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Arguments for God’s Existence

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

A core tenet of the scientific method lies in using reproducible empirical evidence to validate or fail to validate a hypothesis. Because God created the heavens and the earth, he lies outside the created order, where direct evidence might be found. Therefore, scientific testing of the existence of God is impossible. However, we can infer the existence of God from the created order, much like we might observe fingerprints of a potter on the pottery—a kind of indirect evidence.

Introduction

In part three of his recent book, Making Sense of God, Timothy Keller (2016, 217) summarizes six arguments for the existence of God from: 1. existence, 2. fine tuning, 3. moral realism, 4. consciousness, 5. reason, and 6. beauty. These bear repeating.

From Existence

For existence to even be, it had to have had an uncaused cause (Keller 2016, 218). Think about the evolutionary hypothesis that posits that life spontaneously emerged from non-biological substances and evolved until the creation of human beings. But who created the non-biological substances? The usual response is that the universe just always existed. However, according to the big bang theory, the universe has not always looked like it does today. According to one online dictionary:⁠1

“a theory in astronomy: the universe originated billions of years ago in an explosion from a single point of nearly infinite energy density.”

Given that the universe shows evidence of an uncaused cause, it is reasonable to infer that God created the universe in his own inscrutable way.

From Fine Tuning

Constants in physics appear to be precisely adjusted to allow life to exist. Keller (2016, 219) writes:

“The speed of light, the gravitational constant, the strength of the strong and weak nuclear forces—must all have almost exactly the values that they do have in order for organic life to exist…the chances that all of the dials would be tuned to life-permitting settings all at once are about 10-100.” 

Given the small probability that the laws of physics randomly aligned in this way, many scientists have concluded that the universe was intentionally planned. It is kind of like finding a working clock on the beach. No reasonable person would assume that this close was randomly created—the existence of a clock suggests a clock maker.

From Moral Realism

Most people, even ardent atheists, believe that moral obligations, like human rights, exist that we can insist everyone abide by. Keller (2016, 221) writes:

“…some things are absolutely wrong to do. Moral obligation, then, makes more sense in a universe created by a personal God to whom we intuitively feel responsible than it does in an impersonal universe with no God.” 

Even an argent atheist would not idly stand by and watch another person drown or be killed in a burning house when something could be done to aid them. This kind of moral obligation is something that virtually everyone feels, yet is counter-intuitive from the perspective of personal survival—water rescues and running into burning buildings routinely kill rescuers, even those trained as lifeguards and firefighters. Why do we feel obligated to put ourselves at such risk? Christians answer that God created us with a moral compass.

From Consciousness

Keller (2016, 222), citing Thomas Nagel (2012, 110), writes that “all human experience has a subjective quality to it.” It is pretty hard to argue, as does Francis Crisk (1994, 3), that

“You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” (Keller 2016, 224)

Keller (2016, 224) summarizes: “Consciousness and idea making make far more sense in a universe created by an idea-making, conscious God.” 

From Reason and Beauty

Keller (2016, 225) reports that has been popular in recent years to argue that our reasoning and appreciation of beauty both developed from the process of natural selection because they helped our ancestors to survive. Evolutionary psychologists have gone a step further arguing that even our faith in God is a product of evolution and natural selection.

The problem exists, however, that many animals seem to have survived just fine without developing any capacity to reason at all. Furthermore, if our faith is a product of natural selection, why wouldn’t we trust our reasoning capacity to tell us the truth? The arguments for beauty parallel those for reason.

Keller (2016, 226), citing Luc Ferry (2011), writes: “truth, beauty, justice, and love … whatever the materialists say, remain fundamentally transcendent.”  In other words, they all point to the existence of a loving God.

Limits to the Proofs

Most proofs of God’s existence focus only on making it sensible to believe in God in an abstract or philosophical sense. They really do not give us a detailed picture of God’s character, as revealed in the Bible.

Philosophers remind us that God transcends our universe because he created it—God stands outside time and space. He is also holy—sacred and set apart. God’s transcendence makes it impossible for us to approach God on our own; he must initiate any contact that we have with him. Christians believe that God revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Uniqueness of Christ

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes the case that God not only exists, but that he is God of the Old and New Testaments. Keller (2016, 228) makes the stunning observation that only Christianity is truly a world religion; it has had indigenous believers fairly evenly distributed across all regions and continents of the world, long before it became a religion in Europe and North America. He writes: “today most of the most vital and largest Christian populations are now nonwhite and non-Western.”

