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Breaking the Chains that Bind Posts

When did “christian” become an adjective?

Published by mhelbert on May 5, 2012

I am revisiting a book I read many years ago. It is What on Earth Are We Doing?: Finding Our Place As Christians in the World by John Fischer. I read it when it was new in the late 1990s. As I pick among the many nuggets of good stuff that Fischer wrote, I am reminded of why this particular book made such an impact on me. In fact, I offered it to other leaders in my church who, whether they read it or not, never seemed to be captured by Fischer’s insights. You see, it takes contemporary evangelicalism to task. In our world we have attempted to build a parallel to what many would call “the world.” You know, that place where sin and debauchery lay waiting to waylay us and subjugate us to the cruel taskmaster of “worldliness.” So, according to Fischer, the word ‘christian’ became an adjective. Rather than the noun that it originally was coined as, someone who was a little Christ, we have made it descriptive. There is christian music and christian bookstores. We have christian novels and christian self-help books. We go to christian concerts and seminars and grocery stores and barbers. We have created a new “christian” world that allows us to have all of the stuff that the other ‘bad’ world has, but with a veneer of christian respectability. Is this what the gospel calls us to? Are we to insulate ourselves against the supposed enemy called human existence?
Back in the early 1970s I was part of the so-called Jesus Movement. One thing that we set as an objective was to show the world how it was possible to live according to the 1st century model of church that we read about in the book of Acts. We figured that if we could show people that this lifestyle ‘worked’ they would beat down our doors to get a piece of it. After all, as Fischer noted, we are a very pragmatic culture. If something ‘works,’ it absolutely MUST be true. We were, in fact, building the foundation of a ‘christian’ worldview. Today, one can look at the myriad organizations and churches that tout that their version of christianity works! You can be successful and have all of your needs met, just ‘step right up’ and climb aboard the gospel train. No more worries, no more stress, no more of the troubles of ‘Your’ world. We actually believed this. And, we preached it. The trouble was, it didn’t work. And, those on the outside could see that it didn’t work. We had televangelists talking the ‘christian’ talk, but failing miserably in life. Co-workers, who saw us everyday struggling to hold two worlds in tension, knew that we were failing. Now, we wonder why the culture has marginalized the message of Christ. We continue to try and show the world how good it is to be in a ‘christian’ world, but they aren’t watching. They really don’t care. As far as they are concerned we are a rerun of some bad 50s sitcom.
So, what to do? Honestly, I don’t have answers. That’s a good thing, I think. We cannot hold Yahweh in some box where we can let Him out when we need Him, but then close it when He gets too close. We want comfortable answers to all of life’s questions. After all, won’t that prove to the outside world that we are correct? Will that not vindicate us? Let me share a quote from Fischer’s book. This is something that he quoted from a lecture series given by Robert Farrar Capon:

The Gospel proclaims a disreputable salvation. It hands us neither an intellectually respectable God nor a morally serious one. It gives us an action of God in Christ that is foolishness to the Greek in us and a scandal to our Jewishness. It presents us with a Sabbath-breaking Messiah whose supreme act is to be executed as a criminal-and who then rises and disappears, leaving us with a blithe assurance that everything is repaired even though, as far as we can see, nothing has been fixed.

It seems that God is way bigger than we can imagine. God’s way of working in the cosmos is not what we would necessarily think it should be. Living as the bible seems to prescribe should work! But, we live in the time between now and the age to come. This life is filled with paradox that cannot be answered. There is a mystery about Yahweh that we cannot possibly understand. Not all of our questions will be answered, nor should they. Living in a separate, disinfected world is not God’s way. Getting closer to Yahweh, letting the Reign of God flourish within us is a way to start. Letting the glorious, good creation immerse us into the very presence of the Creator/Yahweh who walked among us is a way to begin living. Separating ourselves from the very world we are to be witnesses to this Great and Loving Father is not.

