Category: Passion

There Is No Other! It’s All About God!

Published by mhelbert on February 22, 2024

Earlier this week I wrote about my passion for God. I also expressed a defense for my Orthodoxy. Then, I wrote a bit about the inadequacy of any kind of correct belief that finds its object in dogma, doctrine, or propositions. That’s the world of Systematics. At best that world is too small. At worst, well, it is destructive in more ways than I care to mention right now. Maybe some other time.
What I didn’t discuss was what my own orthodoxy is founded on. In what, or Whom, do I ground my ‘right belief’ on?
I’m glad you asked that question.
Let me start by sharing a couple of things that it is Not.
It is not grounded in the Bible.
Whoa! Say what?! I can see all of my fundagelical friends clutching their pearls and wringing their hands. Isn’t the Bible the inerrant Word of God? Isn’t the Bible the only trustworthy way that we can even know God? How can we know what’s true and good? More importantly, how can we know if we’re IN?
Don’t get your boxers in a bunch.
There is no one on the planet who loves the scriptures more than I do. I read, study, and dwell in them every day. I have an extremely high view of them. They are inspired by God the Holy Spirit.
What I don’t do is venerate them. I am not a bibliolater…I don’t worship them. The Bible is a book. Granted, it’s an ancient book filled with even older texts. But, it is a book. It’s a tool. At best, it’s a sign post that points in the direction of what is truly worthy of veneration and worship…God.
Most people view the scriptures as a working document that one can use in order to find their way in life. To them it’s a road map or a users’ manual. If they follow the directions all will be well with the world. If not, well, bad stuff happens. God will getcha if you don’t follow the rules.
It’s not only Christians, but so-called orthodox members of any religious movement may fall into that trap. Rules are meant to be followed. Rules inspired by God inhabit an especially important space where any sign of rule breaking or bending can have eternal repercussions.
Ok, not to be too crass, I call bullshit. At least in the case of the Christian Bible I can be fairly certain that it was not designed to be taken as a literal treatise on the Ways and Workings of the God-fearing Person. Nor is it a book of history or science or any of the other things that bibliolaters claim.
If the creation story didn’t happen just as it is written, how can we trust any of it?
The short answer is, in respect to science, you can’t. That’s not what the Bible is for. You folks are asking the scriptures to carry something that they were never meant to carry. So, stop it, already!
The Bible, at its best, points to God and God’s plans for the world. And, those plans don’t include the rules and regulations that so many people like to impose. Again, stop doing that!
Thirty plus years ago I began to realize that the Bible is a love story. Yeah, that’s right, a Love Story. The Lover in this story is God. The scriptures are full of stories about this love. God’s love sustains the world. It is what moves the Cosmos forward. It is the all-encompassing love of God that leads us to worship and adore God.
But, it is NOT God.
Orthodoxy, correct belief, can never be focused on anything or anyone other than God. Period. End of story.

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Good Friday: The Story Begins

Published by mhelbert on April 7, 2023

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

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

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

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

Blessings to you all.

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Passionate About the Scriptures

Published by mhelbert on January 13, 2020

I think that I wrote somewhere that I am really passionate about the Biblical text. Studying them rates as one of my all time favorite things to do. Part of why I find these ancient texts fascinating is the significance, for good or ill, that they have had on the cultures of the world. These words are not confined to one specific group of people or particular region. Unlike, say, the Hindu Vedas or Upanishads which are located pretty specifically in South Asia, the Christian Bible has influenced virtually every culture and people group on the planet.
That reason, alone, is enough to cause one to want to know more about it
Who wrote these texts?
To whom were they written?
When were the composed? Compiled? Redacted?
What’s so important about the words in these 66 books, poems, laws, narratives, stories, and myths?

Sadly, these questions, and the subsequent answers, are lost on a vast number of people who say that they reverence these texts. They truly seem to not know the questions to ask. Or, perhaps more concerning, they don’t want to hear the answers.
It’s far easier to let someone else do the hard work. They can then try to follow the path of those others and pretend that they are engaging The Word.
But, that’s a topic for another post.