The arguments for God’s existence must be compelling (or Christians must have come to faith for other reasons) because Christianity continues to grow in spite of strong influence of secularism in the West and obvious persecution of Christians outside the West. 

References

Ferry, Luc. 2011. “A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living.” Translation by Theo Cuffe. New York: Harper Perennial.

Crisk, Francis. 1994. “The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.” New York: Simon and Schuster.

Timothy Keller.  2016. Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical.  New York: Viking Press.

Nagel, Thomas. 2012. “What is It Like to Be a Bat?” Mortal Questions, Canto Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Footnotes

1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti....

Arguments for God’s Existence
Also see:
A Roadmap of Simple Faith
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Sabath_2018

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Schmemann: Life is Sacramental

Alexander Schmemann. 1973. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy.Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

What makes the majesty of God real to you?

In a mechanistic, materialist culture, such as ours, how do you look past the physical world on Sundays to worship an immanent and transcendent God? Presumably, the causality works in reverse, but our true feelings are frequently revealed by our tepid response to calls for money, time, and effort. For postmodern people, the majesty of God is often illusive.

Introduction

In his book,For the Life of the World, Alexander Schmemann writes:

“…the very purpose of this essay is to answer, if possible, the question: of what life do we speak, what life do we preach, proclaim, and announce when, as Christians, we confess that Christ died for the life of the world? What life is both motivation, and the beginning and the goal of Christian mission?”(11-12)

Schmemann sees Christians falling into two camps, those that focus on the spiritual life and theose that try to make life better through social justice (12-13). This is, however, is a false dichotomy. Schmenmann remarks—“Man is a hungry being. But he is also hungry for God.” (14)—and he sees his mission as:

“…to remind its readers that in Christ life—life in all its totality—was returned to man, given again as sacrament and communion, made Eucharist.” (20)

In the sacraments, both aspects of our hunger come together and become inseparable.

Outline

Schmemann writes in seven chapters preceded by a preface and followed by two more chapters occupying an appendix. The chapters are:

“The Life of the World
The Eucharist
The Time of Mission
Of Water and the Spirit
The Mystery of Love
Trampling Down Death by Death
And Ye are Witnesses of these Things

Appendix

Worship in a Secular Age
Sacrament and Symbol”(v)

Schmemann was a former dean and professor of liturgical theology at St. Vladmir’s Orthodox University in Crestwood, New York.

Secularism as Tepid Faith

An important motif in his writing is the influence of secularism, which he views as a Christian heresy that has forgotten its roots and refuses to worship God. (7, 118) His emphasis on worship in defining secularism is interesting because the problem is not unbelief, but failing or refusing to recognize God’s majesty, a kind of tepid faith.

Schmemann’s attitude about faith is strikingly similar to that of James, who writes: “Even the demons believe– and shudder!” (Jas 2:19 ESV) Or maybe the Apostle John when he writes about the Church at Laudicea: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!”(Rev. 3:15) Schmemann’s definition of secularism comes close to the definition of a nominal or cultural Christian. Still, Schmemann sees secularism as a religion having its own faith, eschatology, and ethics—the erosion of a sense of transcendence among Christians suggests that secularism also practices evangelism (99).

The Eucharist

Schmemann sees the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving, as a communal journey to join with Christ in heaven (28). He writes:

“When man stands before the throne of God, when he has fulfilled all that God has given him to fulfill, when all sins are forgiven, all joy restored, then there is nothing else for him to do but to give thanks.”(37)

Sign and sacrament are inseparable in this journey because he defines a sacrament as a “visible means of the invisible grace.”(135) Schmemann’s discussion of the Eucharist is his longest chapter and it spills over into his appendix.

Baptism

Schmemann reminds us that baptism in the early church followed preparation that could continue for as long as three years, similar to today’s seminary studies. In the Orthodox tradition, the baptism service had three parts: “the exorcisms, the renunciation of Satan, and the confession of faith.”(69) While exorcism is no longer a part of most baptisms, renunciation of evil as an abstract concept and confession of faith is still part of most adult baptism services. (Theology and Worship Ministry Unit 1993, 406-409)

Schmemann continues:

“The exorcisms mean this: to face evil, to acknowledge its reality, to know its power, and to proclaim the power of God to destroy it.”(70-71)

While many postmodern American flitch at the idea of evil as something other than the absence of good, Schmemann was born in 1921 and experienced the horrors of World War II first hand in his native Estonia.

Assessment

I first read Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World as Itook a worship class during seminary and gladly re-read it to prepare this review, in part, because I enjoyed his treatment of liturgy. This is a book written for seminarians, worship leaders, and pastors who may find it challenging to read. Nevertheless, it is worth the time and effort.

