Stephen W. Hiemstra's Blog, page 49

Parenting: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 26, 2024

 By Stephen W. Hiemstra

This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on Parenting. 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!

Parenting: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 26, 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




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Parenting Prayer

 

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Beloved Father,

All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours because you mentor us in our youth, transcend us in our adulthood, and remain ever with us when life itself overwhelms.

Forgive our hardened hearts, our stopped up ears, and eyes fascinated only with our feet.

Thank you for the example of Jesus of Nazareth who lived and taught among us, was crucified for our sins, and rose from the dead as a testimony to your love and presence.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, break through the clouds that surround us and give us reason to look up.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Parenting 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/Carver_Feb24 , Signup

 

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Parenting

 

“After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers,

listening to them and asking them questions.

And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2:42-47)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

The first image of transcendence that we encounter in life is that of our parents. A good parent launches children who are bereft of the self-referencing problem and point their children like spiritual directors beyond themselves to God. This encourages their children to individualize themselves from their parents and to realize a reference point beyond any childhood fixation, preparing them for adulthood better than their peers. A solid understanding of transcendence is accordingly important in maturation and spiritual formation.

Coming-of-Age Milestones

In the Jewish tradition, the transition into adulthood at the age of twelve was marked by bar mitzvah, which translates from the Hebrew as son of the law. Today, we also see bat mitzvah, which translates as daughter of the law. In Luke’s Gospel we read about Jesus participating in this tradition at age twelve, as the citation above suggests.

While the bar mitzvah tradition persists, entry into adulthood in the postmodern world is often delayed even beyond college graduation, because the financial independence required to succeed as an adult simply continues to be delayed. This financial reality complicates relationships between young adults and parents due to the absence of clear boundaries and expectations.

The counter-example prevalent is today’s helicopter parent who is characterized as an adult lacking well-formed personal boundaries or sense of transcendence. The parent alternatively clings to the child and lives vicariously through the child hoping to encourage the child to live out a script that they themselves were unable to. Emulating, trumpeting, and sheltering the child’s desires and interests leads the child to develop a narcissistic worldview, which has increasingly become a dysfunctional, cultural norm.

The Christian Family

One of the defining characteristics of the Christian faith is honoring each individual, regardless of age, as being created in the image of a transcendent God—note the clear boundaries in honor. The Apostle Paul’s writing is clear: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28) No ethnic group is better than any other; no economic class is better than any other; and no gender is better than any other. Paul goes on to extend his concept to the family:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Eph 6:1–4)

Because we are all created in the image of God, no age group is better than any other. Neither a newborn, nor a senior standing at the gates of heaven is better than one another. Christians are to value life stages equally by honoring each stage, and not clinging to any particular stage as if it were preferred.

An echo of the creation mandate can be found in the Christmas story where the love and care demonstrated by Joseph and Mary in the birth narratives of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 2 offer a significant theological point. Jesus had dirty diapers like the rest of us and he later suffered a painful, dishonorable death on a cross. The author of Hebrews writes: 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:15–16)

In other words, when we face Christ on the Day of Judgment, we will face a judge that understands our weaknesses and sin because he lived among us. If God were merely transcendent, then this experience would be absent. Who has not benefited from parental love or faced a challenging family situation? If Christ has benefitted from family life, then that should be an example to the rest of us.

Options Considered

Someone who like Augustine decided to look up and consider the options was a talented English professor named Rosario Butterfield. The details of Dr. Butterfield’s spiritual journey began with a project on the Christian Right designed as opposition research to further her career in queer theory.

Butterfield’s claim to be a researcher in the gay rights movement is not lite fluff. Consider her reading list in preparing her proposed book. She read Augustine’s Confessions (Foley 2006), John Calvin’s (2006) Institutes of the Christian Religion, and Kevin Vanhoozer’s (1998) Is There a Meaning in This Text? These books challenge most seminary students—if they have read them at all—and they are required reading in understanding Christian hermeneutics and epistemology (Butterfield 2012, 4, 17, 50, 87-89). Her research also motivated her to study the Bible in Greek—the language of the New Testament—for five hours a day.

A newspaper article that she published critiquing the gender politics of Promise Keepers generated a lot of mail, including a thoughtful letter from a local pastor, Pastor Ken, who invited her to call and discuss the article. She called and began a conversation that extended over a period of years. She never completed the book project because she became convinced that what the Bible said about God was true (Butterfield 2012, 3-13, 94).

