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Category: Imago Dei

Thanksgiving: Some Thoughts

Published by mhelbert on November 27, 2019

Yesterday I shared a bit about the stress and anxiety that I experience during the holiday season. Like I said, I try to take steps to mitigate those things. I try to get necessary rest, take vitamins and other meds, use a Happy Light, and try to focus my thoughts and energy on things that may redeem this season and create a positive from the negative.

I have to admit, Advent and Christmas are much easier for me to grasp the redemption stories. They are all about Christ and the preparation for us to receive Him.

Thanksgiving, however, poses a bit of a conundrum.

After all, the holiday seems to be an homage to gluttony and self-serving individualism.
A far cry from the ideal that we say we celebrate.
And, I think we may be hard pressed to find too many Native Americans who are thankful that their land and cultures were invaded and destroyed as a result of that first meal.

What, then, can we take from this particular holiday that brings life and blessing for everyone.

Let’s take a look at what we consider the first celebration with the Wampanoag and the Puritans. Maybe there are a couple take aways that can help make this holiday more meaningful.

One of the first things that jumps out at me is the contrast of how that feast was celebrated.
Today, we usually gather with our own family. When I was growing up that included the extended family on my Mom’s side. We usually had about 20 or so. That is, until we kids grew up and started adding to the count with kids of our own.
The point, though, was that we were isolated in our own, comfortable familial cocoon.
Contrast that to how our forebears celebrated.
Theirs was a community feast where everyone gathered to celebrate a successful harvest. They shared whatever they had with the everyone in both the Puritan community and the Native American community.
Theirs reached beyond the doors of their houses and touched the lives of everyone.
Each brought to the table what they had. There were most likely the Three Sisters of Maize, Squash, and Beans. The hunters supplied meat. Those who plied the waters brought fish.

The point is, it was a communal celebration, not a private one.
Perhaps we may find something redemptive in that kind of sharing.

The were welcoming of the “Other.”
This may be the biggest redemptive act of the entire holiday.
As I was looking for something to help me wrap my head around this holiday, I got out my Book of Common Prayer and read the prayer for Thanksgiving.
Part of that prayer is,

” Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name.”

Notice that the prayer asks God to make us Faithful Stewards in order to provide for our own needs as well as those of All Who Are In Need.
The Native Americans did that very thing.
For reasons of their own, they chose to help these “Others” who had sailed across the sea and landed in their backyard. The Native Americans were Faithful Stewards of Creator’s bounty.
Note that the reason for this stewardship and sharing is to bring Glory to the Name of God.

Perhaps we, too, can not only be mindful of our stewardship of the resources we have been graced with, but can find ways to welcome and support those people who are looked upon as “Other” in our culture.

Maybe, just maybe, this holiday has some merit besides over-eating and falling asleep with a football game on the tube. Perhaps there is hope that God’s Good Grace may use this day for God’s Glory and our continued metamorphosis into the Image of God in Christ.

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Metamorphosis Reprise

Published by mhelbert on November 10, 2019
© Kristin Dauk

I love the word ‘Metamorphosis.’
When I was growing up I was amazed when I learned that word.
Besides being really fun to say, c’mon say it with me,
“M-e-t-a-morph-o-s-i-s.”
To me it was another word for “Magic.”

Although there are several different animals that technically go through a metamorphic process in their development, it’s really the Butterfly that catches our imagination.
A caterpillar, a worm for lack of a better term, builds a house and goes to sleep.
In a few weeks, Presto! Changeo! A beautiful winged butterfly emerges!
If that ain’t magic, I don’t know what is.

The change is physical and it is complete. Everything that looked like caterpillar had disappeared. It was transformed into everything Butterfly.

So, imagine my pleasure when I read this,
“Don’t be conformed to this age. But, be metamorphosised in the renewal of your mind.”
(Romans 12:2a trans. mine.)

Most English Bibles translate the Greek word that Paul wrote, “metamorpho’o” with “transformed.” And, while that is an effective translation, I think that it lacks the nuance that Paul was going for.

Once I saw this in the Greek, I decided to look around to see if there were other instances of this language used. For those of us who are kind of geeky about language and stuff, finding other uses helps us put the words into a greater context.

I found two other places that surprised me. But, also made me smile.
These appear in the Gospels according to Mark and Matthew.
In Mk. 9:2 the writer tells us,

Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them.

Matthew 17:2 has,

And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

In both verses the word “Transfigured” is what translators chose for “metamorpho’o.”