Reference

Theology and Worship Ministry Unit. 1993. Book of Common Worship. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

Footnote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand....

Schmemann: Life is Sacramental
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Books, Films, and Ministry
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Monday Monologues: Sermon on Being Fully Present, August 6, 2018 (podcast)

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

In today’s podcast, I give a sermon on Being Fully Present. (Originally given in Spanish: Presencia Completa).

To listen, click on the link below.

After listening, please click here to take a brief listener survey (10 questions).

https://t2pneuma.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Monday_monologue_Fully_Present_sermon_08062018.mp3
Monday Monologues: Being Fully Present, August 6, 2018 (podcast)
Also see:
Monday Monologue On March 26, 2018 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Sabath_2018

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Prayer for a Steady Hand

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Almighty father,

All glory and honor are yours, Lord,

for you are my fortress

and your presence the hand on my shoulder.

Why do I fear? Why does my grip falter?

I confess that my faith hangs by a thread

for I know that some day my strength will fail

and my only hope is in you.

Thank you for a new day and the opportunity to serve in your name.

In the power of your Holy Spirit,

grant me the strength to be the person that you created me to be

and to be fully present to those around me, each and every day.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Prayer for a Steady Hand

 

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Fully Present

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

A sermon presented in Spanish at El Shadai church in Manassas, Virginia, August 2, 2018.

Prelude

Good evening. Thank you for coming.

This evening we begin a study of Christian service. Because we are created in the image of God, we want to do all the things that we see in God. Therefore, just as God is always present in our lives, we need to be fully present in the lives of those around us.

Prayer

Let’s pray.

Merciful God,

We praise you for creating us in your image and loving us as your children. Be especially present with us at this time and in this place. In the power of your Holy Spirit, bless our praise and give us the strength to be fully present in the lives of our families and the other persons around us. In the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Scripture

The scripture for today comes from the Book of Mark 10:46-52. Hear the word of the Lord:

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:46-52 ESV)

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Introduction

What does it mean to be fully present in someone’s life? (2X)

One answer is to listen actively to the stories of a person, something quite rare in our postmodern, too active, and narcissistic life.

One Saturday, when I was a Chaplain in Providence Hospital in Northeast Washington, there was a lot of noise in the emergency department. There were people in every room and every gurney. The staff was running in every direction and patients were screaming and crying. In the middle of this chaos, there was one man who was especially noisy and bothering the other patients.

As I came to see what was going on, a nurse came and asked him for a urine sample. In the middle of the room, he unzipped his pants and gave her a urine sample on the spot. Immediately afterwards, he returned to his

gurney and began again to cry loudly. He had an athletic build, a hint of a mustache, and was about forty years old. It was obvious that he was drunk.

“Good afternoon,” I said. “I am from pastoral care. Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Sure.”

“How come you are so sad this afternoon?”

“My brother died at the age of forty of alcohol abuse, just like my father.”

“When did your brother die?”

 ¨Five years ago.¨ (2X) ¨So, now you are forty and you think that you also are going to die?¨ I asked speculating.

¨Yes. Today is my birthday.¨

After the revelation of this emotional anniversary, we hugged and began to identify alternatives for dealing with his addiction to alcohol. I remember this visit not only because of all the drama, but because another chaplain before me had could not establish a connection with this patient and failed to have a serious discussion. The connection in this case began when I realized that this patient was experiencing a type of story known as an emotional anniversary.

Today’s scripture

What does it mean to be fully present in someone’s life? (2X)

The story of Jesus and the bind man, Bartimaeus, includes at least two surprising elements.

The first surprise is that Jesus stopped and talked to Bartimaeus.What celebrity stops to talk to a random person? Jesus did. (2X) The first step in being fully present in the life of anyone is to stop and talk to them. Do you talk to the invisible people in this life who no one else notices? (2X)

The second surprise is that Jesus asks Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?” Note that Jesus does not assume that he knows the answer to this question. He offers Bartimaeus respect as an adult and does not view him through his disability as a blind man. (2X)

Bartimaeus’ answer is also interesting. His request to receive healing from his blindness indicates that he has faith. By contrast, “a man lamb from birth” in Acts 3 asked the Apostles Peter and John only for alms (Acts 3:2-3). I believe that the Bible records Bartimaeus’ name because his faith surprised Peter and the other disciples. For us, Bartimaeus’ request seems perhaps obvious because Jesus and this story are just too familiar.