Baptized and raised Roman Catholic, Rosario began attending and later joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church and gave up her career. She later married a pastor and wanted to raise a family, but she was too old—because of her detour into lesbianism—to have children of her own so she adopted some.

Parenting

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/Carver_Feb24 , Signup

 

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Silverman Interprets Memories

Sue William Silverman. 2009. Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Some people date western civilization back to a memoir in the 4th century when a young man struggled with and overcame sexual sin. After converting to Christianity, he played an important role in the monastic movement which encouraged candidates for ministry to practice celibacy. That young man was Saint Augustine and he entitled his memoir simply: Confessions.

Sue William Silverman draws on confessions of her own in her book which begins with a strong topic sentence:

“In Fearless Confession, I invite you to accompany me as I look back at what I learned on my path towards becoming a writer, hoping to assist you with your own journey.” (xiii)

Still, her title—Fearless Confessions—hints that Silverman is not your typical academic author. In fact, she has published three memoirs—

The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew,
Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction, and
Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You.

—each of which offer a slice of her life experience, not a complete picture (28), suggesting an important principle in writing memoir—theme.  She writes:

“A theme is an abstract concept that represents the underlying meaning, idea, or message of you memoir, whether it’s a full-length book or essay…Revealing a theme is more effective than announcing it.” (24-25)

For your typical biography of a famous person, the hidden theme is typically a how an ordinary person became great—one reason that biographies of ordinary people often lack luster (no hidden theme interesting to the reader).  However, even someone living a fairly mundane life shares much in common with potential readers, given that a suitable theme can be identified—in Silverman’s case, that theme is childhood abuse and its consequences.

Having theme, plot develops. Silverman observes: “Plot is as important in memoir as it is in fiction. In fiction, plot is invented; in nonfiction, it is discovered.” (35) Plot develops around a theme suggesting which details to include and which to leave out. Silverman divides plot into horizontal plot (external events or action) and vertical plot (emotions, thoughts, and insights) (36-37).

She develops this dichotomy between action and emotions further in her discussion of voice dividing voice into the voice of innocence and the voice of experience. Silverman writes of the voice of innocence: “This voice relates the facts of the story, the surface subject or action.” (51). The voice of experience then is where: “we add a more mature voice or persona that, in effect, explains and deepens the Voice of Innocence with metaphor, spirituality, irony, reflection.” (52) She then launches into a discussion of how our voice in everyday life, is not our literary or metaphorically-enhanced voice (55).

Silverman’s description of metaphor as something to discover is priceless. What is the meaning we attribute to special objects (like a gifted, maroon scarf; 72)? How do we discover the metaphors in our own life? In my own writing, my grandparent’s farm served as a metaphor for the security that I lacked as my family moved around during my father’s graduate school years.

Silverman describes herself a writer, speaker, and faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and writes in 9 chapters preceded by a preface and followed by 4 lengthy appendices. The chapter titles are:

The Longest Paragraph.
Savory Words: The First Bite of Your Story.
Writing on Key: A Few Notes about Theme.
Plotting Your Life.
Between Innocence and Experience: Finding Your Voices.
Mock Moons and Metaphor: Crafting Memoir into Art.
Writing in Style.
Marketing Your Memoir. and
Confessional and (Finally) Proud of It.

The chapters end with writing exercises and the appendices provide memoir samples.

If you are writer contemplating your own autobiographical book, Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions is a helpful place to start. As memoir is a theme in my own writing this year, Silverman’s insights opened up and charted direction where I previously was floundering. Thank you.

Footnotes

http://www.SueWilliamSilverman.com.

http://vcfa.edu.

Silverman Interprets Memories
Also see:
Books, Films, and Ministry
Other ways to engage online:



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

Newsletter at:  https://bit.ly/Carver_Feb24 , Signup

 

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Glimpses: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 19, 2024

 By Stephen W. Hiemstra

This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on Glimpses of Transcendence. 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!

Glimpses: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 19, 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/Carver_Feb24 , Signup
 

The post Glimpses: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 19, 2024 appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Glimpses Prayer

 

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Almighty and Ever-present Father,

All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours because you stand outside our universe and time, yet make yourself available to us in our personal lives and pain.

Forgive us when we remain aloof from those around us and in need of our care.