Jesus “metamorphosised” in the presence of his friends.
Paul tells us to be “metamorphosised.”
You can see how this might excite a person!

The whole concept of metamorphosis, though, has to do with an obvious physical change. A crawly caterpillar cocoons and, voilà! Butterfly! Jesus walks up a hill with Peter and Pals and Poof! Transfigured!

But, what was Paul getting at? Because, I’m not seeing how what he said has to do with any physical change.
Truth be told, scholars have spent the better share of two millennia trying to spin this in a way that makes sense. The most acceptable way is to say that Paul was talking about an Inward transformation. A change in character and temperament that, while not as obvious as shining faces and clothes, could still be “seen” by others.
And, I kind of agree with that. For example, I find that anger doesn’t rule me like it once did. So, yeah, I guess that could fit the bill.

But, I was still not convinced that this was what Paul was getting at.
Then, I read the rest of the verse.
” Don’t be conformed to this age.”
Most English Bibles translate this along the lines of,
“Do not be conformed to this world. But…”

Ok, I gotta turn the word nerd loose for a sec.
We could translate this,
“Do not be formed by the pattern and mold of this age.”
Paul seems to view the age, or the culture, or the systems that govern us as some kind of mold that exerts its pressure on us in order to form us.
We see this every day in our lives.
Parents form children. Laws and rules form us into citizens. Cultural mores press us into acceptable players in our lives together.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to say that these are bad things. They may not be. But, Paul did write, “Don’t let the molds of this age form you” for a reason.

Paul wrote this letter to a Church in Rome that had undergone a huge persecution. The people were under tremendous pressure to conform to Roman law and custom. The most important custom, to acknowledge Caesar as Lord and Savior.
Paul encouraged the Church to persevere and to present themselves to God, rather than Caesar, as if they were living sacrifices dedicated to God through Jesus Christ.
They should, therefore, be metamorphosised into something different. That somehow through a renewal of their mind, or thinking, or perception they would actually become a different creature. A physical change would be noticed by those who were molded and formed by the present age. These “New Creations” would stand out like the proverbial sore thumb!

This is my takeaway on this.
God, somehow, I have no idea how, but God is able by God’s Good Grace to cause a renewal of our minds that results in a New Creation being born.
A New Creation that breaks out of the cocoon in which it has been slowly changing; transforming, yes, Transfiguring.
That same Grace and Power is still available to us today. Grace and Power to bring about a true Metamorphosis in our lives.

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Metamorphosis

Published by mhelbert on November 9, 2019

Let Renewing waters, like Breath of God, Flow through you!
All of the dust and grime that has caked itself to your Soul?
Washed away!
Standing naked in the Sun, You are changed.
A Metamorphosis!
A New Creature is Born!

The Apostle wrote that we all must be Metamorphosed
As our Minds are Made New.


Our Head revealed Metamorphosis to His faithful Friends.
He seemed to reveal to them, “This is how you will be!”

Changed!

New!

Everlasting!

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Union With God

Published by mhelbert on November 2, 2019

Today I’m going to leave writing and and stuff alone and return to reflections about God, the Cosmos, and me. There are thoughts that niggle at the back of my brain that sometimes just need to be turned loose on the World.

Over the years that I have pursued God, or maybe God was pursuing me, through various forms of contemplative prayer, the idea of Union with God has peered through the mist from time to time.
I’m no historian, but I have read and heard stories of certain practitioners of various religious traditions seeking to become ‘one’ with, or joined together with deity.
In the Christian tradition that concept became famous during the Middle Ages through various mystics who then wrote about their experiences with “Mystical Marriage.” Or, they described their contemplative journey as a pilgrimage up mountain or into some kind of many layered mansion. These journeys culminated in some kind of mystical, ecstatic experience that left that person somehow changed.
It seems that this concept of Union with God is still the prevalent one today.

I don’t see it that way.

That way of experiencing God’s presence in one’s life seems too, well, individualistic. The journey is a solitary one. The trials along the way are ‘me’ against the powers of darkness that would stand in my way. Obstacles that I would need to prove myself worthy against in order to prevail.
Eventually, if I had remained steadfast and faithful, I found the prize and claimed it as my own.
That sounds all cool and everything. Especially, in our Western culture that elevates the individual to some kind of cultural sainthood.
But, I’m sorry. I just don’t see that model of Spirituality anywhere in the Scriptures.
Yeah, I get it that God is concerned about us each individually. And, God delights when we each desire to be with God. We, each of us, is precious to God.
I don’t think that’s the end of the story, though.
The whole idea of “Me and Jesus against the World” just doesn’t ring true.