What do we learn from these verses? We need to stop and talk to the invisible people around us and listen carefully to what they say. (2X)

More Discussion

What does it mean to be fully present in someone’s life? (2X)

In my pastoral training to be fully present meant for the most part to listen to someone actively. Look directly into their eyes and let them tell their story. Only ask questions of clarification occasionally.

If these directions seem easy, they are not. The objective of active listen is to understand the emotional content of the story. (2X)

Author, John Savage, recommends to listen especially for the type of story being told. This story within the story reveals the emotional content that is being communicated.

In the story of the patient in the hospital, the story within the story was an anniversary—in his family the men died at the age of forty due to alcoholism. An anniversary is a story connected to a date on the calendar. Perhaps someone important died or had an serious accident on a particular date. In the story of the patient, the date was a birthday. The most famous date at the time of Jesus was the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt which they celebrated as Passover each year.

Savage (1996, 95) indicates four other types of stories.

1.    A “I know a man who” story. In this case, the person under discussin is normally the person speaking because the subject matter is too sensitive. In the Bible, we read:

“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven– whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.”(2 Cor 12:2)2.

2. A transition story has three parts—the past, the present, and the future. A hospital visit is normally a transition story. University studies are also a transition with three parts.

A transition obvious in the Bible is the story of the Exodus when the people of Israel left the land of Egypt, went into the desert for forty years, and afterwards entered the Promised Land (Bridge 2003, 43). It is interesting that the people of Israel learned to depend on God during their time in the desert.

3.    A story from the past with current meaning. This is the typical story from the Bible, but this type of story gets special mention in the context of the Lord’s Supper where we read:

“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”(Luke 22:19)

4.    A reinvestment story. This is a story like economist becomes pastor. That was then; this is now. In the Bible we see this type of story in the conversion of Paul from a persecutor of the church into an evangelist for Christ.

Finally, after we hear one of the five types of stories being described, the next step is to ask a question to clarify. In my story from the hospital, I asked:

“Okay, now you turned forty years old and think that you are going to die too?” I asked speculating.

The answer to this question will indicate if you have been listening sufficiently well.

Summary

What does it mean to be fully present in someone’s life?

Every one of us can stop and listen more closely to those around us following the example of Jesus with Bartimaeus

Prayer

Let’s pray.

Holy Father,

Thank you for your forgiveness and presence in our daily lives. In the power of your Holy Spirit, give us strength to listen more closely each day to the people around us. In the precious name of Jesus. Amen

Reference

Bridge, William. 2003.  Managing Transitions:  Making the Most of Change.  Cambridge:  Da Capo Press.

Savage, John.  1996.  Listening & Caring Skills:  A Guide for Groups and Leaders.  Nashville:  Abingdon Press.

Also see:
Blackaby Expects Answers to Prayer 
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
Other ways to connect:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Sabath_2018

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Hart Argues History to Inform the Present

David Bentley Hart. 2009. Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

The old saw goes: you cannot argue someone out of a position that they were not argued into. Apologetics is accordingly most useful in convincing oneself of the reasonableness of views that you already loosely hold. For critics who engage primarily in slander, correcting the veracity of arguments propping up such slander does not normally lead to retraction of the slander so much as the advancement of new arguments of similar veracity, particularly when political or financial incentives motivate the slander. Even weakly argued slander can imperil loosely held faith so the apologist is bound to remain fully employed.

Introduction

David Bentley Hart opens his book, Atheist Delusions, with these words:

“What I have written is at most a ‘historical essay,’ at no point free of bias, and intended principally as an apologia for a particular understanding of the effect of Christianity upon the development of Western civilization.”(ix)

Hart’s concern about bias is interesting because quickly proceeds to outline his decision criteria for establishing historical truth:

“It may be impossible to provide perfectly irrefutable evidence for one’s conclusions, but it is certainly possible to amass evidence sufficient to confirm them beyond plausible doubt.”(ix)

Again, this is interesting because Hart begins playing by postmodern rules of argumentation—a modern writer might appeal to objective truth (or rationality) at this point, which would invite derision from postmodern critics.

Central Argument

As an historian, Hart focuses on using the past as a vehicle for understanding the present, writing:

“This book chiefly—or at least centrally—concerns the history of the early church, of roughly the first four or five centuries, and the story of how Christendom was born out of the culture of last antiquity. My chief ambition in writing it is to call attention to the peculiar and radical nature of the new faith in that setting: how enormous a transformation of thought, sensibility, culture, morality, and spiritual imagination Christianity constituted in the age of pagan Rome.; the liberation it offered from fatalism, cosmic despair, and the terror of occult agencies; the immense dignity it conferred up on the human person…”(x-xi)

What struck me in the middle of this lengthy essay was how much paganism of these first centuries of the church resembled the anxiety that we see every day in postmodern culture.

