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Breaking the Chains that Bind Posts

Just a couple thoughts….

Published by mhelbert on January 10, 2012

One of my favorite professors from seminary, Dr. John Byron, had an interesting reaction to what seemed to be a rather innocuous blog post. He remarked at the reaction many had to Tim Tebow’s day against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The fact that Tebow through for a reported 316 yds. at 31.6 yards per play aroused the imagination of many people. The coincidental relationship between Tebow’s stats and John 3:16 seemed to be irresistible fodder for media and religious folks alike. I followed the thread as it unfolded during the day. The amount of vitriol poured out toward Dr. Byron for his position on Tebow’s accomplishment was remarkable. Dr. John shared his position and supported it intelligently. I can almost see him smiling and shaking his head. He has said many times that he doesn’t understand why some blog posts receive such responses. What impressed me most was that he remained calm and allowed his detractors to rant without responding in kind. Cudos Dr. John.
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The other thing I wanted to mention today is another look at the Devil Made Me Do It. In a short excerpt from a piece by John Henry Newman, (1801-1890), there is a brief insight into the devil’s tactics. He wrote, “While we are found in Christ, we are partakers of His security. He has broken the power of Satan: He has gone ‘upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon hath He trod under His feet’; and henceforth evil spirits, instead of having power over us, tremble and are afftighted at every true Christian. They know he has that in him which makes him their master, that he may, if he will, laugh them to scorn, and put them to flight. They know this well, and bear it in mind, in all their assaults upon him; sin alone give them power over him; and their great object is, to make him sin, and therefore to surprise him into sin, knowing they have no other way of overcoming him. They try to scare him by the appearance of danger, and so to surprise him; or they approach stealthily and covertly to seduce him, and so to surprise him. But except by taking him at unawares, they can do nothing.
Therefore let us be, my brethren, ‘not ignorant of their devices’; and as knowing them, let us watch, fast, and pray, let us keep close under the wings of the Almighty, that He may be our shield and buckler. Let us pray Him to make known to us His will-to teach us our faults-to take from us whatever may offend Him-and to lead us in the way everlasting.”
The excerpt, from Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings on the Twelve Spiritual Disciplines, is somewhat archaic in its language, but it is spot-on with its insights. We who are Christ followers may be confident that the One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. We do have responsibility to, as Newman wrote, “watch, fast, and pray, let us keep close under the wings of the Almighty, that He may be our shield and buckler.” Our enemy is crafty and subtle. We must be aware, but not obsessed. Watchful but not focused on the enemy. Our focus must be on Jesus alone. The enemy can assault us, but not overcome us.

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No religion, please

Published by mhelbert on January 8, 2012

One of the things I cherish is listening to people describe their faith journeys, or lack. Let’s face it, not everyone thinks that religion of any flavor is a good thing. And, I enjoy listening to their stories as well.
In a supplement to our local Sunday paper I read an interview with actor Daniel Radcliffe. For those of you who may have just arrived from another planet, he is the talented young man who played Harry Potter in the film series based on J.K.Rowling’s books. One of the questions asked was, “Your dad is a Protestant from Ulster and your mom is English and Jewish. Were you raised in a particular religion?” Why this reporter asked this particular question, I haven’t a clue. But, I’m that it was asked. Radcliffe’s response was not atypical. He said, “There was never [religious] faith in the house…My dad believes in God, I think. I’m not sure if my mom does. I don’t. I have a problem with religion or anything that says, ‘We have all the answer,’ because there’s no such thing as ‘the answers.’ We’re complex. We change our minds on issues all the time. Religion leaves no room for human complexity.”
While he seems to have lumped all of the world’s religions into one general statement, I think we should read this as a qualified statement about the religious experiences that he has personally had. And, I tend to agree in large part with his assessment. There are a lot of folks who state that they have the answers to the world’s ills.  Just read the Bible. Just pray. Just trust. Just have faith. Just, just, just. As Daniel so aptly put it, “there’s no such thing as ‘the answers.'” Life isn’t that simple.
When I was young during and part of the Jesus Movement of the early 70’s, we had problems with religion, too. We used to say and sing about not having religion, but having relation. It wasn’t important what we thought we knew, it was important who we knew. And, that someone for us was the Jesus of Nazareth. I have spent the better part of my life trying to live up to that statement. It’s hard, for sure. Being a Christ follower does not give me access to all of the answers to life. If that was true, I’d be God. (It’s better for everyone that I’m not.) The Bible does not contain all of the answers to life’s complex questions. It’s certainly not a users manual for humanity. We are all frail, yet complex beings who try our best to put one foot in front of the other without stepping on someone else’s toes.
Radcliffe’s position is honest. But, I think incomplete. I would love to sit and listen to him. To hear the voice from his heart-of-hearts. He is a gifted artist. I would love to hear about his take on his giftedness. Not so I could challenge him. But, so I can learn more about the complexity of our humanness in this great cosmos that we call home.

