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Stop The Presses! Breaking News!

Published by mhelbert on August 18, 2020

I am currently in the process of updating my Blog Site.
It’s fun experimenting with new themes and appearances.

I am also adding a new page.
It is specific to Bible Stuff. (Hence the name of the page!)
That page will contain some of the things that I’m learning for the St. Barnabas Bible study.
It will also contain my own personal study points and opinions.

Should be Fun!

The Blog, itself, will continue to deal with faith and culture issues.

Let me know what you think of the New Look and Content as I start to roll it out over the next week or so!

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On A Positive Note…

Published by mhelbert on April 16, 2020

I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to expose the negative side of the Church.
The abuses of authority; the harmful theology; the elevation of ME above all else.
These criticisms are well deserved. People have been harmed by the Church. And, it really doesn’t matter what flavor Church. Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox are all culpable in the abuses.
The public results of these abuses, besides lives ruined, includes the loss of any claim to the so-called Moral High Ground.
In other words, the Church has destroyed her ability to be a Blessing to the Cosmos.

So, what should things look like?
Honestly, no one can say for certain what God has planned for it.
But, we can sketch a few things.
Things that, rather than tearing down, may reveal a way forward in Love and Faithfulness.

So, let’s start.
In the beginning….

The writers of Holy Scripture were people just like us. They lived in a particular time, place, and culture that colored the words that they wrote. So, for them such things as a cosmos that was created Ex Nihilo was just the way things were.
These writers presented their readers with a problem. The problem was, God created the Heavens and the Earth. In God’s abundant Love humans were made for the expressed purpose of caring for the Earth as God’s Special Envoys. The intent was for humanity to embody God’s glory as Eikons of God. They would rule jointly with God over the creation.
But, there was a problem. Humanity could not live up to God’s calling. They were, after all, made of the same stuff that the cosmos was…dust.
Soon the problem came to a head when humanity took it upon themselves to listen to and embrace other creatures. Idolatry and the corruption that comes with that began to mar the Very Good Cosmos that God had made.
But, God was still convinced that humanity MUST be a part of God’s plan for guiding and caring for the World.
So, God ‘elected’ a family.
For those who know a little about the story of Israel, you will have heard of a guy named Abraham. God chose Abraham and his descendants to become the agents of God’s blessing for the Cosmos. The story continues through Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, to the selection of a community, Israel.
Israel’s history was checkered at best.
But, God had made a covenant with Abraham that, because of Abraham’s faithfulness to God’s promises, stated that the entire Cosmos would be blessed.
God took that Covenant seriously and was faithful to it in spite of Israel’s inability to live up to its calling.
In time, God, who had chosen Israel as the people through whom the blessing would come, raised up One Person from Israel.
This One Person became God’s own Image-bearer. An image-bearer who would do what the original humans, nor Israel, could.
Through the death of Jesus the problem of humanity’s inability to live up to God’s Glorious Calling at the beginning was solved. The resurrection of Jesus from the grave proved God’s faithfulness to set things right.

Ok, nice story.
But, so what?

God had done something that no one expected.
Because of the faithfulness of Jesus, all of humanity had the opportunity to share in Jesus’ faithfulness. We, in fact, have been joined together into the family of God’s Promise to Abraham. We are benefactors of God’s Covenant with Abraham.
God, in God’s own love and Being, put us into a Community.
A living Community where God’s own Spirit lives and brings life.
We are not a bunch of individuals going about our own personal business. Living in our own personal salvation.
No.
We are, as Peter wrote, ‘A royal priesthood and a Holy Nation.’

We. Belong. Together.

Together we are to be a blessing to the whole Cosmos.
Together we reflect the Glory of God to each other, to God, and to the World.
Together!
Together!

That is our hope and our calling.
And, that’s a good thing.

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Wednesday Morning Musings

Published by mhelbert on November 13, 2019

They say the History repeats itself.
They also say that if we don’t learn from History
Then we are doomed to repeat it.

