Stephen W. Hiemstra's Blog, page 73
January 23, 2023
Virgins: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 23, 2023
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on the Parable of the Ten Virgins. 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!
Virgins: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 23, 2023
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/Janu_2023 , Signup
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January 22, 2023
Prophecy Prayer
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
Almighty Father,
All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours, because you teach how to live today with stories about the future.
Forgive us our unwillingness to listen, to reform our lives in view of your teaching, and to share our lessons with those around us.
Thank you for the example of Jesus Christ, he spoke in parables to inform us about your person and the things we need to know to grow closer to you.
In the power of the Holy Spirit, guide us on the path to salvation today, tomorrow, and always.
In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
Prophecy 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/Janu_2023 , Signup
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January 20, 2023
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
Therefore you also must be ready,
for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
(Matt 24:44)
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
The Olivet Discourse (e.g. Mark 13; Matt 24) describes a series of prophetic statements that Jesus shares with his disciples just before his arrest and crucifixion. Prophecy is often taken as a forecasting activity that describes future events, but Jesus almost always talks about the future as a way to describe how life should be lived today. Two words that describe how to live today might be: Patient expectation. Theologians talk about the Kingdom of God being both already here and not yet (Ladd 1991, 68-69).
Olivet Discourse
Consider this brief part of the Olivet Discourse:
“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.” (Matt 24:44-46)
Here Jesus counsels his disciples to watch for his return, patiently attending to household duties and not chasing after various crises that he itemizes:
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” (Matt 24:6-7).
This message is repeated over and over in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus’ most lengthy prophetic statement. Patient expectation suggests being aware of the times and seasons, but not losing one’s head the midst of chaos. The focus in the Olivet Discourse in on faithfully attending to one’s duties as Christ’s disciples, not obsessing about future revelations or the second coming.
Old Testament Prophecy
In the Old Testament we see two kinds of prophets: Covenantal prophets and covenant-lawsuit prophets. Covenantal prophets are like Moses and King David who interact with God to introduce new covenants. When Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai (Exod 20) or Nathan shares his dream with King David (2 Sam 7), they are functioning as covenantal prophets. Covenant-lawsuit prophets, like Elijah and Elisha, remind the people and their king of their obligations under the covenant, especially the blessings and curses found in Deuteronomy 28. While the covenant-lawsuit prophets that prophesy fire and grindstone gather the most attention, Jesus clearly functioned as both types of prophets in the Olivet Discourse.
One of the key statements of the role of a prophet distinguishes Moses from prophets who are only given visions and dreams:
“Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Num 12:6-8)
Here the prophet only repeats the words given him by God, whether received in a vision or in person. More generally, the idea of a prophet as a soothsayer, fortune teller, or forecaster of future events motivates the Greek word: prophet. More typically in the New Testament the preferred reference to the prophetic role is Apostle, which means messenger or one who is sent, to avoid confusion with the Greek concept of a prophet.
The focus of the Old Testament prophet is on adhering to the covenant, not on forecasting future events, which suggests that the Old Testament prophet and the New Testament prophet share a common focus on patiently adhering to a faithful livestyle, especially in confusing times.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
We see this prophetic framework modeled in the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We read: “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” (Matt 25:1) The wise virgins brought extra oil; the foolish did not. When the bridegroom is delayed, the foolish virgin’s lamps ran out of oil and they were excluded from the wedding, an analogy to heaven. In this parable patience is modeled in the idea of being prepared for whatever comes to pass.
The lamps in this parable are reminiscent of the Menorah candles found in the temple, a symbol of Judaism. The parable is more widely an analogy to the language of Revelation where the church is described as the bride of Christ, who is the bridegroom: “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.” (Rev 19:7) The importance of the marriage feast of the Lamb to Christian eschatology places the character trait of patience, one of the Apostle Paul’s fruits of the spirit (Gal 5:22), at the heart of the Gospel
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
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/Janu_2023 , Signup
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January 17, 2023
Wells: Character and Personality Differ
David Wells. 1998. Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra
One of the most painful lessons that I learned as a parent was that I could not assume that what I taught my kids would be reinforced by lessons in church, school, and other forums, like multi-media. While some might say that I was simply naive, my role as a father providing for the family was distracting enough. Many of my peers failed to keep up financially with their parents—even after sending their wife out to work—in the face of stagnating and falling family incomes .
Some of the costs of this fight in our generation to defend living standards have been increased divorce, stressed out parents, and a lack of consciousness on how to deal with it. In this context, moral training mostly fell through the cracks because, like other forms of education, moral training requires time, money, effort, and good role models in the community. Meanwhile, multimedia provided scores of really bad role models and the internet provided a haven for care and feeding of some rather dysfunctional youth subcultures [2]. It is accordingly not surprising in a social and economic sense that we have seen a rapid decline in morality during this generation.
