Stephen W. Hiemstra's Blog, page 243

Evangelische Kirche

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 1:3)

Evangelische Kirche

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Towards the end of my summer in Puerto Rico, I briefly began attending a church, but not long enough to get involved or remember the name.[1] In that church, it became immediately obvious that I should have attended church from the moment of my arrival because I would have met more people and learned more Spanish—I knew my English Bible well enough that I did not need to look up the translation when I read the Bible in Spanish. So later when I returned to Cornell University, I ordered a Spanish Bible from the American Bible Society[2] through the mail.

My experience with church in Puerto Rico led me to seek out a church immediately after I arrived in Germany. From my dormitory on Rosenbachweg, I was able to walk or take the bus to a number of churches, but most had one thing in common—few if any members. Most churches, even cathedrals, that I visited in Germany were empty on Sunday morning with only a few old widows and the pastor in attendance for worship. The exception, I learned, was a little village church, Kirche Herberhausen, which my friend, Hermann, drove me to one Sunday.

Kirche Herberhausen was different because it was packed every Sunday with women and students, many of whom no doubt attended Göttingen’s seminary. Every week worshipers would come in, grab a hymnal (gesangbuch) from a shelf near the door and have a seat—even the loft was full most weeks. Then at the appointed hour, the pastor would come in through a door in the chancel, give his sermon, and leave again through the chancel door—he never engaged the congregation in conversation or shook anyone’s hand. In Germany, clergy receive a government salary and are not dependent on the morning offering. In a Christmas visit to Germany in 1982, I learned that Baptist churches in Germany, who are not officially sanctioned by the government, operate more like American churches and one gets a hand-shake.

I remember the Sunday morning routine at Kirche Herberhausen clearly because I had to decide each week whether to walk or take the bus. The bus schedule either brought me to church very early or about ten minutes late, in which case I would not be able to get a scarce hymnal.

In my first attempt at using the bus, I arrived more than an hour early and, because the church door was locked, I stepped out for a cup of coffee at a local restaurant, whose door was also locked. But I noticed as I stood there that people kept walking by me and around to the back of the building. So I joined them going to the back of the building and through the door. There I discovered a room full of men—apparently, the tradition of frühschoppen (morning pint) amounted to men tipping beers while the women attended church. I later bought a hymnal and started walking to church, which was interesting because Herberhausen and Göttingen are separated by a beautiful park.

In addition to a hymnal, I bought a German Bible, complete with concordance, to supplement the New Testament with Psalms that I had brought with me from home. Like any typical student in those days, I traveled to Germany wearing my winter coat and carrying a backpack, which meant precious little space for a full-size Bible. Most of my biblical study at that point in my life was of books in the New Testament so not having the Old Testament did not crimp my style, but I came to love this new Bible.

My beloved German Bible never made it home. As I packed to leave for home, I was moved to ask a friend whether she needed a Bible. Being Catholic, she responded that she had never even owned a Bible so I left my Bible with her. Consequently, my only German Bible today—other than my New Testament with Psalms—is published by the American Bible Society and does not include a concordance.[3]

Shortly before I left Germany, I received admission to several university doctoral programs, including the one at Michigan State University, which I accepted in a long distance call from Germany. This call became an interesting talking point because the department secretaries perpetuated the rumor that I was myself German and every time a foreign student needed to be picked up at the Lansing Airport I got tapped with the responsibility. Of course, I did not mind at all because I met some very interesting foreign students, but I did not immediately learn the reason for my good fortune.

Between my experience at the Kirche Herberhausen and the influence of my friend, Jon, who had become a Lutheran pastor, when I studied at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan I began attending University Lutheran Church (ULC),[4] whose pastor was German. Like many university churches, ULC’s charter called for them to reserve a portion of their leadership positions for college students so I was quickly elected to serve on the worship committee and became chair of the committee, which meant that I also served on church council.

While I was happy to be of some use to the church, it was probably a mistake in view of my busy schedule with doctoral studies. Instead of fellowship and quiet time with the other students, I found myself engaged in long committee meetings focused on ULC’s stressful financial problems and discontent with the pastor. The financial problems arose because the church built a small cathedral without adequately estimating potential growth, only to find themselves strapped with a burdensome mortgage. The pastoral problems were compounded by weak and obstinate lay leadership. I remember being so frustrated with one attorney on the personal committee who instead of offering reports would dodge and weave reasonable questions—after a point I made it a personal policy to walk out of the meeting and read a book outside whenever he would make a report.

My mistake in taking on such responsibilities at ULC ultimately soured me on the Lutheran church, perhaps because I never really had a chance to enjoy it, and when I left East Lansing to live and work in Northern Virginia I returned to worship at Lewinsville Presbyterian Church, where my parents were also members. Still, it was at Kirche Herberhausen and ULC that I came to appreciate the usefulness of the liturgy for dispensing God’s grace in spite of the limits of our linguistic abilities and human frailties in our hour of need.

[1] I walked from my boarding house on Calle Manila in Santa Rita to church so it could have been several churches. However, it was likely las Iglesias de Dios Pentecostal.

[2] The date written in that Bible is August 20, 1978.

[3] The American Bible Society does not publish Bibles with concordances, in part, because the concordances pose a fault line in arguments on how to interpret scripture.

[4] http://ulcel.org.