So, how does Union with God fit into any other schema?
It seems by its very name to be something that only affects a particular individual.

Over the past few years I have had the idea of Humans as Ikons of God. That’s pretty much what the stories in Genesis calls us when the writers mentioned ‘in Our Image.’ Humanity is, in these stories, created to fill the role of Steward in God’s Good Creation.
A steward is a representative of someone else. The steward has authority to act in the Name of that someone else. The steward, in effect, partners with that someone else in order to achieve the benefit of, not just that someone else, but of All that is under the authority of that someone else.
For us, that entails the entirety of the Cosmos.

Union with God, to me anyway, seems to be more about partnering with God in order to achieve God’s Good Will in the Cosmos than with any kind of individual ecstatic experiences.
Union with God seems to be contingent, not just on my efforts against unseen enemies, but on my willingness to hear Jesus’ knock on the door of my Heart. Then, opening it so that He may come in and “abide” with and in me. Not for my benefit alone. Although, there is that. But, for the benefit of All.
Paul wrote to the Church at Rome about how the creation groans waiting for the daughters and sons of God to show up.

The further that I walk on this path of my life and seek God’s Presence, the more I am convinced that this life is NOT simply some kind of preparation for ME in order to be ready for some after life. That is not, CANNOT, be the purpose of God for the Cosmos.
God’s purpose is redemption of ALL. Life for ALL.

HERE!

NOW!

IN THIS LIFE!

Union with God means to partner with God, Work with God…

Love with God.

Are we ready for that?
Maybe.
But, together, United with one another in Union with God I believe that we can be.

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Argument as Spiritual Practice

Published by mhelbert on October 12, 2019

Over the years I’ve heard a lot, read a lot, and generally had ideas about the so-called Spiritual Disciplines swirling around me like a swarm of mosquitoes.
Yeah, I chose that metaphor purposefully.
The voices from Church leaders and non-leaders have been little more than a buzz in my ears with the occasional blood-sucking bite on the neck. (Vampire bugs!)
Richard Foster and his rather vacuous 1978 book “Celebration of Discipline” was a mainstay for so many. In the circles I was involved with, that book was pretty much used to shame us. It gave leaders another cudgel to condemn us. None of us could follow all that Foster wrote. Yet, when we failed we were reminded of how none of us were either strong enough or committed enough to perform even Foster’s simple exercises.

As I got older and gained more experience I began to understand that people can’t just ‘decide’ to ‘will’ their way into practices that allow the kind of practices that Foster and others prescribed. At best, then, these books and resources provide folks with a variety of practices that people have found useful over the years. They could offer us the ingredients, just not the recipes.

I found that only God’s own gravity of Grace can draw people into that orbit where that thing called Spiritual Formation takes place. No amount of self-will or self-discipline can move our hearts even a millimeter in that direction.

Once God does act, however, almost anything can become a Spiritual Practice that leads to new experiences. Experiences that enlarge hearts and create empathy. Experiences that bring freedom to speak freely to God without fear or timidity.

That brings me to the point of all of these words today.

I want to introduce a new Spiritual Practice.
Well, I’m sure it’s not new. But, I don’t recall ever hearing about it.

It’s called “Argument.”
Or, if you want, call it “Disagreement.”

With whom am I talking about Arguing with?

Well, God, of course.
Who else?

That may sound strange. So many of us have been taught that God is all-knowing and, most importantly, ALWAYS right.
For these people the idea of arguing with God is akin to heresy and is a fast-track to finding oneself in Hell.
I feel kind of sorry for people who think this. Their god is too small.
I mean, think about it. If God is Who we have been taught, you know, Supreme Being and all of that, do you think that this God could possibly be threatened or offended by our puny human arguments?
Don’t think too hard about that. The correct answer in “No.”

There are precedents in the Bible.
Abraham seemed to argue, well at least tried to ‘bargain,’ with God in that little matter of Sodom. Job tried to argue with God over his perceived wrong treatment. Jeremiah argued that he was unfit for the calling that God had for him.
Shoot, Jesus argued with the Father in Gethsemane. “Father, please, don’t make me drink from this cup!”
Now, in all of these, God’s side of things was ultimately followed.

That’s not the point I want to make.

I want to make and argument for, well, arguing!