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More food for thought…even tho my brain hurts

Published by mhelbert on January 7, 2012

My doctor told me to avoid thinking because I get a brain cramp every time I try. But, who listens to their doc? Today I read another interesting essay by Derek Flood over at theRebelGod.com. He seems to do a lot of thinking. I bet his brain hurts sometimes, too. But, this particular essay was a critical review of a book titled, Pierced for Our Transgressions by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach. I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of the essay. At the end of this post I’ll provide a link. But, the gist of it was to contrast the Church Fathers’ thoughts on Substitutionary Atonement to the later concept of Penal Substitution. For most of us this can be a sticky subject. The Emergent folks, especially, take issue with the idea that an angry God demanded that a bloody sacrifice be made so that the angry God’s wrath would be assuaged. So, the only worthy sacrifice turned out to be God’s own Son. The long and short of this was that God sacrificed God to Gods-self so that the holy and righteous anger of God would not be poured out on humanity. This is also a sticking point with many who are not Christ followers. I have heard in discussions with some of these folks that they cannot believe in a God who would sacrifice anyone, let alone God’s own Son, just because this God was ‘pissed off’ at humanity.
I’ve chosen some rather vulgar, or common, ways to describe this because that is how it is viewed by the folks mentioned. And, if I am honest, I tend to agree with them. This has been something that has bothered me for a very long time. It just seemed that the scriptures don’t paint a picture of a wrathful, vengeful deity who is basically a cosmic kil-joy just because He can be. It seems capricious and arbitrary to me.
Now, along come Derek Flood. In the essay he points out that the early Fathers, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Athanasius, et al. held a very different position. For them the importance of Jesus’ willing offering of himself was “healing, and the overturning of the dominion of death.” This makes much more sense in the context of the Gospels’ portrayal of Jesus. It makes more sense in the context of Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant”, (Is. 52:13-53:12).
I would recommend Flood’s essay as a starting point for some good, old-fashioned theological reflection and meditation. It has been helpful to me in dealing with some of the problems I have with reformed, Calvinist theology.
Here is the link for the PDF of Flood’s essay: http://therebelgod.com/AtonementFathersEQ.pdf

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Our desires and appetites the devil’s playground, not idle hands

Published by mhelbert on January 5, 2012

As I’ve reflected on some of my experiences in the deserts and wastelands of life, I’ve noticed something that, at once is both disconcerting and a relief. That thing is that I am mostly responsible for that condition. In a passage that deals with perseverance during trials, James wrote, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers” (Jas. 1:13-16). Note that it’s not the devil who entices. It is our own “evil desire.”
You may say, ‘Well, duh!’ It does seem rather obvious. But, what’s not so obvious is the part our enemy may play in the process. Let’s take a look the story of someone else. In Genesis 3 the account of the so-called “Fall” is recorded. I’m not going to deal with the doctrine of original sin at this time. Maybe another day. What I do want to point out is the hint of a process that we may find ourselves in. Verse 6 reads, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Note that the woman saw that the “tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye.” How she figured it was good for food, I don’t know. For anyone who has picked a pleasing mushroom, eaten it, and ended up in the hospital this doesn’t make a great deal of sense. Anyway, she also saw that it was desirable for gaining wisdom. Desirable. The serpent, who was “more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made,” had focused on the desire of our ancient ancestors. He did not create the desire, but pointed out the pleasing features of the fruit. For anyone who says that this was the first time that the humans had thoughts about this tree, I say, probably not. They were, after all, flesh. Paul had a lot to say about this ‘meat tent’ we wear. However, as this post goes, I want to look at 1 Cor. 15. In that chapter Paul wrote about the resurrection and the inability of the flesh to be a part of that. Verse 47 has special significance for this discussion. Paul wrote, “The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.” Adam and Eve were of the earth, earthly, flesh and blood…dust. They had the same propensity to feed the appetites and desires of the flesh as you and me. And, feed it they did.
What I see in this whole episode was: 1. A desire in the humans. 2. A temptation that was directly attributed to the existing desire. 3. And, this is most important…the humans owned the temptation as theirs. The serpent did not force anything. But, I’ve found that the devil’s most insidious tactic is to make humans think that feeding the appetites and desires…sinning…is their own idea! And, that the action will be beneficial. How great the craftiness of the enemy of our souls! We do not ‘hear’ a prompt from an outside source. Something that we would be able to dismiss. The prompting comes from within ourselves so that we are completely deceived.
I’m going to stop here so that these things can be reflected on. I know it sounds confusing, so much double-talk. But, there is freedom here. Freedom to own up to our responsibility for sin. This, in turn, affords us the opportunity to come before Yahweh in sorrow. It allows us to change directions and to be restored. It also provides us with an insight into how temptation and the devil interact. This knowledge may allow us to be better prepared and give us a defensive weapon to use against him.

