Why Jesus? Beyond Gender

[HKHaugan]

Why Jesus? Beyond Gender

OK, so we talked about gender identity. But that is not what really identifies us. There is something more basic and that is being an image of God. When we operate from that premise, every human being takes on significance beyond their nationality, gender, ethnicity and cultural identities. It is those lesser identities that can cloud the way we are seen and the way we are treated. Each of those have their own legal, social and economic demands which are both written and unwritten all producing the need to conform and compromise the image of God in us. Being able to navigate the complexities of each takes insight and a willingness to maintain our being an image of God in them. This is the work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This is how He lived and what He did and continues to do by grace through faith as we let Him guide us in a world dedicated to obliterating His presence.

We are on to something when the subject of identity is brought up. Because how we choose to identify ourselves is the window dressing for our attitude, how we want to be seen. Keep in mind the attitude of the heart is basic to shaping how we express our identity. That was our theme last time.

We've discussed gender identity as a major issue in our society but what about all the other parts of our personality? There are our emotions like being mad, glad, sad, afraid and all their variations of those that call for an accompanying attitude. Then there are our bodily abilities and limitations, our skills, our talents, our intellect and how we want to use them. This is why our discussion of attitude was so important. Generally speaking it seems we tend to short change ourselves when we compare ourselves to the standards of acceptance in our horizontal experience. By that I mean we tend to find the pressure of having to fit in to the world we grow up in, we play in, we work in and from the expectations each of those present from one day to the next. Those who make up the God-avoiding atmosphere develop their own morality and may even call it spiritual but it is an imperfect morality and rationalized spirituality for self-justification to avoid conflict and assume a fake inner peace. Born in imperfection these mechanisms simply don't work.

If anyone chooses to think they can contrive or construct a spirituality for themselves it could be the greatest mistake of their lives. It will be spiritual all right but hopelessly flawed because of the imperfection of the mind and heart in which it was founded. Take for instance the idea that all religions are true and you build a mindset around that thought. What happens is the mind avoids the actual differences through superficially derived false tolerance, the gift of reason is denied and the resulting belief is so shallow that prayer is neither personal nor productive, relational experience hungers for direction and ends in mystical aloneness and dissatisfaction. Life becomes just another day after day survival event. Morality, rather than a firm ground for wise choices, becomes an anxiety based strategy and technique to avoid momentary pain and satisfy momentary needs. This makes anyone vulnerable to whatever attitude, spirit or emotion rules the atmosphere surrounding the moment. That is a tiresome spirituality and one where an individual assumes their own deity which denies their true being---an image of God.

Here is the given in human living. Everything we do in this physical world is motivated by what we can't see. Choice, decision and motivation are all invisible. The physical demands of our body, the pressures put upon it be daily living and the social environment in which we live call for us to sort our which ones are best and which ones could hurt us. The way we go through that process is unseen and the answers depend on belief, belief that can handle that process. As soon as we say good, bad, right wrong, better and best, bad and worst, we are dealing with morality and morality is spiritual. Who or what has the perfection that can override imperfection in the decisions and motivations that occupy every next moment? Whenever anyone uses any words at all it is an invisible maneuver taking place within. Words have meaning which is invisible. Names are the same. People, place and things all carry a meaning, a message, a theme being conveyed. How we read and interpret them is invisible. Emotions, attitudes, thoughts, impulses, behavior all move in an unseen internal mechanism.

It is in the midst of this invisible drama, this unseen environment, this sightless reality, we find ourselves having to make sense out of it, which means we have to believe in something or someone that gives us the security to identify within it. Put it this way, we will believe and we do believe whether we like it or not. No one can escape belief. Just to survive from one minute to the next takes belief. To avoid dealing with belief is to believe in not believing. How does that work for us?

By merely existing we are forced to exercise belief in our mind, heart and spirit to find a solid place to secure our standing as persons who are not swallowed up by the bad, the worse and the worst. We want the good, the better and the best. That's built into us from birth. Why fight it?

Because we are personal, relational and spiritual by nature where do we go to bring them into balance, stability and productivity? Again therefore, if everything we do is motivated by what we can't see then who or what do we believe, trust, have faith in, in this unseen dimension? It gets down to our identity, that self-presentation we guardedly open to the world around us. How do we want to be seen, accepted and feel comfortable when we are out and about? Who or what enables us to walk with our heads up wherever we are? Now we're getting down to the substance of being human. Who or what defines our humanity and me as a person within it?

This is the arena of spirituality; its religious and personal belief systems. Here is where we as disciples of Jesus make a choice between a religion and a relationship. We believe Jesus to be the only person we can trust in the unseen dimension behind the one in which we live. This is the eternal dimension from which He came into this world. This world is where He died and rose from death to give us not a religion but a relationship with the One and only God He was and is and always will be. Thus what religion offers us is only a system and an identity we control to live in this world through obedience to its rules. However, a relationship with the risen Jesus gives us an eternal life with an eternal identity. It offers us a person to whom we give ourselves to guide us through the unseen dimension which He alone knows. A relationship with the risen Jesus works from within to live without in both the seen and unseen dimensions. Compare this to any and all systems the world offers.