Category: Following Jesus

Where Is The Voice?

Published by mhelbert on August 3, 2020

The late 1950s and early 1960s were a time in our nation’s history when turbulence and peace seemed to reside next to each other. Peace for those who embraced the Eisenhower days and celebrated the U.S. in its distinctions from all other nations. Primarily, the Russian communists. It was in 1954 that the words “one nation under God” were added to the pledge of allegiance. The slogan “In God We Trust” became emblazoned on the very currency that we tendered to one another for all of our goods and services. In fear and trembling at the prospect of the communists, the U.S. charted a path that has ultimately led us to the place that we now fear that the Constitution may be abrogated by a lawless authoritarian.
And yet, most of us simply complain to our spouse or coworkers about our rights and privileges being suspended in the midst of a global pandemic.
Where are the voices of warning for what may be a crisis of democracy?
Today some of our cities are nightly alight with fire. We are able to view the violence perpetrated by both law enforcement officers and protesters alike. People are attacked viciously by teargas wielding people in full combat gear who seem to be guided by the slogan “Give no quarter!”
Those on the other side use weapons like laser pointers to blind the others. They break whatever is breakable and throw teargas canisters back to their owners.
Where are the voices who cry out, “Enough!”
In that troubled time during our history when African Americans did, in fact, cry out “Enough,” there was also the cry of “Freedom!”
That word rang through our nation like a clarion call to action. Nearly 400 years of oppression and abuse had finally run its course. “Freedom” was the call that demanded a response from the powers that had for far too long held the sword of power over the necks of the powerless. There was a Voice who shouted from the halls of power and in the streets of our cities. That Voice cried out in the wilderness where the deaf ears of the white structures that held up the paper walls of segregation. But, it was heard plainly by those oppressed and downtrodden.
There was something else very different in that Voice that shouted, “I have a dream!” And, this is a difference that I do not hear during these days of unrest that reveals all to clearly that the wounds of 400 years of abuse and oppression have not healed. They were merely ‘scabbed’ over. The continued murder of innocent black people at the hands of militarized law enforcement has effectively scratch the scab off and allowed the wound to reopen.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man singularly suited to his day. He was a highly educated man with searching mind and heart. His vision viewed things far afield that others of his day could not see. That little spot on the horizon that Martin saw, that he dreamt of, was a time when all of humankind would be equal. It was a place where segregation and Jim Crow were artifacts left to the dust of history, blown away by the Wind of the Spirit of Peace.
And, especially, where Love reigned in Freedom.
Martin’s love for his enemy was ever present in the words that he used to motivate others. Without love, agape love, he realized that his Dream could only come as a nightmare. Without love, agape love, those who considered him their enemy would always consider him that.
Without love, agape love, there was no hope for the future other than the dust and ashes left behind by the raging wars fired by hatred.
He realized that the only way to achieve that lofty Dream was to travel the same path as another person who had upended history.
In the middle of the 20th century a small, brown man in a loin cloth watched the Sun finally set on the British Empire. Mohandas K. Ghandi, a man educated in Britain, realized that there was no way that force could possibly uproot and throw the weeds of that great empire on the compost pile where it belonged. His gaze was as far reaching as Martin’s. He saw his people finally rid of the segregation and unfair taxation imposed on them. How could this dream of his be realized? He was only one person against an empire.
He found an answer to this perplexing problem by, himself, looking to One Who had come before.
“Love your enemies,” Jesus taught.
“Bless those who curse you.”
Jesus’ words were carried forward by others, like the apostle Paul. “Love is the fulfillment of all of the Law.”
“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
With these words singing in his ears, Ghandi led a people to their promised land where freedom finally reigned.
Martin learned from the Mahatma. He studied Ghandi and meditated on his words while contemplating the words of Jesus. In both, Martin found wisdom and peace. More importantly, he saw a solution.
In what he termed “Non-violent direct action,” Martin taught a generation to stay their hands. He required those who followed him to recognize that they were not going to go quietly into their night. There was nothing passive about his resistance. Violence was never to be used on any perceived ‘enemy.’ Like Ghandi before him, he told his followers that there would be bloodshed. But, it must always be our own. Never theirs. These brave women and men knew going in that dogs and batons were likely. The late John Lewis attested to this after his skull was fractured on that Bloody Sunday. Martin assured those who looked to him for strength and leadership that they would be handcuffed and thrown into dirty, roach infested jail cells.
There was nothing ‘passive’ about any of this.
Martin’s mantra, “Love those who despise you and treat you badly,” while difficult to adhere to, ultimately won the battles of his day.
So, I write this today and I wonder, Where is that Voice?
Who will sound the trumpet and call people together in order to Love our enemy and, thereby, not only defeat the systems, the Powers and Principalities who allow evil and hatred to flow unhindered into our lives, but also lead our enemies into bonds of love and friendship?
It’s been said that Hatred begets more Hatred. That is all too true. The more people fight and carry weapons and shout at their enemies while the spittle runs down their chins, the more that insatiable appetite of Hate will devour friend and foe alike.
As Jesus, Ghandi, and Martin for our inspiration and guides, let that Voice sound loudly and clearly throughout our cities and across the countryside,
“Freedom!”

