Thanks Barncat. I really am grateful for your willingness to engage my thoughts & appreciate your responses. I am not a theologian, and am sure my thoughts about the concept of god differ from yours. I do think the passage you cite (beyond its theological implications) indicates that the path of those who follow Jesus is not one of power, but one of humility, selflessness, and service.
I do think during his lifetime and in his teachings, Jesus seemed suspicious of the tendency to judge. In the story of the Prodigal son, Jesus seems to identify that disinterest in judging with god. I suppose there is some tensions in the Bible in relation to who God is, and not every book agrees on what is most important about Jesus and his message (which shouldn't be all that threatening when one considers that if 5 people who knew me wrote about me, they would have different perspectives about who I am and what I am about). I think one of the basic tensions and places where you and I disagree is that I don't think Jesus' primary message was about himself (synoptic gospels lean in this direction), whereas, your view seems to be that Jesus was his message (John & some of the letters) - I know that's an over-simplification, but its 11:40 PM. Hope you have a great day tomorrow; I hope to post the next section of the book then if you're interested.
peace,