And, that, as a Spiritual practice that can open us up to receive more of God’s Grace and Presence.

I’ve had many disagreements with the way I perceive God’s hand in my life. Like so many, I tried to stuff these feelings by believing that because I am just a human I must be wrong.
“Not my will, but Yours, O God” is the mantra we’re taught to repeat.

I’m sorry, but that response is just so inadequate on so many levels.
It makes the assumption that humans are little more than toddlers who have no idea what might be good and helpful. I makes God into a benevolent dictator who may or may not tolerate our perceived insolence.
Both of those assumptions are categorically wrong.
We are Ikons of God who carry within us the very image of God. We are fellow workers who are entrusted with the Stewardship of this world in which we live.
Hardly toddlers.
God may be benevolent, but God is No dictator. The whole idea of Free Will puts the lie to that.

Ok, so what?
What does that have to do with argument and Spiritual Formation?

Everything!!

It reveals that we are taken seriously by God.
God Listens!
When I argue with God it implies that there are two voices interacting.
No argument is one-sided by definition.
So, I ‘hear’ God’s voice.
That voice may rebut. That happens with regularity.
Sometimes, though, the voice says, “About time you thought of that!”
God seems to actually enjoy it when we use our brains to work through an argument and come to the correct and logical conclusion!

More importantly, I feel, is that when we feel free enough to argue with God, God is pleased.
Our relationship is confirmed. Not as equals or even peers. But, as two parties in lively engagement.
Some of the most intimate experiences I’ve had with God have been in the midst of real Knock-down, drag-out bouts of In-Your_Face disagreement.

In the end, I feel that God has honored me by engaging with me on a deep, visceral plane.
And, I think God is pleased that I am not simply willing to be dragged along a willing fool.

So, yeah, I think that Argument can be listed among Spiritual Practices that Christ-followers should embrace.
We should not fear to offend God.
Nor, should we simply acquiesce to things that we think are unjust or simply wrong.
God is not that dismissive Father who says, “Shaddup, Kid!”
No, God seems to desire that we learn to BE intelligent fellow-workers in the Cosmos.

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Recreation

Published by mhelbert on September 24, 2019

New day!

New chance to be and to be Present!

Look!

The crease where heaven and earth join in conjugal bliss

Bearing forth the Child of the Sun!

Where God is playing; Holy Recreation releasing God’s Love!

Or, is it Re-Creating?

Each dawn pregnant with New Hope; New Possibilities;

New LIFE!

Laugh and Sing with the Joyous Many

Who dance with gods and angels.

Who sing with the Sun!

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Innit Cool?

Published by mhelbert on June 27, 2019

Since June 2 I’ve had the opportunity to lead an adult Bible study at the church I currently attend. The priest here had started a similar study in the weeks before Lent. It was set aside as we all entered into the Easter season. It happened that several people thought that the study should be resurrected, (pun intended). So, Fr. Alex asked me if I would be open to help. So, here we are.

We are currently following the Revised Common Lectionary reading for each Sunday. Fr. Alex stated that it might be helpful to take a closer look at some of the passages that would be read that morning. So often these are simply read during the service without a great deal of reflection. This Bible study could help to provide tools with which they could reflect more fruitfully.

That all sounds ok.

I’m glad to help out with this. Especially, since I have the training and education to take on this role.

As we started things I knew that at some point Fr. Alex and I would touch on a common text. And, we would have divergent ‘takes’ on that text. I wondered how the folks who sat in on the Bible study and listened to Fr. Alex’s sermon might hear those different views. And, how I might address them.

Well, this past Sunday we did just that. We both spent time on the same passage from the Gospel according to Luke. And, yes, we looked at the passage from two distinct perspectives.

The text was from Luke 8:26-39. It’s the story of a man who was possessed by many demons. He lived among the tombs in the region of the Gerasenes on the eastern end of the Sea of Galilee. The story tells of how he could not be restrained by any means as he ran naked through the tombs. When Jesus and his disciples showed up, the man confronted Jesus and begged Jesus to not torment him. Jesus asked his name. The man said, “Legion,” for many demons dwelt in him.

The story goes on to state how “Legion” begged Jesus to send them into a local herd of pigs, who subsequently ran down a slope into the sea where they drowned.

Now, there’s a whole lot in this passage. People a lot smarter than me have argued about who the man was; where exactly did this happen; why pigs?