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Musing on a Wednesday_7/29/2020

Published by mhelbert on July 29, 2020

Yesterday was nice.
My wife and I took the day for a long drive. We found our way past detours and along county roads until we arrived in Loudonville, OH. Loudonville is a small town of around 3,000 people. It seems that the main industry is tourism. Every half mile or so there is another sign for this campground or those cabins. There are, perhaps, more canoe liveries per capita than any other place in the country. People, especially young people, travel from all over the area to canoe, tube, kayak, or raft down the Mohican River.
We went, besides for the ride, to check out a place that rents tree houses. My wife and daughter are big fans of anything HGTV. Apparently, one of the features on that network is some guy who builds tree houses that contain all of the amenities of home. He built 2 of the tree houses at this particular place. So, of course, we had to check it out! (yawn…)
It’s not that I don’t like the idea of taking a mini-vacation and staying in a tree house. Especially one that compares favorably to any hotel room. It’s that I really, really don’t like anything about HGTV or any of those home improvement networks. I mean, like, really.
After we saw those and decided that we will probably try to get down there for a stay this fall, we turned the nose of the car East. We drove along State Rt. 39 through the fertile farming country of Ashland, Wayne, and Holmes counties. Passing the towns of Nashville and Millersburg we came to what is commonly called “Amish Country.” There we stopped and bought some cheese. (Of course, that’s a necessary stop anytime we’re there. The cheese in the area is outstanding!) Eventually, we came to the little burg of Walnut Creek. There is a restaurant there that we try to stop at whenever we go down there.
As with most businesses in that area, there is a bookstand near the checkout. The stand contains all kinds of books about the faith of the Mennonites and the Amish of the area. If you want to learn about Amish prayers or read about the faith adventures of some hero of the faith, well, this is your chance.
For me, however, yesterday shined a spotlight on something that has been on my mind lately.
If you’ve followed some of what I’ve shared on this blog recently, you know that I have been studying and sharing the First Letter that Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth. One of the issues that Paul purposed to address in the letter was that of divisions and factions that had driven a wedge between the members of the young church. For Paul, this was unacceptable. His desire for all of the churches that he related to was for unity and to see them built up in the faith. Schisms and fractures were ‘fleshly’ things that could not be tolerated in Spirit-filled relationships.
The reason I bring this up is, as we drove throughout this very conservative and religious area there were dozens and dozens of churches of various denominations and confessions. There were, of course, the ubiquitous United Methodists. They appear like dandelions in my yard. They’re everywhere! The Mennonite and the ‘Amish Mennonite’ churches may also be found aplenty. There are Church of the Brethren, not to be confused with the Brethren Church, there are Presbyterians, and a myriad of non-denominational churched. These range in size from little storefront churches to the gargantuan campus of Grace Church in Wooster.
As I reflected on this, I was seized by sadness. Not because Jesus was not proclaimed in a way that I could personally relate to. Nor, because I have any huge problem with any of these groups.
No.
I was saddened because of the number of different groups.
Each represented to me a division, a schism, a ‘my way or the highway’ reaction that has broken the body of Christ.
I understand that the image of that body necessitates differences. After all, not all can be an eye or an ear or a big toe. There are different gifts that are important for the health and growth of the Body.
But, this denominationalism and factionalism is something entirely different. While some may agree on, let’s say, Piety like the Methodists and Nazarenes and most of those anabaptist churches I mentioned, there are distinctions that allow members of One to say to members of Another, “Well, WE do it this way!”
Or, “We believe that Communion should be this way or that.” Or, “we baptize THIS way! Your way is not right!”
That’s not evidence of a single Body with many gifts.
That’s more like several different bodies.
I know. I’m splitting hairs and being a crotchety old man.
But, that doesn’t make my take on this any easier.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Published by mhelbert on July 27, 2020

