Stephen W. Hiemstra's Blog, page 41

Gethsemane Prayer

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Beloved Lord Jesus,

All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours, because you are strong enough to bear our infirmities, pains, and addictions for us when we ask. Be ever near.

Forgive us when we fail to reach out to you in our darkest hours. Be ever near.

Thank you for the witness that you gave to us during your time among us. Be near us now.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, draw us to yourself. Open our hearts, illumine our thoughts, strengthen our hands in your service.

For your name’s sake, Amen.

Gethsemane Prayer
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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

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Gethsemane

Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, 

not as I will, but as you will. 

(Matt 26:39)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Holding God as first priority in all things great and small is impossible. The temptations are too great, the time too short, and our energy too constraining. The Apostle Paul remarked: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Cor 13:12) The image of God is our guide, but we can neither fully comprehend it nor fully reflect it. Yet, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane offers us a guide on how to proceed faithfully.

Life is filled with pains great and small that confront us with a decision. Do we turn into the pain and hold a private pity party or do we turn to God and give it over to him? Jesus answered this question at Gethsemane: “Not as I will, but as you will.” In this manner, we surrender our lives to God, raising the priority of God in our lives, one step at a time.

The Nature of Faith

Gethsemane reveals an important view of faith that is seldom discussed. Faith is not once and for all, set and forget; it is contextual. The Apostle Paul alludes to this view of faith in Philippians:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:12-13)

Each painful experience in life gives us a choice—move toward God or away from him. These choices establish our priorities. Is God our first priority or not? On sunny days, such choices are easy, but it’s the painful choices that form our identity.

Holding the image of God before us is terribly important, much like the photograph of your family on your office desk, because it reminds us who we love and why we work.

This context of faith implies that it is relational. We are willing to suffer for those we love, even if only out of duty, because our love gives life meaning. These faithful decisions are not market trades or investments in a heavenly future. We simply trust God to protect us, to remain with us, and to shelter us from fear in the midst of such pain. After the pain has passed, we appear faithful or not. And God’s grace resides with the fact that we do not always make good decisions. With each new painful decision, we remember God’s faithfulness in the past. Our relationship with God is always a work in progress, as Paul suggests.

The Nature of Personality and Culture

Our personalities, our cultures are formed by the answer to this daily question because pain leaves an indelible mark on our souls. As human beings, we have a special relationship with pain. The behavioral response, psychologists tell us, is to do more of what brings joy and less of what causes pain. Our memories form a litany of answers to this question shaping our personalities and cultures into the image of God.

In my own experience, it was relatively easy to accept Jesus as my savior. We all love to receive gifts. It was much harder to accept him as Lord of my life. We humans are a stubborn, willful race. We value our freedom, even if it means addiction, enslavement, and death. This is why faith is so difficult, even for lifelong believers.

In this narcissistic era, we all have family members and friends that simply cannot let go of their selfishness. This is why so many people die young from preventable illnesses, self-inflict wounds, and addictions. Why else would life expectancy, fertility rates, and standards of living fall? These trends are more a measure of our spiritual health than our material wealth.

In turning to God in our pain and giving it over to him, we break the cycle of dysfunctional personalty and dysfunctional culture. Why? We are prone to becoming addicted to things that bring momentary joy. Money, drugs, sex, and power all have the potential to trap us in dysfunction, when they become our first priority. Giving our pains over to God allows the Holy Spirit to work in our lives to restore balance.

Image of God

How does this work? The image of God is a reference point in responding to pain. The question—what would Jesus do?—is not a trivial question. Balance allows us to learn the right lessons from our experiences, neither discounting our failures nor ignoring them. The church provides an important forum for the work of the Holy Spirit in our daily struggles, offering us the support to learning the right lessons and moving beyond our pain. 

Over time, this process molds our personalities and changes our culture in the image of God. At Gethsemane, Jesus accepted the cross to die for our sins.

Gethsemane

Also see:

The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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

Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 

 

 

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Koerner Explains DBT

Kelly Koerner. 2012. Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Practical Guide. New York: Guilford Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

One of the most difficult cognitive disorders is borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is diagnosed by ticking off at least 5 out of list of highly 9 provocative behaviors.  Believed to be hopelessly unreachable, BPD patients were frequently shunned from treatment both because they routinely burn out their counselors and because insurance companies will not reimburse treatment, leaving families alone to deal with a highly dysfunctional and frequently abusive family member. The biblical picture of the BPD personality is Gomer, the wife of the Prophet Hosea, who is unfaithful, becomes a prostitute, and falls into slavery and who Hosea redeems from slavery much the same way as God redeems us from sin  (Hosea 1:2; 3:2).