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The Next Generation

Published by mhelbert on May 3, 2012

And, I don’t mean Star Trek.
There’s been a lot of talk for many years about how to prepare the so-called ‘next generation’ of Christ followers to carry the faith forward. This discussion is usually held among the elders of the present or near-past generation about young, mostly male, children of these elders. (If you’re not confused yet, you will be.)
Anyway, I want to point out at least one fallacy and raise questions about this position. On the surface, this idea sounds plausible. Deuteronomy discusses the importance of teaching children about God and the works that had been performed by God, i.e., the Exodus. There also seems to be some age division that took place between those who were old enough to fight and those who were not. But, throughout the Old Testament a ‘generation’ referred to all who were alive at any given time. It was not neatly divided into some specific number of years, say, 40. Even those who espouse the above idea of training the ‘yet-to-be-involved’ age group, there is no consensus on what a generation actually is. If we want to hand the reigns over to those who are younger, then we need to include them NOW in the faith. That includes in all levels of leadership and ministry. The fallacy of generational divisions simply doesn’t hold in view of scripture. Some may want to argue about the age of 13 being when males became full members of the community. That does little to help us today as we try to integrate both male and female into active roles in the church. In fact, this is pretty much ceremonial anyway. We really don’t trust young people at this age. Yet, it is precisely at this age that we must begin to integrate them into the community. We need to let them learn through practice, not preaching, how to live and grow in the community of faith. They need the opportunities to succeed and fail. Yet, we continue to talk.
One of the problems I see is, what are we leaving for them? We seem to want them to continue just as we have, to be the ‘protectors of orthodoxy’ in a hostile world. But, what if they don’t see things that way? What if God has other plans? Not only do we not trust youth, but we don’t trust Yahweh to keep and grow the body of Christ! We leave a legacy of paranoia and conflict. We leave our battles with the culture, but not the life necessary to navigate a way through them. Many young people do not share the culture war mentality of the modern church. Yet, we try to press the importance of this perceived war into their minds. Let it go, Church! Our battle is NOT with the culture. Our battle cannot be delineated along conservative and liberal lines. Our battle is not with politics and economics. Our battle is a spiritual one that requires spiritual communities. It requires people willing to step outside of doctrines and dogma that divide and hold to that which unifies. Even if that means joining with ‘outsiders.’
Young people need to be included. They need to collaborate and build community. They need to be a part of something significant. If we keep trying to crowbar something that doesn’t make sense to them into their lives, they will bolt and do it themselves, anyhow. Maybe that would not be such a bad idea.

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Believing the Unbelievable

Published by mhelbert on May 2, 2012

I enjoy reading blogs. There are several that I follow regularly. And, from these, I chase down others. I love finding out what other people are thinking, and how they are thinking. I learn from them what is important outside of my little corner of the cosmos. (I also learn how much I don’t know about, well, most things.)
On one of these little excursions, I found the following: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2012/04/how-to-live-as-a-christian-without-having-to-believe-the-unbelievable/#comments.It was posted by a person named Jim Burklo. You can check out his cv @ http://www.jimburklo.com/.
Anyway, in this post Burklo presented much of what can be described as progressive theology. Much of this thought is also found in the emergent church. I’m not going to review the post. But, I do want to think about it for a minute.
He wrote that what is important about following Christ is, well, the actual ‘following’ part. We should be more concerned about living the love of Christ over against believing all of the doctrine, dogma, (and I might add ‘drama’), that has grown up with the the Church over 2,000 years. He wrote,

“It really isn’t important whether or not you take the Bible literally, or whether or not you believe all the creeds word-for-word.  If they don’t make sense to you, don’t worry about them.  Don’t let dogma and doctrine get in the way of practicing Love, who is God … But repeating creeds is not the price of admission into Christianity.  Instead of caring whether the story of Jesus’ resurrection was a fact or a myth, let’s concern ourselves with things that matter.  Let’s care about our neighbors without jobs or health insurance, face the resentment in our hearts that needs to be released, struggle with how vote and be activist citizens, and learn how to bring our careers in alignment with our highest values.  Let’s gather in churches, soup kitchens, work-places, living rooms, and cafés to support each other in doing things that matter, and let go of old doctrines that don’t.”

I agree with him. There’s an old saying that states Christians are one of the few groups on this planet that regularly shoot their own wounded. We are, by and large, argumentative and spiteful. We stand on a plank and call it truth while the whole platform goes up in flames around us. And all the while, people die of starvation and thirst. They lose their homes, if they ever had one to begin with. They are raped, murdered, sold into slavery, oppressed and forgotten. Hey, folks…these are the ones Jesus came to save. Where are we?