Which is it?
Will History repeat whether we learn from It or not?

And, who are “They”?
Who installed “They” as the be all and end all of knowing?

If History does repeat, is It like a scratch on an old vinyl record?
“tch, Play me again. tch, Play me again. tch, Play me again. tch, Play me again.
Perhaps it’s like selecting Repeat on my digital device.
Then, I can hear my favorites over and over until they, too, become cliché.

I’m still waiting for History to repeat a Love Story.
You know the one! That one where the Author of “The Greatest Story Ever Told”
Loves us to Death?
Then, Loves us back to Life.

Yeah.

I would kinda like to see that History repeat.

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Change is in the Air

Published by mhelbert on January 17, 2019

Hey, gang! Yes, I’m talking to all 4 of you!

There are some changes coming to this site in the near future.

I hope to continue with topics that we’ve all grown to know and love. However, I’m planning to focus more of my time and energy writing and publishing in 2019. Eventually, I plan to use this site to share and promote my prose and poetry.

To you who have been faithfully following my ramblings, THANK YOU!!!! I really appreciate you more than you can know. I hope that you’ll stick around through the coming changes.

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Is There Truly Only “One Way”?

Published by mhelbert on December 10, 2018

If you have known me long enough, then you know that I question pretty much everything. Yesterday at church the Priest stated that he was a “good little rule follower.” As I sat in the pew I thought, “Oh, you poor, poor man.” You see, I’ve never met a rule that didn’t really, really want someone to come along and push against it. I know, it’s a tough job. But, someone’s gotta do it.

So, it’s know surprise when I push back against theologies that claim to be “the only, true way.” To be honest, most religious sects do make those claims. But, I’m only really familiar with neo-Calvinism. I was well-steeped in a theology that made/makes truth claims that, well, simply cannot be sustained. There are other ways to look at “Truth.” I have provided a link to a podcast with Pete Enns. Pete is a kindred spirit and someone whom I respect as a scholar. Pete’s guest in this episode is someone who came out o neo-Calvinism and landed in Eastern Orthodoxy. I’d encourage you to take 42 minutes to give this a listen.

Here is the link to “The Bible and Orthodox Faith”

Again, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. And, click on ‘Subscribe’ in the sidebar if you would like to receive notifications from this blog.

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It Is Finished. Or, Maybe, It Has Just Begun

Published by mhelbert on December 9, 2018

Well, folks, I pulled the trigger. I have deleted my Facebook, Twitter, and tumbler accounts. I do need to tell you that it wasn’t easy. Even as I sat with my finger hovering over the‘Enter’ key, I was considering ways that I would be able to maintain some presence. Facebook offers partial canceling. I thought, that might work ok. I can use that. Then, when I find myself in the throes of Social Media Withdrawal I can simply log in and say, “JK!”

Both Facebook and Twitter have a 30 day wait period before they actually begin to delete stuff. So, I do have that time to reconsider. And, like I wrote in my last post, I don’t have any idea if or when I’ll be back traversing the InterWebs. However, having escaped it, I’m afraid that venturing back along the strands of the web may put me in peril like Ynyr in the 80s fantasy movie, “Krull.” I don’t think that I would be able to escape unscathed. Even if I could get my hands on some of the sand from the enchanted hourglass.

Anyway, it’s done.

Now what?

I plan to spend more time here. I hope to continue posting material that you all have found so riveting. All, what, 5 of you?

I’m going to try to use this platform for sharing, also. So, I may create more posts that are shorter. But, they will have links to other sources that I may comment on.

Like this:

Yesterday I read a blog post written by Carl McColman. In it he shared a common problem associated with social media.It does not lend itself to well-developed discussion. Like any remote communications, e-mail, social media, even writing letters, we aren’t able to communicate our true thoughts and feelings. There is lacking the physical presence and ‘body language’ that helps others to really “get” what we try to say. That problem seems to be more pronounced, however, when we simply react to something that someone writes or shares. There have been many times when I’ve had to come back and explain something that I shared that someone else misinterpreted. Those are awkward and can be damaging to relationships.

