Preachy McPreacherson

Dangit, Alfred, start remembering my password!

Typically, I try to keep my blogging lighthearted and leave religion and philosophy on the back burner, but I'm being convicted to pull all of that to the front lines today. In Sunday school last week, we were discussing evangelism, and I said that I felt that most people get so caught up in trying to find a way to talk ABOUT Jesus that they forget how to BE Jesus to people. The Holy Spirit (yeah, I said it) likes to teach me through insomnia, so I've spent several sleepless nights pondering this idea more thoroughly. My conclusion is as follows:
As children, we are taught that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one. While this is true, it is also not true. Each has a very specific purpose in our lives and should be viewed as such. God is supreme. He is The Ruler and The Authority. He has the power to build up and tear down nations. He holds all the blueprints to life and has the power to judge and condemn or give pardons.
We are not God. We are not made to pass judgements or condemn anyone or raise ourselves above anyone else. And yet, we do it time after time after time. And worst of all, we often do it in the name of God.
Jesus came to teach us to love and accept everyone of every color, nation, creed or other difference. John Lennon's song, Imagine (which is often viewed as pagan or blasphemous, etc.,) asks us to picture a world where only the people matter; where actions are performed without thought to how it might make them look or change their status or help their cause. He asks us to strip away our nationality, religion, political affiliation, material wealth, social status, etc. and to love one another because it's the right thing to do. Jesus asked the same of all of us. (I find it ironic that John Lennon is best known for claiming to be "bigger than Jesus" when he was only pointing out that kids were more interested in music than organized religion - but, that's an arguement for another day. I'm also very troubled by the fact that John Lennon wrote a letter to Oral Roberts, asking if Jesus was really the answer and if "it is all true" and Roberts' response was basically that God was different for different people and he should "pray about it." Ugh. No wonder Lennon had such issues with religion. )
The bottom line is, we've been spending too much time being God and not enough time being Jesus. We use Jesus as the phrase "WWJD" and put it on bracelets and t-shirts and bumper stickers, but it's mostly meaningless or used as a "holier than thou" expression. Jesus didn't cut people off in traffic or look down on the guy that didn't change out of his work shirt before church or any number of other things people in the Church are guilty of. The Ten Commandments were set up as a reminder of the love God holds for us and the covenant He made with Abraham. It's like a marriage vow - We promise to "love, cherish, honor" and all of that, but if those vows were written in Old Testament times, they would have read "I will not do this and I will not do that..." Marriage is not a list of rules and neither is a relationship with God. In the same way, relationship is built through dialogue, conversation and give-and-take. No one is interested in a one-sided friendship and neither is God. God created us for curiosity, questioning and mystery solving. If he had wanted lemmings, he would have created us as such.
I think the Bible verse that sums my opinion up the best is in I Samuel "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." It's all about where your heart is. As the wise Willy Wonka once said "So shines a good deed in a weary world." People aren't looking for a sermon, they're searching for understanding. They don't want someone to point out their inadequacies, they want some one to say "it's okay to be you." That's who Jesus was and is. He's the hope when things look hopeless. He's the ear to listen when everyone else is too busy. He's the one who understands why we make the decisions we do and loves us regardless of the choices we make. That's who we need to be to those around us. Not perfect, not blameless, not better, just there. Willing to listen and not judge. Helping without hurting.
The Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost has just about been written off completely. By using the term "Spirit" we aren't sure where this part of God fits in. He's a ghost that once haunted people and caused them to speak in tongues or gave them visions or sent them into fugue states or a number of other things that make us shudder with uncomfortableness. He's the angel on the shoulder, condemning you for your temptations. I think we would be better off calling Him the Holy Soul or the Holy Heart or the Holy Mind, even. The spirit is supposed to be what makes us human, that part that separates us from animals. The "God-part" where "made in His image" comes from. Our intuition and "gut-feelings" and the part of us that loves and hates and understands is our spirit. This is where God speaks to us and we should be terribly excited about it, and yet, most of us are ignoring Him! We dismiss "coincidences" as just that. We talk to God, but we don't step back and listen for His response. My devotion yesterday was very appropriate here (and surely was meant to be) "Though you are an earthen vessel, you were meant to be filled with heavenly contents. Your weakness is not a deterrent to being filled with My Spirit; on the contrary, it provides an opportunity for My Power to shine forth more brightly." We need to start heeding the Spirit. We should start asking Him to point out areas we need to work on and people who need our help. All we need to do is ask and He'll tell us, we just get so "busy" with trivial things that we don't take the time to slow down and listen. We've grown accustomed to a "fast food" lifestyle and we expect God to be just the same.
When we start humbling ourselves before God, listening to the Spirit for guidance and then applying the wisdom we're given to help the brokenhearted and desperate, as Jesus would have done, then I think we understand the Holy Trinity as it was meant to be utilized.
The last thing I want to do is to judge or condemn or convict anyone else, that isn't my job. This is also wordier than I intended it to be, but I feel very strongly about it all the same.