It's me, mike hillebrecht

It is freaking cold outside! Like someone moved the polar cap to my front door.
This posting is not about this phenomenon, but it is about extremes. This nation, if not the world at large, seems to have shifted. Battle line have been drawn, the camps are entrenched behind their dogma and self-righteous doctrine. It is either this cause or that cause, period. Classic dualism.

In a recent article at Edge.org, Professor Steven Pinker explains the principle of the second law of thermodynamics as follows:

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in an isolated system (one that is not taking in energy), entropy never decreases. (The First Law is that energy is conserved; the Third, that a temperature of absolute zero is unreachable.) Closed systems inexorably become less structured, less organized, less able to accomplish interesting and useful outcomes, until they slide into an equilibrium of gray, tepid, homogeneous monotony and stay there.

I think that Professor Pinker’s explanation is a proper declaration for what occurs when we divide ourselves into camps of interest whether they are camps devoted to politics, religion, sports, food, cars, clothes or any other camp whose identity is established on a standard that opposes another camp. Camps are closed systems. Republicans do not think like Democrats; Catholics don’t believe like Protestants; Ford truck people don’t know anything like Dodge truck people do. It is everywhere.

Yet, according to the good professor’s claim, these closed systems are less able to accomplish interesting and useful outcomes. Point at Washington D.C. and any other political center across this globe and you can see this as the daily grind from the clash of camps. Look at our spiritual centers around the world and you’ll witness the proclamation of exclusion rather than the gospel of inclusion as communities of believers fracture more and more around doctrinal issues rather than face the mandate of going into the world to make disciples.

Disciples. Not converts. But disciples of what? Dualistic thinkers are always stuck right here. They can never see any choice that doesn’t align with their meta-narrative on either side of the issue.

Paraphrasing author Cynthia Bourgeault from her book The Law of Three, when there are two forces, one opposing and one agreeing, each committed to their ideology, progress never happens. Only when a third force is introduced, will any change or movement occur. This third, or reconciling force, will pull from the other two and develop a new direction that neither had the ability to construct on their own. The new direction will create the next agreeing and opposing forces over time which, as in our example of above, achieve entropy until the third force is introduced again. No advancement or sustained movement will occur without the involvement of the third, reconciling force.

Did that help you see what type of disciple? No, then how about this little beauty:

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2Co 5:20)

God does not care what camp you belong too because He reconciled you. You are a new creation. Neither camp could create you, only God could. Now you are to be the reconciling force that causes things to move forward. Believers are not members of a political party; they reconcile parties into a new direction that neither party could advance on their own. Believers aren’t members of a denomination; they are the force that changes the world by advancing the reconciling fact of God’s love for them. Nations/states are not God nation/states; they are regions of reconciliation between nation/states who are unable to move into their destiny because of polarization of ideologies.

Hunger, homelessness, child abuse, abortion, sex trafficking, pollution, terrorism, military intervention, economic upheaval, just to name a few things; the world has issues, real-life matters that are not being addressed by anyone, simply because battle lines have been drawn. It’s time to take the role we’ve been placed in and use our God-given talents to make things happen rather than choosing a side we think God wants us to be on.

Don’t for one moment think that these matters can’t be changed by the likes of you. Small things make a big impact on global issues. Quit waiting for someone to do something when you’re the reconciling force. Start somewhere, look for an impasse and make it passable. If you can’t envision yourself doing this then it is quite possible that you have succumbed to the second law of thermodynamics, an equilibrium of gray, tepid, homogeneous monotony content to stay there. Sounds like church to me.
You have been called to always be the separation between the entropic institutions of church and state.

Over the past year, I’ve been trying to figure out a series of questions, rather important, but seemingly overlooked by most people. I’ve expressed it here as one my concerns. Recently I read a book by N.T. Wright, possibly one of the foremost New Testament scholars we have around these days. His most recent book entitled The Day the Revolution Began is rather a bold declaration upon the stale field of religion. Within the pages, I found someone who was asking and grappling with the same questions I have. What impressed me the most was how Mr. Wright willingly admitted that the material he was presenting actually went counter to a number of claims that he had made in previous sermons and publications, but that his research had produced a new line of thought which he believed aligned much better to the understanding that the first church possessed. What follows is my attempt to convey one of the answers as he sees it.

Whenever I am confronted by a die-hard believer, I have two standard questions I ask them to determine if they know how to study. The first: Do you believe Jesus died for our sins? A simple question that has one answer in any Christian doctrine. The follow up is the one which reveals their understanding. If Jesus did die for our sins, how is it that he didn’t die on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement according to the Hebrew calendar, and died instead on Passover, the celebration of the exodus of Israel from Egypt? What’s your answer? Before you dismiss it as being irrelevant, you better think again. Its impact is monumental.

