Category: Spirituality

Is our God too small?

Published by mhelbert on April 13, 2012

Back in 1986 Peter Gabriel released the song, Big Time. Part of the lyric reads, “And I will pray to a big god, as I kneel in the big church.” Now, as I understand it the song was primarily about someone getting out of a small town. But, the words reveal something about how people view the Christian God. This God is small. This God cannot do anything about the hurt and evil in the world. This God has small, narrow-minded followers. This God cannot put up a substantive defense, so it’s necessary for the small, narrow-minded followers to defend God’s honor. And, for sure this God cannot handle the intellect of people who challenge the published words that the churches that bear God’s name adhere to.
This morning as I was praying, I considered a discussion with some people I know. People who love and desire to serve and worship God. They are, however, locked into a way of believing that has no room for the discussion of science, the authority of scripture, or anything other than a ‘simple reading’ of that scripture. The Bible must be taken literally or not at all. Then, I remembered something I read about John Calvin, the hero of reformed theology. When confronted with the discovery of the size of Saturn, the church became a tad perplexed. If God created a greater light, the sun, and a lesser light, the moon, then what was this ‘other’ light that was larger than the lesser light? This apparently rocked their theology. Calvin’s response? Well, the ancient writers used the knowledge they had at that time to render their conclusions. Now, we know better and that’s ok. Wow! We should have that mindset.
Anyhow, my mind immediately wandered off to consider the vastness of God, the creator and sustainer of all things. What can a finite mind discover about the infinite? How can it even touch or consider it? God, in God’s infinite grace, gives glimpses. Only as much as can be tolerated by our smallness. I received one of those glimpses. I began to realize that our arguments about what/who God is are intolerably small. We need to understand that God is not threatened by our discussions about science and evolution. Shoot! God created the human mind that has developed these! God is not concerned about our arguments about sola scriptura and inerrancy. God’s Word transcends whatever we can possibly understand. Yes, these are important to how we live our lives in this finite cosmos. It is proper that we discuss and argue and strive to understand our world, ourselves and how this all relates to an infinite God. But, we also need to remember that the Infinite will not condescend to fit our mold; we must be willing to fit into the Infinite. After all, we already have a BIG GOD!

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The Father turned his back…I don’t think so

Published by mhelbert on April 6, 2012

This is my 100th post. Holy Smokes! Maybe someone should bake a cake. So far, this has been fun for me. I’ve enjoyed trying, sometimes not so successfully, to get my thoughts organized and written. I hope that any who have chosen to visit here have not been disappointed by my lack of eloquence and understanding. This is, after all, a blog. It’s not meant to be a formal repository of all spiritual and experiential truth.
With that being said, I feel a need to rant just a bit. It’s my blog; I can do that.
Today is Good Friday. It’s the time when the Christian world remembers the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. After an eventful, and sometimes turbulent, public ministry the end came with a sudden ferocity that shocked those who were intimately relating with Jesus.
One thing that many people try to explain and understand is, what actually transpired on this day? Yes, we know that Jesus was unjustly tried, tortured, and hung on a tree where he died. But, what happened between the Father and the Son that day? Some have tried to say that between the hours of noon and 3 P.M., when darkness covered the world, the Father was compelled to turn away from the Son because your sin and mine were placed on Jesus. The Father’s holiness could not look on this sin. Therefore, the first and second persons of the Trinity were separated from one another for this time.
I’m sorry, but I don’t get this. Let me just share a couple points. The first is the ontological impossibility that I see in this. The very nature of Yahweh precludes this ‘separation.’ The Church has believed that there is, has, and always will be a perfect unity in the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This unity cannot be broken because it is God’s will that it remain intact.
Another reason that is equally compelling for me is that this view gives a distorted image of the Father. What kind of Father would abandon his Son like this? Perhaps even stronger language is required. What kind of God would this represent? At best, one who is selfish and easily offended. At worst, one who is incapable of saving anyone. Now, I know that this idea of Jesus being totally forsaken and abandoned by everyone, including the Father evokes an emotional response that may cause someone to make a decision to follow Christ. But, what kind of God are these people deciding to follow? How deep is the commitment that is made by these people? I think that the distortions that this concept give of God, the loving Creator and Sustainer of the cosmos, are too many to recount.
So, what can we understand from this? Jesus, hanging on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” Rather than taking this as Jesus, the divine Son of God, perceiving a real break in his eternal relationship with the Father, we should see Jesus, the Son of man totally identifying with the humanity he came to redeem. We sometimes forget that the incarnation means that God came to dwell with humankind as a human being. As such, Jesus was open to experience all that being a human person could experience. As he came to the end of his life, he fully and completely became Emmanuel, God with us. As David expressed in Psalm 22 these very words that Jesus spoke; as the prophets cried out time and again, “where are you, God?”; as Job in the depths of his misery cried to see and speak with God who had apparently abandoned him; as countless women and men throughout history have experienced the desolation and loneliness of suddenly realizing that all seemed lost, Jesus tasted the true human condition, embraced it, and totally identified with it. The result? I am saved by a person who understands me. I have a high priest and advocate who knows what it’s like to live in a world that needs a compassionate Savior. More importantly, I have a heavenly Father who will not abandon me because I may get dirty while walking through this world. I have a God who is not afraid to get the divine hands dirty while lifting me from the muck and mire of my life. This God; Father, Son, Spirit can be trusted with our very lives because Jesus is Emmanuel.