Stone and Duke Encourage Theological Reflection

Howard W. Stone and James O. Duke. 2006. How to Think Theologically. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Review By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Our anti-intellectual society frequently has trouble seeing the hand of God at work, in part, because such vision requires thinking about things outside ourselves. Since the romantic era of the nineteenth century, Americans have preferred to “experience” God emotionally rather than to “know” God intellectually. This is truly disturbing outcome for anyone familiar with the Great Awakening experience of eighteenth century because post-mortems of the event done by theologians, such as Jonathan Edwards (1746), clearly showed that religious experiences (for example, think about the increase in church attendance immediately after 9-11) not followed by theological reflection are soon forgotten. So how exactly do we reflect properly on our experiences of God through scripture and daily life?

Howard Stone and James Duke in their book, How to Think Theologically,respond to this question, writing:

“It is a simple fact of life for Christians; their faith makes them theologians. Deliberately or not, think—and act—out of a theological understanding of existence, and their faith calls them to become the best theologians they can be.” (1)

This is not a throw away comment; when life loses its meaning, we die even if the body continues to process air and food. If we are to continue living we need to seek meaning in the many challenging experiences that life holds for us. The question is not whether we have a theological view of life—we all do—but rather whether the theology we live by is the one that we would chose if we took the time to think about it.

Like most good theologians, Stone and Duke cite the famous line from Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109 AD) who wrote: “I believe so that I may understand” (2008, 87) or as they cite it: “faith seeking understanding” (2). While this idea that faith precedes knowledge seems controversial until you realize that assumptions are faith statements and are required before any scientific inquiry can begin. Anselm’s apologetic laid the philosophical foundation for the modern era.

Also like most good theologians, Stone and Duke define important terms. For example, they observe:

“Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted definition of the term theology. It comes to us as a compound word from ancient Greek: theo—logia are logia (sayings, accounts, teachings, theories) concerning theos (the divine, gods, and goddesses, God).” (7)

They also distinguish Christian orthodoxy “correct opinion or belief” from orthopraxy “correct practice” (7). It is often the case in some church circles that the accepted doctrine of the church is orthodox, but the church does not practice orthopraxy—a kind of hypocrisy that minimizes criticism and correction.

Another important distinction that Stone and Duke make is between embedded theology—where “Christians learn what is all about from countless daily encounters with their Christianity”—and deliberative theology—“the understanding of faith that emerges from a process of carefully reflecting upon embedded theological convictions” (13-16). Notice that neither embedded not deliberative theology is set in stone or requires scholarly intervention—we engage in both types of theology on our own every day as we deepen our understanding of our own faith journey. But, as Stone and Duke observe, “theological reflection cannot flourish unless it is valued and practices by the church itself” (23).

Stone and Duke write in 9 chapters proceeded by 2 prefaces and an introduction and followed by a glossary, notes, and index. The 9 chapters are:

Faith, Understanding, and Reflection,
Fashioning Theology,
Resources for Theological Reflection,
Theological Method,
The Gospel,
The Human Condition,
Vocation,
Theological Reflection in Christian Community,
Forming Spirit.

At the time of publication, Howard W. Stone was a professor emeritus of Department of Psychology and Pastoral Counseling at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and the author of numerous books. James O Duke was also at Brite and was a professor of history of Christianity and historical theology.

Stone and Duke’s How to Think Theologically was written as a primer for young seminarians, but is accessible to any reader willing to take it on. It is a good read and worthy of group discussion.  If nothing else, consider the irony posed by the cover!

References

Anselm of Canterbury. 2008. The Major Works. New York: Oxford University Press.

Edwards, Jonathan. 2009. The Religious Affections (Orig pub. 1746). Vancouver: Eremitical Press.

My best friend in high school, who is now a Lutheran pastor, used to moan that our faith forced us to become “little Kierkegaards” because our faith raises more questions than answers. Soren Kierkegard (1813-1855) was a well-known, nineteenth century theologian.

 

37. Prayers of a Life in Tension by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Loving Father,

We give thanks for the life and death of Jesus who lived a humble life and bore our sins on the cross. Help us to practice humbleness and hospitality with all people. Help us to put on Christ’s righteousness and defend your honor, not ours. Help us to pay our taxes, to turn the other cheek, to treat our enemies with love and respect, to go the extra mile seeing it as a ministry opportunity, to judge the actions but not the intentions of those around us.  Help us to end racial and ethic inequality and practice gender and economic equality in all we do. In the power of your Holy Spirit,  may conflict and bickering and gossip end with our sacrifice.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Internationals

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you

not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,

but to think with sober judgment, each according to the

measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Rom 12:3)

The Internationals

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

When I was still at Cornell, I had a friend and colleague from Zaragoza, Spain, by the name of Luis, who invited me to join a Latin group in playing soccer. Our soccer games together became a regular thing and I focused on soccer during the warmer months, leaving pickup basketball in the gym as a winter sport.

During my year in Germany, basketball again became a regular Monday afternoon activity which was always followed by a trip to the same sandwich shop for a baguette with schinken (the German equivalent of country ham) and, of course, a good German piltzner. After having spending so much time on the bench in college, it was not hard getting used to being a star playing basketball in Germany. Basketball was a relatively new sport in Germany; local professional teams all recruited American players to upgrade their teams, so I had a distinct advantage on the courts relative to my German friends. But still, although my friends tolerated me scoring points in basketball, scoring the only goal in the annual graduate/undergraduate soccer game was another matter!