There are few things in this life that can agitate me to extreme frustration and anger than the misuse of the Name of Christ by those who profess to be ardent followers.
Yeah, I know, I have a particular lens through which I view life. My worldview colors my observations and opinions. This, of course, renders what I think and say of little consequence to any who hold differing thoughts.
That’s ok.
I don’t make any claim to know anything at all, let alone what you or anyone else should think.
That being said, I am at a loss right now to express the sadness and dejection that I feel regarding the Church in the U.S.
I just finished reading the first of three memoirs written by Frederick Douglass. It’s entitled, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.”
I really want to educate myself about the history that none of us who grew up in the bleached whiteness of Northern suburbia ever heard in school. I desire to know the truth that gave breath and life to Douglass and du Bois and King and Malcom. What inspires those who march behind banners of ‘No Justice; No Peace’? How can anyone explain the seemingly wanton destruction of property as a form of justifiable protest?
We are told that the roots of all of this lies in the 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow, Jim Crow, Jr., voter suppression, discrimination, and humiliation.
So, I am looking back in time to those who experienced such breaches of human dignity and enacted atrocities that no civilized culture should ever embrace.
So, I read.
And, in this very first volume of Douglass’ not only do I find the utterly deplorable account of human evil against another eikon of God, I find the Church in the U.S. indicted as co-conspirator.
I grew up in the era when many Protestant denominations began to join hands with those who worked, (and suffered), for equality among races. They, at long last, began to lift their voices in harmony with their African American Sisters and Brothers. Soon, a thing called the “Social Gospel” became evident in the work done by these folks.
Almost immediately, a backlash from other less accommodating churches was unleashed.
I always thought it strange that any church should be against offering a hand to lift those trodden down through no real fault of their own. Excepting the amount of melanin in their skin.
Yet, as I studied church history in seminary I began to see another force at work.
The church of the South was instrumental in propping up the structures of slavery. It served a Balm of Gilead to the harassed consciences of women and men who knew in their hearts that what they were doing was an affront to God. At least, that’s how it looks to me. The slavers needed to know that what they were doing was in some way a just and righteous thing to do. The church of the South provided that assurance.
In my mind, though, I considered the counterparts of these, the church of the North, to be, in fact, righteous! Didn’t they house and protect the runaway? Weren’t their benevolences a means of setting the poor, former slaves on a track of self sustenance?
Well, maybe.
In the appendix to Douglass’ memoir I found in it information about the “Christianity of this land” that seems to include the Church in the U.S. at large.
He set this “Christianity” in contrast to what he named the “Christianity of Christ.”
Of this, he wrote,
“To receive the one [Christianity of Christ] as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked…I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slave holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.”
Pretty strong language.
And, rightly given.
As I reflected on these words I wondered, “what has changed in the 175 years since this narrative was written”?
I looked around, hopefully, to see if there were any, as the prophet Elijah once wondered, if there were any faithful in the land who may be found.
And, happily I saw sparks of hope glittering in the land. I allowed myself a moment to indulge that hope.
Then, I saw that Douglass’ “Christianity of this land” still in ascendancy and power.
For what have we gained as a community of faith when children are still snatched from their families at our southern border? What progress have the faithful made when our cities are still segregated by the remnants of ‘Red Lining’? How can we go to pray to a kind and loving God when our constituents rail against offering a hand to lift our Sisters and Brothers from the chains of ‘White Culture’ that still fetter and bind them?
So, for those who think that I unjustly hold up the dirty laundry of the Church in the U.S. for all to see, please know that I do so only to shine the light of Christ into the darkness of an unjust and cruel community that is complicit in the continued suffering of humans made in the Image of God.
Nor, do I exempt myself from culpability. I have lived my life in the White Light of Privilege that has allowed me to move about freely and without any encumbrance due to the color of my skin. So, before any accuse me of hypocrisy please know that i stand accused and convicted in the systems that have levied such a high cost to our own humanity as we degrade others.
I, too, must work hard to change myself and to see the transformation that God has asked of any who would carry the Banner of Christ.