In the books of Moses, God instructs the children of Israel to celebrate a number of festivals and holy days. Each one has a very specific meaning and there is a great deal of preparation that went into these events both by the priestly class and the people. Three festivals were required to be attended by all the males in the land every year at the Temple: Passover; Pentecost; and Tabernacles. Yom Kippur is a holy day where the high priest would present a sacrifice once a year for the sins of the people. This day falls a few weeks before the festival of Tabernacles, an autumn celebration of the final harvest of abundance provided by God in the land.

Passover is a springtime event, celebrating the release from captivity in Egypt the children of Israel. This ceremony reenacted their last night in Egypt where Moses had instructed them to sacrifice a lamb and place its blood over the lintel and upon the door posts of their homes to prevent the angel of death from coming upon their household as it did to the people and king of Egypt. The lamb was to be cooked by fire (BBQ!) and eaten with bread which was unleavened because they didn’t have time to wait for it to rise. This was fast food for a quick departure.

Josephus, the Jewish historian during the days of Jesus, comments that Passover in Jerusalem was always a time of high anxiety with both the Jews and the Romans. Since the history of this festival celebrated the release from captivity, the Jews were on high alert their Messiah would appear during this festival to remove the foreigners from their land, while the Romans did everything in their power to squash any uprising.

Consideration must also be made for the topic of sin as it related to the Second Temple time period. You’ll recall that the first temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed when the Babylonians invaded the land and took the people away. This series of events had been foretold by the prophets to the kings of Israel and Judah but their words were never heeded. Every warning declared the cause for these actions: the worship of idols rather than the worship of Jehovah. Throughout their Babylonian captivity, it was made very clear to all that their condition stemmed from their sin of worshipping idols.

When the people were permitted to return to the land, they immediately began rebuilding a new temple for worship to Jehovah. However, the second temple never experienced the same infilling that the first had even though the same ceremonies were conducted every year. Furthermore, because Israel was viewed as subjects in a number of empires after their return, they still held to the belief that their sin of idolatry was still keeping them from the fullness of the blessing of Jehovah. This is the backdrop to the environment on that fateful day when the revolution began.

What reason could Jesus have to choose the Passover ceremony as the time to present himself to death for the people of Israel? If the prevalent idea during the Second Temple period about sin meant the act and results from idolatry, how does this affect us today when we think sin has to do with a moral failure? How did those who saw Jesus as the Messiah understand his role at the crucifixion as being completed or a complete failure? Was the crucifixion truly an atoning act in the minds of the second temple followers?

Maybe it’s time to step back and seriously rethink what we’ve been led to believe throughout the centuries about this whole matter. Is it possible that the story of what was truly accomplished on that day can still turn the world upside down when it’s told properly? I think so.

You’re possibly sitting there waiting for the answer to my questions. Well so am I. This book is a great resource for exploring them, but you’ll need to make the discovery yourself. After all, if I give away the ending what did you get out of it? Maybe you need to start asking the questions you know aren’t being asked and then see what comes from it.

In the beginning, God created…

That is a pretty monumental opening to a book with the story that most are familiar with. However, what does it require the reader to assume? First, and this is just my thoughts, they must know that there is a God. Second, that God existed before the beginning, whenever that was. So let’s take a moment to address the first assumption.

God, the divine, Creator, El, Yahweh, Jehovah or a whole host of other name, all boil down to one thing: The writer believes in a higher power than themselves to create the world’s stage. Sure, some don’t believe in the existence of this being, but that only means any of us can have a different perspective too. Let’s go with the popular opinion for the last several thousand years and say that according to a super-majority of people over that time frame, God exists. Now comes the fun part.

What is the nature or character of God’s existence? This helps us to understand why He created. There are two schools of thought. Since the time of Luther, and the reformation, there has been this campaign to depict God as a vengeful, retributive deity living out there in the cosmos who is fed up with the sinful nature of humans. His justice requires that a price be paid in order to set aright the effects of the fall of mankind initiated by Adam in the garden. Ultimately, this price was paid by Jesus, the son of God, on the cross at Calvary where all the sins of humanity were placed on him and God turned His sight away from the entire incident. The blood of Jesus became the redemption price for our sins and now allows us the opportunity to come before God claiming our unworthiness has been redeemed through our faith in Jesus. If I left something out, you can add it in.