Soccer became an even more important part of my life when I entered the doctoral program at Michigan State University in the fall of 1979 and lived in Owen Hall, the graduate residence center. Owen Hall had an intramural team which helped me get to know international students across the campus because of year-round daily pickup games late in the afternoon. When it was warm, we played outside; when it was cold, we played in the gym. The intramural competitions were in the fall, but the real focus was on the afternoon games. When Owen Hall’s team manager graduated during my first year at Michigan State, I took over as team manager and named the team: the Internationals.

The Internationals competed well because I recruited international players from the daily pickup games where I was able to observe how well they played. Most were graduate students; many players had played semi-professionally or at the varsity level in their home countries before coming to study in the United States. I had players who could dribble the ball in the air (or head the ball) as long as they wanted and some could goal-kick from mid-field. With such serious players, the undergraduate American intramural teams really could not compete; when we practiced with the Michigan State varsity team, we held our own until the younger players wore down our players with their sheer athleticism. As manager, I could play anytime I wanted, but I seldom substituted myself into games when I had a full complement of players. I was able to recruit good players, in part, because I promised that they would play the entire game—a promise that I worked hard to keep.

In competition, my role was, in part, to keep the team together. Greeks did not play easily with Turks and strong willed players often would get in each other’s hair. It helped, however, to play a zonal defense, which gives everyone an equal opportunity to play and which also allowed us to adjust positions to match the strength of our opposition.

Like adjusting our zones to match the opposition or uncertainty, we routinely employed several strategies. One strategy was to identify the one or two talented players on an American team and assign someone to mark them—partially abandoning a zonal defense. Because most American teams had only one or two good players, this strategy worked extremely well in intramural competition. Another strategy was more of a person—we had a talented female player on the team, which was unusual in the early 1980s. Men on opposing teams would frequently underestimate her abilities long enough for us to score a goal or two at their expense.

The Internationals took the gold cup in 1982 using a strategy that we only used once against our chief rivals—the Pink Panthers, which was the only other team composed of international students involved in our daily pickup games. The Internationals and Pink Panthers both typically won all their games up until the final match where they faced off against each other. In 1981, we dominated the final match until the Pink Panthers targeted for injury our star forward: Manuel, a fellow agricultural economist from Spain. Manuel got upset and walked off the field; the Pink Panthers then proceeded to win the game and take Gold Cup. The manager of the Pink Panthers had a well-earned reputation for dirty tricks and it worked—he was also well known for his white-hot temper.

The strategy used in our 1982 final match was very simple—if the Pink Panthers attempted again to win the match by injuring our players, one of our half-backs would provoke their manager with a good swift kick in the shins when the referees were not looking. As expected, when the Pink Panthers began to loose the game, they became very physical and our half-back executed the plan. When kicked, the manager came out swinging and was immediately red-carded. Forced to play down a man, the Pink Panthers lost and the Internationals took the Gold Cup.  A Mexican player, who had turned down my invitation to join the Internationals and played with the Pink Panthers because he wanted to be on the winning team, left the field in tears.

After joining the federal government in Washington in 1984, I continued to play soccer for a couple seasons with an FBI team, but it proved to be a fool’s errand. Not being with the FBI, the team did not fully accept me as a player and, because I worked all day in Washington DC, playing soccer resulted in frequent injuries. In my last soccer game, for example, I sprained my ankle.

My friend, Luis, returned to Spain after graduation and became the lead investigator on a joint research project between his experiment station in Zaragoza and my office in USDA here in Washington. When I was appointed to lead the U.S. side of this project, I traveled to Zaragoza to undertake research on Spain’s mixed feed industry. Knowing that I would be in Zaragoza with Luis, he invited me to bring along my soccer shoes and to play with his team—the only problem was that he was a much better player and I ended up spraining my ankle, which made for a painful trip home.

Blessed are the Meek

Blessed are the Meek

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Luncheon for the Soul, Wednesday, July 13, 2016,Trinity Presbyterian Church, Herndon, Virginia

Welcome

Good afternoon. Welcome to Luncheon for the Soul. My name is Stephen

Hiemstra. I am a volunteer pastor from Centreville Presbyterian Church and a Christian author. Today we continue our study of the Beatitudes.

In the Beatitudes, we see that the promises of God are anchored in his unchanging carácter and we know this because God remains forever meek.

Invocation

Let’s pray.

Heavenly father. Thank you for your presence among us this morning. We are grateful that your word still moves our hearts and stimulates our minds. Make your presence especially obvious in this moment and in this place. In the power of your Holy Spirit, open our eyes and give us ears to listen. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Scripture

Today’s scripture lesson comes from the Gospel of Matthew 5:5. This is the Third Beatitude and a part of the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. Listen for the word of God.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt 5:5 ESV)

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Introduction

A famous confrontation between Jesus and the Pharasees begins with a difficult question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matt 22:17) If Jesus answers yes, the Hebrews will be mad at him. If he answers no, he will have legal difficulties with the Romans. This question does not have an obvious answer.

Jesus answers:

“Show me the coin for the tax.  And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, “Caesar’s. Then he said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt 22:19-21)

In other words, Jesus redefined the question and challenged them to deepen their faith in God—in whose image they were created—and not to focus on political things that they cannot change.

The story of the response of Jesus to the difficult question is an example of a concept known by experts as fogging. Fogging is an answer that responds only to the part of the question that you agree with. In this example, Jesus continues the conversation about taxes but he changes the focus to the coin used to pay the tax. The coin offers an opportunity to give a lesson about God without falling to a political trap and without appearing defensive in front of his opponents.

