Tag: #musings

About the Truth

Published by mhelbert on May 15, 2025

Hi!
I want to apologize in advance. Today’s blog is longer than usual because I am citing two passages from the Bible.
One is from the Psalms the other from the Wisdom of Solomon. Yeah, I know, Wisdom isn’t ‘canonical.’ But, even that giant of the Reformation, Martin Luther said that the Apocrypha is useful. And, if you’re Roman Catholic, the Apocrypha IS part of the Canon.
The last time I wrote here I talked about politics. Not something that I really enjoy. But, a reality that affects everyone to one degree or another. I’ve tried to stay away from writing about the current political climate in the U.S. Especially, the administration of Pres. Donald Trump.
Truth be told, I don’t like Donald Trump. I especially don’t like the administration that he’s assembled to keep his ego stroked. And, I truly don’t like many of his ideas and policies. But, that’s not the real reason that I don’t like what’s happening in Washington.
First, let preface this with a bit of a qualifier. The present President and administration are no more unqualified or corrupt than any previous administration. Warren G. Harding’s Teapot Dome scandal comes to mind. But, let’s face it. Politics is dark game where stakes can be unimaginably high. Especially at the federal level.
So, why don’t I like Trump & Co.? If they’re no better nor worse than any administration, why single them out? Because they say and do the quiet stuff out loud? Because they are singularly evil or corrupt? I already stated that they’re no different than previous administrations.
Most of you know that I am a student of the Christian Bible. I have a Masters degree in Divinity. I truly love the Scriptures. A constant theme in the Bible is justice. The text demands righteousness of the leaders of ancient Israel. Those demands have not expired with the writing of the Christian New Testament. Maybe I’ll write more about that some other time. Right now I just want to share a couple passages from Scripture that speak to why Donald Trump is not on my list of favorite people. He is, however, on my prayer list.

Why do you boast, O mighty one,
of mischief done against the godly?
All day long you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.
You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah
You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
But God will break you down forever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
The righteous will see, and fear,
and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
“See the one who would not take
refuge in God,
but trusted in abundant riches,
and sought refuge in wealth.¹

For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
“Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;
when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.
“Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,
and make use of the creation to the full as in youth. Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
and let no flower of spring pass us by.
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
Let none of us fail to share in our revelry;
everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,
because this is our portion, and this our lot.
Let us oppress the righteous poor man;
let us not spare the widow
or regard the gray hairs of the aged.
But let our might be our law of right,
for what is weak proves itself to be useless.
“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”
Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls;
for God created us for incorruption,
and made us in the image of his own eternity,
but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.²

¹The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ps 52:1–7.
²The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Wis 2:1–24.

Nuthin’ to Say. It’s Friday.

Published by mhelbert on May 2, 2025

I don’t have anything particular to write about today.

I just feel like writing.
Sometimes we don’t need a reason to do something.

Like going for a walk in the woods.
Yeah, we can say that we need the exercise.

That some fresh air will do us some good.
But, it’s just the time we take to walk that’s important.
Or, maybe it’s just a matter of killing some time.

Lord knows that I’ve shot my share of seconds and minutes over seven decades of walking on the surface of the Big, Blue Ball.

Those times when ya just sit on your butt in front of the LED screen. (What used to be the “tube”).
Or, maybe wander aimlessly through a good book.

Soaking up the life of imaginary characters in an imaginary world.

I don’t know about y’all, but my bookshelves are chock full of hours of my time.
But, really, what better way to waste time?

Ok, playing guitar is up there as well.

The countless scales and chops that have exercised my fingers and my mind.

Where have all of those notes gone?

Vapor. Smoke. Gone.

Or, are they?

Perhaps their resonance is still being felt and heard by some flock of Puffins somewhere.
Maybe the waves of sound have bounced and ricocheted through the clouds and found their way into the oceans where they confuse the dolphins and whales.

Can you imagine the solo from Kid Charlemagne guiding a pod of orcas

It would be fun to see them dancing among the waves!
Right now I’m wasting my time at this keyboard.

The one safe place that my own thoughts can dance like those orcas.

I have nothing to say of any import.

I just like the sound of the keys clicking under the weight of my fingers; under the weight of my mind.

Isn’t it amazing how our species has reduced communication to such media?

From the chicken scratches of cuneiform to the simple 24 characters that we English speakers use to form the mist of ideas into the clay of language.

Look at us grow!
Is it growth?

Has the reduction of our thoughts and stories to characters arranged in a certain order truly been the cultural boon that so many post-moderns think it is?

