Tag: image of god

An Open Letter of Encouragement To the Residents of Minneapolis (and Minnesota)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Pastor Tim's Ponderings1 Comment

I am, like you, a resident of Minnesota, specifically of the greater Twin Cities area. I have children, grandchildren, and relatives in the city of Minneapolis. So, I am regularly and often in the city’s neighborhoods. I am existentially involved in what is presently happening to the city with the presence of thousands of Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) agents.

I am not someone who is observing from afar. I see you, up close and personal. And I want you to know that I understand and feel your abject fear, but most of all, your incredibly deep sadness at what is happening to you and your neighbors.

Yesterday, when at a healthcare appointment, with tears in my eyes, I bemoaned that, because of my health, I am unable to be with the protesters, providing spiritual care and emotional encouragement as a retired hospital chaplain and church pastor.

Hence, the writing of this letter. It’s my way of doing something, anything, to help in a time of trouble, in which there seems to be no law but the law of forced power and the might of militarized against the un-militarized.

Yet, my most potent form of help, I believe, are my abiding prayers lifted to God on your behalf and for your wellbeing. I know you are suffering, and I suffer with you. Please think of me as someone who is helping to carry your ridiculously heavy load of grief, confusion, and wondering.

I am with you in feeling like your neighborhoods are back in some COVID-style isolation. Communities have become ghost towns with people afraid to go outside for fear of being treated like “garbage” from a “garbage country,” even though many of you are United States citizens born and raised in Minnesota.

I see what the rest of the country and the world may not see: In the face of real oppression and abuse – designed to break your spirits – so many of you have risen to love your neighbors as yourselves.

Churches, faith communities, non-profit organizations, and individuals are providing meals and running errands for those fearful of going outside to likely face people dressed more like terrorists than fellow citizens.

Even you who help are getting stopped by I.C.E. agents and, in many cases, are detained for hours at a time. But you keep going out, nonetheless, because you are determined to do what is needed to achieve justice and mercy.

I see and applaud your efforts at helping each other. I know that you, including me, are a traumatized people, and for good reason. Please keep up your resilience and maintain your perseverance. It shall be rewarded.

Moreover, I also applaud those concerned citizens from neighboring states who have come with their fresh anger, righteous zeal, and words of encouragement, in order to protest with peace and non-violence. My thanks and gratitude to them for interrupting their own lives to be with us.

My friends, don’t give in to the massive gaslighting project that is directed toward you by the current federal government administration. They, along with their militarized lackeys, are trying their best for you to adopt their twisted view of reality.

No matter which way the Director of Homeland Security wants to spin it, a water balloon and a sub sandwich are not threats to body armor and helmets. But the clubs, tear gas, lack of respect, and very real bullets of I.C.E. agents are vital threats against us.

They may be armed with things which can harm the body, but you have spiritual weapons that they neither understand nor can see because of their spiritual blindness.

They’re trying to make you think that there’s something wrong with you when there isn’t. They want to force the view that sheer power is what’s important. But all along you remember, know, and are practicing that the way of love and compassion has more power than any sort of hate and lack of mercy.

In the future, you will be remembered for your steadfastness in showing grace to the weak and powerless, the immigrant and the alien among  you.

No matter who you are – whether white, black, brown, citizen or immigrant, rich or poor – you are all, in my Christian belief, created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore each one of you has inherent worth, and ought to be treated with respect and dignity befitting your status as human beings.

Please also know that I am on my knees in prayer for you each day. I often intercede for you with many of the biblical psalms, because they are prayers meant for us to use as our own. Today I offer Psalm 140. As I pray, I use nouns and pronouns which refer to you and me, as I believe the original psalmist wanted us to do…

Psalm 140

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

Rescue Minneapolis, Lord, from evildoers;
    protect them from the violent,
who devise evil plans in their hearts
    and stir up war every day.
They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
    the poison of vipers is on their lips.

Keep the residents of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and all of Minnesota safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
    protect us from the violent,
    who devise ways to trip our feet.
The arrogant have hidden a snare for us;
    they have spread out the cords of their net
    and have set traps for us along our path.

I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”
    Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy.
Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer,
    you shield our heads in the day of battle.
Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord;
    do not let their plans succeed.

Those who surround us proudly rear their heads;
    may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
May burning coals fall on them;
    may they be thrown into the fire,
    into miry pits, never to rise.
May slanderers not be established in the land;
    may disaster hunt down the violent.

I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
    and upholds the cause of the needy.
Surely the righteous will praise your name,
    and the upright will live in your presence.

May the grace of God, the love of Jesus, and the encouragement of the Spirit be with you all, now and forever. Amen.

Rev. Tim Ehrhardt, MDiv, MA, BCC

Love Never Fails

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

“When we ask whether someone is a good man, we are not asking what he believes, or hopes, but what he loves.” St. Augustine

I believe there are few things in life which have sustainability and permanence, things which make the world go ‘round. Love is one of them; maybe even the greatest of them.

Love Language

And yet, in the English language, we really only have one word for “love.” That strikes me as curious and interesting.

I enjoy language and languages, as well as the use and smithing of words. One observation I’ve made about language is that any particular society, culture, or nation has several words for whatever is important or valuable to them.

For example, Indonesia has seven different words for the one English word “rice.” Since rice is so vital to the life of the people, it makes sense that they have several words to bring out all of the various nuances of “rice.”

By contrast, the West simply places adjectives in front of “rice” when needed (i.e. white or brown or jasmine). So, what does it say about us, about me and my fellow Americans, when we have only one word for “love?”