This last point is important for us because every day we talk with difficult people and fogging is a technique to remain civil during a conflict when it is much easier to become emotional or to feel the stress. It is useful because when we have an appropriate answer to a difficult person we are not victims,…we are not defensive…we are Christians that respect and utilize the wisdom of Christ. It is also an example of how to be meek like Jesus in our everyday life—meek is not weak or as Jesus said:

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt 5:5)

Context

The Third Beatitude appears only in Matthew and in the Greek, the language of the Old Testament, meek means: “… Not [beingser] overly impressed with a sense of self-importance, gentle, humble, considerate” (BDAG 6132). Meek is like the character of a person who applies the concept of “poor in spirit”, which we find in the First Beatitude, and which is shown not less than three times in Matthew:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:29)
“Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” (Matt 21:5)
“And the high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent.” (Matt 26:62-63)

These three events—the invitation of Jesus to be disciple, his humble entrance into Jerusalem, and his silence during his trial—demonstrate the humility of Christ. The humility of Christ is also observed in the writings of the Apostles—Peter, James, and Paul.

From all of this evidence, it is obvious that humility is very important to Jesus in the New Testament. But, no one normally wants to be humble—we have to learn to be humble.

Is it possible that God also learned to be humble? (2X)

Analysis

This curious question over the God changes during the period of the Bible is very important in today’s theological conversations because if God changed during the history of the Bible, then he can change in our time as well.

I will be very brief. Here I will use an argument from the law and the prophets like Paul and many other rabbis.

Point One: God acts as someone very meek in spite of the sin of Adam and Eve.

In the Books of the Law we see that God looks meek and gentle. For example, in Genesis before “God sent him [Adam and Eve} out from the garden of Eden” (Gen 3:23), “God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Gen 3:21) like a mother prepares her kids for the first day of school. God had every right to kill them both and create new people, but he did not do that. He did not do that because he had compassion on them and made provision for them, in spite their sins and against his own rights and power. In this context, God seems meek.

Point Two: God is humble like his good friend, Moses.

Here in the Books of the Law, only Moses is described as humble, as we see in the Book of Numbers, where it is written:

“Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” (Num 12:3)

But, many times friends share very similar personal characteristics. Consequently, the implication is that probably God is also meek like his very good friend, Moses.

Point Three: The Books of the Prophets say that the Messiah will be meek.

The Books of the Prophets are all the books of the Old Testament that are not among the Books of the Law. Here we find that humility is a characteristic expected of the Messiah. The most famous example was cited above in Matthew and comes from the Prophet Zacharia:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech 9:9)

It is obvious also in the prophets that humility is a characteristic of God reflected in his people, as an important part of his image. For example, we see in the Psalms:

“He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.” (Ps 25:9)

And we find in the Psalms our Third Beatitude, in so many words:

“But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” (Ps 37:11)

Therefore, we see in the law as in the prophets that God was humble and he did not need to learn to be meek because he was already meek in creation. This is very good news because the character of God does not change over time and is immutable yesterday, today, and always.

The implication is that, just like the character of God is immutable and does not change, the Bible is also reliable and the promises of God are good forever. Thanks be to God!

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray.

Almighty Good, Beloved Son, Ever-present Spirit, we give praise because you do not change and offer your gracious love and consolation in painful times and times of loss. Cleanse our hearts of evil passions that lead us to sin and lead us to violence against other people. Give us a character that is deep in your wisdom. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 En inglés se dice: “fogging”. Vea Savage (1996, 57-62).

También: “¡Alégrate mucho, hija de Sión! ¡Grita de alegría, hija de Jerusalén! Mira, tu rey viene hacia ti, justo, salvador y humilde. Viene montado en un asno, en un pollino, cría de asna.” (Zec 9:9)

References

Bauer, Walter (BDAG). 2000. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. ed. de Frederick W. Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .

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

Dichosos Los Humildes

Dichosos Los Humildes

Por Stephen W. Hiemstra,

Almuerzo para el Alma, Miércoles, 13 de Julio, 2016, Iglesia Presbiteriana de Trinidad, Herndon, Virginia

Bienvenido

Buenos tarde. Bienvenido al Almuerzo para el Alma. Mi nombre es Stephen Hiemstra. Soy un voluntario pastoral de la Iglesia Presbiteriano de Centreville y también un autor cristiano. En el sermón de hoy continuamos nuestro estudio de las beatitudes.

En las beatitudes, vemos que las promesas de Dios son anclado en su carácter que no cambia y sabemos porque Dios es humildes para siempre.

Oración

Vamos a orar.

Padre celestial. Gracias por tu presencia entre nosotros esta mañana. Agradecemos que tu palabra todavía mueve nuestras corazones y estimula nuestras mentes. Haga tu presencia especialmente claro en este momento y este lugar. En el poder de tu Espíritu Santa, abran nuestros ojos y danos oídos que oyen. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Texto

El texto de hoy viene del evangelio de Mateo 5:5. Eso es la tercera beatitud y una parte de la introducción del Sermón de la Montaña. Escuchan la palabra de Dios:

“Dichosos los humildes, porque recibirán la tierra como herencia.” (Mateo 5:5 NVI)

La palabra del Senior.  Gracias a Dios.

Introducción

Una confrontación famosa entre Jesucristo y los fariseos empieza con una difícil pregunta: “¿Está permitido pagar impuestos al césar o no?” (Mateo 22:17) Si él responde si, estaría los hebreos enojado a él y si el responde no, él tendría problemas legales con los romanos. Esta pregunta no tiene una respuesta obvia.

