Loving Acceptance and an Open Spirit is a Good Place to Start

A Majestic Redwood Tree

To borrow – and probably wholly misappropriate – a phrase from e.e. cummings (and I don't think he would mind), "…here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)" for the spirit to grow, one must be radically, fundamentally, and fully open.

First, we must be open to the truth that there are very few things which we actually, truly know. Second, we must be open to the possibility that the things that we think we know may simply not be true, at least not for everyone. Third, we must be open to the likelihood that there are many different good and positive ways to see and experience life and to live it. Finally, we must be open to the other who may see and experience and live their life quite differently than we do, and then be willing to lovingly accept them as the same child of the living God whom we believe ourselves to be.

One of the deepest wells of Christian scripture is found in the "Sermon on the Mount." Three brief chapters in one of the narratives known as the Gospels outline some of the most profound teachings of Rabbi Jesus. In one section the spiritual luminary, Jesus, talks about the issue of judgment.

Now, understand that in the "historical critical" method of biblical interpretation we do not presume that everything which has been attributed to Jesus was actually said by him; we do not presume that the historical references in scripture are necessarily accurate, at least historically speaking; we do not presume that when the scriptures suggest that God has told someone to do this or that, that God has actually told someone to do this or that. The “Progressive Christian” method of dealing with scripture is to try to sort out, from the volumes of material in the various books of the Bible, what the human beings who wrote the text – who were surely doing their very best to try to understand God from their vantage point at their moment in history – actually might have gotten right about God, Jesus, faith, and how we might live our lives well as the "spirit-beings" whom we are.

So, having said all that, the spiritually discerning reader of this section of the Sermon on the Mount will likely surmise that there is great spiritual value in this concept attributed to the great spiritual teacher, Jesus:

"Do not judge, so that you may not be judged"

In this section from the gospel of Matthew (chapter 7, verses 1 through 5) it is reported that Jesus goes on to say in essence… and just be aware that here I am going to take some rather “open-spirited” poetic license in my paraphrasing…

"in the same way that you're being judgmental of other people, in the end, you'll likely find the same kind of judgmentalism foisted upon you… so my dears (a wonderful phrase I learned from Mr. Rogers), spend the majority of your very limited time on the planet paying attention to working on the troublesome issues within your own heart and soul, and then try to do some real good for others; these are the things that you need to deal with, and stop being so blasted smug and self-assured about how good and wonderful you are; you have plenty of soul-work to do on yourself (yet, in spite of that God loves you with absolute, complete, and unconditional love – pay attention to that great truth first and foremost).  So, you should really take a permanent holiday from criticizing others with such vehemence and vengeance and vitriol, because that kind of behavior does great damage to your own soul."

The Eagle Nubula - stars forming in our galaxy...
and it is quit likely that the universe is expanding

The spirit of Jesus – like that of all of our great spiritual teachers whether they be from Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, or many, many other traditions – never narrows the journey down, but rather, always opens the journey up. The spiritual journey is about the breadth and depth of the capacities of the human heart – created in the image of God – to carry and convey that love, which is God, and about the height to which the spirit can soar and the width commensurate with the ever-expanding universe which the mind of faith seeks to traverse.

Therefore, the spiritual life cannot be marked by a ruthless littleness of spirit. Judgmentalism is one of the ways that we thwart the human soul, and close the heart and mind from experiencing the breadth of God's love as the goal for our own lives. In his book, Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges (an author and faith leader who comes out of the "Evangelical Tradition" of Christianity) addresses a dozen clusters of specific "acceptable" sins that we tend to tolerate in ourselves – such as jealousy, anger, pride, unthankfulness, and judgmentalism. In regard to the issue of judgmentalism he pens these thoughtful and helpful words:

"The sin of judgmentalism is one of the most subtle of our ‘respectable’ sins because it is often practiced under the guise of being zealous for what is right. It’s obvious that within our conservative evangelical circles there are myriads of opinions on everything from theology to conduct to lifestyle and politics. Not only are there multiple opinions but we usually assume our opinion is correct. That’s where our trouble with judgmentalism begins. We equate our opinions with truth." (p. 141)

Well... I have news for you Brother Bridges, this issue of folks hiding their judgmentalism behind the "guise of being zealous for what is right" is sadly just as often prevalent among the Liberal or Progressive Christian community.  Did I mention that jealousy, anger, pride, and unthankfulness also seem to abound with many who would identify themselves as Progressive Christians?  It seems that in this case, the Evangelicals simply don't have a corner on the market.

Therefore, each day as we rise from a night of slumber, however we begin our day – whether we are one of those people who jump out of bed and throw the curtains open with great exuberance to see and gleefully celebrate the new day dawning, or, one of those people who slowly and gently move from sleeping to waking, perhaps involving the need for calm quietness and possibly something warm with caffeine in it – it is imperative that if we seek to live the life of spiritual growth and renewal, we begin each day trusting in the idea that "loving acceptance and an open spirit is a good place to start." Regardless of those we encounter, whose lives may be steeped in some kind of destructive judgmentalism, our goal is to greet each living creature, created in the image of God, in the spirit of "Namaste'."