This fall/redemption cycle of interpreting the story of salvation has a large following. IT also has a large number of detractors too. Consider this in light of the opening line. It would seem that God created humanity in order to beat the dickens (not the word I really wanted to use, but there are children in the vicinity) out of it. This portrayal of God as being concerned about honor and justice has led civilizations to adopt laws and the enforcement of those laws to be the example of a Godly people. This has also influenced how nations relate to one another in the worldly theater of solving conflict. Retribution seems in many of the instances to be the only path available to resolve the conflict that is mounting. The appearance of being right is often more valuable than the fact of being right – particularly if there is a law that can back your position without you having to change.

Is it possible that you thought this belief structure couldn’t be that influential? Zits don’t appear on your face simply because you looked in the mirror. Something happened internally because of what you ate. These are just a drop in the bucket of the consequences that this type of belief produces. There are a number of social issues that demonstrate this same panache towards order and control right down to how you should act in church. (I’m not going to go there cause you all know what I’m talking about to one degree or another.)

The second school of thought about the nature and character of God is illusively hidden within the scriptures. God is Love; His mercy endures forever; you are saved by grace, not by works…but as a gift; …come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in the time of need; … you are ambassadors of reconciliation; …I will have mercy, not sacrifice…

This representation seems foreign to many. It however was the predominate understanding of the first church. It depicts God as someone who cares about things and all the people who are called by His name. It shows a God who is actively involved in all the inner workings of humanity, not to dictate or order according to moral rectitude, but to accompany through the journey of discovery.

Almost everyone who has read the book of John knows the preamble to his gospel narrative. In his opening passages, John takes the opening of the Genesis narrative and gives it a spin that relates to how he will depict Jesus while keeping within the scope of the Genesis text. This passage is an example of the second school of thought. The following is my version of this same text, the preamble to my gospel.

In the beginning, before the beginning, there was a creative divine dialogue about being love, being with love, and how love was God. This inspired dialogue fashioned all things through the nature of love and there wasn’t anything neglected to be created according to the nature of love. This divine love was the truest essence of a full life and this life became the bedrock of man’s nature and character. Apart from this divine love man could not understand his design or purpose and it often would appear hidden to him. (Mike 1:1-5)

I want you to consider how this narrative impacts our lives today. Can it affect nations trying to deal with political unrest? Can it impact social conditions that minimize people groups? Can it influence power structures that capitalize on scarcity as a tactic for domination? Can it be employed to bring a true semblance of unity to diverse people groups, not just those in the church?

Each of us has to reach a demarcation point in our lives where we have our own narrative that describes the nature and character of God. Honestly, I don’t care which school you come from. I’m more concerned that the thought truly belongs to you and that you’re not just parroting someone who could get dressed up fine and inspire you with great oratory. Frankly, most church pews are filled with these people. Having the capacity to think and reason for themselves, they allow others to do it for them and then think that they have done the work themselves.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t think about pink elephants.” The result is that you can’t stop thinking about them. This applies to these two schools of thought. If you’ve been brought up in the first one I mentioned, there is no way apparently to change your viewpoint. That is until I tell you to not think about a God who is loving, cares beyond comprehension about everyone, desires nothing more than to be your Father in the truest sense, and walk with you daily in completely fellowship. If you can’t think about this then it might mean that you’re stuck in the first school. It just might be time to graduate into a school as old as the first church. Who knows what impact it might have on your community.

If you’ve grown up in any rural community then chances are quite high that you know all about the 4-H club, probably participated in it or know of someone who has. Its focus has been on instructing youth through improved farming and farm-homemaking techniques, skills which to a city-slicker might seem antiquated but provides a vital component to the life in rural communities. This note is not about the 4-H clubs but about another that has been around a whole lot longer and works across rural and urban areas. You’ve been a member from your birth but probably never even knew it. Welcome to the 4-L club.

I have given it this name after recently reading Parables of Grace by Robert Capon. This man has a command of the English language that sends you into fits of laughter and serious contemplation within moments of each other. According to Mr. Capon, Jesus came and ministered to four types of people: the least, lost, last, and lame. Pretty much everyone at one time or another in their life.

Notice who is evidently missing from this club: the most, found, first, and whole. This crowd looks down on the select of the 4-L club not wanting to even recognize that they too have come up through their ranks, or on their way to rejoin them. As exclusive as their elite ranks may appear to be, 4-L membership is open to all, 24/7/365.

Jesus speaks highly of the 4-L club in all his parables pulling characters from within it to confound the elite in their myopic thinking. Blind, leprous, tax collecting, Samaritan, adulterous, harlots and children all become the poster child for a here’s-a-plank-in-your-eye story from the master. If you don’t fit into one of these descriptors it doesn’t matter, you’re included in spite of your condition. As a matter of fact, your condition is what qualifies you as an honorary lifetime member.