Jesús respondió:

“Muéstrenme la moneda para el impuesto. Y se la enseñaron. —¿De quién son esta imagen y esta inscripción? —les preguntó. —Del césar —respondieron. —Entonces denle al césar lo que es del césar y a Dios lo que es de Dios.” (Mateo 22:20-21)

En otras palabras, Jesús redefiní la pregunta y los desafió a profundizar en su fe en Dios—en qué imagen en que fueron creado–y no enfoque en las cosas políticas que ellos no pudieron cambiar.

Esta historia de la respuesta de Jesucristo a esta difícil pregunta es un ejemplo de un concepto conocida entre los expertos como nublando. Nublando es una respuesta donde se respondió solamente a la parte de la pregunta lo que usted está de acuerdo (2X). En este ejemplo, Jesús continúa la conversación sobre impuestos, pero el cambió el enfoque a la moneda usada para pagarlo. La moneda ofreció la oportunidad a dar una lección sobre Dios sin cayendo en una trampa política y sin pareciendo defensivo frente de sus adversarios.

Este punto último es importante para nosotros porque cada día hablamos con personas difíciles y nublando es una técnica a permanecer amable durante un conflicto cuando eso es mucho más fácil a ser emocional o a sentir el estreso. Se hace útil porque cuando tenemos una respuesta apropiada a una persona difícil no somos víctimas…no somos defensivo…somos cristianos que respetan and emplean la sabiduría de Cristo. Eso es también un ejemplo de como a estar humildes (o manso) como Jesucristo en nuestra vida de cada día—manso no es débil o como se dice en inglés: meek is not weak.

O como Jesucristo dijo:

“Dichosos los humildes, porque recibirán la tierra como herencia.” (Mateo 5:5)

Contexto

La tercera beatitud aparece solamente en Mateo y en el griego, la lengua del Nuevo Testamento, humildes significa: “… No [ser] muy impresionado por el sentido de la auto-importancia, gentil, humilde, considerado” (BDAG 6132). Humildes es como la característica de una persona que aplica el concepto de “pobre en espíritu”, como encontramos en la primera beatitud, y que se muestró por Jesucristo en no menos de tres versículos en Mateo:

“Carguen con mi yugo y aprendan de mí, pues yo soy apacible y humilde de corazón, y encontrarán descanso para su alma.” (Mateo 11:29)
“Digan a la hija de Sión: Mira, tu rey viene hacia ti, humilde y montado en un burro, en un burrito, cría de una bestia de carga.” (Mateo 21:5)
“Poniéndose en pie, el sumo sacerdote le dijo a Jesús—¿No vas a responder? ¿Qué significan estas denuncias en tu contra?

Pero Jesús se quedó callado.” (Mateo 26:62-63)

Los tres eventos—la invitación de Jesús al discipulado, su humilde desfile en Jerusalén, y su silencio durante su juicio—muestreó la humildad de Cristo. La humildad de Cristo es también observado en los escritos de los apóstoles Pedro, Santiago, y Pablo.

De toda esta evidencia, es obvio que humildes es muy importante a Jesucristo en el Nuevo Testamento. Pero, nadie quiere normalmente a ser humildes—nosotros necesitamos aprender ser humildes.

¿Está posible que Dios aprendió ser humildes también? (2X)

Análisis

Esta curiosa pregunta sobre el cambio de Dios durante el tiempo de la Biblia es muy importante en las conversaciones de teología de hoy porque si Dios cambió en la historia, entonces él puede cambió en nuestros tiempos también.

Voy a ser muy breve y aquí uso un argumento de la ley y los profetas como Pablo y muchos otros rabinos.

Punto Uno: Dios acta como alguien muy manso a pesar de los pecados de Adán y Eva.

Los libros de la ley son los primeros cinco libros del Antiguo Testamento. En la ley vemos que Dios hace como una persona manso y gentil. Por ejemplo, en Génesis antes “el SEÑOR expulsó al ser humano [Adán y Eva] del jardín del Edén” (Gen. 3:23), Dios “hizo ropa de pieles para el hombre y su mujer, y los vistió” (Gen. 3:21) como una madre prepara su hijos para el primer día de la escuela. Dios tiene razón a matarlos ambos y crea nueva personas, pero él no lo hace. Dios no lo hace porque él tiene compasión y hace provisión para ellos, a pesar de sus pecados y contra su propio derecho y poder. En este contexto Dios parecía manso.

Punto Dos: Dios es humildes como su buen amigo Moisés.

Allí en la ley, solamente Moisés fue descrito como humildes como vemos en el libro de Números, donde se escrito:

“A propósito, Moisés era muy humilde, más humilde que cualquier otro sobre la tierra.” (Núm. 12:3 NVI)

Pero muchas veces amigos son muy similares en características personales. Entonces, la implicación es que probablemente Dios es también manso como su buen amigo Moisés.

Punto Tres: Los profetas dijeron que el mesías va a ser manso.