Introduction

Hope for beleaguered families has recently come in a new approach to therapy, known as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which starts by answering the perplexing question posed by BPD: how could such as cognitive dysfunction persist over time with highly intelligent people who ought to be learning from their mistakes, like everyone else? Kelly Koerner, in her book—Doing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy— cites  Marsha Linehan, who developed DBT (ix), in hypothesizing an answer to this question:

“…three biologically based characteristics contribute to an individual’s vulnerability. First people prone to emotion dysregulation react immediately and at low thresholds (high sensitivity). Second, they experience and express emotion intensely (high reactivity), and this high arousal dysregulates cognitive processes too. Third, they experience a long-lasting arousal (slow return to baseline).” (5).

In other words, BPD patients are very sensitive people whose learning process is effectively disabled by their hyper-sensitivity to criticism, sometimes arising from a history of child abuse or of pervasive invalidation (7). Because their sensitivity disables their ability to learn from their own mistakes, they repeat the behaviors that lead to those mistakes over and over again. These repeated mistakes disturb their family and friends, who respond with criticism of the patient which shames the patient even more than the mistake. Overwhelmed with negative feedback that the patient cannot process, the patient responds to the shame with avoidance behaviors (running away, using drugs, binging at the mall, jumping into bad relationships, staying up all night…) rather than correcting the underlying mistakes (11-12). The world of BPD is an unhappy world.

Koerner describes the purpose of her book as to: “show[s] why, when, and how to use the principles and strategies of dialectical behavior theory.” (xiii). DBT sets out to accomplish 5 functions:

“Enhance client capabilities…
Improve client motivation to change…
Ensure that new client capabilities generalize to the natural environment…
Enhance therapist capabilities and motivation to treat clients effectively…
Structure the environment in the ways essential to support client and therapist capabilities…” (18).

Koerner writes in 7 chapters, which are—

Tools for Tough Circumstances,
Navigating to a Case Formulation and Treatment Plan,
Change Strategies,
Validation Principles and Strategies,
Dialectical Stance and Strategies: Balancing Acceptance and Change,
Assess, Motivate, and Move: Getting the Most from Each Interaction, and
The Individual Therapist and the Consultation Team (xvii-xviii)

–and which are preceded by front matter (an author about section, note from the editor, foreword by Marsha Linehan, preface, and acknowledgments) and followed by a reference section and index.

Pervasive Invalidation

A key concept driving DBT is the concept of pervasive invalidation, as Koerner writes:

“Bigger problems arise, however, when caregivers consistently and persistently fail to respond as need to primary emotion and its expression. Pervasive invalidation occurs when, more often than not, caregivers treat our valid primary responses as incorrect, inaccurate, inappropriate, pathological, or not to be taken seriously. Primary responses for soothing are regularly neglected or shamed; honest motives consistently doubted and misinterpreted.” (6)

The therapist practicing DBT works to observe instances of emotional dysregulation (see definition below) in the patient and works backwards from these incidents using behavioral chain analysis  (see definition below) to determine precipitating events and vulnerability factors (42). Once these events and vulnerabilities are identified, then the patient is taught the skills necessary to avoid triggering the emotional dysregulation. The kicker is that highly sensitive patients may exhibit emotional dysregulation multiple times in a single counseling session. Consequently, the therapist must have a refined intuition as to when the patient begins to shut down and intervene to “validate” (see definition below) them in working to accomplish the goals for the session.

Let’s dial back into this last string of statements to define a few terms.

Emotional Dysregulation

Koerner defines emotional dysregulation as:

“..the inability, despite one’s best efforts, to change or regulate emotional cues, experiences, actions, verbal responses, and/or nonverbal expression under normative conditions.” (4).

Where normally we might react to invalidating information by pausing to reflect, the patient here is firing up heated emotions (think door-slamming anger), even if no words are spoken, so that the therapy session cannot move to the next point until these emotions are dealt with.

Behavioral Chain Analysis

Koerner defines behavioral chain analysis as:

“…an in-depth analysis of events and contextual factors before and after an instance (or set of instances) of the targeted behavior. It is a way to identify the controlling variables for the behavior.” (42)

Typically, the therapist will stop the conversation, observe the patient’s behavior leaning towards emotional dysregulation, ask the patient if it is true, validate the patient, and then begin parsing back in the conversation to identify a triggering word or idea. Once a trigger is identified, the therapist engages the patient in a conversation about alternative responses to the trigger.