Introduction
In his book, Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision, David Wells documents this decline in morality from a theological perspective. Wells writes:
“In this engagement, I shall argue, that is now framing life in such a way that the most important part of self-understanding—that we are moral beings—has been removed from the equation. That is the beguilingly simple thesis I shall be pursuing: functionally, we not morally disengaged, adrift, and alienated; we are morally obliterated…In our schools…we shifted from teaching character formation to values clarification…Our children are not only more lawless in school…but are too often without any apparent moral consciousness regarding their actions.” (13)
In order to experience a decline in morality, one needs to articulate a standard for behavior. Wells writes:
“For over two thousand years, moral conduct was discussed under the language of virtues. First Plato and then Aristole talked about the cardinal, or foundational, virtues. These were justice (or rectitude), wisdom, courage (or fortitude), and moderation (or self-control)…The importance of the classical view of the virtues was that moral conduct was seen to be the outcome of character, and it was considered entirely futile to divorce inward moral reality from its exercise in the society or community in which a person lived…The character of which we speak here is not simply the cultivation of natural virtue but the intensely conscious sense of living morally before God.” (14-16)
Wells provides a whirlwind review of the past 2,000 years of moral development. However, most of the real change is very recent and revolves around the postmodern assault on the existence of objective truth. If there is no one truth, then there can be no one set of virtues and no one ideal character type. Wells observes that “postmodern critics oppose Christianity not because of its particulars, but simply because it claims to be true.” (19).
Background and Organization
David F. Wells[3] is the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systemic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA and one of my own professors. He writes Losing Our Virtues in 6 chapters proceeded by a preface and introduction and followed by a bibliography and index. The 6 chapters are:
A Tale of Two Spiritualties,
The Playground of Desire,
On Saving Ourselves,
The Bonfire of the Self,
Contradictions, and
Faith of the Ages (viii-ix).
Wells is author of a number of books, including: No Place for Truth (1994), God in the Wasteland (1995), and Above All Earthly Powers (2005).
Cultural Shift
An important insight that Wells offers is also one difficult to understand fully. He writes:
“…I shall develop the argument that this difference [between classical morality and postmodern morality] has produced a shift in the way that the moral is experienced. It is a shift from guilt in the classical stream to shame in the postmodern. However, it is shame in a uniquely contemporary way. It is not shame of being exposed before others because our individualism gives us permission to do whatever we like and whatever gratifies us provided that it…is legal. There is, as a result, very little of which people are ashamed should they get caught or be exposed. It is, rather, the shame of being naked within one’s self. It is shame experienced as inner emptiness, deprivation, loss, and disorientation. It is shame that is far more psychological in nature than moral.” (34-35)
Wells sees guilt as “normally the emotional response to our violation of a moral norm” and shame is “our disappointment with ourselves that we are not other than what we are” (130). Citing Dick Keyes, Wells writes:
“our inability to deal with shame and guilt right at the heart of our problems in identity. Identity is a matter of knowing who we are, both as human beings and as individuals, and through this understanding arriving at some internal cohesion and coherence.” (131)
If we do not know who we are, then we cannot say who we are not. The identity problem accordingly spills over into our actions through an obvious lack of boundaries—as people do what feels good without guidance, an incredible number of crimes (abuse, corruption, drug use, mass murder…) and perversions (pedophilia, suicide, gender confusion…) come into view at rates unprecedented in recent history. This is not just a measurement problem [5]. Historically, our morality lined us up with God’s immutable (unchanging) character—but if we cannot line such things up internally today, then how is it possible to act coherently in the external world? And what exactly does the church itself teach about morality today?
Assessment
When I think about David Well’s Losing Our Virtue, I remember his distinction between character (internally defined and evidenced) and personality (externally defined and evidenced; 96-105)—television shows today mostly ignore the former and extol the latter. Knowing the difference is one reason why David Well’s Losing Our Virtue is a book deserving of a deep read.
Footnotes
Rather than upward mobility, this generation has mostly faced downward mobility both financially and socially.
[2] For example, the goth subculture is probably the best known (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_sub...). The emo subculture glories suicide ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo). For a list of subcultures in the United States, see: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...).
My pastor and I are both students of Dr. Wells, though about 30 years removed. I will always remember Dr. Wells for gently disavowing me of the notion that theology begins and ends with the double love command (Matt 22: 36-40).