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Just a thought…

Published by mhelbert on April 5, 2012

The story of the Father and the prodigal is one of my favorite stories in Scripture. It reveals the relentless love that our Abba has for humanity. This love, lavished on us, reveals that Yahweh also desires our love. Desires it so much that Jesus, the one and only Son of God, was ‘sent’ to make it possible for all of us to become the adopted daughters and sons of God. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find this amazing. Especially, as I look back over the train wrecks that I have left in my wake. God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, not only still puts up with me, but LOVES me!
And, not only me. The Scripture also speaks about rain falling on the just and the unjust. Luke 6:35 even takes it a step further. “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Yahweh is kind to those who would be enemies. How cool is that?
The text is clear at this point. We, as Christ followers, should emulate our Abba, even as Jesus did. It’s easy to say, “Oh, yeah, I love my enemy.” But, it’s the doing of the love that we sometimes lack.

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God in Humanity

Published by mhelbert on April 1, 2012

I was reading a portion of the Gospel according to Mark this morning. In chapter 14 Mark related the episode of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. As I reflected on the prayer in verse 36 became my focus. “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Most folks look at this as evidence of Jesus submission to the Father. They, therefore, jump to apply it to us. We must submit to the Father. However, I noticed something else. For the first time, at least as far as I know, Jesus will was something other than the Father’s. Up to this point Jesus had taught, healed, delivered and done everything as he saw the Father doing these things. His practice was in harmony with the will of the Father. But now, at the beginning of his passion, there is an apparent difference emerging. Jesus’ total identification with humanity was being revealed. Jesus’ will was that the cup would be taken from him. This cup that contained loneliness, separation from friends and family, loss, pain, humiliation, death. He experienced anxiety and fear. He tasted “self” as a person. This would culminate in a few hours on the cross as Jesus’ identification with humanity was complete: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken my?” Just as Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, and countless others had experienced the reality of separation between humanity and divinity, Jesus, totally immersed in his humanity, cried out his anguish to God. This is the human condition. The difference lay in Jesus’ response, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” I am glad that the one who sits at the right hand of God, the one who will judge, is also one with me.

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Some thoughts on prayer and identity

Published by mhelbert on March 24, 2012

As I press prayer deeper, I find that there are more than enough distractions to try and keep me from pressing prayer deeper. I’ve read quite a bit about the experiences of others who have plumbed the depths of contemplative prayer. They all speak about these annoying, mosquito-like distractions. And, they agree that we must hold these things in the light of God’s presence so that a conversation with God can shed light on them.