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A Week in the Life of a Slave-review

Published by mhelbert on July 23, 2020

Everyone loves a good story.
Stories create worlds where everything is possible. They allow us to visit places and times that are far beyond our experiences of everyday life. Stories can also reveal hidden treasures that enrich our understanding of the world in which we live.
The Bible is such a source that allows our creativity to imagine the lives of people who may only appear as a name in a verse or two. What was the lived experience of that person? What did they think about the world? What did they hear and taste and smell? What did they fear?
Dr. John Byron, Dean of Ashland Theological Seminary, recently published a book that opens our imaginations to consider these questions.
“A Week in the Life of a Slave,” published by IVP Academic, tells the story of one of the Bible’s most famous slaves. A man known to us as Onesimus.
I must admit that as I began reading this book I was reminded of nature shows on television narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Attenborough is famous for his story telling style of narration. He takes viewers inside of the thoughts of various critters as they forage for food or search for a mate. Sprinkled within those stories he educates us on the reality of that world.
In a like fashion, Dr. Byron uses his creativity to weave a tale of the ancient world of the Bible. We meet the Apostle Paul as he sits in an Ephesian jail. Philemon, the person who owned the slave, Onesimus, comes to life as a person aggrieved by a slave who “committed the crime of stealing himself.” And, of course, Onesimus the runaway slave.
While most of us in the U.S. think about our own history regarding slavery, very few people consider the practice of ‘human ownership’ in the first century. If we do, like many in the Church today, even consider slavery, we tend to downplay the horrors that were part of everyday life for a slave at the time that St. Paul wrote. Byron, however, paints a very different picture. He does illuminate many differences between the ancient, Roman practice and our own antebellum chattel slavery. The similarities are also revealed to be all too real. Slaves were non-humans. Byron notes that the ancient philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that “a slave is a living tool and the tool a lifeless slave.” No, slavery within the Roman Empire was no walk in the park.
There is another story told, as well. That of the early Church as it fumbled and grasped to find its place in the world. Byron’s story shows the struggle that owners faced in that culture as they tried to reconcile the Love of Jesus with the pain of their slaves. How could Paul say that there was neither slave nor free when the reality of that world stated otherwise? And, how could free people think of themselves as ‘slaves for all’? These questions are ones that we today seldom discuss. We are conveniently ignorant of the labor pains that were present at the birth of our Church. Dr. Byron provides a snapshot of that delivery framed in the form of this book.
Dr. Byron is a well-known scholar who has specialized in studying Graeco-Roman slavery. There is no one better suited to write about this topic, and to present it in this way than Dr. Byron. Students, pastors, and lay people can all benefit from this book. I recommend it for anyone who desires to understand the 1st Century Church and the world it inhabited.

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Religious Right: Hangin’ With Hookers

Published by mhelbert on July 21, 2020

Sometimes I feel like that proverbial “Fish Out Of Water.”
Most of my vision and attention is on Christianity, specifically the Bible, and how it intersects with culture and church.
So much damage has been done to people because of the weaponization of both theology and Biblical study.
How many LGBT young people have been shunned by family and community as so-called religious leaders use the Scripture as a bludgeon to hammer these young folks like a blacksmith shaping iron?
“Hey, you Pious Pricks! These are humans made in the Image of God! Not something that you may objectify and form into your own likeness in the way that you have molded your god!”

Yet, sometimes I’m drawn out of the world of religion and into the world where people actually live and breathe. Hell, many of us argue that this ‘real world’ is the only place that religion is able to find its true footing. After all, Yahweh came and pitched God’s tent right here on Terra Firma in order to prove Divine Love for the Cosmos. When you think about that, it’s pretty amazing!