The Mythology of Modernism

Through the lens of historical observation, Hart furthermore chips away at the mythology surrounding the modern period. He writes:

“…what many of us are still in the habit of calling the ‘Age of Reason’ was in many significant ways the beginning of the eclipse of reason’s authority as a cultural value; that the modern age is notable in large measure for the triumph of inflexible dogmatism in every sphere of human endeavor (including the sciences) and for a flight from rationality to any number of soothing fundamentalisms, religious and secular; that the Enlightenment ideology of modernity as such does not even deserve any particular credit for the advance of modern science; that the modern secular state’s capacity for barbarism exceeds any of the evils for which Christendom might justly be indicted, not solely by virtue of the superior technology, but by its very nature…”(xi-xii)

Hart’s comment about barbarism is particularly interesting because today’s culture is quick to forget about the millions killed by the National Socialists and by various Marxian governments in our time yet obsesses about the thousands killed during the Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition hundreds of years ago, where the historical veracity of various claims requires close scrutiny that is almost never offered.

Faith in Choice

An important critique that Hart examines at length is the postmodern obsession with personal freedom. He writes:

“…there is no substantive criterion by which to judge our choices that stands higher than the unquestioned good of free choice itself, and that therefore all judgment, divine no less than human, is in some sense an infringement upon our freedom. This is our primal ideology. In the most unadorned terms possible, the ethos of modernity is—to be perfectly precise—nihilism.”(21)

This observation is damning in its implications for the banality of our time. Freedom defined in terms of market choice for goods and ideas leaves no philosophical room for God, the development of personal character, or even the organization of communal activities, present or future. Inherent in this focus is an assumption that individual making choices has the resources required to make them and society is eager to provide them. Focusing on choice accordingly leaves decisions about everything else up to whoever is powerful enough to enforce them. Even the choices offered today may disappear quickly as a lack of interest in the future may lead one to eat one’s own seed-corn or to trade away one’s own freedom in the rush to consume.

Outline

Hart writes his book in 17 chapters divided into four parts:

Faith, Reason, and Freedom: A View from the Present
The Mythology of the Secular Age: Modernity’s Rewriting of the Christian Past
Revolution: The Christian Invention of the Human
Reaction and Retreat: Modernity and the Eclipse of the Human(vii-viii).

These chapters are preceded by an introduction and followed by notes and an index.

Assessment

David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions is an interesting read for the historically sensitive and philosophically astute. Hart offers commentary on current cultural controversies that both enlightens and challenges one to probe deeper, if for no other reason than to understand his voluminous vocabulary.

Hart Argues History to Inform the Present
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Presencia Completa

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017

Por Stephen W. Hiemstra

Un  sermon presentó a la iglesia El Shadai en Manassas, Virginia, 2 de Agosto, 2018.

Preludio

Buenos noches. Gracias por venir.

Esta noche empezamos un estudio del servicio Cristino. Porque somos creado en la imagen de Dios, querremos hacer todas las cosas que vemos en Dios. Entonces, como Dios es siempre presente en nuestras vidas, necesitamos estar completamente presente en las vidas de las personas acera de nosotros.

Oración

Vamos a orar.

Padre Misericordia,

Alabamos que creaste nos en tu imagen y ama nos como tus niños. Sea especialmente presente con nosotros en este tiempo y este lugar. En el poder de tu Espíritu Santo, bendice nuestra alabanza y damos el fuerzo a estar completamente presente en las vidas de nuestras familias y las otras personas acerca de nosotros. En el precioso nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Escritura

El texto de hoy viene del libro del Marcos 10:46-52. Escuchen a la palabra de Dios.

Después llegaron a Jericó. Más tarde, salió Jesús de la ciudad acompañado de sus discípulos y de una gran multitud. Un mendigo ciego llamado Bartimeo (el hijo de Timeo) estaba sentado junto al camino.Al oír que el que venía era Jesús de Nazaret, se puso a gritar: —¡Jesús, Hijo de David, ten compasión de mí! Muchos lo reprendían para que se callara, pero él se puso a gritar aún más: —¡Hijo de David, ten compasión de mí! Jesús se detuvo y dijo: —Llámenlo. Así que llamaron al ciego. —¡Ánimo! —le dijeron—. ¡Levántate! Te llama. Él, arrojando la capa, dio un salto y se acercó a Jesús. —¿Qué quieres que haga por ti? —le preguntó. —Rabí, quiero ver —respondió el ciego. —Puedes irte —le dijo Jesús—; tu fe te ha sanado. Al momento recobró la vista y empezó a seguir a Jesús por el camino.