One such ‘distraction’ is the recurring memory of certain sins in my life. These were dealt with through confession and repentance long ago. But, as I begin to pray, some of these memories just show up. As I have brought these before Yahweh, have rehearsed events in my life that may have some connection to these things. They seem to end with the fact that I was adopted as an infant. I have learned a bit about my birth parents. Enough to know that I was pretty much an unplanned for accident. But, this alone does not explain the continued interruptions of my time with God.

Then, I began to realize that who I am is strongly connected to the communities that I have been a part of. These groups and systems have shaped my life, perhaps more than I realized. Family, school, friends, co-workers, and others have created environments in which I have both flourished and foundered. I think, however, that God wants me to consider the larger group: the Human family.

I have known for many years the depths I am capable of sinking to. There is no sense in trying to fool myself. Jesus articulated some of these, “out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22). In a word…‘me.’ Henri Nouwen wrote in The Wounded Healer, “Through compassion it is possible to recognize that the craving for love that people feel resides also in our own hearts, that the cruelty the world knows all too well is also rooted in our own impulses. Through compassion we also sense our hop for forgiveness in our friends’ eyes and our hatred in their bitter mouths. When they kill, we know that we could have done it; when they give life, we know that we can do the same. For a compassionate person nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying.”[1]

Perhaps, some of what I am experiencing is for my own healing. Maybe merciful Yahweh has seen fit to dust me off and polish me up a bit. No, lousy metaphor. Elohim has decided to crush me into dust in order to melt me and refashion me. Maybe other folks get dusted and polished, not me. But, I don’t think I’m alone. I am human! I stand in solidarity with humanity! I don’t know for sure where God is leading. But, what I do know is that God is completely trustworthy and faithful. Where ever this is going, I can trust Yahweh.

[1]Nouwen Henri J. M., The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, (New York: Doubleday, 1972), 45.

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More prayer stuff

Published by mhelbert on March 22, 2012

Yesterday I met with my spiritual director and we discussed the “task” of prayer. Like many protestants I have viewed prayer as something that one does. I get up; I say a prayer; I get on with the real business of the day. In the process, hopefully, I grow from being a newbie ‘pray-er’ into a mature and accomplished ‘pray-er.’ This was the crux of our discussion. I mentioned to him that the more I experience prayer, the more I realize how little I know about it.
His response was that I probably needed to view the time in prayer as “being” with God, not progressing from one level of proficiency to another. There is no destination to be reached or goal to be achieved. As I reflected on this, and other input and experience, I have begun to realize that prayer isn’t really something that one does. It’s something that we become. Prayer is an attitude that consumes one’s life, not simply a task that can be checked off of a “done” list.
Yes, I’m still a newbie. But, Thomas Merton wrote that we will always be considered beginners as we sound the depths of God’s great love and goodness.

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Lead us not…

Published by mhelbert on March 15, 2012

Temptation. That word has sent shivers up and down the spines of countless faithful for centuries. The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples in some translations has the line, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” peirasmós, translated temptation, (because of the negative sense derived from the context w/evil), also has the idea of test or trial. James wrote that the person who perseveres through trial is blessed. Thomas à Kempis wrote about this in The Imitation of Christ. No one, according to him, is immune to temptations and trials. They are, “troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed.” In another place, he refers to Paul’s statements that temptations are common to humanity. In these God will leave a way to get through them. The task, for à Kempis, is to not run from trials, but to let God help us through them. “Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just.”
This way of thinking seems to run counter to what we in the West would think. We want quick fixes. We don’t want to experience any discomfort, especially internally. When temptation comes, it starts in the mind. We are “tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (Jas. 1:14). The battle ground is laid within our thoughts and desires. Sin, then is born and matures into death. This is what scares people. What if I fail? Why can’t I simply get past these tests? We want to ‘pass’ them and graduate. There is no graduation in this life. Reliance on God the Holy Spirit is how we persevere. It is the crucible in which our minds are renewed and we are transformed; metamorphosed into the likeness of Christ. Rather than running from these trials, it seems that it is more important to embrace Yahweh and walk through the fire.