Today is one of those days that I find myself drawn into the world where faith and praxis intersect with culture. I am committed to trying to shine the Light of God and Faith into the darker recesses of our humanity. Places where injustice and oppression find themselves attempting to grow in God’s Garden like weeds and thistles.
(As an aside, I have been waging war on real thistles in my yard and garden. These intrusive weeds are ubiquitous to our area and are damned hard to kill. We have finally found a treatment for them. But, it requires cutting each individual plant and ‘painting’ the curative on the newly cut stem. Time consuming for sure. A pain in the back? Yep! But, it is effective. I’ve noticed a huge reduction in new sprouts. Maybe, just maybe, I can win this battle!)
That image is really quite relevant to the growth of weeds in the church at large. And, White Evangelicalism in particular.
Since the early 1980s when people like Jerry Falwell, Sr., Jim Dobson, Kenneth Copeland, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker, and others christened the so-called ‘Moral Majority’ and began to tout their brand of christianity there has been a decided shift in the winds of politics.
White Evangelicalism seemed to be drawn inexorably into the maelstrom of power. Since so much of their dogma was relegated to the outbox of relevancy, they chose to fire weapons of faith at their newly created Culture Wars.
In actuality, it wasn’t all that new. Religious powers had tried to enforce their particular brands of culture and morality on the world for pretty much Ever.
In the 1980s, however, their reach, or overreach, hit the airways of mass communication.
In a way that was good. It gave the wider world a chance to see the immoral power struggles that embraced religion in real time.
It was also, however, a means to ‘rally the troops.’ These conservative religious people sounded the clarion call to alert everyone that the world was on fire with atheists and communists and all sorts of mean & hateful people who were going to eat babies and wreak havoc on Mom, apple pie, and the ‘murican way!
Heaven have Mercy on us all!

What actually happened, though, was not a rescue mission to save the culture. It was not, in fact, even a religious call to repentance and faith.
The primarily White, conservative, Evangelical church became the de facto religious wing of the Republican party.
They traded their birthright, and absolutely abdicated any claim to the moral high ground, for a bowl of oatmeal.

The apostle Paul wrote, (you really didn’t think that I could resist bringing the Bible into this, did you?), a lot about how faith and culture should interact.
One image that I found while studying Paul is that of a person paying for sex with a prostitute. Paul was NOT writing to people who weren’t part of the Church. He wrote specifically to those who claimed to follow Jesus. And, while he was writing about a person actually interacting with a prostitute, the image, I think, bears on what is happening in the world of White Evangelicalism.
Paul wrote, “Don’t you know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, ‘The two shall be one flesh’” (1 Cor. 6, NRSV).

I want to be clear that I believe that conservative religious people, particularly White Evangelicals, have climbed into bed with conservative politics, especially the Republican Party, and have engaged in relationships that have made you One Flesh with them.
How far can you fall before you reach the bottom?

I adjure you to consider the position that you are in. It’s precarious to say the least.
God is NOT for or against any political party or position.
God seeks the fruit of truth and justice.
All other fruit is tasteless and rotten.

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Friday Musing_7/17/2020

Published by mhelbert on July 17, 2020

I used to wonder why, if God desired love and justice in the world, why were we church folks only concerned about what happened after we left the world.
I know, it seems like a silly question. But, that’s exactly how many people who say that they follow Jesus think.
The rationale was that saving people from eternal, conscious torment was more important than providing for a good education or a leg up in the world.
If you ask many churchy people, they will say, “Well, duh! Of course eternity is of greater value than an education that will ultimately pass away!”
And, from within that religious bubble, that’s hard to argue with.

But, what if, as I’ve argued before, there is no Hell where people are toasted for eternity?

The African American Church can guide us here.
Born out of the true Hell of chattel slavery, they found a way to embrace the God of their captors. They found hope and love within the very same Bible that those who held the chains of their bondage.