Validate

For BPD patients, change interventions require processing negative feedback appropriately and their sensitivity to such feedback makes it hard for them to hear, let alone respond to. Therefore, Koerner defines validation in these terms:

“With empathy, you accurately understand the world from the client’s perspective; with validation you also actively communicate that the client’s perspective makes sense…validation, in itself, can produce powerful change when it is active, disciplined, and precise. Used genuinely and with skill, it reduces physiological arousal that is a normal effect of invalidation and it can cue more adaptive emotions to fire.” (15).

Validation is more than “buttering the patient’s bread”, it communicates that the patient is truly understood, which may be the first time that they have experienced it and which helps enable the patient to trust the therapist.

Background

Kelly Koerner is the director of the Evidence-Based Practice Institute, a clinical psychologist and DBT trainer. She has written a number of books. She received her doctorate from the University of Washington and studied under Marsha Linehan, who developed DBT.

Assessment

Kelly Koerner’s Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a fascinating book of obvious interest to counselors and other therapists working with difficult patients. I found her descriptions of the use of emotional wisdom in her case studies especially interesting, in part because they were both lengthy and detailed, as behavioral chain analysis requires.

Footnotes

The DSM –IV lists: 1. Feelings of abandonment, 2. Unstable relationships, 3. unstable self-image, 4. Impulsivity (in money management, sexual behavior, etc.), 5. Suicidal behavior, 6. instability of mood, 7. Feelings of emptiness, 8. Inappropriate levels of anger, and 9. Paranoid ideation (my abridgement).  Also see: (Kreger 2008 25).

BPD patients are about 2 percent of the general population but 12 percent of the male prison population and 28 percent of the female prison population. About 40 percent of the people using mental health services have BPD (Kreger 2008, 21).

Spouses of BPD patients are a high risk of suicide.

 See discussion: (Stanford 2008, 197-212).

[ Mental patients should not be confused with special needs individuals—mental patients often score very high on intelligence tests.

http://www.PracticeGround.org.

References

American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV). 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Disorders (fourth edition). Washington DC.

Kreger, Randi. 2008. The Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality Disorder:  New Tools and Techniques to Stop Walking on Eggshells. Center City:  Hazelden.

Stanford, Matthew S. 2008. Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness. Colorado Springs:  Paternoster.

Koerner Explains DBT
Also see:
Vanhoozer: How Do We Understand the Bible? Part 1 
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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

Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 

 

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Care: Monday Monologues (podcast), July 1, 2024

 By Stephen W. Hiemstra

This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on Pastoral Care. After listening, please click here to take a brief listener survey (10 questions).

To listen, click on this link.

Hear the words; Walk the steps; Experience the joy!

Care: Monday Monologues (podcast), July 1, 2024
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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





Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 

 

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Pastoral Care Prayer

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Almighty Father,

All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours, because you insist that we be born again, centering our lives on you.

We confess that our lives are hardly spiritual and our priorities are often wrong, shifting, and self-serving. Forgive our sin and focus us on your image.

Thank you for the witness of Jesus, who lived as a testimony to your mercy, grace, patience, love, and faithfulness, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead that we might find hope in him.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, draw us to yourself. Open our hearts, illumine our minds, strengthen our hands in your service.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Pastoral Care Prayer
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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

Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup

 

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Pastoral Care

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 

The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,

 and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 

(Exod 34:6)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

What is your favorite Bible verse?

As a hospital chaplain, this was initially my go-to question for assessing a patient’s spiritual maturity. If the person refused to answer, I knew they were at one end of the spectrum. If they cited a verse that I needed to look up, I knew they were at the other end of the spectrum. Most answered Psalm 23. On her death bed, my mother cited this verse: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut 6:5) At one point, my editor complained that I cited the verse above—Exodus 34:6—too frequently. In Jesus’ pastoral ministry, he mirrored these five attributes of God.

Consider the words that Jesus shared with the woman caught in adultery: “Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more. (John 8:10-11) Jesus looked beyond the woman that she was to see the woman that she could be.

