While most of us wait for the dawn of spring, warmth and new flowers, there is another crop that is starting to bud. It is the beginning of the presidential election season in the United States. There is perhaps a record number of people stepping forward to address the quagmire and miasma of US politics. The point I will make is that for every voice that steps forward there will be a legion of researchers and 'enemy agents' that will glean the Internet and other records to find a flaw in each candidate. It is a distressing thought that when you step forward there is going to be someone who is willing to take you down or demean you if you have ever, ever, made a mistake or a misstatement. It leaves no room for growth or differences of opinion.
Then there is the Word. The unerring voice of God because He is God. Are we making any judgments about Him? When we dig deeply into Biblical scholarship, are we trying to find the words, thoughts or actions to find that maybe Jesus was really a double agent for the Pharisees? It is absurd. We know the purity of heart and intent of Jesus. It is something we will be trying to get in touch with in a much deeper way this upcoming Lenten season.
How about John though? Is he perfect? Moses? Ghandi? I holdd up many heroes and guides in my own road to wholeness and holiness, should I be questioning their less desirable traits, missteps or lack of full understanding on one issue or another? Is Merton perfect? John Boswell? Should I judge someone today for their actions living in an ancient time with different rules, standards and beliefs applied?
It all seems so judgmental and bears witness to how easily we seem to succumb to thinking the worst of others. While I don't advocate a blind eye, I think we ( the entire world ) would be better served if we could look at someones actions and see that while imperfect as we are, that they may in fact have a good heart and good intentions. Knowing our very own penchant for mistakes and sin, it would be very easy to seek out and destroy just about anyone. We all have some kind of skeleton in the closet so to speak. Isn't this seeking out destroying behavior an abrogation of the 6th commandment?
If we are called to love, we are called to try and see others with the same eyes as God. That would mean not judging on past actions as much as seeing the goodness and godliness withing each and every person. We don't even have to agree with what someone is saying, we can disagree and think they are horribly wrong in their estimation or view of life but we must see them as equally beloved children of God.
John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
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