Crossroads At the Day of Bapticost

by Jesse Steele

was?

  Carl: I don’t have to go through all that, do I?

  Jesus: Not if you don’t want me to. I’m a gentleman. But you wanted some terminology to “guide” you.

  Carl: Yeah. I just don’t want to get wrapped-up in all this “ooga-booga” stuff.

  Jesus: Compulsion.

  Carl: Eh?

  Jesus: Don’t be compulsive.

  Carl: Obsessive-compulsive?

  Jesus: That neither.

  Carl: So, don’t feel like I have to do this crazy stuff?

  Jesus: And don’t let Alexander act that way either… at least not too much.

  Carl: What do I do if he starts in with it all?

  Jesus: First thing: Don’t freak-out. Don’t loose your cool just because you don’t like him loosing his cool.

  Alexander: Why are you guys talking about me like I’m crazy?

  Carl: [stands there with his mouth open, incredulous]

  Jesus: Have faith in me, Alexander. It makes sense to Carl.

  Alexander: I’m glad it makes sense to somebody.

  Jesus: You both make sense to me.

  Carl: So, don’t let Alex, here, be compulsive?

  Alexander: I really like that nickname.

  Jesus: But don’t you be compulsive either.

  Carl: What?

  Jesus: Don’t act like everything and all your friends always have to always, always, always be calm and use big words. I made people different. I didn’t make you special so you could invalidate everyone else by using yourself as the standard for all others.

  Carl: My words aren’t all that big.

  Jesus: I don’t seem all that big to myself, but from your perspective I AM a different story.

  Alexander: Yeah. Carl’s words are big… kinda’ like how Jesus is infinite.

  Jesus: You two are going to make great friends.

  Carl: Your creative mind is infinite. [to Alexander]

  Jesus: Not as infinite as my creative mind. And neither are Carl’s words as infinite as my Word.

  Alexander: Had me fooled.

  Jesus: I know bigger words than Carl. Trust me.

  Carl: That reminds me. Didn’t Alex have a “word” or something?

  Alexander: He won’t let me tell it now.

  Carl: Huh? It works like that?

  Jesus: Alexander is just trying to obey me. When I put something in his heart to tell people, it’s an idea, or a “word,” for the moment… however long the moment lasts.

  Carl: So, why did it seem so important to him, but now he says You won’t let him tell it?

  Jesus: Maybe I just put the message in his heart so he would come over and talk to you.

  Alexander: But I thought it was super important that I tell it.

  Jesus: Remember, I AM the one who put that message in Alexander’s heart. When I lead you by my Spirit to do something, you may understand a small piece, but I AM the Author. I understand more about my message than the messenger I give it through.

  Carl: What’s with all that, anyhow?

  Jesus: We’ll get into that another time.

  Scene 6: Soul Food

  Alexander: Carl.

  Carl: Alex.

  Alexander: Why are you beating your head against your desk?

  Carl: Well, I’m trying to write a paper.

  Alexander: Is your desk in the way?

  Carl: It’s about whether man is a trichotomy or a dichotomy.

  Alexander: Tri what on me?

  Carl: No, tri- means “three.”

  Alexander: And di- means “dead?”

  Carl: No, di- means “two.”

  Alexander: Who’d ’a guessed that?

  Carl: I wouldn’t have. I didn’t even come up with those terms.

  Alexander: Who did?

  Carl: I don’t know, but he’s probably dead.

  Alexander: I thought you said di- didn’t mean “dead!”

  Carl: It doesn’t, it’s just that the debate is so old, and these words are so Greek, that the first guy to use these words probably lived centuries ago.

  Alexander: Well, it’s all Greek to me.

  Carl: I’ll put it this way… The question is: Does a human have three parts or two parts?

  Alexander: I have many more parts than just two or three!

  Carl: It’s not just about your physical body.

  Alexander: Your mind also?

  Carl: That’s a whole other discussion.

  Alexander: You mean a discussion with such confusing words doesn’t even have a mind?

  Carl: Kind of…

  Alexander: This is way over my head.

  Carl: You can see why I was beating my head against my desk.

  Jesus: Hey, kids.

  Alexander: Lord!

  Carl: Why did He call us ‘kids?’

  Jesus: Children and my Kingdom.

  Alexander: Carl is having a moment of “mental constipation”… he just can’t quite get all his thoughts out.

  Carl: Are the spirit and soul the same?

  Alexander: Where did that come from?

  Jesus: They came from me. I AM the one who created them.

  Carl: Are we “spirit-soul-body” with three parts or are we just “soul-body” with two?

  Jesus: You are asking if your soul and spirit are the same thing.