La palabra del Señor. Gracias a Dios.

Introducción

¿Que significa a estar completamente presente en la vida de alguien? (2X)

Una respuesta es que escuchar intensivamente a las historias de una persona, algo muy raro en nuestra postmoderna, demasiada-activa, y narcisista vida.

Un sábado, cuando fui un capellán en el hospital Providence en la noreste parte de Washington, hubo mucho ruido en la sala de emergencia. Hubo personas en cada sala y por cada cama. Personal fue corriendo en cada dirección y pacientes fueron gritando y llorando. En medio de este caos, hubo un hombre especialmente ruidoso y molestando a los otros pacientes. Cuando me acerqué para ver qué estaba pasando, una enfermera vinó y le pidió una muestra de orina. En el medio de esta sala, se bajó la cremallera de los pantalones y le dió una muestra de orina en el acto. Inmediatamente después, regresó a su cama y empezó otra vez a llorando muy ruidoso. Le aparece muy atlético, tenía un toque de bigote, y tuvó más o menos cuarenta años de edad. Fue obvio que estaba borracho.

¨Buenos días,¨ dije. ¨Vengo de cuidado pastoral. ¿Quiere un momento de conversación?¨

  ¨Si.¨

  ¨¿Porque estas tan triste esta tarde?¨

¨Mi hermano murió a la edad de cuarenta años del alcoholismo al igual que mi padre.¨ 

¨¿Cuando murió tu hermano? ¨ 

¨Antes de cinco años.¨ (2X) 

¨¿Entonces, ahora usted tenia cuarenta años y piense que va a morir también?¨ Yo pidé especulando.

¨Si.  Hoy día esta mi cumpleaños.”

Después de la revelación de este aniversario emocional, nos abrazamos y comenzamos a identificar formas de lidiar con su adicción del alcohol. Recuerdo esta visita no solamente por toda la drama, sino también porque una otra capellana ante de mí no pudo establecer esta conexión y se fue sin tener un encuentro serio. Esta conexión empezó cuando realicé que este paciente fue experimentando un tipo de historia conocido como un aniversario emocional.

Escritura de Hoy

¿Que significa a estar completamente presente en la vida de alguien? (2X)

En la historia de Jesús y el ciego, Bartimeo, tiene al menos de dos elementos sorprendo.

El primero sorprendo es que Jesús detuvo y hablar con Bartimeo. ¿Qué celebridad se detiene para hablar con la gente común? Jesús hicó. (2X) La primera paso en siendo completamente presente en la vida de cualquiera persona esta a detenerse y hablar a ellos. ¿Hablas tú a las invisibles personas en la vida, las que nadie reconocimiento? (2X) 

El secundo sorprendo es que Jesús preguntó a Bartimeo: ¨—¿Qué quieres que haga por ti?¨ (Marcos 10:51) Nota que Jesús no asumo que el supó la repuesta de esta pregunta. El ofrezcó a Bartimeo respeto como un adulto y no veó a el por media de su discapacidad como ciego. (2X) 

La repuesta de Bartimeo es también interesante. Su petición de receiver curación de su ceguera indica que el tiene fe. Por contrasto, “un hombre lisiado de nacimiento” en Hechos 3 pidió a los Apóstolos Pedro y Juan solamente por limosna (Hechos 3:2-3). Creo que la biblia registró el nombre de Bartimeo porque su fe sorprendó a Pedro y los otros discípulos. Para nosotros, la repuesta de Bartimeo es tal vez obvio porque Jesús y esta historia están demasiado familiar.

¿Que aprendimos de estés versículos? Necesitamos a detenerse y hablar a las personas invisibles alrededor nos y escuchar cuidosamente a cuáles que deciren. (2X)

Más Discusión

¿Que significa a estar completamente presente en la vida de alguien? (2X)

En mi formación pastoral a estar completamente presente significa por la mayor parte a escuchar a alguien activamente. Mira directamente en los ojos de una persona y permítalos a decir su historia. Sólo plantear las preguntas para aclaración ocasionalmente.  Si esta dirección parece fácil, no es. El objetivo de escuchar activamente es a entender el contento emocional de la historia. (2X)

El autor, John Savage, recomendó a escuchar especialmente para el tipo de historia que se cuenta. Esta historia en la historia revela el emocional contento que esta seriando comunicado.