Thank you for the example of Jesus of Nazareth, who was not afraid to reach out and touch those that he came in contact with.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, guide us through treacherous times while our world falls apart and we find ourselves alone in the midst of uncaring crowds.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Glimpses 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/Carver_Feb24 , Signup

 

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Glimpses of Transcendence

 

I am the vine; you are the branches. 

Whoever abides in me and I in him, 

he it is that bears much fruit, 

for apart from me you can do nothing. 

(John 15:5)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Transcendence is closely related to the word, metaphysical, that expresses the idea of existence beyond the normal physical reality. Transcendence is a concept from theology, not a biblical term. Yet, Jesus’ parable of the vine and the branches shapes a similar concept expanding on the role of connection in the parable. 

Consider the penalty for not remaining in connection: “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” (John 15:6) The vine roots or grounds the branches providing water and sustenance. Being cut off from the vine leads to withering, which is much like ignoring the self-referencing problem leads to instability.

While an agricultural metaphor sounds worldly (or earthy) to our ears, it communicates on a level that we all immediately grasp. The self-referencing problem is more of a mathematical abstraction that requires a bit of thought or explaining. Jesus was more straightforward. He never claimed to be theologian or mathematician and could not be expected to speak like one.

Two transcendence stories come to mind from my own experience.

The Presidential Basketball Date

The first story comes from a conversation that I had with one of my kids when they were growing up. At that time, the President was known to be  athletic and especially favored basketball. What difference would it make, I asked, if the President of the United States set aside his state duties every Saturday morning just to play basketball with you? Would that make you feel special, like someone whose life had value? What would your friends say? 

In prayer, the creator of heaven and earth takes time to listen and speak with us—personally. It is kind of like a basketball date with the President. Yet, in our self-centered ways, we miss the imparting of tremendous value that personal prayer infers on us. Treating Jesus as nothing more than our occasional buddy actually demeans us as individuals because our value as individuals is a derivative of the praise and honor we place on God.

Divine Mentor

The second transcendence story is much more personal. Prayer plays an increasingly important role in my life the older I get. For much of my life I yearned for a mentor who would recognize my special talents and worth as a person and mentor me in developing these talents and elevate my worth in a rather dispassionate and lonely world. The fact that no such human mentor ever made an appearance led to an inordinate amount of self-pity for many years.

What changed with age was the realization that in Jesus I had a divine mentor who had guided me through his Holy Spirit all along. Setbacks that I experienced morphed into opportunities. I kept experiencing “gracious accidents” in time and place that elevated my career, enhanced my salary, and grew my pension through no merit of my own. 

The thing about gracious accidents is that they are not something that you can anticipate and pray for, although living a Christian lifestyle helps one humbly to prepare for and accept such accidents. Recognizing them as gifts from God leads one to funnel such gifts into godly uses, like educating your kids or supporting worthy causes. For the foolish, gold coins can easily slip through the fingers and predictably do.

Far from being infrequent or highly theological, these glimpses of transcendence have strengthened my spirit and expanded my prayer life—a common experience. Thus, the parable of the vine and branches plays a special role in my daily experience of God.

Glimpses of Transcendence

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/Turn_Jan24 ,  Signup

 

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Ortberg Sees Open Doors

John Ortberg. 2015. All the Places to Go—How Will You Know? God has Placed Before You an Open Door: What Will You Do? Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

When I was in my twenties, overwhelmed with the immense uncertainties of life, I made a promise to myself—that I would never turn down an opportunity in life for lack of courage or for the unwillingness to give it my best effort. More than once, I rolled the dice and bet on a future that at the time seemed nothing more than a pipe dream. In the midst of all this uncertainty, I always felt God’s presence and divine provision, but I must admit that I tired of crawling, having depleted the last reserves of my energy, through so many open doors.

Introduction

In his book, All the Places to Go—How will You Know?, John Ortberg explores the idea of the opened door, as presented before the church in Philadelphia:

“The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Rev 3:7-8; 4)

Ortberg sees the opened door both as a symbol of boundless opportunities and of being useful to God (5). It is also for Ortberg a reminder of a beloved Greek professor, Gerald P. Hawthorne, which he had known while a student at Wheaton College (268).

