a carpenter himself would use such an analogy. But, Jesus also said, “John 10:30 The Father and I are one."
Maybe we would be best served by ceasing our efforts to label each other and especially God the Father and Jesus the Son. Sometimes labels help. Sometimes labels merely restrict our understanding and acceptance of the totality of something. Sometimes those first 6 words of the Bible capture it all, “Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created . . .”
Stay safe, accept God’s grace, trust God,
Pastor Ray