How often has your peers held up their index finger and thumb to their forehead and mouthed the tag line, “Loser” to signify their verdict on your acceptability? That symbol is the secret handshake to the kingdom of God. When the world uses your insignias to demoralize, you need to praise the one who wore it with pride. His societal insignia of a bastard child was the lowest of lows. He never let it interfere with his purpose to lift those around him who shared his de-valued status in the minds of the world.

We all like a champion, one who rises above the ranks to take the head of an industry or nation. We hold their struggle as our own, the declaration that even we can succeed like the hero because they went through the same difficulty we have, or are going through. As our role model, they work for us to raise our belief in what is possible. Yet, when our life is finally accepted as ours, and the realization that we aren’t like the role model, the pain of our false identification is all that Jesus needs to welcome you into the club. If you count on glamor to determine your value in a group, this is the richest one to belong to.

Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Mat 5:11-12)

Now I know that no one likes to be classified as being the least, the lost, the last, of the lame. As Jesus points out this position is cause for people to revile you for an indeterminate period of time. This position also creates conditions within our own mental configuration to revile ourselves just as others do. This perpetuates our conditions in an on-going negative-feedback loop. But I’m here to tell you are in the prime of life now. The way the Kingdom of God works is not like anything you ever seen in this world.

Have you ever noticed how worldly, rich, successful people don’t think they need Jesus? Have you ever looked at all the people who come to Jesus? They aren’t rich or successful. They’re broken, battered and bruised. They are bona fide members of the 4-L club and they don’t even know it. Salvation is like that – you don’t know you are until you feel like you ain’t. The trouble with worldly, rich, successful folks is that don’t know they’re members of a larger club than the one they want to think about. The door is always open and the light is always on.

As the last Adam, Jesus came to find the lost, love the least of the brethren and heal the lame. In Him, we are destined to do the same as fraternal members of a divine club. In the 4-L club everybody plays at the same level with the same rule. Love.

Here are some claims that most of us have heard. Tell me if it is a fact, a theory, or a metaphor. Wait! If I go any further with this, we are going to run into a real issue if we’re not all operating from the same standard of meaning. Ok, let me define fact, theory and metaphor according to dictionary.com:

Fact: noun; 1. Something that actually exists; reality; truth; 2. Something known to exist or to have happened; 3. a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true; 4. something said to be true or supposed to have happened

Theory: noun; 1. a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena; 2. a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact; 3. a particular conception or view of something to be done or of the method of doing it; a system of rules or principles; 4. contemplation or speculation; 5. guess or conjecture

Metaphor: noun; 1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance; 2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol

Now we can split hairs all day on how best to use these terms but for this exercise let’s say that a fact is real, it happened, and it has witnesses to attest to its validity of occurring. A theory is a hunch that still needs to be confirmed to become a fact; it is a proposal of a viewpoint in an attempt to become a fact. A metaphor is a style of language used to show a relation between two or more diverse objects. If you have difficulties with these three definitions I have supplied, then you are than welcome to reference the fuller ones previously mentioned.

Since we have useable definitions, let’s begin. Tell me if the following is a fact, a theory, or a metaphor.

A. God is Love.
B. God cannot be around sin.
C. God is angry, wrathful and vengeful.
D. Jesus died in exchange for our sins.
E. Jesus died so that we can go to heaven.
F. The blood of Jesus washed away our sins.
G. Believers are the temple of God.
H. No sins are forgiven without the spilling of blood.
I. The wages of sin is death.
J. All mankind is saved by grace.
K. The kingdom of God has come to earth.
L. The apocalypse is the end of the world.
M. A person must be saved before they can call on God.

I understand that some of these might have multiple answers or be very difficult to fit a definition to it. The purpose is to get you to think rather than agree with what we always been told. This is where the truth you know will make you free. We need to create a dialog not a wall of separation. I know I do not have all the answers but I’m looking. If it’s good news, it has to be good for all, or its good for nothing.

If you’re willing to explore these further, then great. If you’re not, then great. Either way is right for you. My path is to find truth. You’re welcome to tag along if you want. Simple rule though. We don’t have to agree on everything to travel this road together. Your theory has just as much weight as mine and they both may be right or wrong. We celebrate truth.

“A voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord.’”

This verse leveled me one day for reasons I still do not understand. I heard it in a song and became completely undone for the rest of the day into the following one. Frankly, deep inside, I still haven’t regained my composure now years later. So let me speak to you about something pertaining to it.

How is your life going? Are you seeing progress in your journey? Are you fulfilled? Are you striving successfully towards your goals and aspirations? Are you living in your purpose?

