Sometimes it can be a real test of our faith when it comes to listening to those who profess to be disciples of Jesus. It is easy to be critical of them and dismiss what they say… however, we need to use an important filter when we hear things that just don’t seem to jibe with what Jesus taught. The filter is the LOVE FILTER: is what I am hearing and seeing marked by the radical lovingkindness of Jesus? Is it being kind to others? Will it bring about peace or discord?
Those outside our faith say they see us as “mean-spirited, judgmental and hypocritical” -- the antithesis of how anyone might image a person who said he or she followed Jesus would behave. Our response, the way we live our lives, should not be by building walls and further separations, but by building bridges, always acting kindly toward others, discerning the Jesus in each one of them. After all, being a follower of Jesus, no matter how we cut it, is being, as best we can, an embodiment of Jesus. This prescription is, course, as simple as it is difficult. And without God’s direct help and intervention through God’s Spiriit, impossible.
So, we must always keep our eyes on Jesus -- in our joy and in our sorrow, in our peace and in our desperation. Paul’s letter to the Colossians tells us that in Jesus “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” and that when we open ourselves to Christ living in us, we become the hope of the world. Let’s give it a “go!” Are you in?
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