For them, however, God was not a pious white man on a gleaming throne away off in some heaven. The streets of which mere mortals could never tread. The white god of those who imprisoned their bodies was only interested in keeping things the way that the white people always wanted them. That god sanctioned slavery. The white god cursed all who were NOT white. “The sin of Ham caused all of his seed to be dark and cursed,” this god exclaimed!

No. The God that the African Americans found was a God who walked with them in the fields as the chopped cotton or hoed the rows of tobacco. The God they knew promised to lead them from the bondage of slavery just as this same God rescued the Children of Israel all those many years ago.
They KNEW God as their friend, benefactor, and ultimately, their deliverer.

And, they have never forgotten that God.

Suffering was reality. Pain constant.
Yet, Jesus had come to this world to put an end to suffering.
His death and resurrection was the final act of redemption that rejected suffering as the way that life must be. As one writer put it,

“Through the Suffering Servant, God has spoken against evil and injustice. The empty cross and tomb are symbols of the victory.”
[Townes, Emilie M., A Trioubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil & Suffering, Emilie M. Townes, ed., Maryknoll, NY, 1993, p.84.]

With this hope in their hearts, God was the Agent of Transformation where justice and hope were not some pie in the sky dream. These things became the real, tangible call for all who would put their hand to the plow of Faith.

Yet, the White church continued to hold up their Bibles and cry, “Foul! We must obey what the Word of God says! Slaves, obey your masters!”

How far from the mark of God’s Glory were they!!!
The White church abdicated its responsibility to be light and salt in the world in order to fill their barns with the bounty of the harvest.
And, like in that story Jesus told, God said,

“You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?”
[New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Lk 12:20). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.]

Emilie Townes wrote

“Obedience that is blind to the world and only follows directions has divested itself of all responsibility for what it is commanded to do.”
[Townes, Emilie M., A Trioubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil & Suffering, Emilie M. Townes, ed., Maryknoll, NY, 1993, p.87.]

That blind obedience to ancient texts taken out of context and applied with an iron and unbending arm is what has happened, and continues to happen, in so, so many white churches.

It is past time to awaken the Church. Until we heed God’s call to provide justice to the poor, the widow, the foreigner, and all marginalized people we have no right to say that we are fully and truly disciples of Jesus.

We just can’t.

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There Is Hope

Published by mhelbert on July 15, 2020

I opened my eyes on the horizon before me. The path that I walked led inexorably toward a reckoning. While I could not foresee all that lay beyond my vision, my mind’s eye caught snippets and scraps of the possibilities.

I was clearly aware that injustice had engrafted itself upon and within the very fabric of our shared reality. Powers that insinuated themselves as Masters of Destiny flowed into our culture as deadly gas permeates even the very walls that we try to hide behind.
So blind had we become to even the existence of these Powers that they could reach out and touch us without any nerve conducting the pressure to our conscious minds.

Yet, here I am.
So many years later looking upon the wreckage of dreams unseen; hope unrealized.
For the World that we inhabit is a world of our own creation.
It has been built brick by brick. The mortar mixed with the blood of the innocent.
The constructs of Race, Gender, and Class form the superstructure of this World.
The steel girders welded and riveted together in order to bear the weight of those Powers.

And yet, here we are today seeking to put a new facade on that structure. Powerwash the block and marble that reflects the Sun and creates a spectacle of beauty and truth.
Black Lives Matter.
Yes, they do.
The Glass ceilings that separate us by Gender, that hold Women in thrall to man-made servitude must be shattered.
Those enslaved by poverty, both economic and of the soul, cry out for emancipation.

There is a thing that Augustine, that august Bishop of Hippo once named. As he looked around at his World he saw the many Powers that existed even then. He pronounced judgment on them and named them:
Original Sin.
While his attempt to cast the Light of God on what he believed was humanity’s underlying curse, he was, alas, wide of the mark.
For the Original Sin that he saw was that of Innocent Humanity turning its back on the Paradise and Blessing of God.
No, Humanity has never been innocent.
In one version of the story when God announced that Humanity was to be created, the Heavenly retinue cried out,
“No, no, no!”
They knew that humans would be disobedient and headstrong and muck up the Very Good Creation.
Yet, God told them that they were correct. But,God would provide a way of deliverance.
God declared that all of the Cosmos would rejoice when Humanity came into its inheritance.
That inheritance is to share in the Reign of Jesus who is the King above all kings.