Fr. Alex shared from the pulpit how this passage demonstrated a clear political message that would have resonated with the original hearers of the story. He explained how Roman troops, who at the time occupied Israel and the surrounding territories, could be assembled in a group of about 6,000 soldiers called a Legion. Also, around this time a particular legion known as the Legio X Fretensis occupied Jerusalem and had on their banners the image of a boar.

You can begin to see where Fr. Alex was drawing similarities between the story and actual events.

His point was that the people who heard this originally would have understood the references and seen the story of Jesus overcoming the evil forces brought by Rome and “bringing justice into the midst of human suffering.”

He then reminded us of a message he gave on Pentecost Sunday in which he explained how we, as the Body of Christ, are the very hands and feet of Jesus in our world today.

If we are that, then we have the obligation and task to be the bringers of justice and deliverance to the oppressed people that we encounter. He cited the grave humanitarian catastrophe that is currently happening on our southern border. He challenged us to consider how we might each respond to the mounting injustice.

AMEN! Preach it!

But, then…there was my take on the story.

You see Fr. Alex had been inspired to share his liberationist understanding by news articles during the week that exposed what was happening to people. People made in the Image of God. People for whom Jesus gave his life.

I, on the other hand, was inspired by another of our Sunday lections. This one from Is. 65:1-9. The first couple of verses in this text reveal God desperately seeking God’s own people. God cries, “Here I am, here I am,” to people who ignore God. Isaiah wrote that God was sitting at the city gates with arms outstretched. This would have been how a beggar acted.

Certainly not God.

Yet, here we have an image of God revealed as a servant in order to help the people God so loved. I saw God allowing Godself to be seen and known by a people who had no interest.

The bottom line there was that God DESIRED to be seen and found. God was open for business. Come on in!

Similarly, at least to me, in the Gospel text my mind zeroed in on Jesus’ encounter with the possessed man. Jesus said,

“What is your name?”

Wow!

Here was a man who was obviously tormented. He had been chained and tied. He lived among the dead. He was naked and cast out.

And Jesus looked into his eyes and asked, “Who are you?”

Jesus, like God in the Isaiah text, made himself vulnerable to someone who was in desperate need. Someone who was potentially violent. Someone who had been cast aside and rejected.

Someone who was made in the image of God and for whom Jesus was willing to give His life.

Yeah, Fr. Alex and I came at the same text from two very different places and came to two different conclusions.

But, are they really that different?

Fr. Alex saw the text and gave us an actionable charge. As a pastor, that’s what he’s called to do. He energized us to get involved to help however we can with time, money, prayer.

I came to the text as a contemplative and revealed, I believe, a piece of God’s heart that will also lead to action. Albeit, a different flavor. I desire people to see, feel, touch, and know God intimately. To live and experience God’s deep love for all of the Cosmos. Then, to share that with others. Perhaps, especially with those who are suffering at the hands of a strong oppressor.

So, different takes on the same text. Both speaking God’s Word to those who can hear.

Innit Cool?

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Happy New Year!

Published by mhelbert on January 1, 2019
Fr. Thomas Merton

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2019 is finally under way.

At my age it seems like no big deal. One year looks pretty much like the last and the last.

However, during the last bit of 2018 my heart began to move in a new and different direction. I’m not sure what that even means. Perhaps, I’ll share some of it as I see it more clearly.

Until then, though, I want to share something from Fr Thomas Merton. Merton was a Trappist monk who lived at the Cistercian monastery at Gethsemani, KY. His writings are golden for those of us called to a more contemplative path toward faith. Here is how he recorded a personal epiphany. This is something that more of us would do well to consider and embrace.

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . . 

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.”

― Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guily Bystander

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The Image of God

Published by mhelbert on December 28, 2018
Image from http://www.messagetoeagle.com/astronomers-probe-the-cosmic-web-of-the-universe/