  Alexander: Why does he care about that?

  Carl: I don’t care about it, my professors do. And I’m paying them a lot of money.

  Alexander: I have a solution to that…

  Jesus: So do I.

  Carl: Good, because I’m beating my head against my desk.

  Alexander: Perhaps by killing some brain cells you’d do yourself a favor.

  Jesus: Or I could just heal the neural pathways and help him connect the dots.

  Alexander-Carl: [look at each other]

  Jesus: Let me ask you, why would you think your soul and your spirit might be the same?

  Carl: My professor says “soul” and “spirit” are used interchangeably.

  Jesus: Used where interchangeably?

  Carl: In Scripture.

  Jesus: What’s another term for a “demon” in the New Testament?

  Carl: The New Testament often refers to demons as “unclean spirits.”

  Jesus: Are they ever called “unclean souls?”

  Carl: No.

  Jesus: Then “soul” and “spirit” aren’t used interchangeably.

  Carl: It can’t be that simple.

  Alexander: It often is.

  Jesus: There is more to the question, though.

  Carl: What is a soul, then? And what is a spirit?

  Alexander: I know who the Spirit is!

  Carl: You think you know who the Spirit is.

  Jesus: My Spirit knows who both of you are.

  Carl: This paper is due tomorrow, so could we get back on topic?

  Alexander: Yeah, I want to go eat.

  Jesus: I love banquets.

  Carl: Please!

  Jesus: Has any part of my Word said, “…a soul of fear,” or, “…they were all filled with the Soul together?” or, “Now receive my Holy Soul?”

  Carl: No. It almost sounds like You are talking about dead people when You say stuff like that.

  Jesus: It seems that you already have this figured out. What’s the confusion?

  Carl: I never thought about it like that. Is this a Greek thing? I mean, maybe in the New Testament the words meant one thing, but to us today “soul” and “spirit” mean the same thing.

  Jesus: What do sailors often call the people on their ships?

  Carl: I never sailed.

  Alexander: They call them “souls.” “Cap’n! Steer clear ‘o da reef. Dare be two hundred souls on board.”

  Carl: Yeah, I guess sailors do call people “souls.”

  Jesus: Do sailors ever call them “spirits.”

  Carl: No. If a sailor ever talked about a spirit it would be spooky “sailor” superstition… something about a “ship haunted by an evil sp
irit” or an “evil island with a dark spirit on the wind” or something.

  Alexander: People don’t change much over the years. We still talk the same about spirits and souls. So, why learn Greek?

  Carl: Because almost a third of the Bible is written in Greek!

  Alexander: No it isn’t. I got a Bible right here and it’s all English!

  Carl: That’s because seminary students like me translated it for you. Be grateful and don’t pick on my Greek!

  Alexander: I won’t pick on your Greek as long as we can go eat. Speak of Greek, how’s about the Olive Dragon?

  Carl: That’s not Greek!

  Alexander: It’s Greek to me.

  Jesus: It isn’t Greek. Believe me—still good though.

  Carl: How do You know what Greek food tastes like?

  Alexander: He’s been there. He’s two-thousand years old.

  Jesus: My body is two-thousand years old. But my Spirit is way older than that. He used Greek to create confusion at the tower of Babble.

  Carl: Greek is still creating confusion today.

  Alexander: Confusion about what ethnic food actually tastes like?

  Jesus: … and you don’t want to know about the confusion that led to the discovery of feta cheese.

  Alexander: You guys are making me hungrier!

  Jesus: That’s your body talking.

  Alexander: It’s my mouth talking.

  Carl: And I can hear your stomach talking. Your body must love to eat Greek.

  Alexander: Your mind must love to read Greek.

  Carl: Is my mind part of my spirit or my soul?

  Jesus: Maybe both, maybe your body too.

  Carl: My mind part of my body!?

  Jesus: Alexander’s stomach is distracting his mind… and if you take the wrong medication… that can do strange things to your thought processes.

  Carl: Is that what happened to Alex?

  Alexander: You’re the one who needs a padded desk.

  Jesus: I always liked eating on a padded floor.

  Alexander: I’m starving!

  Carl: But which one is the mind a part of then? Body or soul or what?

  Jesus: I didn’t put it in my written Word for a reason.

  Carl: What’s Your reason?

  Alexander: Because it doesn’t matter or He would have told you! I want to eat!

  Jesus: Just think about “soul and spirit” for now.

  Carl: Okay, so, let me piece all this together… “spirit” means “demon” if it’s an “unclean spirit”… but a soul is part of a sailor?…

  Alexander: A disembodied