Month: April 2023

To the Hidden Evangelist: Olly, Olly Oxen Free!

Published by mhelbert on April 27, 2023

Yesterday I had an experience that, truth be told, I would never have expected in a million years. That’s not hyperbole! This struck out of the blue without any warning. It left me with a crinkled brow wondering, WTF? Now, it may sound like some earth shattering event took place. Something that completely rocked my world. It wasn’t. Not by any stretch. It was a surprise, though. A scratch-your-head-and-you-head kind of surprise.
I received a piece of mail. Yeah, just an envelope with stuff inside. It was addressed to me. It looks like the sender used a home ink jet printer to address it. The return address simply stated, “Narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, few there be that find it.” That’s it. No real return address. No name. No nothing except some King James verse without any context. Inside of the envelope there was no note or letter. There was, again, nothing to identify the sender. There were simply 2 religious tracts produced by a guy named Jack Chick. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Jack Thomas Chick was a fundamentalist cartoonist who produced small comic-like tracts with some kind of pre-millenial gobbledy-gook. These were designed to instill fear into the reader that would force the reader to make a choice to follow Jesus and avoid whatever mean and hateful future awaited them.
At first, I was a bit miffed. Apparently, the sender has so much concern for my immortal soul that he/she was willing to look up my address and spend postage to send these. If you’re reading this, thanks for that. I guess. But, what initially ticked my off was that the person appears to be a coward hiding behind the veil on anonymity. Not afraid to perhaps offend someone. Yet, too afraid to stand up and be accountable.
That was my initial reaction. Then, I laughed and tossed the stuff in the recycle bin.
However, as I reflected on this I realized something.
This was me 50 years ago. Way back then, when Chick was still alive and producing his nonsense, I was that guy at the mall or at the park quietly walking up, and with shaking hands, handed Chick tracts to anyone who would accept them. Of course, we were supposed to then engage with those folks and explain to them the Four Spiritual Flaws or the Roamin’ Rode way to salvation. Because, we knew that unless these poor unbelieving heathens confessed their sins and recited the magic words that we told them to say, they would be lost to eternal flame and torment. We didn’t wait. We handed of our treasure and trusted that God would miraculously touch their hearts when they read about the coming apocalypse of the inevitable ending of their misguided life. Remember the “narrow way” thing? I put my heart into that kind of ministry. Either as a performer on stage, (again separated from real people), or dropping hate filled missives to people I thought were in the gravest of danger. I think that all of us who were caught up in that time felt like we were doing our job as true disciples of Christ. We were doing the work of the evangelist. We were the Watchmen on the wall warning the poor, ignorant, unsuspecting multitudes of the impending doom that was coming over the horizon. We were deadly serious about that work. We were also cowards who really never wanted to engage with people. So, we timidly passed out our tracts. Or, we hid them in library books so that someone might actually find it and read it. I know some that went to adult bookstores just to place the tracts in the merchandise that these ‘angels of hell’ were distributing.
So, I can sympathize with my anonymous friend. It’s hard to look someone in the eye and tell them that they are in danger of hell’s torment.
Or, it may be that, like me, this person has doubts about that. Is this truly the way things will work out? Will a Just and Righteous God actually condemn people, most of whom are completely unknowing about our God? Does this person feel a tinge of embarrassment about intruding on a complete stranger’s life? Maybe a bit of all of the above.
I have no ill feelings toward this person. I would, however, sit down for a cup of coffee and chat rather than deal with all of the cloak and dagger stuff. It’s always better to talk about things than to make untrue assumptions about others. At least, that’s what I’ve learned over the past 50 years.
If the person who sent these to me is reading this, I extend that invitation to engage. After all, didn’t Jesus tell us to love one another? I’m neither you enemy nor you mission field. If you don’t want to talk. That’s OK. I’ll continue to lift you to God in prayer. I will also ask you not to waste your postage on me. Chick tracts are by far the worst evangelistic tool ever invented. I won’t read them.

