Expectation or Exploration
michael young
Expectation or Exploration
Who do we read about when we read the Gospel? Do we view Jesus with an open hand of invitation or a palm facing out, pushing us away when we struggle, or backslide or ask questions? Do we seek to read about the Jesus of the Gospel so that then we can be affirmed in our beliefs and push people away who we view as other, different, and not enough?
Jesus proclaims in Matthew, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Our most prized possession, our Christian treasure, could be the Jesus of yes, I am all these things, and I Am also more than human understanding. I Am all these things and more, makes the questions we ask, to the point of division instead of exploration, fools’ folly. The point is not that one practice is “the way”. The point is to accept God’s invitation to be in conversation and relationship, whichever faith has been laid upon our hearts to practice. The journey is the point much more than making sure that we are on the right vessel with the right people.
We are all in constant conversation with God in every experience of our lives along with the life to come. If we listen deeply to the stirrings of the soul, Jesus will be our Christian conversation partner who can help us experience God, teach us how to love our neighbor, and live a life guided by the God of Jesus instead of the circumstances and powers of the world.
And, when we think of the circumstances of the world today, we may approach our conversation partner and ask, what is Jesus Christ telling me about this situation today? How is God teaching me about myself? How is God inviting me into deeper discussion and wrestling? How am I connected to these people? How are these people connected to me? The most important question we can ask, where is Jesus located in this situation?
If we can come to understand Jesus Christ as invitation to know and experience God instead of the CEO of our own private company, we can then view the world through the empathetic eyes of God, as Jesus did.
When we realize in our hearts that Jesus was guided by the divine indwelling of the Spirit and we can allow ourselves to be guided by that same Spirit, then our hearts open a bit wider, and we allow God to transform us from within.
When we approach the Gospel story from a point of view of exploration about God, us and our interconnected relationship and when we can put our expectations aside we can discover the Jesus of transformation, renewal and healing.
We may even discover our more fully human self.