[5] Before the advent of co-educational dormitories on university campuses, for example, women and men did not live in the same building and access was tightly restricted. The ability to misbehave in any way was much less likely. The number of date rapes was accordingly not substantially underestimated in those years—it was variance around a much lower base. The rise in the number of rapes is accordingly due to cultural changes, not measurement error.
Making things worse, postmoderns do not believe in one objective truth. In effect, they deny that a single line up with God is even possible. Therefore, morality is inconsistent with their worldview.
Wells: Character and Personality Differ
Also see:
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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
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January 16, 2023
Talents: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 16, 2023
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on the Parable of the Talents. 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!
Talents: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 16, 2023
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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
The post Talents: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 16, 2023 appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.
January 15, 2023
Prayer for Prudence
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
Wise and loving father,
All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours, because you teach us patience when the world models imprudent impatience that leads to poverty, loneliness, and strife.
We confess that we want the world to gift us with riches, honors, and opportunities without effort, delay, or investment. We do not want delay or advice that would bring the things that we desire.
Thanks be to you for you are patient with us and sit with us while we wait.
In the power of your Holy Spirit, guard our hearts so that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)
In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
Prayer for Prudence
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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
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January 13, 2023
The Talents
Teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
(Ps 90:12)
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
Jesus teaches us to watch for his return, a mark of patience. Mark 13:33 reads: “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.” Likewise, Luke 12:35 echoes the Parable of the Ten Virgins: “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit.” Directly after the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25, we read the Parable of the Talents that not only advises watchfulness, but guides us on how to center our lives on God as we wait.
Risk-taking for Christ
The Parable of the Talents starts with advice about being watchful, but then goes on:
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. (Matt 25:14–15)
We are then told how the first two servants invested the master’s money and doubled his principal, while the third servant buried the master’s money in the ground.
When the master returns, he settles accounts with each of the servants. The first two servants present the master with his principal and the earnings from their investments. In both cases, the master responds with the same statement: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt 25:21–23)
In contrast to the first two servants’ risk-taking, the third servant acts out of fear:
Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. (Matt 25:24–25)
The master calls this servant “wicked and slothful” and parrots the servant’s suggestion that he is a hard man, suggesting agreement, but he goes on: “Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.” (Matt 25:27)
In so many words, the master suggests that the third servant is both cowardly and imprudent, because depositing the money with a banker requires accepting little risk of financial loss. The master takes the money given to the third servant and gives it to the first. Then, the third servant is described as worthless and condemned to perdition, a penalty too harsh for most postmodern people even to hear.
Lessons on Waiting
So what do we learn from this parable? The first thing to note is the context. Immediately after the Parable of the Talents is another parable of judgment, where the goats and the sheep are separated. Then, in chapter 26 of Matthew, we read:
When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. (Matt 26:1–2)
The implication is that the three parables in chapter 25 are given to prepare the disciples for Jesus’ death, resurrection, and second coming. All three suggest that the disciples should be watchful of Christ’s return, but only the Parable of the Talents suggests how to spend the time while Jesus is absent.
Knowing that Christ will return, the parable suggests that we should be cheerful, not fearful, in our work, taking risks to advance the Kingdom of God. It is like the roulette player who knows what the next number will be: The bet measures confidence in the knowledge, determines the level of winnings, and suggests an appropriate attitude. Christ’s good and faithful servants are described as cheerful risk-takers rather than fearful hoarders, who confidently invest the king’s resources to earn the highest returns.
God of Abundance
Schlossberg (1990, 316) writes: “A steward is the caretaker of property that belongs to another. A good steward husbands the property and causes it to produce its proper income.” In the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14–29), Jesus pictures the good steward as not only earning income (depositing with a banker), but also taking risks to invest the property and earn above-average returns (doubling property value). By contrast, the bad steward allows the property to depreciate (hoarding property).
This last point is critical. We serve a God of abundance. In John’s Gospel (2, 6, 21), we see a God who multiples wine, bread, and fish far beyond expectations. When we model our lives on this God, we expect to be generous and take risks for the kingdom because that is the image of God that we are given and we want to be like God.
References
Schlossberg,Herbert. 1990. Idols for Destruction: The Conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture. Wheaton: Crossway Books.
The Talents
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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
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January 10, 2023
Enns Studies Jesus’ Love Command
Gaylord Enns. 2022. Love Revolution: Rediscovering the Lost Command of Jesus. Chico, CA: Love Revolution Press.
Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra
One of the challenges in biblical interpretation is to place statements in their proper context. The literary, historical, linguistic, and social contexts are neither obvious or even easily discoverable because records from two thousand years ago are scarce or non-existent. As a consequence, denominations can be thought of as schools of biblical interpretation in which different rules are are applied in reading the text.