But, there are some inconsistencies in Burklo’s presentation. He suggested that it is important to find a community of like-minded with whom to serve. It is important to practice spiritual disciplines and Bible study. Don’t these require some small seed of belief in something? Is not prayer a miracle of God’s grace?
By simply stating that we must work with the “spark of the divine that is in every one of us,” faith in what cannot be seen seems to be left out of the equation. If Jesus is not God, (part of orthodox doctrine), then why bother with the poor? They can fend for themselves in this survival of the fittest universe. If the invisible Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God, is not brooding over and in the creation, then what ignites that spark of the divine within us? Why should we care for our neighbor? What difference does it make if Palestinians and Israelis blow each other up? Why should the rich not get richer?
I’m sorry, but I don’t put much faith in the human heart to do what’s good and just. I can, however, put my trust, and life, in the hands of the God of gods who alone is able to transform my heart of stone into one of flesh.

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Politics as Usual?

Published by mhelbert on April 30, 2012

I have some difficulty with politics. First, as a Christ follower, I put my trust in Jesus, not politicians. I consider my first loyalty and citizenship to be with Him. So, when I see and hear people invoking Christ and the Scripture to further their own political careers, I get a tad upset. In the book, “Contemplative Prayer” by Thomas Merton, it seem he had a similar concern. Written in the late 1960s, he put his finger on a piece of the issue.
“On thing is certain: the humility of faith, if it is followed by the proper consequences-by the acceptance of the work and sacrifice demanded by our providential task-will do far more to launch us into the full current of historical reality than the pompous rationalizations of politicians who think they are somehow the directors and manipulators of history. Politicians may indeed make history, but the meaning of what they are making turns out, inexorably, to have been something in a language they will never understand, which contradicts their own programs and turns all their achievements into an absurd parody of their promises and ideals.
Of course, it is true that religion on a superficial level, religion that is untrue to itself and to God, easily comes to serve as the ‘opium of the people.’ And this takes place whenever religion and prayer invoke the name of God for reasons and ends that have nothing to do with [God]. When religion becomes a mere artificial facade to justify a social or economic system-when religion hands over its rites and language completely to the political propagandist, and when prayer becomes the vehicle for a purely secular ideological program-then religion does tend to become an opiate. It deadens the spirit enough to permit the substitution of a superficial fiction and mythology for this truth of life. And this brings about the alienation of the believer, so that his religious zeal becomes political fanaticism. His faith in God, while preserving its traditional formulas, becomes in fact faith in his own nation, class or race.”
I have seen this tendency from all sides in the political process. It nauseates me. I especially have ill-feelings concerning the policies of those on the so-called “religious right” who justify injustice, (if that’s possible), in the name of some conservative economic ethic that privileges those who have against those who do not. Merton quotes Raissa Maritain, “If there were fewer wars, less thirst to dominate and to exploit others, less national egoism, less egoism of class and caste, if mane were more concerned for his brother, and really wanted to collect together, for the good of the human race, all the resources which science places at his disposal especially today, there would be on earth fewer populations deprived of their necessary sustenance, there would be fewer children who die or are incurably weakened by undernourishment.” And, I might add, fewer reasons to go to war and wage terror against others.
Just food for thought.

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Preserve us, O God

Published by mhelbert on April 26, 2012

This is the final part of the discussion on the “Our Father.” This has not been an attempt to present any kind of comprehensive understanding, much less, an exegesis of the prayer. It is simply food for thought and reflection. As a paradigm, the prayer allows us to contemplate our place before a loving and compassionate Father. Yahweh, who has allowed us to be adopted children of God, who has allowed us to be the sisters and brothers of Jesus, has given us this simple prayer on which to build our faith. My hope in these 4 short posts is that any who happen to read them will be encouraged to model their own prayers on it. To use their God given imagination to see into the depths of the Father’s love, compassion and concern for all of God’s children.

And do not lead us into a time of trial, but, deliver us from the evil one.          
Testing is something that we all experience. James wrote that testing proves our mettle. It builds and perfects our faith. The psalmist called on to “Try me and know my anxious thoughts.” Why, then, should we not embrace trials and testing? Why not expect that God, in all of the divine Wisdom, to try us and test us? After all, Jesus was tested in the wilderness and triumphed. This testing that Jesus instructed his disciples to pray that they might be spared is that from external powers. We may better understand it, “Father, do not take your protecting hand from us! Keep us from temptations from ungodly powers.”
We do not forsake the wilderness. It is the place where we are tried and tested, just as Jesus. The desert Fathers wrote about the aridity of the interior environment where the perfect faith was forged. We join with them in this. We agree with James and the psalmist in this. But, we must pray that Yahweh, the God who is near, will keep us and preserve us from the fiery darts and weapons of the enemy of our soul.