Relationships? Can people even have and develop those through social media? I don’t think so. It’s too easy to fall into the sin of “assumed familiarity.” We connect with someone online. We read what they share. And, we begin to think that we actually know that person. However, our understanding is far from the reality of things. I recently experienced this. I ‘assumed’ that I was a friend with someone. In fact, we even know each other away from the internet. But, I apparently misunderstood the depth of that relationship and feelings were hurt all around.

See? Short and sweet with a link to boot! We’ll see how this type of posting goes. I can always tweek it depending on how it is received.

I also hope to use this platform to share things that I write. I may share some poetry or excerpts from some other piece that I work on. Perhaps, eventually, I may be able to offer completed works to followers who are interested.

I don’t know where this will ultimately go. Since I began it several years ago I have experimented with different things. I would expect that changes will continue to be made. Nothing is etched in stone. This is, after all, only a bunch of 1s and 0s gathered together in a specific order.

So, I hope to see you here. Bring friends! We’ll have a party! (You will have to supply your own libation of choice.)

Be sure to ‘Follow’ the blog if you want to receive updates. Also, leave a comment!

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Next Steps

Published by mhelbert on December 7, 2018

Hey, All!

It’s been a little while since I last visited here. There has been a lot happening. So, I want to take a minute to share a bit of it with you.

November was National Novel Writing Month. I decided that it was past time for me to write something. My dear old, gray haired Daddy used to say to me, “Son, you need to shit or get off the pot.” So, I shit. Or, rather, I took the opportunity to focus my energy on writing a novel. The goal of NaNoWriMo was to write 50,000 words over the course of one month. And, I’m happy to say that I DID IT!!!! Yay!!! While I met the goal of the challenge, it wasn’t until today that I actually finished the story. And, truth be told, it’s not great. In fact, it’s pretty bad. But, that’s not the point. The point is that I DID IT!!!! Yay!!! I created a lump of word clay that, hopefully, I’ll be able to mold and fashion into something worthwhile. That’s the aim of a first draft. Get words out there where they can be worked with. Now that I’ve done that, I’m going to put the story away to ferment for a couple weeks. I hope to start the editing process after the holidays.

Ah, yes…the Holidays. All I can say about that is Bah! Humbug! This is not the most wonderful time of the year for me. And, I know it’s not for a lot of other people as well. There are lots of reasons why people who grew up immersed in our Western winter holidays feel as I do. But, I’m not going to write a list. You know who you are and why you feel like you do. Hopefully, we’ll all get to January ready to pick up our lives in the New Year.

In recent months I’ve taken some time to re-evaluate some things. I was kind of forced into this by recent political events. I first noticed my anxiety and stress levels climbing during the Brett Kavanaugh debacle. I’m pretty sure that a more unqualified jurist could not be found. It was also clear that the will of the majority of citizens was that the Senate should have stopped the confirmation process and sent the nomination back to the White House for a new choice. Now, I know that some reading this may disagree with me. They may think that a majority of citizens did not feel this way. That’s ok. I really can’t concern myself with that. But, I will point to the recent mid-term elections as evidence for my case.

That brings me to another event that has been chasing peace away…the mid-terms. The divide in this nation, and I might add, around the world, is real, people. It seems that it’s far more important to win than to be right. Lies trump the truth. (See what I did there?) Partisanship takes precedent over the common good or the will of the people. I mean, look at what the GOP in Wisconsin just did to the incoming Dem. Governor and Attorney General. Don’t’know? Google it.