Leave a Comment

For the Letter Kills, But the Spirit Gives Life

Published by mhelbert on April 24, 2023

A couple of weeks ago in Akron, Ohio, a grand jury made a decision that was legally correct. They decided not to bring charges against police in the shooting of Jayland Walker. For those who aren’t familiar with this case, Jayland was driving a car with a tail light out and a missing license plate light. When police tried to pull him over, he fled. During the chase, Walker fired a shot from a gun out of the car window. When he finally stopped, he jumped out of his car and ran. He was apparently wearing a mask on his face. At some time during the chase Jayland appeared to turn and move his arm in a manner that the officers interpreted as reaching for a weapon. Eight officers then opened fire. More than 90 rounds were fired. Over half of those rounds struck Jayland killing him.
Rightly, I think, most people thought at the very least that was excessive. Ninety + rounds? For a broken tail light? Ok, there was the apparent gun shot early in the chase. And, a gun was found in Jayland’s car. But, not on his person when he was shot. I’ve never been involved in anything like that. I cannot even imagine the fear that filled both Jayland and the eight officers. At times like that, with adrenaline pumping by the gallon, rational thought flees and the amygdala takes over. Fight or flight? In this case both were present in shooters and victim.
The grand jury considered the use of force and found that it was reasonable in those circumstances.
I think that was probably the correct LEGAL decision.
But, was it the correct MORAL decision?
Of course, the law doesn’t give a flying fuck about morals. You can’t judge morals. Laws are easy. They’re black and white. A person either follows the rules or they don’t. When they don’t, well, there are consequences. Our country is proud of its Rule of Law. No one is above the Law! Well, maybe a lot of people find themselves pinned under the law. Jayland Walker was one of those people.
One of the things about the Rule of Law is that sometimes, (many times?), people equate following the letter of the law with being right or moral. If I follow the law, even if I act in a morally reprehensible manner, I’m OK. No harm; no foul. The law vindicates my actions. Look at Me! I’m a Good Law-abiding Citizen! Yay, me! I think that’s part of the problem with the Rule of Law. It gives law enforcement, in particular, the illusion of having the moral high ground. Almost anything that law enforcement do can be justified legally. After all, they represent the People. Right? And, as such they are given almost complete discretion to act in ways that they interpret as in the public’s interest. That’s a very large canvas to paint on. Any decent lawyer can come up with some argument to show that no matter what law enforcement does is in the public’s interest.
I think that this is grossly abused by the powers that be. Laws are written and interpreted in order to vindicate the use of force, many times deadly, so that almost any act can be justified. It is Morally Wrong. We can never allow what is simply correct by the letter of the law to stand higher than the Moral mandates of being human beings in society. We’ve stood by and watched abuse after abuse, particularly to those who are the weakest and most marginalized in society. And, time after time after time the abuses have been blown away like smoke on the wind. The unimaginable inequities that allow the powerful to get away with murdering, executing, people who the powerful don’t give a damn about must end. Somehow. I don’t have a clue how to see that happen. Do we vote? Do we protest? Do we write blog posts?
Paul the Apostle wrote to the Church at Corinth about this. Even in ancient time people hid behind the law. It gave them the so-called freedom to do anything that fell within the bounds of that law. Paul, however, clarified some things for those folks. He wrote that God has made us adequate, not be the law, but by the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit give life. The letter is written, says Paul, not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of the human heart. If anything is this rant makes sense, I hope it’s that the Letter of the Law cannot justify acts of immorality against other human beings. It is not capable of that. It was not created for that. Even though the powerful write laws to protect themselves, they cannot write away the love of God that demands we treat one another with redemptive justice.

Leave a Comment

How Did We Get Here, Old Friend?