This pericope is a direct application of grace, one of the five attributes of God. Scholars complain that this story did not originate in the Gospel of John, but no one disputes that it is an authentic story of Jesus.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

As Augustine then confessed his sin to God in private, he writes:

“Such things I said, weeping in the most bitter sorrow of my heart. And suddenly I hear a voice from some nearby house, a boy’s voice or a girl’s voice, I do not know, but it was a sort of sing-song, repeated again and again, ‘Take and read, take and read.’” (Foley 2006, 169)

Augustine borrowed a book of scriptures from his friend, Alypius, and opened it randomly coming to this verse: “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.” (Rom 13:13) Convicted immediately of his sexual sin, he took this passage as a word from God to him personally and went to his mother to announce that he was a Christian (Foley 2006, 160).

It is sometimes said that Western Civilization began with Augustine’s Confessions because it highlighted God as concerned about the life of individuals, such as with the woman caught in adultery. Today, spiritual directors work specifically to assist their mentees in recognizing God’s work in their lives (Barry 2004, 2). This critique of Western Civilization is noteworthy because Augustine was born and lived much of his life in Africa.

Born Again

The idea that God not only created each of us in his image (Gen 1:27), but also actively intervenes in our lives is a Christian distinctive that is affirmed most conspicuously in Jesus’ healings, exorcisms, and conversations with individuals, like Nicodemus and the woman at the well. Nicodemus and the woman at the well represent opposite ends of the social continuum. Nicodemus is a first century celebrity who came to Jesus at night, while woman at the well is often described as a prostitute who came to Jesus in the heat of the day. Both individuals met Jesus personally, asked questions, and left changed people.

The conversation with Nicodemus was iconic:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:2-3)

Being born again of the spirit implies a complete reorganization of one’s life to make God your number one priority, an allusion to the first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exod 20:3)

Your number one priority in life ranks everything else. It becomes the yardstick of other things. If your job is your first priority, then you evaluate everything else against whether or not it advances your career. If your spouse is your first priority, then you evaluate everything else by your spouse’s opinion of it. This ranking issue is simple logic, but it explains why being born again requires a radical shift in your spiritual outlook.

If anything other than God is your first priority, then you commit idolatry, breaking the second Commandment (Exod 20:4), which implies that God is much less important to you. By insisting that we need to be born again, Jesus is applying image theology where every aspect of our lives should point to God in whose image we have been created.

References

Barry, William A. 2004. Spiritual Direction and the Encounter with God: A Theological Inquiry. New York: Paulist Press.

Foley, Michael P. [editor] 2006. Augustine Confessions (Orig Pub 397 AD). 2nd Edition. Translated by F. J. Sheed (1942). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

Pastoral Care

Also see:

The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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


Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 
 

 

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Baehr and Boone Examine Media

Ted Baehr and Pat Boone.  2007. The Culture-Wise Family: Upholding Christine Values in a Mass Media World. Ventura: Regal.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

For anyone who grew up in the period before 1970, the slide of American culture into secularism has been shockingly rapid. What happened to television shows like I love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver during prime time? By 1984 when I got married, I tried but failed to make my home a television free zone. Today, my kids make fun of me as I mute the television during racy ads and leave the room when newscasters broadcast filler.[1] How are we to understand the messages that media routinely pours on us and reasonably communicate standards within the family? In their book, The Culture-Wise Family, Ted Baehr and Pat Boone offer a Christian perspective on these issues.

Introduction

In her foreword, Janet Parshall writes:

“The Culture-Wise Family looks into the abysmal future possibilities of where the current collapse of civilization may lead and also into the hope offered by renewed rededication to biblical wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  Furthermore, The Culture-Wise Family helps the reader understand what must be done, why it must be done, and how it can be done.” (13)

Background and Organization

Ted Baehr is the Chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission which publishes MovieGuides, a Christian movie review service, which makes him a credible commentator on visual media. Meanwhile, Pat Boone is himself a well-known gospel singer from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as a film star and television host, The Pat Boone/Chevy Showroom which aired for 3 years nationally on television.

Baehr and Boone clearly have a heart for young people and they offer these 5 pillars of media wisdom:

“Understand the influence of the media on your children.”
“Ascertain your children’s susceptibility at each stage of cognitive development.”
“Teach your children how the media communicates its message.”
“Help your children know the fundamentals of Christian faith.”
“Help your children learn to ask the right questions.” (27-28)

Citing a 2003 report in Movieguide, they note that by the time our children reach the age of 17, they have spent 63,000 hours exposed to media, 11,000 hours in school, 2,000 hours with their parents, and only 800 hours in church (88). The implication is, of course, that media educates our children more than is commonly understand, in part, through repetition—if you repeat something enough times, people tend to believe it.[6] One measure of that influence reported is that in 1950, 70 percent of 12-15 year olds felt that the messages of the Bible applied to their lives while in 2001 that figure was only 4 percent (Movieguide, 2005; 89). How exactly did that immensely important cultural shift occur?