Here is the real foundational question to all of these: Do people know about what’s going on in your life? IF so, why?

An obscure holy man wades into an ankle deep, bone chilling mountain stream proclaiming to those about him that the realm above the empire of all humanity is about to show up and, despite what you think it will look like, you’ll be wrong. Those who want to experience this new realm will need to come into the water with him and be immersed into the ice-cold shock of a new thought running over your body. Only then will you be prepared to what the divine realm is about to produce.

The wilderness is filled with three types of people. The first are the lost. They have no clue why they’re there or even how they got there. No one likes the feeling of being lost, let alone thinking that there is a purpose for it, but that is for later. Back in the day when I was growing up, I had a few occasions where I got lost from my parents in the department store. Instinctually, after looking around for them for a few minutes, I went back out to the car to sit and wait for them to show up, which they always did. Sometimes you have to go back to what brought you to your lost-ness to be found, again. (That piece of advice is free and might be what your negative answers were searching for.)

The second type of people in the wilderness are people going through it. Unfamiliar terrain doesn’t phase them because they’re focused on arriving at a destination. They’re the kind of people who can drive for hours through the most scenic places on the planet and once they arrive at their destination, can’t even describe the beauty they have been through. Think of snowplows and you’ve got their attitude and drive firmly fixed in your mind. People often follow them, but just don’t try to pass them.

The last type of person is the least found. Those who stay in the wilderness, obscure on purpose. These are people who listen to the faint whispers of the wind and know what it is saying. They are one with the environment and move according to its rhythm. They embrace the fact that they must be sought out to be found for a relationship. They are not encumbered by anything that bounds the wilderness but live in abounding fullness every moment.

A holy man in the wilderness proclaims that the lamb of God has arrived – in the wilderness. A king would appear in his regal garb in the place where subjects would exalt him; that’s what kings do. Carpenters would appear where the work of constructing or repairing is needed; that’s what carpenters do. Moves of God using world changing people with large agendas and small recognition appear always in the wilderness, equal with God, but taking on the form of a servant, humbled by the truth of who they are in God’s eyes and heart, and obedient to their calling to be obscure to the least of these, our brethren.

If your answer to my foundational question is yes, people know about it, I’d ask your then, are you blowing through life? There is sacredness in being obscure while doing good. Accolades are good to have, but matters of the heart, aren’t measured by goals accomplished, but by a simple statement: This is my son in who I am well pleased. There is not a chill in that thought at all.

How many of you ever heard your grandmother say, “If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all.”? (I am now faced with the dilemma over whether I should follow grandma’s wisdom or let ‘er rip…)

Information. We live in an age of it. Good; bad; excruciatingly bad; life altering bad.

Most information comes to us from standard media outlets, news, radio, papers, magazines – old school formats a generation grew up on. Videos, blog, podcasts, live streams now add to the overwhelming mountain of… stuff. The trouble with stuff is that there is no way to filter out good stuff from bad stuff during the course of a day. It’s a crap shoot at best. So we dabble in stuffication – the art of creating a world-view of truth out of stuff.

One of the rules of stuffication is that my stuff matters more than yours, even if we share the same thread of stuff, because my other threads, which you have no access to, bring a truer picture to the matter. The corollary to this is I will berate, criticize, harangue, make your life an on-line hell to prove my point. Grandma is rolling right now.

The media, are masters at the corollary. Smooth, artful jabs followed by bone crunching upper cuts of accusation. Before you know it, you’re being pummeled by the left and then the right. You thought you were fighting one person and suddenly blows are coming from all around you. It’s a street fight!

An accusation comes to steal, kill and destroy. It has no other purpose. People deliver them, not some spiritual bogey man with red horns and a pointed tail. Accuser. You. Me. Every one of us, at one time or another. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. When they’re up; when they’re down. Accuser = satan.

Flip Wilson was a comedian who crafted the line, “The devil made me do it.” Any time he was convicted of wrongdoing, “the devil made me do it” was the pat answer he issued to swells of laughter. Devil = false accuser, slanderer.

Consider that an action was undertaken and then deemed inappropriate all because of an accusation was made against someone. What if the action was appropriate? If you answer that question without thinking it through you’ve missed the point. Appropriate of not, the action came because of an accusation.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and you gotta-do-what-ya-gotta-do to make it big. Bullshit on all of that. That comment is spewed hourly across the airwaves by those striving to justify the past accusations they’ve committed, the present one’s they’re getting ready to level, and the future ones that they don’t have a clue about yet. I’m tired of playing advocate for the accuser; defender of the false assumption; believer is a greater truth at the expense of wrongful charge. Get behind me, satan.