Published by mhelbert on April 16, 2023

I enjoy walking around our city. I think that at one time or another I’ve covered every street within our boarders and some of our neighboring burgs. I started doing this when I was still in high school. Back then, I’d walk at night. Alone with my thoughts and feelings swirling around my mind like Poe’s Maelstrom. In those days I had all of the tensions that come with being no longer child, not quite adult. It’s a wonder that our species has survived, let alone flourished, when such violence rages within the minds of so many of us. Yet, survive and flourish we have.
Now, in my so-called Golden Years I continue to walk the many miles of the city. I don’t go out in the evenings any more. Such has life chosen that those hours be spent trying to unwind and prepare for a long evening’s sleep. Even that can be difficult for those with gimpy prostates. But, that’s another story. When I walk today, especially in those old neighborhoods that I grew up in and around, my mind draws me backward into that age of restless energy. I recall the sights and smells of a much younger and less developed city. When fields and woods stretched out forever. Within those wild lands lay adventures and mystery. We explored them with the stealth that only a child may think is actually ‘stealthy.’ We built forts and brought sandwiches and apples so that we could truly live in those fortresses of cleared ground with ramparts of dead leaves. Such is the world of the very young. Temporary. Transient. A passing vapor.
When I got older I was an aspiring young freak. I played rock-n-roll and hung out with other rock-n-roll wannabes. We laughed. We got high. We made pretty good music. It was always hard for me to have friends. You see, I can be a pretty assy asshole. My assholery in those days was unmitigated by the erosion of age. Sharp-edged assholing can get pretty nasty sometimes. So, for me to have these band-buddies was a wonderful thing. Of course, being an asshole meant that I sometimes pushed the boundaries pretty hard. Fortunately, there was one guy who never put up with my assholing. He, of course, became my best friend and brother from another mother. Eventually, this age past as all do. One day we all found our paths diverging. I saw a light and followed it. My friends, my mates, my best friend chose to let me. And, I chose to leave them.
The reason I’m writing this is that recently, as I’ve walked the streets of the city, old and new, my mind has gone back to those days. The memories of growing warts on our feet in the middle of one street. Of climbing trees and the cliffs along the lake shore. Chasing butterflies and the elusive “Beatles chords” on the guitar. The thoughts flood back into my mind stirring up those old currents that once flowed with power and evidenced the change of life that always follows.
Perhaps this little melancholic trip down that good ol’ Memory Lane was inspired by a poem that a friend shared on social media a short while ago. The poem, “Our Nature,” by Rae Armantrout takes a hard look at the changes that we all wander through. The old photograph seen. The realization that all of that has changed. Disappointment is real. Where did we all go? While the poem doesn’t fit my own thoughts and reflections like my well-worn t-shirts, it does provoke the mind’s searchlight to scan the horizons, the peaks, the valleys trying to see any shadow or vestige of what once was.
All of that to say, I miss you guys. I miss you desperately. I don’t know where you are, save one. I don’t know whether you live still or have walked on, again, save one.
So, to Bruce, Craig, Ted, Dave, Greg, Jeff, and the other Jeff, I love you guys. You’ll always be jammin’ in my heart.

Leave a Comment

Good Friday: The Story Begins

Published by mhelbert on April 7, 2023

I have all sorts of things to write about. Today, though, there is only One Story to tell.

53 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth. (Is. 53:1-9)

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
² O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
³ Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
⁴ In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
⁶ But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
⁸ “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
⁹ Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
¹² Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
¹³ they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
¹⁵ my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
¹⁶ For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—
¹⁷ I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me;
¹⁸ they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
¹⁹ But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!
²¹ Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
²² I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
²³ You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
²⁴ For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
²⁵ From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
²⁶ The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever!
²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
²⁸ For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
²⁹ All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
³⁰ Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
³¹ they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. (Ps. 22)

Today is Good Friday. We remember the death of God.
If you read this far, you saw that the end is NOT death. For, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord…”

Blessings to you all.

Leave a Comment

Do I Act Like I Have a Soft Heart?