The reason I’m writing this today is because of the study I had to prepare on this past week’s lections for the Baptism of Jesus.
We looked at Matthew’s take on Jesus trip to see his cousin, John, at the Jordan river. Jesus went there so that John could baptize him.
The story’s pretty straight forward.
John tells the people around him about the person who is coming after him who will baptize with fire. The Coming One is greater than John. In fact John said that he was not worthy to even untie the shoe of the Coming One.

Enter Jesus: stage left.

The two men talked a bit. Jesus indicated that he was there to be baptized.
John, who apparently recognized Jesus as the Coming One, balked at Jesus’ request
He told Jesus, “Whoa! No, no, no! I’m the one who should be baptized by You!”

Well, Jesus prevailed upon John so that John dunked Jesus in the Living Waters of the Jordan.
When John brought Jesus up from the water, the story says that the Heavens opened and the Spirit descended in the form of a dove and lighted on Jesus. A voice from heaven said, “Behold, this is my Son, the Beloved in whom I am well pleased.”

Now, at first blush this looks like a pretty simple story.
Right?

I’m not going to go into any detail here.
You really don’t want me to turn my inner geek loose on you.
It could get real ugly.
Or, at least pretty boring.

What I do want to point out here is that when we start to ask questions about this story, the answers aren’t quite so simple.

Here’s an example:
Why did Jesus need to be baptized by John?
Hmmm….
Did Jesus need to be cleansed from sin?
Most orthodox folks would freak out about even considering that!

As I studied this one question I found no less than 16 different possible answers.
All of them viable. All of them considered by skilled and knowledgeable scholars.
Yet, the answers were all over the place.

If one simple text, straight forward, no big issues with languages or other issues can elicit such wide variations in interpretations, how can we think that any of the other texts can be reduced to simple talking points?

The correct answer for those keeping score is,
They can’t.

That’s why it’s so important to dig and ask and dig some more.

These sacred texts have been used and abused for millennia because people refuse to ask the hard questions. Or, worse, they refuse to listen to all of the possible answers before resorting to actions that, unfortunately, have done much more harm than good in many places.

The other part of why I’m so passionate about the Scriptures is to find the treasures that are life affirming and graciously full of God’s Love that are there for the diligent to find. I hope to show myself diligent in this labor of love that I’ve undertaken.

I hope that I haven’t bored you too much.

But, hey, I’m not really sorry.

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Lover!!!

Published by mhelbert on December 13, 2019

God Loves Us!
We hear that.
We say that.

God Is Love.
Faith. Fullness.
Faith Mantra.

We speak of the Love that God has laser focused on us and the Cosmos.
Jesus, we say, pursues us as a Lover.
We are, in most of our imaginings, the object of God’s Love.
God is the Subject from Whom that Love flows.

” Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love is more delightful than wine,” the Song says.

” How beautiful you are, my darling!
    Oh, how beautiful!
    Your eyes behind your veil are doves.
Your breasts are like two fawns,
    like twin fawns of a gazelle
    that browse among the lilies.
Until the day breaks
    and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh
    and to the hill of incense.
You are altogether beautiful, my darling;
    there is no flaw in you.”

These are words that we imagine come from the heart and mouth of the Lover of our souls. Passionate! Lustful! Erotic!

We see this Love as originating and flowing from Heart of God primarily in one direction.
Yeah, we say that we love God.
Why?
Well, because God first loved us, of course.
Then we try to explain how much work we do for God because we love God.
Didn’t Jesus say that those who love Him would obey him?
Our expression of love devolves into doing stuff.

What if we were to actually love God AS God loves us?

What if we take the place of Lover with God as our Beloved?

Then would we not chase God? Consciously? Passionately?

We would say to God,

Awake, north wind,
    and come, south wind!
Blow on my garden,
    that its fragrance may spread everywhere.
Let my beloved come into his garden
    and taste its choice fruits.

Would we not be like the Beloved in the Song?

All night long on my bed
    I looked for the one my heart loves;
    I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and go about the city,
    through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.

Could we even imagine saying to God,

Under the apple tree I roused you;
there your mother conceived you…
His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me…
My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening;
my heart began to pound for him…

This is the language of Love.
This is the language of Relationship.
Lustful?
Yes!
Erotic?
Absolutely!

Let us shed our prim and proper sensibilities.
We must not allow desire to be stuffed in a neat, little Victorian box where it lies stunted and impotent.

If God is indeed the Object of our Love,
Express it!
Live It!
Embrace it!

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