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Slow day

Published by mhelbert on January 4, 2012

It’s been a slow day here at the old homestead. Usually, something throughout the day jumps at me and I reflect on it and write a quick blurb. Not so much today. I’m still mulling over material for more on the devil made me do it. That’s proving to be a fairly large undertaking. I’m not going to do a full-blown scholarly look at it. Mostly, it will be from first-hand experience of meeting this being in my own stroll through the desert. Not a fun time. But, enlightening nonetheless.
Besides, I had to go to the dentist today. I could think of about 200 things I would have rather done. Eating worms comes to mind.
A quick quote from Joyce Huggett in Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings on the Twelve Spiritual Disciplines. This is a book that I have found helpful for quiet time devoted to the Savior.
“We meditate to give God’s words the opportunity to penetrate, not just our minds, but our emotions – the places where we hurt – and our will – the place where we make choices and decisions. We meditate to encounter the Living Word, Jesus himself. We meditate so that every part of our being, our thoughts and our affections and our ambitions, are turned to face and honour and glorify him. Yet another reason for learning to meditate is so that we may become conversant with the will of God…”
Building the connections is how Brian McLaren puts it. We build connections of communication with the Source of our very lives through meditation and other disciplines. Yes, studying and the academy are important. However, it’s more important to have a living, vibrant relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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Peace on the streets…

Published by mhelbert on January 1, 2012

I was going to take today off. It’s New Year day and I just felt like taking it easy. I read a story in the newspaper, tho, that got me off of the couch and on to my computer. Actually, my wife handed me the paper so I could read an article about a man in Cleveland, Ohio who is truly making a difference. I’ll provide the link at the end of this post.
In a kind of follow-up to my post yesterday, I read about Khalid Samad. He has been a community activist of sorts working to bring peace between rival gangs. As many of us have read and heard through the media, gang violence continues to escalate. For those of us who are not directly affected by this, it can be hard to give a damn. But, for folks like Samad, this is everyday life.
There are some who may read this blog and wonder what a Christ-follower is offering cudos to this person. Well, the issues being addressed are human issues. They are fellow sojourner issues. They are important to God, therefore, important to me. I applaud Samad and others who are willing to put feet to their faith and do something to help others. To Khalid Samad I say “salam alaikum.” May the peace of God be with you as you work for the peace of others and the community.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2012/01/khalid_samad_promotes_peace_co.html

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Last day…What’s next?