It seems that everywhere I turn I am faced with divisiveness and hatred. Xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia…it’s all fear, folks. Fear triggers the fight or flight reaction that has allowed us as a species to grow and thrive through a million years of evolution. But, if it is sustained, it causes real damage to one’s mind and body. Our Western culture, particularly in the U.S., has been running on high adrenaline for way too long.

It’s come to the point that I need to step back from things for my own health. I think ,also, in order to fulfill my own calling.

I have spent a lot of time reading,studying, and following news and events online and on television. Now, these things are not inherently bad. In fact, they are all beneficial in their own ways. And, I hope to continue them. However, there is a text recorded by one of the writers of the Gospels referring to folks who gave a tithe to the Jerusalem temple without fail. Yet, they neglected to do the good and right things when it came to justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Jesus told them that they should have not just focused on their giving. But, they should have done the one without neglecting the other. Well, in a way, I have done just that. I have been so focused on studying and sharing my thoughts and opinions that I have neglected the interior work that must be done by any person who would call him or herself a follower of Jesus. That interior work involves contemplation,meditation, and prayer. These practices helped to open my eyes many years ago to how wrong it is for people to get caught up in following a set of rules and calling that ‘christianity.’ It was in the quietness of ‘waiting on the Lord’ that God’s grace became my reality. So, I have begun to take the time I would have given to study in order to offer it to God in stillness. I trust that God will not reject that.

And, finally, I am going to make some changes regarding my online presence. This Sunday I intend to walk away from social media for a while. How long? I have no idea. Until God presses me to go back, I guess. What this will mean is that I will delete and deactivate every social media account I now have. Facebook, twitter, tumblr, Instagram…all of them.

“But,wait! How will we communicate with you? How will you share all of those priceless nuggets of wisdom that we’ve grown to know and love?”

Yeah, I hear ya. But, not to worry. I will continue to write and share here. My WordPress blog will be my primary avenue for online communication. You can follow it by selecting below. That way, you’ll get a notification whenever something new is posted. You can also use the comments to share your own thoughts and feelings with me. Note, I said ‘with me.’ That doesn’t mean that what you share will automatically be broadcast to anyone else. We can share it publicly if we want. Or, it can remain just between us.

You can share your e-mail address and we can communicate electronically. That way we can continue to stay in touch.

A better way, I think, would be to share postal addresses. Yes, I mean snail mail. Why? Well, it’s a far more personal and thoughtful way to communicate. It’s way too easy to give into the tyranny of the expedient with sound bytes and emojis doing our talking for us. Taking time to think about words and how they may impact another person is too important. Yet, daily we toss our responsibility away with our shallow interactions. As important as the electronic communities are for many, it’s important to remember that They Are Not Real! They exist in the ether of the World Wide Web. And, while that location is not a real place, it is a web. It can be as sticky as any spider’s. And, just as deadly.

So, what do you think? Have I lost it? Am I succumbing to that malady called ‘old age’? No, I don’t think so. But, somethings are becoming more important to me. Recently, I found a cache of old letters that one of my great-aunts had sent to my parents. As I read through these notes I was struck by how these words had transcended the years. I held, in my hands, thoughts that had been created in the mind of another human. She had taken the time to formulate specific ideas and articulate them on paper for one specific purpose. That purpose was not to gain followers or so that her brilliance could ‘go viral.’ No, she simply desired to touch another person’s heart with hers.

We have gained a hell of a lot with the technological advances that have been made. This is both good and wonderful.

But, perhaps we should not neglect the one at the expense of the other.

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In The Beginning….

Published by mhelbert on August 16, 2018

Blazing Bubble Bursts!

White hot atoms form!

Escape!

Where shall we build it?

Everywhere! Anywhere! Go!

Now!

And, so it was formed.

Every color and form.

Look!

Singularity.

All has arisen!

Behold!

And, it was all Good!

It was Very Good!