En la historia del paciente en el hospital, la historia en la historia fue un aniversario—en su familia los hombres muerta por edad de cuarenta años de alcoholismo. Un aniversario es una historia conectado con un dato del calendario. Tal vez alguien importante murió o tuvó un accidenté grave por un día particular. En esta historia del paciente fue un cumpleaños. El dato más famoso por el tiempo de Jesús fue el Éxodo de la gente de israel de Egipto cual se celebra como Pascua cada año.

Savage (1996, 95) indica cuarto otros tipos de historias:

1.    Una “yo conozco a un hombre quien” historia. En este caso el hombre subido discusión es normalmente la persona que habla porque el tema es demasiado sensitivo. En la bíblica, leamos:

¨Conozco a un seguidor de Cristo que hace catorce años fue llevado al tercer cielo (no sé si en el cuerpo o fuera del cuerpo; Dios lo sabe.¨ (2 Cor. 12:2).

2.    Una transición historia tiene tres partes—el pasado, el presente, y la futura. Una vista del hospital es normalmente una transición historia. También los estudios en la universidad son una transición con tres partes. Una transición obvia en la biblia es la historia del Éxodo cuando la gente de Israel salió de la tierra de Egipto, ir en el desierto durante cuarenta años, y luego entró en la tierra prometida (Bridge 2003, 43). Interesante es que el pueblo israel aprendí de depende por Dios durante su tiempo en el desierto. 3.

3.   Una historia del pasado con significado para el presente. Eso es su típica historia de la biblia pero se menciona específicamente en el contexto de la Cena del Señor donde leamos:

¨También tomó pan y, después de dar gracias, lo partió, se lo dio a ellos y dijo: —Este pan es mi cuerpo, entregado por ustedes; hagan esto en memoria de mí.¨ (Lucas 22:19)

4.    Una reinversión historia. Eso es una historia como economista sea pastor. Eso era entonces; esto es ahora. En la biblia vemos este tipo de historia en la conversión de Pablo de un persecutor de la iglesia a una evangelista de cristo.

Finalmente, cuando nosotros oímos un de los cincos tipos de historias seriando describir, el paso próximo es a plantear una pregunta de clarificación. En mi historia del hospital, yo pregunté:  ¨¿Entonces, ahora usted tenia cuarenta anos y piense que va a morir también?¨ La repuesta de su pregunta indicara si tú has escuchada suficiente bien.

Resumen

¿Que significa a estar completamente presente en la vida de alguien?

Cada uno de nosotros puede detenerse y escuchar con más atención a quienes nos rodean siguiendo el ejemplo de Jesús con Bartimeo.

Oración

Oramos.

Padre Santo,

Gracias por tu perdón y por tu presencia en nuestras vidas cotidiarias. En el poder de tu Espíritu Santo, darnos el fuerzo para escuchar más intensivo a las personas alrededor nos cada día. En el preciso nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.
Referencias

Bridge, William. 2003.  Managing Transitions:  Making the Most of Change.  Cambridge:  Da Capo Press.

Savage, John.  1996.  Listening & Caring Skills:  A Guide for Groups and Leaders.  Nashville:  Abingdon Press.

Presencia Completa
Also see:
Blackaby Expects Answers to Prayer 
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
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Hart Argues History to Inform the Present

David Bentley Hart. 2009. Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

The old saw goes: you cannot argue someone out of a position that they were not argued into. Apologetics is accordingly most useful in convincing oneself of the reasonableness of views that you already loosely hold. For critics who engage primarily in slander, correcting the veracity of arguments propping up such slander does not normally lead to retraction of the slander so much as the advancement of new arguments of similar veracity, particularly when political or financial incentives motivate the slander. Even weakly argued slander can imperil loosely held faith so the apologist is bound to remain fully employed.

Introduction

David Bentley Hart opens his book, Atheist Delusions, with these words:

“What I have written is at most a ‘historical essay,’ at no point free of bias, and intended principally as an apologia for a particular understanding of the effect of Christianity upon the development of Western civilization.”(ix)

Hart’s concern about bias is interesting because quickly proceeds to outline his decision criteria for establishing historical truth:

“It may be impossible to provide perfectly irrefutable evidence for one’s conclusions, but it is certainly possible to amass evidence sufficient to confirm them beyond plausible doubt.”(ix)

Again, this is interesting because Hart begins playing by postmodern rules of argumentation—a modern writer might appeal to objective truth (or rationality) at this point, which would invite derision from postmodern critics.