The disciples of Jesus went out into the community and prayed for the sick and lame. When they returned to him to tell him of all the wonders that had happened under their hands, he responded, “I saw satan fall like lighting.” Did the spiritual bogey man suddenly materialize and take a jolt from heaven? You’re 21st century people, think. What has been the point of this message? What did Jesus mean?

At this very moment, in Chicago, four young people sit in a cell charged with a crime against a young man who was of a different ethnicity and operating as best he could within a limited mental capacity. These four people tortured this young man and became the satan to him. I can say this without using the term “allege” simply because they embraced the nature of stuffication by publicizing their actions for the entire world to see. This action became the public organism of the satan, their demon for life.

Healing restores and removes. Wholeness comes when accusations lifted up by a community are replaced by the goodness of what God has done. Accusations = satan fall through praise of God’s goodness.

If you think for one moment that you’re going to help these people with a God who tortured, beat and then crucified his son so that his wrath would be soothed, maybe you can’t see what that type of belief has already produced in their actions.
God loves those four young people just as much as He love you right now. There is nothing that either you, or I, can do to change that. Those young people, all of them, are living in hell right now. You going to play their satan, or their deliverer? What role did the disciples take? You are a disciple, right? Grandma…

Events in the Middle East are dire. Terror seems to be the norm for people who are caught in the middle of an ancient power struggles. Life, any hope of life, seems to flicker way in the harrowing cavalcade of brutal hostilities. Sometimes, in the rarest of moments, light does burst forth and life takes hold once again. I heard a story of man from this region which brings this truth out in brilliant color.

This man, his name fails me, was one day out in the field tending to his herd. This was a profession that his entire family had worked in for generations and he hoped one day to pass on to his son, an infant, who occupied more time in the bosom of his mother than along the side of his father.

He recalled that the day started out bright and crystal clear upon the low hills that bordered the township he lived in. Occupied with retrieving a lost animal caught in the dense undergrowth in a dale, he wasn’t sure how long it was until he began to smell the acrid smoke of a fire flowing past him. As he looked over his shoulder towards the direction of the billowing smoke his eyes were horrified to see that his entire township was engulfed in flames.

Possessed by panic he frantically ran down the slope toward the village. Tongues of flame darted agitatedly across the sky as peals of shrieks and screams of horror – men, women and children – rose in intensity as he approached. Off to his side he could see soldiers, what appeared to be thousands of them march off, banners and armament held on high.

With wild abandon he rushed past the flames of his neighbors’ burning homes, swatting away the blazing debris that showered down upon and around him. His heart raced as he rounded the corner of his home to witness the shock of seeing his beautiful young wife, clutching the lifeless body of their son at her bosom, both impaled upon the iron gate leading toward their garden. His wailing, could not overcome the din of the fires burning and crashing down all around him. With super-human strength he wrestled the gate from its hinges and lowered the lifeless bodies which comprised his entire world to the ground.

Sobbing uncontrollably, he picked up his son’s frail form and pressed him to his chest, the lingering smell of a morning bath flooding his senses as tears washed over the child’s scalp. Falling to the ground he nestled the two of them next to the lifeless contours of his wife and began to softly moan for solace in the pain which strangled him.

Time became inconsequential. He recalls faint voices off in the distance calling to others to hurry and help… He could only mouth the word over parched lips, sound failed him. Someone approached them and tried to stifle a ghastly cry of horror. Barely able to move, he turned his head towards the figure obscured by the haze of the smoldering debris about him. An elderly man reached a withered hand toward his shoulder and gently pulled himself towards the family lying before him. Lightly the older man took hold of the child against the faint protests of the father and laid him on the other side of the woman. Slowly reaching behind him his back he pulled a flask of water and carefully slipped its crooked neck between the parched lips of the man. Sputtering and coughing the man drink ravenously. Something needed to quench the searing pain of…death.

As the story goes, apparently, a military detachment came through the country side terrorizing the inhabitants. Their superior force was no match for any of the towns they entered. Some people were tortured before their families, others were taken away, but only one village suffered the ultimate fate: annihilation. Regrettably, this sole survivor was spared, a kind of beacon of despair. The neighboring village came and found him among the ruins and tried their best to console his heart. They buried the bodies they were able to gather out of the charred remains in a location up on a bluff overlooking the village ruins. The sole survivor, our man, never left the resting site of his family. Day and night he could be heard wailing and sobbing in despair over their graves. Days turned to weeks and weeks to months as he, overcome with distraught, pounded the earth with bruised and bloody fists demanding the bodies of those he had lost. Trying to cut out the pain which racked his mind, he frequently slashed at his body with the jagged rocks.