Los libros de los profetas son todos los libros del Antiguo Testamento que no son en los libros de la ley y aquí encontramos que humildes es una característica de esperar en el Mesías. El ejemplo más famoso fue citado en Mateo arriba y viene del profeta Zacarías:

“¡Alégrate mucho, hija de Sión! ¡Grita de alegría, hija de Jerusalén! Mira, tu rey viene hacia ti, justo, salvador y humilde. Viene montado en un asno, en un pollino, cría de asna.” (Zec 9:9)

Eso es obvio también en los profetas que humildes es una característica de Dios reflejada en su gente, como una parte importante de su imagen. Por ejemplo, vemos en los salmos:

“Él dirige en la justicia a los humildes, y les enseña su camino.” (Sal 25:9)

Y encontramos en los salmos nuestra tercera beatitud en otras palabras:

“Pero los desposeídos heredarán la tierra y disfrutarán de gran bienestar.” (Sal 37:11)

Entonces, vemos que en tanto la ley como los profetas que Dios fue humilde y el no necesita aprender a ser manso porque él fue ya manso en la creación. Eso es buenas noticias porque el carácter de Dios no cambió sobre tiempo y es inmutable ayer, hoy, y para siempre.

La implicación es que, como el carácter de Dios es inmutable y no lo cambia, también la Biblia es confiable y las promesas de Dios son buenas para siempre. (2X) ¡Gracia a Dios!

Oración Para Terminar

Oramos.

Dios todopoderoso, amado hijo, omnipresente Espíritu, alabamos porque tu no cambias y ofrecías tu gracioso amor y consolación en tiempos de dolor y pérdida. Limpia nuestros corazones de las pasiones malvadas que nos llevan a pecar y que lidera a violencia contra otras personas. Damos un carácter profundo en tu sabiduría. En el precioso nombre de Jesús, amen.

 

“Bienaventurados los mansos, porque recibirán la tierra por heredad.” (Matt 5:5 R95)

 En inglés se dice: “fogging”. Vea Savage (1996, 57-62).

También: “¡Alégrate mucho, hija de Sión! ¡Grita de alegría, hija de Jerusalén! Mira, tu rey viene hacia ti, justo, salvador y humilde. Viene montado en un asno, en un pollino, cría de asna.” (Zec 9:9)

Referencias

Bauer, Walter (BDAG). 2000. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. ed. de Frederick W. Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .

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

Blackaby Expects Answers to Prayer

Henry and Richard Blackaby.  2002. Hearing God’s Voice. Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Does God answer prayer?

In October 2014, I was invited to offer comments on my book, A Christian Guide to Spirituality, at the Mubarak Mosque in Chantilly, Virginia on the day of Eid. This invitation made me very nervous–what would I say about my faith to a group of Muslims? Consequently, during the three days before Eid, I began a period of prayer and fasting and asked God what I should say. God responded to my prayer, but he said nothing about my invitation. Instead and much better, God gave me the inspiration to write a new book, Life in Tension, which I hope to publish later this summer.

In their book, Hearing God’s Voice, Henry and Richard Blackaby of Blackaby Ministries International write:

“We contend that God does speak to his people. However, people must be prepared to hear what his is saying…The question, then, is not whether God speaks to his people, but how he does so…When God speaks, he does not give new revelation about himself that contradicts what he has already revealed in Scripture. Rather, God speaks to give application of his Word to the specific circumstances in your life.” (17-18)

To make this point about “specific circumstances”, the Blackabys inventory the ways that God spoke to his people in the Old and New Testaments. In just the Old Testament: “creation, angels, prophets, dreams, visions, casting lots, Urim and Thummim, gentle voice, fire, burning bush, preaching, judgments, symbolic actions, signs, miracles, writing on the wall, a talking donkey, trumpets, thunder and lightning, smoke and storms, fleece, the sound of marching on treetops, face-to-face, personal guidance, and various unspecified ways” (31-32). Obviously, God does not always wait for us to seek him out—it is hard to ignore those talking donkeys, especially the ones we see in the mirror!

The Blackabys note, however, an important problem:

“Our problem so often is not that we don’t know what God is saying to us. The problem is that we do know, but we don’t always want to hear what he is telling us.” (44)

For example, we do not need to ask if God wants us to display the fruits of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).

The Blackabys give countless examples of God intervening in response to prayer. Perhaps none is as dramatic as that of George Muller who lived in nineteenth century Britain and who worked to support homeless children. They note three points about Mueller’s experience of God:

Mueller sensed a personal burden for a need,
He sought advice from a Christian friend, and
God spoke to him through scripture (105).

The Blackabys observe that: “The best way to hear God speak to you is to spend regular time reading, studying, and meditating on his Word.” (110) They see God’s answers to prayer as: yes, no, not yet, and silence—prospective evidence of sin (122-129). What is perhaps more interesting is the idea that God invites us to into prayer—a positive answer to prayer is never more certain than when God invites us to do something or ask for something (136).

The Blackabys write in 12 chapters:

The Question: Does God Speak to People Today?
For the Record: God Speaks
God Speaks: His Way
The Holy Spirit: God’s Presence in Our Lives
The Bible: God’s Word
Prayer: What it is and What it Isn’t
Circumstances: A Time for God to Speak
God Speaks to People through People
Lies and Half-Truths
A Historical View
Learning to Respond to God’s Voice
Questions Often Asked

These chapters are preceded by a preface and followed by notes, a scriptural index, and an introduction to the authors.

Henry and Richard Blackaby’s Hearing God’s Voice changed my attitude about prayer and reading this book marked an important milestone in my preparation for later entry into seminary. I commend it to you.

Reference

Carothers, Merlin. 1970. Prison to Praise. Escondido, California.

Müller, George. 2000. Release the Power of Prayer. New Kensington: Whitaker House.

http://www.Blackaby.net.

Mueller (2000, 91-93) offers 5 conditions for prevailing prayer:  1. “entire dependence upon the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus”, 2. “separation from all known sin”, 3. “exercise faith in God’s word of promise”, 4. “ask in accordance with His will”, and 5. “preserver in prayer”.