Published by mhelbert on December 31, 2011

I’m sure that many folks are taking today to reflect on their accomplishments of the past 12 months, as well as to look ahead to the next. Why not? I’ll take any excuse to reflect for a moment. A bit of self-indulgence that is actually culturally acceptable.
2011 saw me finally graduate from Ashland Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. Don’t believe me? I have the diploma to prove it. The journey began in 1973 when I first felt a sense of call. I pretty much ignored it at went into the marketplace to chase the elusive American Dream. It was in 2006 that I finally heeded the prompting and, miracle of miracles, was accepted at ATS. I can’t thank the folks there enough for this life-transforming experience. But, I wrote about that earlier in the year here.
I have always been healthy. No major issues. However, in 2011 I had 2 surgeries on my right hand. And, in all of the preparation for that, the medical pros missed a dark critter lurking just beneath the surface. In November, I had a heart attack. According to the docs, it was a pretty bad one. I have been on the mend for the past couple months, and actually feel really well. I guess if I had listened and started the diet and exercise stuff earlier, I would have probably avoided the MI. Like I’ve written before…I’m a slow learner.
Looking forward…
The most important issue I face is to recover a relationship with my son. This is a matter that I will not detail, but it has been a painful struggle. For any parent, estrangement from a loved one is difficult,
(putting it mildly ). Especially, one who is deeply loved. If you ever read this, I am deeply sorry, son.
I have been having serious thoughts about starting a new project in one of the more economically struggling areas near my home. I think this is a direct result of the work I did in school. When I started seminary I was primarily interested in the real disconnect between the popular worship music industry and good, orthodox theology. The stuff being offered as “true worship” music is mostly fluff and ‘feel-good’ clap trap. Sorry if I offend anyone, but even a cursory look will reveal that. Anyway, I digress. As my time at ATS progressed, I became more and more concerned about how we can be involved in the work of the reign of God. Do we simply need to provide dogma and doctrinal ‘truth’ to the culture? Or, do we need to engage the culture as Jesus engaged 1st century Palestine? I think the latter. This may take the shape of activism in ecology, economics, politics or wherever God’s people find themselves in everyday life. It make also take the form of benevolence: food kitchens and pantries, homeless and battered women shelters, work against the growing slave trade in the world, and other work to better the human condition. I would like to see this happening more in my geographical area. So, the New Year will find me pursuing this.
However, I must point out that for most of the world, the more things change the more they stay the same. I was reading the prophet Isaiah this morning. The portion I read contained the story of the Israelite king Hezekiah. In the story the king survived a serious illness because Yahweh healed him. The king was granted an extra 15 years of life. During this extra time, an envoy from the king of Babylon showed up to celebrate Hezekiah’s recovery. Hezekiah showed this envoy all of his riches and valuables. Many folks attribute this to Hezekiah’s overweening pride. “Hey, look at all the stuff I have!” Anyway, the prophet came to Hezekiah and revealed that because Hezekiah had shown off all of his stuff, at some time in the future all of that stuff was going to be ransacked and carried off to Babylon. Hezekiah’s response? Sorrow and remorse for being foolish? No. Angry with the prophet and/or God? No. It was, “The word you have spoken is good. There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” Huh?!?! In fact, the writers of scripture captured the same story in 2 Kings 20:19. This must have made an impact on these writers. Peace and security in his lifetime. Let’s mortgage the future against present comforts. Sound familiar? It’s the same today. We are gambling the future of our children and their children against our present comfort and prosperity. The most glaring abuse is in the exploitation of the environment for fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep their interests alive, even though we all know that these resources are not renewable and are beginning to run down. Rather than putting the energy and funds into alternative, renewable sources it is more important to be peaceful and secure in our lifetime. This does not even broach the issue of global warming, again a result of the fossil fuel addiction that the world has. So, what will the New Year bring? I hope some common sense. I hope that those people who are expert in these things will step up the pressure on the corporations whose greed and avarice is driving the abuse. I hope that we can learn from Hezekiah’s ill-fated remarks that the future is now.
Last, I wish all who stop by this blog a blessed New Year. May all of your dreams be realized. And, May God Bless You Real Good!

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The Devil made me do it

Published by mhelbert on December 29, 2011

When I was kid Flip Wilson had a character named Geraldine. Her famous line when anything went awry was, “The devil made me do it!”
Of course, those who are theologically inclined know that the devil can’t ‘make’ us do anything. But, this, some say fallen angel, is capable of causing a lot of damage. The New Testament offers several warnings about this. Paul wrote about how the devil masquerades as an angel of light in order to deceive people. The apostle also mentioned that he was not unaware of the methods that the devil used. Peter wrote that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking to devour folks.
Popular culture from the early church to current media paint this character in many colorful and fanciful ways. But, what can we discern about the reality of how this anti-creation being operates? I am thinking about looking at this over the next little while. Mostly, so I can get my thoughts in order about it. I find that as I write and reflect I see things a tad clearer So, for those few of you who actually read this, please bear with me as I muse.
Please, if any have input, I welcome diverse opinions.

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The more we change, the more we remain the same

Published by mhelbert on December 29, 2011

One of my favorite professors at Ashland, John Byron, posted the following: http://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/peace-on-earth-good-will-towards-men.html

It seems that even in a sacred place, at a sacred time, those who have set themselves apart for a sacred duty cannot behave any differently than anyone else. It is sad, as well as telling. People are people, regardless of what their vocation. While some may state that hanging their dirty laundry out for the world to see is an embarrassment to the Church. I see it as an opportunity for people to reveal their humanity and humility. Like I wrote in an earlier post, Christ followers are no different than any other people. We still need to work to behave civilly. And, when we don’t, we need to apologize and make appropriate modifications to our behavior.

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Some days it’s better just to stay in bed

Published by mhelbert on December 27, 2011

One of the things about being a Christ follower is that people expect you to always have good days and be in good spirits. There’s something about the way culture and society think about God as having some miraculous control over the emotions of anyone who claims to be a christian. Well, for those of us who have slogged through the muck of everyday life the reality is different. We have the same tolerances for ignorance, bullying, unrealistic schedules, missed buses as anyone else walking around in a meat suit. Somedays just suck. Today’s one of them.
Yes, as a Christ follower I will take  these cares, worries, concerns, foibles etc. to my prayer closet where I’ll vent my frustrations to the One who really gives a damn and will inhale…exhale…..inhale…..exhale….until I’m quite chilled.

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