I saw in this that the Powers believed that they had all of the strength and wisdom necessary to make them invincible to all of those who would seek to usurp their authority.
They held Spirits of Politics, Economy, Culture, and all of the lesser gods in their hands.
“Nothing can stand against our might,” they cried!

Yet, in the depths of the hearts of the Slaves a spark burned brightly.
The Heart of God, that is Jesus, had been the point of ignition for these lights that burned within the humble breasts of all of these People.
And soon, a great conflagration had erupted.
It was a fire without heat that did not consume.
Within it was the Voice of the Almighty who proclaimed judgment against the Powers.
Their might was thrown down and destroyed.

A nice story, eh?
I could end it with,
“And they lived happily ever after.”

The reality IS that the might and strength of the Powers have been cast down.
Yet, the structure remains to this day.
It is this structure that is yet to be dismantled and hauled out to sea where it may be useful as a haunt for fish.
Then, perhaps, we will all find freedom.
Until then, we must continue to let the fire that has kindled within us grow. We fan those flames as we march and sing and hold each other up, not simply as equals, but as Sisters and Brothers with Love and Respect and Honor.

The good news is that the Powers have been disarmed.
The better news is that we are ABLE to stand against the structure that the Powers thought was too strong to fail.
It has.
Now we must work to tear it down.

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1 Corinthians_Unity pt. 3

Published by mhelbert on June 24, 2020

Oy, will those kids ever stop arguing????

When I go to weddings the first thing I do is look at the program for the ceremony. In almost every case there is one passage from Scripture that appears that is one of the most misused passages, (and, there are Many!), of any. This passage is 1 Corinthians 13.
The “Love” chapter.
I cringe when I see that listed as a reading. Usually, it will be read by one of the bride’s friends from childhood. You know the one, she stayed up late with the bride doing each others’ hair and joking about the length of the quarterback’s, well, you know.
The reason I find this particular passage so distasteful is because it was NEVER meant to be read only at weddings. In fact, the content alone is not about the love found in some fairy tale of wedded bliss.
This passage was placed in this particular spot between chapters 12 & 14 for a specific reason by St. Paul.
As we are learning in our Bible study at St. Barnabas, the Corinthian church had a serious identity problem. They were all excited about the personalities who came to visit them.
Paul, Apollos, the M&Ms Guys…whoever. They were totally enamored by the kinds of Spiritual gifts that they could flaunt at one another. People took pleasure in standing up in the midst of their gatherings and saying something wise, or at least esoteric sounding enough to make people applaud them.
They were all about what each of them thought of themselves.
So, right in the middle of trying to straighten out their thinking on gifts and order and stuff, Paul tossed in “a more excellent way.”
He wrote:

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (1 Co 13:1–13). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

Read that carefully.
Note that what Paul was saying that Love is Hard.
He wasn’t talking about some warm and fuzzy feeling in my chest. There are many people who follow Jesus who Do think about love that way.
No. Paul talked about sacrificing his body and experiencing ecstatic plateaus of spirituality. He wrote of all knowing and understanding.
All things that the church at Corinth prized as the highest reward for their troubles.
These are also things that many in today’s church cultures most value.
“I have the correct doctrine!”
“I understand the hidden things of the Bible and prophecy!”
“I am an enlightened progressive who really gets inclusiveness!”

But, there is a more excellent way.

John the Elder wrote:

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (1 Jn 4:8). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Jesus revealed what he considered the two greatest commandments.
The second one,

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Mt 22:39). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

That’s enough to make my point, I think.

I find that I can sit and spend meaningful time with those I disagree with. There are usually areas of common concern that we can talk about. Perhaps, we can disagree amicably. Even though it’s unlikely either of us will be swayed to think differently.
There still is that part of us that shares faith in the One God who has called us to faith in Christ.

Can I sit down with someone whom I think is a bigoted, hateful Christian and share a meal?
I would hope that I could.
Would I let that person off the hook for their bigotry and hatred?
Not on your life!!!
They would get an earful from me.
I would do my best to paint them into a corner where they would either need to repent or get up and leave.