There is also a part of this plea that is eschatological. We pray the God’s hand will keep us from harm in the trials and tribulations that accompany the end of the age. Jesus saw this as immanent. The Kingdom of God was breaking into time and space, the end of the age was at hand. “Father, keep us from the persecutions and oppression that is to come. Through the righteous and just testing and proving of our faith, let us stand in Your strength and faithfulness when the time comes.”
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Abba, Forgive Us

Published by mhelbert on April 25, 2012

And forgive us our debts
“Abba, forgive us the debt of sin. We cannot repay this…ever.” Most of us will stop at this point. We jump forward to Paul and claim “Justification!” But, there is more to consider here. We are indebted to Yahweh for everything. Our pray can continue, “Abba, forgive…The debt of having been formed in the womb; of being given the precious Breath of Life. The debt of childhood play and skinned knees. The debt of 1st loves and 1st heartbreaks. The debt of experiencing life with family and friends. The debt of being alone and forsaken by family and friends. All that we are and have and experience are debts that cannot be repaid.
As we forgive those who are indebted to us.
Those who have outright wronged us. Those who have taken a small piece of our life; love; soul and spent it on trivia. Those who have stepped on our toes. Those who laughed when we cried. Those who stole a piece of our innocence and left a wound that scarred and remains with us to this day. Those who have rubbed us in such a way that callouses formed. “O Lord, let Your grace be on us to let go of anything, anything, anything that stands between us and our adelphoi. Let our souls be free from any hint of bitterness that may germinate from holding on to the debts of others. As we have freely received, we do freely give.”
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More from the Pater Noster

Published by mhelbert on April 24, 2012

In my previous post I started to look at the prayer Jesus taught his disciples as recorded in Matthew. I mentioned that the prayer has been viewed as a paradigm for other prayers. In its written form it appears to be what Richard Foster called a ‘simple prayer.’ That is, it contains the simple supplication of a person looking to have simple, basic needs met by God.
Today I want to look at this as it applies to the next phrase.

Today, give us the bread that we need.
 On the surface this appears to meet the criteria for ‘simple prayer.’ “O Lord, you know
that we have physical needs. Our very lives depend on the sustenance that comes from
your hand.” As we reflect, though, we can see that there may be more to this. In John 6,
Jesus spoke about the manna that Israel ate while in the wilderness. He said, “I am the
bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the
bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living
bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This
bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51, NIV). A
couple things jump out at me. First, Israel received manna for the present day. God
literally provided ‘daily bread’ for them. This bread from heaven kept them nourished as
the trekked through the wilderness. It was received by faith. There was no guarantee,
other than God’s promise, that there would be manna in the morning. Every night they
went to bed hoping and trusting that when they awoke there would be God’s provision.
The second thing is that Jesus saw himself taking the place of God’s manna. He said,
“Hey, I AM the living bread! I AM the provision that brings and sustains life!” Like the
manna in the wilderness, Jesus also must be received in faith. We must ‘partake’ of this
living bread every day. What we received yesterday has passed into history. What we
may receive tomorrow is unknowable. “Today, Lord, we ask for the living Bread of life
that You provide. Today, Lord, give me Your body as true food that nourishes my soul.”
 There is much that we can meditate on in this single phrase. Our dependence; our need
for trust and faith; the truth about what is nourishment and what is not are all worthy of
our time and reflection.
May God fill you from the bounty of heaven’s storehouse.
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Our Father who is heaven…

Published by mhelbert on April 22, 2012

The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples has been recited and reflected on as long as there has been a church to do it. It has been said to be the “perfect prayer” by the Roman church. Monks, contemplatives, mystics and lay people throughout church history have pondered its simplicity and its profundity. From Teresa of Avila and Madame Guyon through Francis Fenelon and St. John of the Cross to us today, this prayer has been recognized as being a paradigmatic prayer. Countless faithful offer the words of the Pater Noster daily.
I have found great pleasure in this prayer. It stimulates my mind and imagination to ponder on the riches of our heavenly Father and how much we must trust and rely on God for everything. Over the next little while I’m going to share bits and pieces of this prayer. Now, I must say that this will not be some ‘magic’ bullet that will open the floodgates of glory through which all sorts of blessings will pour down. That’s been tried before…and found lacking. What this prayer does is allow us to bow our wills and present our neediness and poverty to God Almighty. With each phrase one is free to express whatever thoughts and musings come into the heart. Like I said, the prayer is a model; a superstructure that in the presence of the Ruach Elohim can be fleshed out to become a cry of supplication, a loud sound of praise, the peace and quiet of adoration.
The prayer proper is in bold italics. The translation is my own.

