The other day, I asked my wife to pick up some Fish Oil for me while she was out shopping. Fish oil is supposed to be good for the heart. So is garlic. It seems that everything that is good for the heart stinks. Everything that is bad for the heart smells savory.

         Now, for some time, the chemists that produce these supplements have heard the cry of fussy people with highly developed olfactory senses and have managed to remove the offensive smells that come with healthful choices. Yay!  So, imagine my surprise when I went to open my little bottle of heart health and wrapped proudly around the lid were these words: “Formerly Odorless.” 

         Hmm…I wasn’t sure what they were trying to say. Could it have been a labeling mistake? Did they mean: “Formerly Odorous?” Or perhaps someone complained about the lack of odor and wondered if popping these pills did any good sans dead fish stench. So, maybe they meant this: “The stink is back!”  Curious, I opened the little jar and found the pills to be odor-free. So, yep, someone definitely screwed up the label. Their bad…

         I am always pimping life for some real-life scenario to help throw some light on a great spiritual truth and this one seemed as good as any. The great spiritual truth has to do with labels. The word Christian was not a self-proclaiming label marketed by the first generation of the church, No, the outside world, observing the behavior of believers, gave them the label, “Christ-like”, or “Christian.” It was a stunning recognition of the simple fact that these humble, first century followers of Christ were behaving in a fashion similar to the man who had recently been crucified. They prayed for people and they got better. They were ridiculously generous. They were fair. They were impartial in regard to the sex or ethnicity of a person. And, they were turning a brutal world right-side up with their gentle, Christ-like ways. In this instance, the label matched the product perfectly.

         Fast forward a few centuries to today. How is that label thing working out? I was chatting with a friend the other day who doesn’t claim to be a Christian but who, nevertheless, chooses to try to live her life according to the teachings of Christ. She called me from work and shared with me a story that I hear all too often, at least in spirit. It seems that some Christian at work took her head off for borrowing a bowl my friend was using to warm up some soup. It rocked her world because this angry Christian had often made a show of reading the Scriptures in the work room and was fairly vocal about her faith. It seems as though her faith didn’t reach as far a soup bowl. I was saddened as my friend asked me this sweet, simple question: “Would Jesus care if I borrowed a soup bowl?” My response was this: “No, in fact, I think Jesus would have given you his soup bowl.”

         After that exchange, the obvious thing to do was to go and buy the best soup bowl I could find in order to show my friend how Jesus felt about soup bowls. Within minutes, my trustee assistant and I crossed Main Street of Durango and found the perfect soup bowl, the perfect card, and the perfect spoon. We signed the card: “From Jesus! – Bon Appétit!”, or something like that.

         Here’s the deal…the message of Jesus is still as relevant and as powerful today as it was when it was first launched into the world. He is still the most attractive person I know – and I have studied them all. I cannot get over His kindness and His mercy and His generous ways. He has wrecked me in a good way. I will never be just like Him and thus, I am not sure if I have even earned the moniker of “Christian.” Yet, He joyfully calls me His own even with my deeply flawed ways. But, having made these humble, self-deprecating admissions, I do know this – He cares more about souls than He does about a damned soup bowl! I have at least THAT much revelation!

         We live in a time where the labels are mightily screwed up. People who call themselves Christians are often the least Christ-like people to be around. They are often full of greed, avarice, pettiness, anger, and judgment. They are, to borrow my earlier example, still full of stink! While I am a little angry about that – God forgive me – I am mostly just sad. I am sad because these poorly labeled folks obscure the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rightfully so, a person outside of the Christian faith can look at us and say, “Well, if that is what it means to be a Christian, then no thanks!”  The message has gotten lost in the hands and lives of the messenger.  And you know what – “Christians” – we have absolutely no right to complain about their passivity to the Christian message. If the medicine has done us so little good, why should they be interested in taking it? They have too much regard for their reputation to become like us!

         Here is my solution to the times in which we live…it is time for Christians to shut-up. I know that doesn’t sound very Jesus-like and I am okay with that. I am okay with it because it is outstanding advice. Until our lives catch up to our theology, we have nothing to offer. The old English word for “belief” actually meant, “by-life.”  It is time for the church to reacquaint itself with the marriage of belief and life. One without the other is a sham. And, the world is much too clever in these days to sacrifice their lives to a bunch of anemic, soup-bowl Nazis.