Metaphors

For Ortberg, the opened door is a fitting metaphor for how God invites us to step out in faith and service rather than having us wait for confirmation and comfort (257). He writes (10): “It’s an open door. To find out what’s on the other side, you’ll have to go through.” This opened door invitation always appears riskier than it really is because of who offers the invitation and for what purpose. The purpose that Ortberg sees is intensely interesting: “God’s primary will for your life is not the achievements you accrue; it’s the person you become.” (15). As God tells Abram: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:3; 9, 35). In offering such blessings, God invites us to decide which doors to go through as part of our sanctification (16) and our decisions form our character and mold our identity (8).

This identity issue is important and distinguishes open door people from closed door people. Ortberg highlights these characteristics of open door people:

“Open-Door People are Ready, Ready or Not” (25).
“Open-Door People are Unhindered by Uncertainty” (29).
“Open-Door People are Blessed to Bless” (35).
“Open-Door People Resist and Persist” (38).
“Open-Door People Have Fewer Regrets” (42).
“Open-Door People Learn About Themselves” (46).
“Open-Door People Are Not Paralyzed by Their Imperfections” (48).

 Of all these observations about open-door people, the question of regrets was for me most interesting, as Ortberg writes:

“We begin our lives regretting the wrong things we have done, but we end them regretting the open doors we never went through.” (43)

Think of all the films that chronicle the stories of people who took risks that others thought foolish at the time—in Titanic (1997), a young woman scorns the proposal of a rich young man to hang out with a vagabond or Last Holiday (2006), a woman empties her bank account on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe only to learn her fatal diagnosis was an error.  Risks not taken lead to regrets and Ortberg observes that open-door people are less likely to have them because: “The reason I can be open to tomorrow is that God is already there.” (24). As believers in God, we know the end of the story is in Christ.

Background and Organization

Ortberg writes his book in 10 chapters:

All the Places to God…How Will You Know?
Open-Door People and Closed-Door People
No Mo FOMO: Overcoming the Fear of Missing Out
Common Myths about Doors
Door #1 or Door #2
How to Cross a Threshold
What Open Doors Will Teach
The Jonah Complex
Thank God for Closed Doors
The Door in the Wall

These chapters are followed by an afterword, acknowledgments, notes, and an author bio. Placing his acknowledgments section among end materials draws attention to the influence of his Greek professor and is an Ortberg innovation.

John Ortberg is author of a number of books, senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and an adjunct faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary. He was educated at Wheaton College and holds both a masters of divinity and doctorate of clinical psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He serves as a trustee of Fuller Theological Seminary and a board member of the Dallas Willard Center for Spiritual Formation.

Assessment

John Ortberg’s All the Places to Go—How Will You Know? is a surprisingly lucid survey of what it means both to be a disciple of Christ and to respond to God’s invitation to grow in the faith, as Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20) The open door motif adds fresh insight into God’s call at a time of critical need in the church for new models of discipleship and service. As such, this is a book to share with young people, small group discussions, and, of course, aspiring pastors.

Footnotes

He defines an open door as: “divine invitations to make our lives count, with God’s help, for the sake of others.” (63)

I am reminded of the dream of Solomon—“God said, ask what I shall give you.” (1 Kgs 3:5)—and Solomon asked for wisdom, which God was pleased to give him (1 kgs 3:10).

In past studies of corporate culture, I became aware of the special influence of mistakes in forming culture because they involve investment of more money. Thus, painful losses form the shadow side of open doors. In confronting such losses in our own lives, Jesus’ model is his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Rather than turning into his pain, Jesus turns to God: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matt 26:39)

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

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

http://www.JohnOrtberg.com.

Menlo Park, California. Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (http://Menlo.church) is affiliated with the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, commonly known as ECO (http://eco-pres.org).

http://Fuller.edu.

http://DallasWillardCenter.com.

Ortberg Sees Open Door
Also see:
Books, Films, and Ministry
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com

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Large-T: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 12, 2024

 By Stephen W. Hiemstra

This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on Large-T Transcendence. 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!

Large-T: Monday Monologues (podcast), February 12, 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/Turn_Jan24 ,  Signup

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Large-T Prayer

 

 

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Almighty, Good, and Loving Father,

All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours, because you created and redeemed us that we might call you father.

Forgive us when we forget who we are and who you are. Be ever near.

Thank you for many blessings, but particularly the blessing of a secure future with you.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, lift our eyes and our spirits during this season of winter. Spare us from unnecessary worry that the cold will overwhelm us.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Large-T 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/Turn_Jan24 ,  Signup

 

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