Occasionally, a member or a committee of members from the surrounding communities would come to him and attempt to silence his wailing or offer food or companionship which he violently refused, chasing them off so that he could grieve alone. Some enterprising farmers found that they could leave their herds at night around the cemetery and predators would stay away because of the wailing which carried on all night long. Over time the survivor began to envision the cattle as images of the military men who had killed his friends and family. Frequently he would charge at them to chase them from the village of the dead that he had become the watchman of.

Children would often secretly venture into the countryside to taunt the survivor who wailed at them in despair from the pain of seeing his own child in their faces. Always the children would run home laughing at the screams they produced and the imaginative tells they would accuse the survivor of committing to their friends in the public places. In due course the farmers and the towns people of the surrounding communities just accepted that the survivor would remain in his turmoil sequestered in the cemetery and quietly let him live a petty existence.

Then one day, a stranger came traveling into the valley below the bluff where the cemetery lay. The watchman, vigilant to his task of protecting the inhabitants rushed down to the stranger to determine what his intention was. As the survivor approached the stranger he could sense that there was something different about him. “What is your business in this God forsaken land? Have you come to harass me too?”
“No,” the stranger softly replied surveying the bluff where the survivor had come from. “What places you at such a strategic point in this area? Are you spying on me, or do you plan on warning the garrison up there?” the stranger said pointing at the bluff while wearily watching the survivor.

Laughter burst from the mouth of the survivor. Loud, sudden, raucous laughter. It caught the survivor off guard primarily because it came from him. Out of nowhere it came pouring out of his inner most being sweeping over him in wave after wave of hilarity. The stranger was at first cautious with this strange behavior thinking that the man was simply trying to frighten him in some capacity. However, the duration of this laughter, the intensity and volume began to influence the stranger and he too began to laugh.

The survivor, seeing this happen, only laughed harder, gasping for breath, bent over from the pain he was releasing from deep within his soul. Then came the burst of pent up emotions attached to thoughts rehearsed over long agonizing hours, manifesting in giant tears of sorrow. Then out of nowhere came the touch, the arm strong enough to comfort, the hand soft enough to caress the cheek, the shoulder pliable to the sobs which lost their voice within, and then the drops of warm rain-like tears on the neck as they both wept.

As they both stood there clinging to the life they now intimately shared a few of the farmers returned to gather their herds for the day. Unaccustomed to the laughter which the herds had witnessed, the multitude ran in several directions out of fright. The farmers dispatched one of their group to go tell the towns people what was happening while the rest chased after their stock in trade.

The survivor began to confess the story of his plight to the stranger between sobs and gusts of laughter. The stranger listened attentively to all the details and frequently extended a compassionate slap on the back or embrace of camaraderie. When the villagers had arrived, the survivor had expelled all his pent-up emotions and confessed his self-inflicted guilt for having left his wife and son alone that day. His shame as a husband, father, provider, and protector was finally acknowledged before a stranger, one who cared enough to listen without criticizing, weep when faced with weeping, and displayed true empathy in a matter difficult to relate with at first glance.

“Thank you,” the survivor gratefully responded as he tried to compose himself seeing the towns people approach from afar. “I would like to journey with you through this region. I think that you could help me to better understand these things.”
“No, I think that it would be best if you went through this land and finally tell those who have heard stories about you, what truly happened. Tell them that there was a place of peace and joy before it became a God-forsaken land. Tell them that God heard your cries and felt your pain and has now brought you out of the darkness of your soul to the light of life, a life that knows God hears your pleas and restores despite the ashes of your past. Go now and do this,” the stranger urgently prodded the survivor as the towns people quickly came upon him.

“Who are you? What have you done here?’ they cried out to the stranger as they looked with bewilderment upon the survivor who somehow appeared different, changed.
“I am…” is all the stranger could respond. “Away with you. Leave. You have no part here. Go from us now,” came from the agitated multitude. Looking into their suspecting, frightful eyes the stranger simply nodded in agreement, gave the survivor a hug and turned to follow the narrow path he had arrived on. As the towns people questioned each other about the things they had seen, the survivor raised his shoulders, turned and walk away from them without saying a word. His steps were cautious at first but grew in determination the further he distanced himself from the voices of the past. The life of his story had returned and he needed to extend it further than to a life-less career as a watcher.

Trauma possesses far too many these days. The voices of loved ones passing in agony, or betrayers hissing taunts of unworthiness while destruction swirls about us. The fiend of death will create public organisms fueled by accusation who thrive on dividing the thoughts of a life well lived from the life that should have been. Often it is a matter of the context of the story that makes the narrative come to life as it never has before. Dwelling on unsettled past events makes them too contemporary to conquer as they should have been before. Change the context and the story follows.