There is NO ROOM in the Body of Christ for Hatred or Exclusion!!

Yet, as far as it depended on me, I would hope that I could extend the Unity of the Spirit toward such a person. For I am called to Love them.
I may not succeed well. (Or, at all!)
But, I would be compelled to try.

I am not responsible for siblings with whom I disagree.
I can pray for them.
For sure, I can rebuke them and encourage them to join me on a better path.

At the end of the day we are each responsible for our own thoughts and actions. As I lay my head down at night and take a time of Examen to consider the day, I can only take credit or blame for myself.

Is it hard?
Damn straight it is!

Can I go to a church where I know that I will be triggered with anxiety?
No. I know my limitations.
Can I see Jesus in people who DO go to those churches?
I hope that I can.
I pray that I can.
And, I try to enact that love and acceptance as best I can.

That’s all we can do.

It is a more excellent way.

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1 Corinthians_Unity pt. 2

Published by mhelbert on June 23, 2020

The last time I shared I wrote that the answer to my reader’s question about whether we should strive for unity with people whose faith is in opposition to ours. How can we achieve unity with people who are simply so far afield from us?

That leads us to what the real question is:
Are those others even Real True Christians?

If we answer in the negative, we are essentially off the hook. “They aren’t part of the Church, so I don’t need to strive for unity with them. Hell, I don’t even need to talk to them!”

When we try to do this we commit the logical fallacy known as the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.
This tack seems to let us proclaim that our brand of (fill in the blank) is what a true (same fill in the blank) looks like. Therefore, any deviation from what we think is (blank again) cannot be a True (fill in the blank).

This reader could then say, “Christians love others. That person doesn’t love everyone. Therefore, that person is not a Real True Christian.”

The argument is a fallacy because one changes the subject without any logical reason to do so. There is no, as some say, a falsifiable fact involved. It’s simply a subjective statement to try and create a false dichotomy.

The fact is, Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, Bob Jeffress, et al are IN FACT CHRISTIANS!!
We don’t get to make judgments about their faith any more than they get to do that about us.
In fact, these people would come out and say that All Progressive Christians are NOT Real True Christians.

So, what do we do about the seeming disparity in what we believe about God and Jesus?
It appears that the chasm is great and there is no way to bridge it.

Taking Jesus as our Exemplar once again, perhaps we can begin to see a way forward.

Those of us who have read the stories about Jesus, the Gospels, understand that Jesus was not a simple, monochrome person. He was solid as a rock about some things. A little more colorful or even ambivalent about others.
One of the things that he was solid about was that many people who claimed to be leaders of Israel were behaving in ways that God simply was opposed to.
Many of these people tried to confront Jesus and trip him up.
One time when Jesus was eating with so-called “tax collectors and sinners,” those people questioned his judgment about the company he kept.
Jesus said, “It’s the sick who need a physician.”
In the 23rd chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus pronounce ‘8 Woes’ upon those same people. He called out their hypocrisy, hate, and bigotry. His language was hard as he pointed out how they erred from the Way of God.
Jesus used Judgment language to denounce cities where the people did not accept the miracles he performed as proof of God’s Presence among them.
These were powerful and hard words.

Yet, at no time did Jesus say that they were not Real True Israelites.

In fact, I think that he was able to use that kind of language with them precisely because they were family.

Jesus example provides us with a way to engage others with whom we disagree. It’s not to point fingers at them and pronounce them “Unclean!”
But, we may engage them and try to show them that there is another way to walk in Faith.
We don’t need to be exclusive and build walls to keep out the “Other.”
In fact, it’s closer to our job description to be demolition experts who tear down walls!

What if those others refuse to listen and rebuff us?
Can we wipe the dust off of our sandals and walk away?

I really wish that I could say, “Yes!!! Just walk away!!!”

I’m not sure that I can say that, though.

Because, I think that there may be a “still more excellent way.”

But, that will need to wait til next time.

For now, perhaps we can reflect on what it means to be members of a dysfunctional family. We have no control over who our siblings are or what they will do.
But, in the end, we ARE still Sisters and Brothers.

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