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In Obama’s own words…

Published by mhelbert on March 12, 2012

I found this interesting. So many of us are quick to pass judgment on others based on what we, fallible tho we are, think is correct. We hold ourselves up as the standard of virtue and propriety, and anyone who does not measure up to our expectations automatically becomes “other.”
In the current political races, some are quick to hold up their own morals and piety as that standard. They then proceed to castigate those who are somehow ‘less’ moral and pious. President Obama has been the target of much derision from the so-called ‘religious right.’ But, what does Obama have to say? I haven’t yet heard him engage in the same spiritual vitriol, but I could have simply missed it. What he has stated, or testified, can be read here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/president-obamas-theology-in-his-own-words/2012/02/21/gIQAUbqqRR_print.html

We are called to follow Christ. It is Jesus, alone, who can make the valid claim that “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” This authority is not shared. It is exclusive. Jesus is the ONLY one who is able to judge a person’s heart. Certainly not politicians.

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Love Fuels Devotion

Published by mhelbert on March 10, 2012

I’ve read several accounts of folks who have had spiritual experiences that manifest with physical sensations. Most notably, a burning in the heart or breast. Both John Wesley and Richard Rolle wrote about this. Today, as I was praying, I asked Yahweh about this. It seemed that such experiences fueled the ardor and devotion of these men. It sparked a holy desire to know and serve Christ. It also became a reminder of God’s goodness and love toward them. So, of course, I desired a similar experience. (How human.) But, I sensed the Lord pointing to the fact that I was there, in God’s presence, devoting my time and attention to God.The words that came to my mind were, “This is the fruit of love.” While the physical flame is absent, the burning desire to know communicate with and serve God is present. This is a result of Yahweh’s love for me. This agape of God is ever and always flowing outward. It flows outward from God to God’s good creation. Our love, if it is genuine, flows outward into the world so that both human and non-human creation is affected.
Maybe, someday Yahweh will bless me with a burning in my heart like Rolle and Wesley. Maybe not. But, I really don’t think that’s the point. Love and devotion…that’s the heart of it.

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Prayer is hard work

Published by mhelbert on March 1, 2012

As I journey on in learning more about prayer, I’m discovering how difficult it is. Yes, some say that it is so simple that a child can do it. True, but I’m not a child. I’ve read what some of the ‘master’ of prayer and the contemplative life have written, and there’s nothing in them that says ‘simple.’ In fact, they almost unanimously describe prayer as hard work. It is. Our will is not something that is easily bent away from its own comfort. We like the path of least resistance. To sit in the presence of Yahweh, and focus, pay attention, seek expectantly, watch and listen is difficult. Usually, after a short time, my mind wants to wander and imagine…anything but remain still. This is where I usually would stop and assume that the prayer time was ended. However, I’m finding that it’s important at precisely that moment to persevere and redouble my effort to focus. The Psalmist spoke to his soul. I find I am doing that. “O my soul, pay attention to the Lord. O my soul, listen; watch; seek.”
I’ve heard many people say that prayer is something we should do because it benefits us. That’s how we receive our ‘spiritual food’ from God. And, I think that this is partly accurate. What is more important, I think, is that we find our proper posture before the Creator of the Universe and can learn about God’s purposes in the world. Prayer is the communicative link to our Lord and Master. Do we receive explicit and detailed instructions? Usually not. At least for me at this time, I hear more about Yahweh’s character. God is about compassion for the ‘other.’ The Lord is about moving outward, not inward on self. Love, patience and mercy are present where the Lord is. Yahweh is interested in heavenly kingdom stuff. If this is accurate, then it points to where our interests and energy should be focused. Being a servant of God means to attend to our Master’s interests. Just a thought.

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