Published by mhelbert on April 5, 2023

During this Lenten season, some of us from St. B’s have met on Sunday evenings for discussions on The Way of Love. This is something that the Chief Cooks and Bottlewashers of the Episcopal Church prepared for us. Basically, there are some prompts during the week and a video to watch. On Sunday, we met on Zoom to talk about them. It is a Spiritual Formation thing that enables us to stop and think a bit about the direction of our lives as we relate to God and each other. Well, that’s what Spiritual Formation is all about. So, I guess it’s appropriate. Anyway, (I use ‘anyway’ a lot), a couple weeks back we talked about “Blessing.” Of course, this was prepared by Progressive Christians, so the Scripture text that we used was stretched almost beyond recognition in order to fit what they wanted us to see.
Excursus:
Conservative Christians tend to read the Bible literally. There were 6 actual 24 hr. days of creation. Noah really built a big boat and floated around to escape a world-wide flood that destroyed all life on the planet. They do this in order to protect a predetermined belief system that they think will fall apart if they question this “doctrine.” Ok, they’re allowed to think what they want.
Liberal Christians like to start with belief and practice. They, then, interpret the Scriptures so that they will fit into that neat little package. Again, this is a reaction to the Conservative practice. Jesus and the Bible talk about love and peace and all kinds of good stuff. So, our interpretation of the Bible must be love and peace and all kinds of good stuff. Ok, nothing wrong there. The Scriptures are able to be interpreted in lots of ways that are not out of bounds. Both of these ways, though very different, fall within the playing field.
Ok, now that the excursus is over, we can get back to the main point of this blog post thing.
The person on the video went on to talk about baptismal covenants and sin and stuff. Many sentences and speculations later, she got to what I believe was the point of all of that rambling. The text we were instructed to read was from the Prophet Ezekiel. While speaking to the Israelite refugees who had been shipped off to Babylon, Ezekiel said that their days of captivity would one day end. At that time, God would, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26).
A new heart. One that is flesh and not stone. Our discussion landed on that thought. What does a heart of flesh mean? A heart of stone? And, what does any of this have to do with Blessing?
As we talked folks started talking about benevolent practices. Feeding the hungry, supporting the marginalized, etc. Now, I think that I may have mentioned once or twice the influence of the Fundagelical world on me. One of the things that we were big into was the difference between being ‘spiritual’ and ‘worldly.’ For us, ‘worldly’ was a bad word. It was something that no self-respecting believer would ever allow themselves to get sucked into. And, it just so happened, benevolent practices fell under that rubric. Yeah, it was ok to be nice and help folks out. It was way more important to preach the gospel and get them saved. So, we didn’t really help anyone out unless they were 1. One of us. Gotta support the brothers and sisters. Paul said so. 2. So called, “Unbelievers” and we could get them to sit down and listen to a “message.” We’ll fill your belly if you’ll sit and listen to us try to fill your spirit. Actually, it was pretty much just a bait and switch con that we could justify with a veneer of spirituality.
Anyway, (there I go again!), as we talked I realized something. Having a new heart of flesh is pretty conclusive evidence that the person with that heart is living according to God’s will. The need to get all doctriney about preaching and saving and all of that does not prove a thing. Well, other than the person doing all that doctriney stuff is a jerk. No, the real proof of the Godly person is whether or not they have a heart that is soft and fleshy. Stone hearts are for statues and idols. There will come a day, so the Scriptures say, when all people will stand before God and give an accounting. Of what? Of what they had DONE, not what they merely thought or believed. A person with a soft heart DOES the work of God whether they believe in God or not.
Think about that for a minute. After you pick up the pieces of your brain, think about it some more. The Apostle James wrote, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Jas. 2:18). If the stuff that we do is a reflection of who we are, and I think that it is, then it is in the Doing from a soft heart that is what is important.
Please don’t burn me at the stake! I’m only the messenger.

Leave a Comment