As I’ve struggled with trying to discover an answer to my question, “Who Are You God…Really?” I was drawn to the initial spark that became the Cosmos. Who is God in relation to all that we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch? And, what does that have to do with me getting up every day and driving into the city to work? Or, returning home to family and responsibilities and, well, just “Life” stuff.

The short verse I wrote is built with 2 lines of 5 syllables followed by an exclamation.

Except for the end where the last 2 lines leave off into space where all sorts of possibilities live.

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Let It Be So, Now

Published by mhelbert on July 31, 2018

The first time that the writer of Matthew noted the actual words of Jesus was when Jesus traveled to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin, John. Why this time and this event I’m not sure. Why didn’t the writer have anything to say about Jesus’ younger days? But, except for Luke and his record of Jesus as a 12 year old, the Canon is silent.

John had been baptizing people who came from all over Palestine. He was apparently a simple man. His clothing was common and the food he ate was what he could gather from nature. Even the message that he preached to those seeking baptism was simple, “Repent! For the Kingdom of God has come near!” He freely baptized anyone who came and confessed whatever sins they may have committed. And, John was not afraid to get right up in the face of people who thought that they were oh so pure. He was more than happy to help them ‘discover’ the error of their ways.

Into this strolled Jesus.

He walked down to be baptized. John tried to deflect him by saying, “Whoa! I’m the one who should be baptized by You! Yet, you came to me?” John recognized something about Jesus that apparently no one else did. To John, Jesus was the master and he the student. Masters didn’t do things like this. So, naturally, John “tried to hold him back.”
It’s kind of ironic that John, acting as the lesser of the two, made a presumption about Jesus and tried to enforce it. He recognized Jesus as Master, and then told him, “No! You can’t do that!” Imagine saying No to your boss!

Jesus didn’t respond by saying, “John, John…you simple man. You have no clue what you’re saying. Don’t you realize who I am? Now, stop talking nonsense and do your job.”

Instead, Jesus simply said, “Let it be so now. For this way is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness”.

I can see a smile on Jesus’ face when he said this. In a way he said, “Yeah, I know. But, there’s something going on here that’s bigger than both of us. So, John, please do this.” He did not simply dismiss John and his concerns. In fact, he honored John’s inclusion, “For this way is proper for US…” Jesus, Son of God and all, demurred and humbly asked his cousin to render this service to him.

So, I learned that God has a streak of humility. God doesn’t seem to need to strut into a situation and throw the Divine reputation around. “Hi. I’m God. And, you’re not.”

No, Jesus showed that he needed others in order to fulfill his calling.

What about the rest of what Jesus said? What’s all that about ‘fulfilling all righteousness?

I found at least EIGHT different ways to understand this statement. The text itself only contains 8 Greek words. Yet we have at least that many ways to explain them! (For those who think that a ‘simple’ reading of the Bible is the best way? It’s not!)

One of the reasons states that this baptism was an act that needed to be performed. Jesus was, in effect, checking an item off of his Messiah ‘To Do’ list. But, there’s not a lot of evidence to back that up.

Another was that, like the folks over at the Qumran community, he was performing a ritual cleansing. But, if Jesus was Divine, this was an unnecessary formality. The early Church recognized the doctrine of Jesus’ sinless nature. So, what was he being cleansed of?

There was only one reason out of all the ones I found that seems to fit. It fits Jesus’ humility shown to John as well as his humility to God the Father. It also fits what we may assume was Jesus’ perception of his role as Son.

He was somehow aware of what the Father desired and knew that this was simply the right thing to do.

Jesus acted on a gut feeling that God desired him to go to his cousin, yeah the weird one, and allow his cousin to baptize him.

How much of this act did in fact have some basis in Jewish custom and ritual? Don’t know; don’t care. It’s not important.

What is important, and I think the point here, was that Jesus desired to please God.

So, Mike’s paraphrase of this verse would be something like, “Please, John, do this for me. It’s the right thing for me to do to please God at this time.”

What does any of this have to do with my question, “Who are you God…Really?”