36. Prayers of a Life in Tension by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Eternal and Compassionate God,

We thank you, Lord, for visiting us when we are afflicted and suffer unjustly. For you are a God who cares and understands our wounds, our sorrows, our diseases. We lay our afflictions before you for we cannot bear them alone. Heal our wounds, comfort us in our griefs, purge us of disease. Restore us; redeem us; save us; in doing so teach us to bear the wounds, griefs, and diseases of those around us and to point them to you. Teach us to intercede for the people around us in action and in prayer. For you are our God and we are your people. You are with us; you are for us; and you have given your name to us. In the power of your Holy Spirit, let our security reside only in you, now and always. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Senior Year Transition

“Behold, I have set before you an open door,

which no one is able to shut.” (Rev 3:8)

Senior Year Transition

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

My senior year in college at Iowa State University (1975/76), I thought that I was bullet proof and signed up for 18 hours, including graduate level micro and macro economics classes. Other classes, like economic history, computer science, and statistics, provided important background for later studies and work in my career. Outside of class, I had a steady girl-friend—one of the few—in college, and I worked in the cafeteria in Wilson Hall, where I sometimes felt out of place.

For example, my floor in Wilson Hall had a successful basketball team that frequently went out to practice and played a game once a week. Although later during my time in Germany I was the star of the graduate student basketball team, here playing for Wilson Hall I mostly sat on the bench during games—most of my college buddies had played varsity-level basketball in high school, being from small high schools where everyone was given the opportunity to play. By contrast, because my own high school basketball team  took state champs throughout my high school years, only the most dedicated players made the team. Consequently, I felt out of place sitting on the bench while my team beat other teams.

But I also felt out of place trying to date small town girls. Most students at Iowa State came from Iowa and, because they hoped to remain in the Iowa after graduation, they remained closely tied to high school friends on campus. As an out-of-state student, it was difficult to break into these high school cliques. Unlike the movie stereotypes of rural kids dying to get out of their small towns, these were kids who were intensely loyal to their hometowns and chose careers to make that outcome possible. My cousin in Cedar Rapids, for example, never left Cedar Rapids—even to attend college; my roommate studied computer science, in part, so he could remain in Ames after graduation. Consequently, I felt out of place socially at Iowa State and ended up dating a bright young Iranian girl who I met in one of my economics classes.

My girl friend and I dated for several months, but later broke up because she criticized my car. In my sophomore year, I worked in construction for several months in the summer before transferring to Iowa State and used the money that I earned to buy a used 1967 Volkswagen beetle. I was intensely proud of my beetle, in part, because I had paid for it myself. Being Iranian, she assumed that my family could and should buy me a new and better car while I knew that the gift of a new car was unlikely. Thus, her criticism amounted to a cultural misunderstanding, but at the time this criticism simply cut too deep and we broke up. We remain friends, however, and she went on later to a doctorate and to teach agricultural economics at an important university.

Supporting my interest in international economic development, I took a series of classes in economic history. Although economists often envisioned economic development in terms of dollars saved and invested, the actual experience of economic development was often more of an historical process where key policies either supported productive investment or diverted resources away from useful investment into consumption activities. Understanding the difference was an important theme in economic history, which made it fascinating and helpful in explaining why some rather poor countries prospered while other comparatively rich counties squandered even better opportunities.

My history professor at Iowa State was a rather brilliant, but frustrated[1], professor from Yale University who did not like my term papers and was not particularly interested in explaining why. Actually, he threatened to flunk me if I signed up for the next class in the economic history sequence. After working unsuccessfully to please him with several papers, I went into his office and sat on his desk until he explained the problem. The problem was that I conceived of history as a chronology (or narrative) of events over time, while he saw history as the product of deductive reasoning. According to the deductive method, a paper should state a hypothesis and set out to provide it with historical observations. When I then adopted a deductive method in my next paper, he liked my papers and, in the process, I learned to pay attention to methods of argumentation when I would venture outside of economics to study other fields.

My lesson about focusing on argumentation methods came up again in studying macro-economics. The economics department at Iowa State was well-known for using quantitative methods, but my macro-economics professor preferred an history of thought method of argumentation.[2] The tension between these two methods set him at odds with the department so when he began drumming students out of this class (a common approach among professors trying to minimize their required teaching load) he quickly found himself isolated also from students—a class of over 20 students soon became a class of only 4 students. I soon had the distinction of being the only undergraduate student in the class after he  expressed open disdain for undergraduates generally and reiterated such comments even in private meetings.[3]

Stressful as some of my classes turned out to be, senior year was also physically exhausting and I frequently got only about 4 hours of sleep at night, preferring to catch sleep during dead time during the day. Not being a coffee drinker until much later, I took caffeine pills in a vain attempt to stay awake in the evening. Normally, I would study until eleven p.m. then go jogging to wake up so I could a couple more hours; then, at six a.m. I worked the breakfast shift in the cafeteria.

In the middle of my senior year, I applied to three graduate schools—University of Massachusetts, Iowa State University, and Cornell University, each of which had strong agricultural economic programs, according to my dad. I was offered admission and support at University of Massachusetts, but decided against it. Iowa State admitted me almost immediately, but was slow to offer me financial support. When financial support finally came through, I was assigned to work with a famous, but rather controlling professor. I went to see him several times to try to get to know him, but soon felt uncomfortable with this relationship. When Cornell University later offered me both admission and financial support, I changed my mind and decided to attend Cornell.

