While I was in the computer lab yesterday, I was reading through a "scholarly journal" of a critique of one of my favorite authors. The author of the journal and the author of the book he was critiquing are both Christians. As I read, the critic used passage after passage of scripture to disclaim the book and the author's beliefs. The journal took every one of the author's statements, and dissected them one by one. The journal was proving that the author was a heretic. I shook my head as I read it, wondering, Is this really what's important?
Heretic, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Online dictionary, is a "dissenter from established religious dogma. As I continued reading about the book that I had read myself, I eventually thought, This guy's absolutely right. The book is heretical.
The thought that their are men sitting in religious think tanks around the globe, with their Bibles out, drinking champagne, and disproving and disclaiming the heretics around the world at first infuriates me, but subtly intrigues me. I hate the tension but I love it all the same. I would hate to think that everyone believed the same thing, and that everyone who read the Bible came away with the same interpretation.
The Jesus I believe in was a heretic himself.
The Jesus I read about in scriptures was a dissenter from the established religious dogma. Yet, he still managed to make room for his critics. He still shared meals with those who would eventually kill him for being the heretic that he was.
In today's passage, Jesus tells his disciples that he's about to leave them but that someone will be taking his place - the Spirit. One of his disciples asks him a very valid question, one that I ask constantly: Why are you only revealing your spirit to us, and not the whole world? Jesus answers with a profound statement: Because a loveless world is a sightless world.
There's a guy I know who has a world of problems. He's physically handicapped and emotionally co-dependent. He's so needy that he brings the people around him down, including myself. There are points at which I want to throw in the towel and say, I'm done! Find your own way and leave me alone! It's in these moments that I find myself blinded. I can't see anything good or beneficial in this person, and it makes me want to give up. I'm void of love, and full of intolerance.
Jesus says that the Spirit is connected with love and sight.
Have you ever walked down the streets of Houston or some other city, and felt compelled to randomly talk to somebody, or give a homeless person money, or take a homeless person out to dinner? Have you ever found yourself taking on the grief of another person in a way that actually internalized inside of you? Have you ever seen or heard something that compelled you to speak or act in some way because it did something inside of you?
Jesus tells his disciples he's leaving, but that he's leaving a friend behind. This idea of leaving a spirit behind has been handed down over centuries. Sometimes, when we hear of people who have seen a mom or dad pass away, they say things like "she's watching me, his spirit is still with us, I can still sense that she's here." The idea that Jesus would leave his spirit behind isn't an idea that should alarm us. We talk this way all the time.
So what does he say about this Friend? He says that it: makes everything plain to us and reminds us of all the things Jesus has told us.
When I think about my grandmother who passed away, I sometimes wonder about what she's doing right now. But most of the time, I think about what she taught me when she was hear.
When Jesus was here, he did things that were completely heretical. He ate with prostitutes (against religious law), he healed people on the sabbath (against religious law), he touched lepers (against religious law), he spent his time with people who were not religious as well as people who were extremely religious. Whether he was teaching in the temple or attending a wedding feast, there was one common thread running through everything he did - love.
When I say Spirit, I'm talking about that "thing" inside of us that compels us, drives us to do things that are spontaneously loving and compassionate. It's this thing inside us that reminds us of the legacy left behind of love ones, and the lessons they taught us about life.
The Spirit is present all the time, but our "seeing" depends on our "loving." When we love, we see a world that is more than meets the eye. We see below the surface. We see things like joy and pain, struggle and victory. We see a hurting world and a world that's being restored all at the same time. We see a part to play.
Today's Action: Pay attention to the "random" ideas that come into our heads today that have to do with loving other people. Follow through with them. At the end of the day, reflect. A prayer that may help in this process is: "God, let me see with my heart today and not just my eyes."
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