I think that there are a few things here that I can learn.

1) God can be pleased. Or, better, we can do things that make God smile.
2) Jesus revealed sensitivity to both God and John. God must also be sensitive to what we think and say.
3) Jesus was humble. He chose to honor his cousin. He didn’t use the “God card.” He chose to John in this simple act of pleasing the Father.
4) Some things may not be morally or theologically right or wrong. Would Jesus have been less than divine if he hadn’t gone to John? No, I don’t think so. But, for him, doing the right thing was, well, the right thing to do.

One thing that was not mentioned here was that God somehow “led” Jesus to be baptized. I just finished a book by Richard Stearns who has been the CEO of World Vision for the last several years. In this book Stearns wrote again and again how God led him to become CEO. He shared examples of what he understood to be supernatural interventions that guided him from a lucrative position in business to become the head of an international aid agency. But, behind all of that, he wrote about his and his wife’s own passion to be involved in cross cultural missions. They had been involved in various missions’ conferences and had read literature about missionaries and the work that they did. But, his education and vocation didn’t seem to fit. Eventually, he said that he could no longer ignore the ‘signs.’ God was, in effect, forcing his hand. I don’t believe that God’s in that kind of business. Yes, I think that we are each capable of seeing various routes to take and what the various outcomes may be. That is where we discern what may be the best path for us. We may know what would be pleasing to God. But, ultimately it’s up to us to make the choice. Or not. God doesn’t coerce a decision one way or another. God doesn’t stack the deck for us to make one decision over another. We are co-workers with God in redemption. There’s a big world out there with lots of need. God simply asks us what we are going to do. The decision is ultimately ours. Just as Jesus’ decision to be baptized by John was his own.

And, it pleased the Father.

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Some Words of Thomas Merton

Published by mhelbert on September 1, 2017

Last night I was reading Thomas Merton’s small book entitled, “Contemplative Prayer.” In it Merton wrote about Christian meditation in the context of how monks within a monastery practice it.

At the end I came upon some interesting words. Interesting because they were written about 50 years ago just before Merton died in 1968.

“One thing is quite certain: the humility of faith, if it is followed by the proper consequences-by the acceptance of the work and sacrifice demanded by our providential task-will do far more to launch us into the full current of historical reality than the pompous rationalizations of politicians who think they are somehow the directors and manipulators of history. Politicians may indeed make history, but the meaning of what they are making turns our, inexorably, to have been something in a language they will never understand, which contradicts their own programs and turns all their achievements into an absurd parody of their promises and ideals.

Of course, it is true that religion on a superficial level, religion that is untrue to itself and to God, easily comes to serve as the ‘opium of the people.’ And this takes place whenever religion and prayer invoke the name of God for reasons and ends that have nothing to do with him. When religion becomes a mere artificial facade to justify a social or economic system-when religion hands over its rites and language completely to the political propagandist, and when prayer becomes the vehicle for a purely secular ideological program-then religion does tend to become and opiate. It deadens the spirit enough to permit the substitution of a superficial fiction and mythology for this truth of life. And this brings about the alienation of the believer, so that his religious zeal becomes political fanaticism. His faith in God, while preserving its traditional formulas, becomes in fact faith in his own nation, class or race. His ethic ceases to be the law of God and of love, and becomes the law that might-makes-right: established privilege justifies everything. God is the status quo.” *

As I read these words, they seemed to foresee the future in which we now live. People who lay claim to the historic faith of the Church pervert the way of God and bend it to their own will. They worship their own image. And, we end up with abominations like the Nashville Statement. So-called religious people use their false-faith to tear down and destroy through political means every good thing that God truly builds.

If our religion does not lead us to God for God’s own sake and love, then it is false religion. We have a responsibility to call this out as ‘fake faith.’ Period. End of story.

*Merton, Thomas, “Contemplative Prayer,” Image Books, 1969, p. 91.

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