Our Father who is in heaven,
            Reveals both the immanence and transcendence of God.
            Yahweh is near, like a father. One who knows us better than we know ourselves
            One who patiently loves and cares for us. Yet, God is also in heaven. High above all
things, with wisdom that surpasses any that our tiny human souls can comprehend.
Yahweh lives with the Cherubim and heavenly creatures that worship and do the bidding
of God.
May Your name be revered,
            Your work and reputation. You, who parted the sea and fed Your people in the desert.
You, who conceived the stars and wonders of the heavens. You, who sent Your one and
only Son to us as one of us. I reverence You.
May Your Reign come,
            Yahweh, may Your reign and dominion stretch out into every region of the cosmos. Let it
touch the light of the heavens and encompass the floating debris of space. Let it reach
into and penetrate my soul; surround every cell; course through my veins; capture my
mind and imagination. Let me think thought and dream dreams that I could not imagine,
but You can.

Let Your will be done On earth as in heaven.
Here and Now; on this earth; in this time. May Your word, Your thoughts  – proceed from
your own glory to engulf all that Your hands have fashioned. May all of this, in return,
bow before Your glorious presence. Lift the veil! Part the curtain that hides Your heaven
from Your creation! Give to us, as well as the trees, rivers, stars, planets, creatures in the
sky, water and land a glimpse of Your glory. Glory that far surpasses the greatest
phenomena of the created order. For You are far above all of these.
This is a good place to leave this first part. Take time to reflect and ruminate on the text of the prayer. Let the Holy Spirit take you into the presence of God, past the gossamer veil that separates the heavenly realm from the earthly. Pray to the Father. Don’t simply speak to the air.
I hope that these meager thoughts can help to launch us into a deeper and more meaningful practice of prayer.
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It’s not simply the economy

Published by mhelbert on April 20, 2012
I’ve written a couple of posts about the Keystone pipeline and Canadian oil sands exploration. In these I have decidedly come down against moving forward with either. When President Obama announced that he was not going to support the pipeline, those who support it went ballistic. The television ads erupted with statements about the administration’s lack of support for American jobs and economic growth. Presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is on record stating that he would immediately agree to the pipeline. The issue quickly became an issue of economy versus ecology. These battles don’t always turn out well for the ecology. However, I came across an article over at the Native American Times that provides a little more information. Talli Nauman, Native Sun News Health & Environment Editor, wrote an article entitled, “Tribal leaders cheer Obama rejection of XL Pipeline.” In it she cited First Nation leader in both the U.S. and Canada who overwhelmingly support President Obama’s decision. It seems that there is more to this than simply economic considerations. A link to Nauman’s article is here. I do hope that more people check into the alternative positions on this issue. We cannot afford to continue to make bad judgment calls when our, and the planet’s, future are at stake.
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Recovering Spiritual Formation

Published by mhelbert on April 19, 2012

While in seminary I had the pleasure of being introduced to spiritual formation through spiritual disciplines. I had read Richard Foster’s The Celebration of Discipline in the early 1980s. But, having been raised in a protestant tradition, much of Foster’s work did not really resonate with me.
However, I took some classes at ATS in spiritual disciplines that fleshed out what Foster had written about decades earlier. I was introduced to the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the early cenobitic monastics and Celtic monasticism. The practices of the disciplines found a home in my heart. Perhaps, though, the person who has influenced me the most is a recent player, Thomas Merton. I found in him a kindred spirit who was able to bridge the gap between cloister and the world. He was a contemplative who could relate to the culture at large in ways that were refreshing and profound.
This link post by Carl McColman from Patheos about current a resurgence in contemplative practice is interesting. While some may find the close proximity of Christian practice to others somewhat uncomfortable, it does reveal a depth of heart and understanding that maybe “it makes sense to say that Christians today who find meaning and value in contemplative spirituality really do owe a debt of gratitude to many non-Christian spiritual teachers, who, instead of seeking to convert Christians to their faith, instead helped Christians to rediscover the treasures in their own.”
http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/Inter-religious-Spirituality-and-the-Contemplative-Renaissance-Carl-McColman-04-18-2012

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