By May I had reached a breaking point because of stress and long hours and got sick. When I went to the clinic to get myself checked out, I was not ready to hear the news—I had mononucleosis. I freaked out—my history professor’s assistant just happened to be in the clinic at that moment and ran back to tell him the news—for a full-time student, it might as well have been the plague. Back in the dormitory, my roommate and my friends avoided me leaving me to eat and study by myself. When I told my parents, my dad told me that he had a business trip to Iowa later that month and promised to stop by and to bring me home in about a week. This meant that I had about a week to finish up my remaining classwork.

My remaining classwork turn out to less than expected because Iowa State had a rule that any graduating senior with a B average or better did not need to take final examinations. It was my policy in college to write all my term papers early in the quarter so that I could focus on studying for mid-term and final examinations later in the quarter. Being exempted from final examinations meant that I was essentially finished with my work—all but some FORTRAN programming and a few class projects. Time went by quickly and my father picked me up; we flew home to Maryland; and I spent the next 6 weeks in bed, missing out on graduation ceremonies.

Reference

Johnson, Glenn L. 1986. Research Methodology for Economists: Philosophy and Practice. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

[1] He was from the east coast and felt that it was a hardship to work in Iowa.

[2] In broad terms, Johnson (1986, viii) classified the different schools of thought in economics as positivism, normativism, pragmaticism, and existentialism.

[3] He later failed to achieve tenure and ended up working for the Federal Reserve.

Lee Chronicles Little Captain John

John E. Lee, Jr. 2014. Born Rich: In a Time That is Gone Forever. Aliceville, Alabama.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

How do you honor your past? In the Hiemstra family it was common knowledge that the farm was a better place to raise kids because it provided the time and space for children to play, get to know the family, and develop life skills that are often taken for granted. The simple acts of preparing garden soil, planting seeds, tending them, and watching them grow to maturity, for example, teaches hard work and patience in the face of adversity, attributes often neglected in the city.

In his memoir, Born Rich, John Lee Jr, known by those who knew him best as Little Captain John—because he was a junior and his father was known locally as Captain John—chronicles his life in form of short stories about growing up in Darcy, Alabama. These stories are neither boring nor random but instead outline the folk wisdom often expressed in rural families, as Lee explains:

“My family did not always have an abundance of food … but we never really went hungry … I was never a fashion trend setter … but I always had clothes on my back … I haven’t lived in mansions, but I have never been homeless … I had a storybook childhood … I have endless opportunities that enriched my life and challenges that strengthened me.” (vii)

It is hard to remain a spectator in your own life when you know that food won’t go on the table unless you grow it, clothes won’t be on your back unless you sew them, and the roof over your head won’t keep out the rain unless you repair it.

Still, self-reliance has its limits—crushing poverty removes the means to maintaining this standard of care. Part of the uniquely southern experience is to recognize one’s advantages, as Lee observes:

“… much of my childhood revolved around black friends, playmates, workers on our farm and just neighbors. Whites were a distinct but privileged minority in the rural area of Alabama where I grew up.” (ix)

Part of the life lesson of growing up in the Lee family was to value the sense of connection to the community and obligation to those less fortunate (14). Thus, self-reliance and a compassionate character need to be balanced, if one is to live a Christian life in the midst of trying social circumstances (22).

Lee’s memoir bears reading on at least two levels. The first level of reading, which corresponds closely with the primary title—“Born Rich”, follows family life primarily over the course of the 1930s and 1940s, as seen through the eyes of the young man living it. Against a backdrop of family anecdotes dating to the nineteenth century, Lee writes formative and humorous stories about misadventures of a farm boy learning agricultural wisdom, running small businesses, and participating in community life.

For example, what’s the difference between sweet corn and corn for grain harvest? Lee writes:

“Roastin’ ears were ears of corn that were pulled still tender and juicy—good for eating but not mature enough for grain.” (72)

What’s the difference between grits, meal, and flour? It depended on how closely the stones in a grist mill were set together in grinding corn (222).

The second level of reading, which flows from the subtitle—“in a time that is gone forever”, follows more subtly from the detailed descriptions of rural technologies, as seen through the eyes of a seasoned economist. Lee notices, for example, the influence of the construction of new road or rail-line on local businesses (23-25) and notes the demise of the share-cropper system as employment picked up after World War II (195). What is surprising perhaps is the extent that the rural economy in Alabama was as dynamic as it was during this period—causal observers often picture the rural south as being trapped in a screen-set for Gone with the Wind, which is certainly not the case. Because of the attention to technical detail of Lee’s accounts, this memoir could easily be mistaken for a case study of rural life and economy.

Having studied the cattle industry during my own doctoral research, I found Lee’s comments about raising purebred Shorthorns fascinating.  For example, how long is the gestation period for a Shorthorn cow? 270 days (199). What do you do when a cow gets screwworms? Lee writes:

“…screwworms [were] nasty little worms that hatched from eggs laid by flies in wound in a cow’s skin. Sometimes we had to tie a cow down and pick out the worms with tweezers, then pour a thick protective medicine into the wound.” (200)

How would you like to be assisting with this operation when you were in high school?

John Lee, Jr’s Born Rich is a memoir of family anecdotes, rural stories, and descriptions of community life in Dancy, Alabama in the 1930s and 1940s. Written primarily for a family audience (the paperback is a limited edition not available online), this memoir is nonetheless of interest to students of rural development and regional studies of southern agriculture. In my case, I just found it a great read—perhaps you will too.