Thanks to Mark and to the stranger, Jesus, for a context and a story of survival in the face of death.

Scallops, oysters, clams, and mussels. Raw, steamed, Rockefellered, or grilled. You love them or you hate them. Today.

Dietary restrictions kept, and still keep, many from eating these little beauties, the oceans hoovers. Makes sense, who wants to eat a dust buster? But anything is better with butter, right? Or is that bacon? (Another restriction, dang!)

Back in the days when Rome ruled the entire known world, those crazy people held to the belief that the goddess Venus was born from the sea foam. She was almost always depicted on sea shells, scallop shells to be precise. The most common depiction we have of her comes from the renaissance painter Botticelli’s image known as the Birth of Venus. She was the goddess of love and grace, prosperity and abundance, no less.

Now I’m not one to quibble with descriptions of divinity but that moniker sure sounds a whole lot like the names and/or characteristics we’ve claimed Jehovah to be. 1 John was the first to tell us that God is love. Heck, John even said that grace came through Jesus. Except for the gender issue, it might be thought that Romans were closet Jews or something. (Before you get offended, that was a joke.)

In the book, The Shack, author Paul Young depicts God as a woman, a matter that has sent many straight-laced fundamentalist into the stratosphere (which, regrettable, at that height they could still not come back with an accurate description of God) claiming that this representation was completely inaccurate and misleading to the public. In their minds manliness is next to godliness. God created man first, woman came out of man; God charged man to protect the garden, the woman ate the forbidden fruit first. This is their first line of defense for the manly qualification of God’s gender.

Let me make this clear: The only gender I truly know about in the trinity is Jesus. I understand that the terms Father and Abba lend themselves to male role models, but if, according to Jesus, God is spirit, and, according to Paul, there is no such difference as male and female in the kingdom of God, it seems gender isn’t really as important as we want to make it out to be.

Consider this for a moment. We become what we worship. Men are often stereotyped as loners, aggressive to the point of becoming violent, authoritarian, domineering, aloof, capricious, terrible at communication and single-minded. Those attributes are pretty discouraging in humans but how often have we thrust those same characteristics on the interactions of God with us or humanity in general? Let’s not even go down the road of people who have had abusive husbands or fathers and how that dynamic gets transferred onto God.

The female stereotypes are well known too. Caring, nurturing, sacrificial, loving, and communal. Who cleans up the messes in our lives? Who feeds us, bathes us, tucks us in at night? Who tends to us when we’re ill, scrape our knees or elbows, fall off our bikes? Who does every athlete thank when their face is shoved in a camera? Who knows where everything is in the house and what everyone is doing, at the same time?

Is it safe to say that our stereotypical male model keeps us from accepting or believing God really is love when we recognize the characteristics of love to be more feminine in nature? Maybe we need to adjust our perceptions from a God who can leave us shell-shocked to a God on the half shell. IF the nature of divine justice is represented through beating, flogging and death then I’m not interested. IF the nature of divine justice is giving away something at any cost to retain me and the world, then I will have God on the half shell…with the bacon bits.

Some questions left unanswered.

Why did Jesus prefer to die on the eve of Passover rather than on Yom Kippur?

What if “died for our sins” doesn’t mean what we’ve been taught it means?

How does the politically-influenced death of a young Jewish carpenter turned teacher 2,000 years ago change all of humanity in an instant?

What evidence do we have that there is power in the blood of one man to overcome evil?

What keeps people from acknowledging their accusations, and those around them, as the satan described in the scriptures?

What truly did dying really accomplish if people still die?

What is so spiritual about death if our purpose is to reign on earth?

If followers of Jesus are ambassadors of reconciliation, why do we need denominations?

If Jesus is the prince of peace, who declared that Armageddon was his final purpose?
Is it possible that this is a concept carried over from the flood/Noah narrative?

If Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, how come we worship a god who is up there and out there rather than down here and in here?

Is it possible to make Jesus and/or Holy Spirit an idol according to the second commandment?

When do you think a fish learns that it lives in water? Is it about the same for us in the kingdom of God?

How come Jesus never told his 11 disciples what his death rectified so we could have a record of it rather than rely on the thoughts of man trying to justify why we killed God?

What is the purpose of a doctrine of inclusion if Christ is all in all?

Who, or what, are the powers that Jesus overcame? Are they relevant today or has their focus shifted allowing another to replace it?

What does it really mean to have all power in a power-less reality?