I think of the oral traditions that once carried our culture and our lives from one generation to the next.

I try to imagine the relationships that were once held sacred as a storyteller told of the ancestors’ wisdom.

How the people looked into the eyes and the hearts of each other. Is our way truly so advanced? I don’t know.

The connections that language create between people seem to have been sloughed off as some archaic relic that we no longer need.
I don’t know.

I’m just rambling here because I can.

Right now I’d rather waste my time typing away than watching Andrew Zimmern prattle on about some “Delicious Destination.”

Soon I have to get ready to go to work

A different kind of wasting time.

A waste, nonetheless.
Someone’s gotta slice the bread and pack the cookies so that privileged white people can have their goodies.
Fun. Well, not really.
It is what it is. And, the clock hands keep spinning, spinning, spinning.

Repent! (Or, Change the Way You Think About Repentance)

Published by mhelbert on September 29, 2022

Repent! For the end is near!

Back in the early 1970s folks carrying signs with those words were ubiquitous. You couldn’t go to a concert or sporting event without someone taking advantage of the crowd to preach this message.
The world was in a time of crisis then. The Cold War with the U.S.S.R. The hot war with Viet Nam. Hippies and Straights. Blacks and Whites.
It was a period of our history fraught with fear and uncertainty.

Enter the Apocalyptic religious folks.

They stoked our fear with the threat of Divine destruction looming just over the next hill.
In many ways, all of these fears and threats lead directly to the Jesus Movement of that era.

Times have changed a bit since then.

Although there are still many potentially existential threats in the Wide World, much of the imminent threat has passed.

The idea of “Repentance” has also morphed a bit. It no longer has that feel of immediacy that it once had. Recently, the priest of the church that I attend preached a sermon on repentance. He shared the fairly common trope about how sin can creep into our lives. So, we need to repent of that.
In fairness, the main thrust of the sermon was that God is always, always, always eager and ready to Forgive! But, the underlying text is that we are first sinners in need of forgiveness. So, repent!

While I don’t disagree with this particular take on the topic, I do think that it is sorely lacking.
There is much more nuance and meaning in the simple word “repent” than many consider.

A literal look at the language used in the Biblical text reveals a multivalent meaning.
In Hebrew there are primarily two words that we translate “repent.”
One of them carries the meanings of being sorry or moved to pity or compassion for someone else. In the book of Judges states, “for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them.” In this text the Lord was “moved to pity.” That’s how the word was translated.
Another meaning does hold on to the meaning of sorrow for one’s own actions. This would involve suffering grief for things done or not done to or for others and ourselves. That seems to be more in line with our traditional understanding of the word.
The same word can also mean to comfort and console someone.

Another word in the Hebrew text carries the idea of “turning back,” “to return,” or “to withdraw.” The Prophet Isaiah uses it to say, “In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”

In the New Testament the language is much the same.
The primary word carries the meanings of changing one’s mind, to have remorse for an action, or to turn about and change direction.

The 1st century Jewish historian, Josephus, gives an example of how this language was used and understood at the time that the New Testament was written.
There was a brigand in Galilee who Josephus went to try and chill. This guy tried to kill Josephus, but the plot failed. So, Josephus got this person aside and he told him,

“that I was not ignorant of the plot which he had contrived against me…; I would, nevertheless, condone his actions if he would show repentance and prove his loyalty to me. All this he promised…”

This use of “repentance” simply meant that the brigand would stop stirring up shit and align himself with Josephus.

So, why do modern preachers and believers jump straight to “Sin” when they think of repentance? What is it that causes good intentioned folks to stand in front of a group of others and say, “You Must Repent!”? I remember back in the days of the commune that I lived in, if anyone said something that countered on of the Elders, the first word out of that Elder’s mouth was “Repent!”
That one word has caused more confusion and fear among good people than it should.

I think that it would be far better if we used language that’s not so bogged down with garbled, theological baggage.
We can use words like “return” or “withdraw” or “change your mind.” These don’t immediately conjure images of a wrathful deity with a finger ready to push the “Smite” button. Using better language may allow folks to actually stop and think. Perhaps, to take stock of what they think and do rather than smacking them upside the head and telling them that they are wrong and had better Repent!

I’m not sure why I wrote all of this. I guess it’s just a vent. After all, this is my blog and I can pretty much say what I want.
But, I think that there are others out there who have a misguided idea of one of religions more misunderstood and loaded words.
If only one reader finds some freedom from this, then I’m good with that.