Introduction
Gaylord Enns begins his book, Love Revolution
Rediscovering the Lost Command of Jesus, with this purpose statement:
“Love Revolution is about loss, discovery, and recovery. It is about coming full circle, back to the point of origin and the One who will never change. It is about returning to the feet of the Master Teacher—Jesus.” (11)
In so many words, Enns is offering a biblical interpretation. He begins by examining the commands of Jesus and discovers what he believes (27) is a misinterpretation of this passage: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12 ESV)
Enns sees this love command as one of two that Jesus held up as primary importance, the mark of authentic Christian belief. He writes:
“It was becoming clear to me that (1) faith in Jesus Christ and (2) love for one another were indeed recognized by the writers of the New Testament as marks of authenticity.” (44).
Probably the most widely recognized passage bearing this out is the double-love command:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:36-40)
The double-love is, however, less binding than Jesus’ command, because Jesus goes on to say: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Jesus’ love goes beyond the point of self-preservation, making it more intensive than the double-love command, which is based on an Old Testament interpretation. We can be confident that the Apostles understood Jesus’ command, because ten of the eleven faithful apostles died a martyr’s death. The Apostle John was the only one of the eleven faithful disciples that did not die a martyr (Fox and Chadwick 2001,10).
Background and Organization
Gaylord Enns graduated from California State University, Chico, California. He has been active in a number of parachurch organizations, including the Jesus People Movement, Servant Leadership Network, Love Revolution, and Chico Pastors.
Enns writes in twenty chapters:
Days Gone Awry
An Empty Table
All That I have Commanded
The Early Church Fathers
Two Core Commandments
You Can Ask a Question
A Breakfast Surprise
Comparing the Old and New
The Time is Coming
NOT Like the Covenant
Listen to Him!
New Covenant, New Commandment
One New Person
Lost and Found?
The King’s Law
The Law of Christ
Love Covers, Love Confronts
Do I love ‘em or Hate ‘em?
The Bridge: Words I Want to Hear
Conclusion: Touching the Titanic (9)
These chapters are preceded by an introduction and followed by an invitation, chapter discussion questions, appendices, a bibliography, and contact information.
Two Commandments
Enns (67) makes an interesting comparison between the core commandments of the Old Testament, summarized in the double-love command (Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18), and the New Testament (love Christ, love one another). As long as you believe that Christ is divine, the primary distinction is the intensity of love prescribed by Christ.
Part of his evidence of the importance of these two core commands of Jesus in authentic Christianity is echoed in statements made in Paul’s letter, like: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” (Eph 1:15-16; also, Col 1:4) In these opening statements, the same sentence mentioned both faith in Christ and love of the saints. Love is mentioned, but love’s intensity is not discussed.
The primacy of Christ’s command to love another is a focus of Enn’s review of documents of the early church, the writing of several prominent theologians, and of denominational statements of faith. Finding only passing mention of Christ’s command to love one another, Enns concludes that this command has been lost to the church (178).
Assessment
Gaylord Enns’ book, Love Revolution examines Jesus’ command to love one another as I have loved in the biblical context and church history and argues that this command has been lost. The historical divisions of the church over other points of doctrine run counter to church unity, which reinforces Enns’ point. Postmodern misuses of the term, love, fall outside the scope of Enns’ work. Still, while the intensity of Christ’s love to the point of martyrdom is seldom held up in the church as an ideal, most Christians practice love of neighbor at some level and would find Enns’ review of the issue interesting, helpful, and accessible.
References
Fox, John and Harold J. Chadwick. 2001. The New Foxes’ Book of Martyrs (Orig Pub 1563). Gainsville, FL: Bridge-Logos Publishers.
Footnotes
https://www.loverevolutionnow.org.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/....
Enns Studies Jesus’ Love Command
Also see:
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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
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January 9, 2023
The Sower: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 9, 2023
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
This morning I will share a prayer and reflect on the The Sower. 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!
The Sower: Monday Monologues (podcast), January 9, 2023
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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
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January 8, 2023
Patience in Prayer
By Stephen W. Hiemstra
Most patient father,
All praise and honor, power and dominion, truth and justice are yours because you are the gracious father than gives us time to grow and models the image that we are to grow into.
Forgive our impatience. Overlook our youth. Heal our sinful hearts for we are unable to pattern our lives after Christ without your assistance.
Thank you for times and seasons of life when we can take tiny steps in your direction and help others to follow.
In the power of your Holy Spirit, shelter your church and our lives from the winds of mindless change that washes away the legacy of the faithful that proceeded us. Grant us the strength rather to build your legacy with the time that you have given us.
In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
Patience in 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/X-Mas2022 , Signup
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