Beautiful, Prober!
This is one of my favorite, and also
John 10:14:
"I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."
These verses say to me that Christ is known to people of
every faith,
of every religious tradition, of every background - even agnostic ... so long as one's heart is pure, so long as we seek to walk
in the Light, and
especially if we
go about, helping others and seeking to do Good, even as did Christ Jesus.
To me, this is what being
Christian is all about, and this is why
no matter what a person calls him or herself on the outside,
God, expressed via the 2nd person - the Christ,
knows his own.
Thus many who happily call themselves
`christian,' easily fit the description of those whom Christ
knows to be otherwise ... while many thousands - even millions (?) in this world, are
more Christian than those who call themselves so, if we use the above general definition.
But this is speaking strictly in terms of morality, and is not meant to dismiss outward observances ... which also have their importance and place.
The same argument, along the lines of
morality, could be made so as to indicate that many people are quite
`Buddhist,' inasmuch as they follow the virtuous path of
morality as taught by the Buddha -
the Noble Eightfold Path - even if they have never even HEARD of this path, or the Buddha, or Buddhism.
And so, too, with all religious traditions. But by
observance, we say, "this man is a Christian, this woman a Buddhist, this man a Jew," and so on. So the lines are blurred, and I doubt very seriously that God insists on putting people in neat
little boxes the way we do!
But for some, religion is simply another part of
ego identity, and there is much pride in it, as well as meaning, even what
seems to be a necessary part of one's character ... while I think the
only person, or
Being, to Whom and which we are accountable, is
God. The real question is then, can we learn to - or to what extent do we already - SEE, or recognize, the
Divine in our Brother. {For
if we do, then this makes us
accountable to
him (or her), too. }
And if the Jew can't see that in the Christian, and vice versa, then
no wonder one wants to preach to the other, and
seek to witness to him, or whatever. I think if I were a Jew, I'd pretty much see this whole thing as pure proselytism, plain & simple ... like someone tryiing to sell me a prosthetic hand, even as I sat there listening to the
salesman droll on, with my hands already folded, in prayer.
~Zag