Central Argument

As an historian, Hart focuses on using the past as a vehicle for understanding the present, writing:

“This book chiefly—or at least centrally—concerns the history of the early church, of roughly the first four or five centuries, and the story of how Christendom was born out of the culture of last antiquity. My chief ambition in writing it is to call attention to the peculiar and radical nature of the new faith in that setting: how enormous a transformation of thought, sensibility, culture, morality, and spiritual imagination Christianity constituted in the age of pagan Rome.; the liberation it offered from fatalism, cosmic despair, and the terror of occult agencies; the immense dignity it conferred up on the human person…”(x-xi)

What struck me in the middle of this lengthy essay was how much paganism of these first centuries of the church resembled the anxiety that we see every day in postmodern culture.

The Mythology of Modernism

Through the lens of historical observation, Hart furthermore chips away at the mythology surrounding the modern period. He writes:

“…what many of us are still in the habit of calling the ‘Age of Reason’ was in many significant ways the beginning of the eclipse of reason’s authority as a cultural value; that the modern age is notable in large measure for the triumph of inflexible dogmatism in every sphere of human endeavor (including the sciences) and for a flight from rationality to any number of soothing fundamentalisms, religious and secular; that the Enlightenment ideology of modernity as such does not even deserve any particular credit for the advance of modern science; that the modern secular state’s capacity for barbarism exceeds any of the evils for which Christendom might justly be indicted, not solely by virtue of the superior technology, but by its very nature…”(xi-xii)

Hart’s comment about barbarism is particularly interesting because today’s culture is quick to forget about the millions killed by the National Socialists and by various Marxian governments in our time yet obsesses about the thousands killed during the Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition hundreds of years ago, where the historical veracity of various claims requires close scrutiny that is almost never offered.

Faith in Choice

An important critique that Hart examines at length is the postmodern obsession with personal freedom. He writes:

“…there is no substantive criterion by which to judge our choices that stands higher than the unquestioned good of free choice itself, and that therefore all judgment, divine no less than human, is in some sense an infringement upon our freedom. This is our primal ideology. In the most unadorned terms possible, the ethos of modernity is—to be perfectly precise—nihilism.”(21)

This observation is damning in its implications for the banality of our time. Freedom defined in terms of market choice for goods and ideas leaves no philosophical room for God, the development of personal character, or even the organization of communal activities, present or future. Inherent in this focus is an assumption that individual making choices has the resources required to make them and society is eager to provide them. Focusing on choice accordingly leaves decisions about everything else up to whoever is powerful enough to enforce them. Even the choices offered today may disappear quickly as a lack of interest in the future may lead one to eat one’s own seed-corn or to trade away one’s own freedom in the rush to consume.

Outline

Hart writes his book in 17 chapters divided into four parts:

Faith, Reason, and Freedom: A View from the Present
The Mythology of the Secular Age: Modernity’s Rewriting of the Christian Past
Revolution: The Christian Invention of the Human
Reaction and Retreat: Modernity and the Eclipse of the Human(vii-viii).

These chapters are preceded by an introduction and followed by notes and an index.

Assessment

David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions is an interesting read for the historically sensitive and philosophically astute. Hart offers commentary on current cultural controversies that both enlightens and challenges one to probe deeper, if for no other reason than to understand his voluminous vocabulary.

Hart Argues History to Inform the Present
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Monday Monologues: Pascal’s Wager, July 30, 2018 (podcast)

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

In today’s podcast, I pray for presence and talk about Pascal’s Wager.

To listen, click on the link below.

After listening, please click here to take a brief listener survey (10 questions).

https://t2pneuma.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Monday_monologue_pascals_wager_07302018.mp3
Monday Monologues: Pascal’s Wager, July 30, 2018 (podcast)
Also see:
Monday Monologue On March 26, 2018 
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

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Petition for Full Presence

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Almighty, Ever-present Father,

I praise you for you continuing presence in my life.

Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from your love through Jesus Christ (Rom 8:38-39).

But I confess that I have trouble being fully present in the lives of the people around–too often I am tired, I am distracted, I am inattentive to reflect your example.

Thankfully, you are patient with me and speak to me gently when I stray.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, teach me once again what I must do and grant me the strength to follow your footsteps. May your grace shine through me and may I experience the peace that passes all understanding (Phil 4:7).

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Petition for Full Presence
Also see:
Giving Thanks 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

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