Living Labeled

I've decided that I like my church so much and the message that God is teaching me through Jericho Road that I want to spend some time reflecting on it and sharing it with the world wide web (or at my least the 6 dedicated readers)

So welcome to my first SUNDAY REFLECTIONS

This morning when I walked into church not only did  I pick up a handy dandy bulletin, 

but they also stuck a label on me.

My label:
chauvinistic

It wasn't just me, everyone got a label.
Black, cool, pathetic, drug abuser, sex offender, home maker, republican, atheistic...

we all got a label.

Our pastor, Jeff, talked about how we label ourselves,
and we label each other.
And we spend a lot of time either trying to keep up appearances with a label that we want, or we spend just as much time trying to hide or tear down the labels that we think are negative.

Rom 15:7

Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted [fn]us to the glory of God.

proslambanō (accept)

1) to take to, take in addition, to take to one's self

a) to take as one's companion

b) to take by the hand in order to lead aside

c) to take or receive into one's home, with the collateral idea of kindness

d) to receive, i.e. grant one access to one's heart

1) to take into friendship and intercourse

e) to take to one's self, to take: i.e. food

My friend Tyler then read to the congregation this story:

I grew up with this story, but had not heard it for several years, and by the end of the story I found tears coming to my eyes.

I've been labeling myself lately, and been avoiding my Papa's workshop.

I've been choosing to live a life determined by the stickers I've put on myself and the stickers others have put on me.

As we took communion we were invited to come and place our labels on the wooden cross in the middle of our "sanctuary". Before I stood, I repeated the "Prayer of Confession" to myself, took my label, placed it on the cross and went to receive the bread and the juice.

As I enter this new week, I'm pondering these questions:
1) What if I lived my life like I only had one TRUE label - I am special, the Beloved of Christ
2) What if I choose to see others as if they had one TRUE label - made in the image of God

3) What if the church really accepted those that walked in its doors?