God, Almighty Creator, seated in the Heavenlies on Your Throne! All Powerful, Ever Present, All Knowing!
This is the image that most Christian sects share somewhere in their core beliefs. These are images that help followers grasp the enormity of God. For, as they also teach, God is Infinite, Eternal, Alpha and Omega, First and Last. These words describe how impossible it really is us to wrap our finite, human brains around any concept of the Divine.
In fact, it is so impossible that the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, states clearly that we humans are not to even attempt to imagine God in any physical form. It seems that God was pretty serious about that.
Of course, we didn’t pay much attention to that.
Yesterday, my wife and I spent a couple of hours at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (What a great resource! But, that’s another story.) One thing that was abundantly clear was that artists throughout history have tried to imagine the image of God! Canvas and paint; carved wood, alabaster, and other stone; precious metals and gems. We saw images of God the Father looking down from the sky. There was one where the Holy Spirit was painted as a giant dove whose wings appeared to be proceeding from the mouths of Father and Son. I even saw one rendering of the Holy Spirit that looked more like an over-fed pigeon from Central Park in New York City made of silver. These were offered by various artists to render God, to usher the Divine into the non-Divine. And, no one seems to mind. There were wars fought over images and icons. “It’s ok to make these images. Just so long as we don’t “worship” them.
I considered this today in the quiet of my office, candles burning casting a gentle, living light.
What image might I use to describe God? How might the divine be understood by mere flesh and blood?
As I sat silently in God’s presence I saw an image.
I saw what many scientists think the Universe looks like. It reveals a vast network of light. Clusters of stars and nebulae connected to each other by “threads” made of the same stuff. In between there is Dark Matter and Dark Energy, (not all is light). Nebulae, dust, stars, comets, Black Holes, debris of every king, light, dark … All of it. Every creature, plant, and rock. The very particles of light and every wave of energy.
GOD.
I AM.
I AM BECOMING.
Near us.
Within us.
Yet…
Not us.
Entirely, “Other.”
This is what God ‘looks’ like!
Yet, even this is not quite right. Is it?
We tend to see God by way of negation.
God is not there.God is not present with “Them.”
God is not, cannot be, this or that.
I call bullshit on that.
God is not a negation; a non-presence. God is a lively, vital Presence! God is a resounding YES! It may be said that God penetrates into the very essence of the Universe and reaches beyond both time and space.
That, my friends, is entirely Inclusive.
Make no mistake, I think that there is definitely a difference between God and Not God; Creator and created; Divine and Non-Divine. Yet, they cannot be separated.
I have no idea how any of this works. So, please don’t ask. I’m not God; not Divine. I’m just a clump of dust that somehow contains the essence of the Divine. A spark of that live-giving energy that resides within molded clay.
May I be a clay lamp rather than a clay pot.

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Sunday Morning Lament

Published by mhelbert on December 16, 2018

As I sat in silence this morning I saw an image of the president of the U.S.
standing in the rain praising a ruling by a judge in Texas that states that the
Affordable Care Act, the so-called “Obama Care,” is unconstitutional.
My mind showed me the many people, conservatives, who have spent the
last several years trying undo this simple act to help people who desperately need
the help. I asked Why? Why do these people work so hard in order to hurt others?
As my thoughts took wing, I looked down on the people lined up at our borders.
Why are the institutions that we have created trying so hard to hurt others?
I saw the poor in other countries with no clean water or consistent food source.
Why are those governments not helping their own people? They only heap up riches
and power for themselves.
I considered the so-called religious of our culture. What are they doing? After all, aren’t
they all followers of Jesus?
Who was this Jesus? “Behold, the Kingdom of God is near!” he said.
Yeah?
Where?
Because, I’m not seein’ it.
I’m not seein’ it at all.

“How long, O Lord?”
People have said this simple prayer for thousands of years.

“How long, O Lord?”
Will You wait?
Will You allow injustice?
Until You uphold the widow? The orphan? The stranger?

“How long, O Lord?”
Our governments are corrupt. Our leaders care only about their own power and prestige.
They abuse those that they have been called on to serve.

“How long, O Lord?”
The institutions that are established suffer from rot. They care only about surviving.
They care not a whit for those that put their trust in them.

“How long, O Lord?”
The systems that prevail over all things are altogether corrupt.
Racism, sexism, corporations…all tools of the powerful against Everyone Else.

“How long, O Lord?”
Atheists trust in knowledge and humanity’s ability to grow. They trust in the wind.
Progressive Christians trust in humanity’s ability to usher in the Kingdom of God.
How many centuries ago was this proven to be folly?
Evangelicals. Well, they are just dangerous. They hide behind their faux faith and
Like the Pharisees of old, “do not enter the Kingdom and prevent others from doing so.
Rome is altogether corrupt. Self-seeking old men who crave honor, prestige, and power.
Yet, they have castrated themselves and are now impotent.
Orthodox seek God in Spirit and Truth. Yet, they do nothing for anyone outside of their
own cloisters and cathedrals.

“How long, O Lord?”
Martin hoped that the arc of history would bend toward justice.
I don’t see it.

“How long, O Lord?”

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