The person of Jesus

This evening I am sitting in a coffee shop on the north side of town nestled in a strip mall. I have a unlimited, untimed wireless internet subscription here, so once a week or so I come on by, get a snack and a carmel mountain latte, read, surf the web, and listen to music I have loaded into my real player program.

(Right now listening to California Love w/ 2PAC and Dr Dre)

There is something about reading Eugene Peterson and sipping on a cup of coffee that gets me thinking.

Here is my thought for the day. The only meaningful difference between Christianity and other world religions and philosophies is the person of Jesus and the reality of the Holy Spirit. You can find about any religion that shares ideas in common with Jesus. Just about any other world religion incorperates Jesus' ideas into what they believe. Just about any athiest can incorperate the ethics of Jesus into their lifestyle without believing in him. With the exception of the strict Biblical standard on human sexuality most do that I know.

The difference is the person of Jesus. The difference is that Jesus actually lived, died, and rose again. The difference is that I can have a relationship with God incarnate through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This weekend our denomination was vigorously debating the place of homosexuals in the church. How should we relate to homosexual persons as a denomination and as congregations. And what has become apparent to me is how easily we move away from relationship into abstractions. The people on the more liberal, socially aware side of the debate see this in many ways as a battle for some rights in the abstract. That everyone has a right to do whatever they want.

The conservative side of the issue sees this as battle for the Bible. How can we say we stand for God and his word if we do not fight against this false teaching?

Sometimes people use their relationships and stories as manipulative tools in the debate, but rarely do I hear people say those words that were so popular a couple of years ago, "What would Jesus Do?" It never comes back to our relationship with Jesus in these discussions. It comes back to some abstract ideas like theology, doctrine, ethics, and Christianity (Christian was not the original name followers of Jesus gave to themselves.). Somehow we have missed the center of our faith to defend the boundaries of our philosophical systems.

The president said in a debate that Jesus was his favorite philosopher. Philosopher? It took me off guard. The words I think of when I think of Jesus are more relational. Master. Teacher. Friend.

Jesus was and is a person. Being a follower of Jesus is about a living relationship of service to a specific person. Lets return to that, and a lot of the more peripheral things will take care of themselves.