Personal Example

In our household, we experienced this shift first-hand. At one point when my son was in elementary school, he became ill and was having trouble sleeping. Thinking that he was experiencing complications relative to a medical challenge that he faced back then, we took him to see his pediatrician. Alarmed, the pediatrician referred him to several specialists for tests—they must have tried a dozen times to draw blood sample without success and subjected him to multiple scans. As parents, we were horrified and in great distress over these medical tests that went late into the night. The result? My son was having a reaction to a video game that pictured aliens as attacking rubber chickens and meat cuts, like in bone hams (imagine your dinner coming back to attack you). What was completely innocuous to us as adults terrified our son.

History of Christian Influence in Hollywood

Baehr and Boone provide a lot of historical details that provide insights into some of the cultural changes that we have seen. For example, they report that between 1933 and 1966, every script in Hollywood was reviewed by representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Church, and Protestant film office. If the film passed the review and adhered to their code, it could be screened; otherwise, not. During this period, “there was no explicit sex, violence, profanity, or blasphemy in movies”. Inexplicably, the churches withdrew from Hollywood in 1966 (48-49). Who in their right mind would trade Leave it to Beaver for Family Guy? In effect, we have made this trade.

Cultural Marxism

Baehr and Boone include a number of essays targeting issues of obvious interest. One that sticks in my mind is William S. Lind’s Who Stole Our Culture? (178-185) The short answer is the cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt school, now known as the New School for Social Research in New York City. Particularly important in the strategy for advancing cultural Marxism is known as critical theory. Critical theory advocates subjecting every traditional institution—the family, traditional morality, the church, schools, government, and anyone in authority to unrelenting criticism, making no attempt to offer any real facts or an alternative solution (think of Marx’s own slander of religion as the “opiate of the masses”).[7] Those in authority are characterized as oppressors (and subject to relentless criticism) while everyone else is a victim (automatically good). Cultural Marxism is responsible for the political correctness movement and for mainstreaming homosexuality. By aiding the destruction of the major institutions of Western Civilization, the cultural Marxists have paved the way for Marx’s ideas in ways that communists in the former Soviet Union and other communist countries failed to accomplish.

Assessment

Ted Baehr and Pat Boone’s book, The Culture-Wise Family, is a difficult book to read and absorb. No matter what your social position is, the question of culture and the culture wars remain a hot-button topic where few people agree on much of anything. However, basic information is needed to assess what issues are really at stake and which are not. Here Baehr and Boone provide a real resource.  I encourage you to take  a look.

Footnotes

[1] Filler is content used in place of real news.  Examples are animal tidies, around the clock reporting of disasters, or content-free news coverage which leaves out background required to understand what is being presented. The reporting of disasters is particularly pernicious because by exposing the public to repeated video clips of diaster footage, people can develop symptoms known as “secondary trauma” much like actual first responders and other caregivers. For example, see: http://secondarytrauma.org/secondaryt....

http://www.ecfa.org/MemberProfile.asp...

http://www.movieguide.org.

http://www.PatBoone.com.

For example, Boone was one of the stars in the film, The Cross and the Switchblade, which helped me come to faith as a young person.

[6] This repetition is sometimes referred to as the “broken-record negotiating strategy”.

.

[8] Key books in this effort include:  Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks (1929-1935), Theodor W. Adorno’s The Authoritarian Personality (1950), and Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization.

Baehr and Boone Examine Media
Also see:
Vanhoozer: How Do We Understand the Bible? Part 1 
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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

Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 
 

 

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Young Life: Monday Monologues (podcast), June 24, 2024

 By Stephen W. Hiemstra

This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on Jesus’ Young Life. After listening, please click here to take a brief listener survey (10 questions).

To listen, click on this link.

Hear the words; Walk the steps; Experience the joy!

Young Life: Monday Monologues (podcast), June 24, 2024
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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





Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 

 

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Young Life Prayer

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Almighty father,

All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours, because you lead us away from a life of sin and prepare us for heaven. Be every near.

Forgive our selfish and self-serving ways, when we know how we should act, but choose not to. Be our guide out of the desert.

Thank you for gift of second chances, for an example of how life could be better, and for the assistance of spiritual friends.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, draw us to yourself. Open our hearts, illumine our minds, strengthen our hands in your service.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Young Life Prayer
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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

Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/Tr_Jun24, Signup
 

 

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Jesus’ Young Life

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan 

and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, 

being tempted by the devil. 

