Prejudice and the People of God

OK...here we are coming up on the end of the week and, hopefully, you and I have been allowing the Holy Spirit to search us and see if there is indeed any wick way(s) in us. No doubt the process has been, and continues to be, difficult but the hope that we hold is that as we begin to allow the Holy Spirit free reign to do His divine surgery in our live and on our heart that we will find ourselves growing in grace and strength.
Now for the second part of the challenge from Sunday. Not only are we to love (which can only be done as He empowers us) but we are also called to love our neighbors as ourselves. So...how are you doing? How am I doing? I know we say the right stuff but does my heart, does your heart, beat according to what your mouth confesses?
German Philosopher Has Georg (yes there is no "e" on the end) Gadamer defines prejudices as nothing more than pre-judgements. In essence he says that we all, at times, make assertions regarding a person, place or thing and then allow our assumptions to drive how we interpret the information we receive.
It should not take us long to see that Jesus' confirmation of the second greatest commandment (love your neighbor as yourself) and his example of who is a neighbor (the good Samaritan) shows us clearly that Jesus is challenging the Pharisees to suspend their pre-judgments regarding themselves and the others.
Notice what Jesus does to expose the prejudices of the Pharisees by uncovering their assumption that people who are like themselves are superior.
Are you ready for the second step? If the first step was to ask and allow the Holy Spirit to do divine surgery on your heart, soul, mind, and strength regarding your love for God then the second step is to ask God to expose for you your pre-judgements regarding your neighbor.
Identify - First we must identify those against whom we are prejudiced. Is it a color, creed, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sex, orientation, education, vocation, class or something else I have not even thought of?
Image Bearers - Agree with God that the person whom you are pre-judging is made in the image of God and is worthy of your love, care and concern.
Repent - Acknowledge that when we are prejudiced we are sinning and confess it as such to the Lord and then consciously choose to turn from it.
Personalize - Put a name and face on the nameless and faceless prejudice. If we only surround ourselves with folks who are just like us then we will never see those whom we pre-judge as persons. They will just continue to be caricatures and ideas and we will fall back into the comfortable patterns of not loving our neighbor.