(Luke 4:1-2)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Writing about the humanity of Jesus has been an obsession in the twentieth century because of the Enlightenment problem with the divinity of Christ. Much like Thomas Jefferson went through his Bible cutting out the miracles, we find ourselves scratching our heads at the remaining residual. In his preface to his own effort at this task, E.P. Sanders (1993, xiii) writes:

“New Testament scholars spent several decades—from about 1910 to 1970—saying that we know somewhere between very little and virtually nothing about the historical Jesus … My own view is that studying the gospels is extremely hard work.”

My own Old Testament professor simply described scripture as laconic, giving us a bare minimum of detail, which allows the reader to fill in the gaps from their own knowledge and experience. This laconic characteristic of scripture allows each reader to paint their own picture of Jesus, which gives the text a timeless quality, but it also leaves room for doubt.

Temptations in the Desert

Consider the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert after his baptism. The devil offers three temptations: “Command this stone to become bread,” “I will give all this authority and their glory,” and “throw yourself down” (Luke 4:3, 6, 9). Jesus answers each temptation citing texts in Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, and 6:16—temptations facing the people of Israel during the desert wanderings.

Henri Nouwen (2002, 30, 53, 75) interprets these temptations as leadership challenges to be relevant, popular, and powerful, but the desert context and the scriptural citations allude to Jesus suffering the same fate as the nation of Israel prior to entering the Promised Land. The original Jewish audience would have heard these allusions as messianic claims.

A skeptical audience today would doubt their historicity, but the desert wanderings, much like Abraham’s earlier travels, provided the context for the people of Israel to learn to depend on God. If you are a rabbi being hunted by the authorities and you want to disciple your followers, what template would you adopt? The narrative of the Jesus’ temptations provide an interesting segue to the synoptic Gospels record of Jesus traveling around Galilee preaching and teaching. What does that suggest about Jesus’ leadership?

The Single Rabbi

One of the mysteries of the New Testament is what happened to Joseph, Jesus’ human father. Another mystery is why we are never told about Jesus having a wife, something unusual for a rabbi. The two mysteries taken together suggest a common solution.

One clue is found in the crucifixion account, where we read:

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold, your son! Then he said to the disciple, Behold, your mother And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:25-27)

In the age before TV dinners and microwaves, preparing meals was a time-consuming activity, requiring considerable skill. It is highly unlikely that Jesus (or any other working man) would live entirely alone.

If Joseph died while Jesus was a young man, Jesus likely assumed to role of caring for his mother and other siblings, suggesting why he remained single. Another clue is found in Jesus’ first miracle account at Cana:

“When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.  His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:3-5)

This interaction with his mother, Mary, implies a close relationship, but it also marks a coming-of-age story with Mary perhaps giving him permission to enter a new chapter in ministry. He already had disciples. It would have have been hard for him to take this step because it meant that Mary would have been deprived of his support. This transition may not have set well with his siblings (Luke 8:20; Matt 12:46).

In 2007, I had already visited a number of seminaries and begun preaching as an elder when my sister passed away. At that point, my father pushed me to offer the eulogy at both her church in Pennsylvania and my parent’s church in Virginia, where she was interned. It was my first eulogy, the first time speaking at my parent’s church and the first time that my co-workers saw me in the pulpit. The following year, I entered seminary.

Sepphoris

Hypocrite is one word attributed to Jesus, and it may suggest where Jesus spent time as a young man. It appears frequently in his parables, such as:

“How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:4-5)

Prior to Jesus, the Greek word, hypocrite, meant an actor, not someone obviously two-faced. Where did Jesus get exposed to Greek theatre? The answer is presumably Sepphoris, a Roman city within walking distance of Nazareth that was destroyed in 4 BC during a Galilean revolt after the death of Herod the Great (Sanders 1993, 102-103).

It is likely that Jesus, as the son of a carpenter, worked to rebuilt the city as a young man (Thurman 1996, 18). In Sepphoris, Jesus likely learned Greek and got a front-row seat to the exercise of Roman power in the region. By putting a new spin on the old word, hypocrite, the inference was likely veiled to those in easy ear-shot not familiar with the speaker.

References

Nouwen, Henri J.M. 2002. In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company.

Sanders, E.P. 1993. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Penguin Books.

Thurman, Howard. 1996. Jesus and the Disinherited (Orig Pub 1949). Boston: Beacon Press.

Jesus’ Young Life

Also see:

The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
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