We certainly have plenty of words for “money.” It does little good to even use the word “money” unless one is speaking in very general terms. Americans make liberal use of words like “stocks and bonds,” “cash,” “checking and savings accounts,” etc. We even have several words for institutions which handle money: banks, savings and loans, credit unions, and mutual organizations.

Indeed, what does it say about us that we have a plethora of words for money? What’s more, in contrast to our one word for “love,” what does this tell us about Western society in general?

No wonder that American society has a love problem. Even when we borrow words for love from other languages, we seem to transform it into something else.

The Greek word “phileo” is engrafted into many of our English words such as philosophy (love of wisdom); philanthropy (love of humanity); or Philadelphia (brotherly love).

Often the last thing on our minds about the city of Philadelphia is an association with love; philanthropy is widely understood as being generous with one’s money (there it is again!); and few people think of love when describing philosophy.

Please know that it’s not my purpose to rant about American culture. I just want us to think about how we tend to use the word, and the implications of that use.

Oftentimes, I find that my own understanding of the word tends to be in contrast with so many other uses of “love.”

St. Augustine and Love

I admit to being influenced most heavily by St. Augustine and Holy Scripture. Augustine was enamored with love. That’s likely because he knew what it felt like to be on the outside of God’s redeeming love in Christ. For Augustine, love explains everything. Love is to be our true nature, and the proper direction of everything we say and do in this world, insisted Augustine.

Augustine, of course, derived his understanding from Jesus – especially from the New Testament Gospels:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37-39, NIV

Unless there is love, we go nowhere – which is precisely what seems to be happening in our world today. Apart from love, there are no social problems which can be alleviated; no wars which will stop; and no rights and respect extended to particular people. Without love, peace and happiness are nothing but a pipe dream.

It is imperative that we have a robust understanding and practice of love. If we don’t, I believe that we are ruined, no matter how savvy or powerful we are.

Designed For Love

People are designed for love; it is our very purpose. And if we go against our basic inherent design, it will be like disrespecting gravity itself by walking off the roof of the house in the wrongheaded belief that I won’t get hurt.

Fullness of life (and fullness of any religious practice) comes only through love. In Christianity, it is clearly understood that God is Love with a capital “L.” Thus, we were created in love, stamped with the image of God’s love, and expected to love one another.

Love is so ubiquitous throughout the Bible that listening to a biblical sermon on love every day for the rest of your life would not exhaust love’s height, depth, breadth, and width within Scripture.

It is an understatement to say that love is the goal of religion, the purpose for being, and the best expression of human community.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6, NIV)

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14, NIV)

Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8, NIV)

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight… (Philippians 1:9, NIV)

The thing about love is that it can either get choked-out, or it can flourish. Love gets suppressed by attaching ourselves to things rather than people. This is a gross misuse of our capacity for love. A radical detachment from stuff may be necessary in order to gain relational connection.

On the other hand, by learning to direct our love toward God and neighbor (and, by the way, our neighbor is everyone we encounter) we begin to discover the peace of being in sync with the way the universe is wired.

We need salvation from our own worldly self. For it is this false self which the devil can so easily deceive and woo us from attachments to God and neighbor. In other words, we must be saved from ourselves, because left to ourselves, there is no hope for us.

To be lost is to be fooled by my own ego that the false self is the true self. To live and love in God is the essence of the true self.

That means humility, gentleness, peaceful relations, mercy, and purity characterize us. If it doesn’t, we’ve been fooling ourselves by believing that peace can only be achieved through unconditional winning; and that I am not responsible for my neighbor’s welfare and well-being.

Here’s a little test of where you might be in your false self/true self, and in your actual ability to love: The more importance you attach to your own ideas, your own abilities, and your own work, the more you will find yourself building up the very idea of you. This inevitably comes out by condemning other people and becoming judgmental of most things they do. If we are continually critical of others, we have lost sight of love.

The true self, however, recognizes and remembers that I am made in the image and likeness of God; that God is my very reason for existence; and that, therefore, love is my true identity because God is Love.

That’s right. Love is your genuine true character, deep down. The late Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, got it right when he said:

“If I do anything or think anything or say anything or know anything that is not purely for the love of God, it cannot give me peace, or rest, or fulfillment, or joy.” Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation

This is one reason why it’s so important to love my neighbor. Since God’s love is truly within me, hardwired into my very existence, this love can come to you and me from any person, any direction, any time.

Love comes not only directly from God, but also indirectly by means of the jewel of love placed within the other person I am encountering.

For it is only in love that we at last can become real. If we feel unworthy of love, we will probably feel that other persons are not worthy of it either. This is where hate is born, and why it manifests itself so hideously in a politics of hate where large groups of people are simply labeled as “monsters” or “evil.”

But that’s really only a projection of how the person feels about themselves. And the only way out of it for the hateful person is to know that they are loved – irrespective of one’s worth.

If and when we become out of sorts, it is best to come back to love. Which means returning to my first and original love, God; and to the love that I actually have for the people in my family and my life.

Maybe it’s high time we start inventing all sorts of new words for love in the English language. Because, after all is said and done, Love never fails.

The Illness of Our Era: What Is It?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment
Anxiety, by James Callaghan

Our contemporary society focuses primarily on a functional existence. In our pragmatism, we care a great deal about production, the things we can do and produce; and we are attentive of how we appear to others. Western culture is enamored with all things of the outer person that others can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste with physical senses.

The outer person is important. The way in which we present ourselves to the world does have meaning and significance. Yet, so does the inner person.

The Inner Person

I believe the inner person, the true self, the soul, is just as vital, if not more, than the outward displays we give to others. On the inside is where our motives and intents come from. The core of self is of utmost importance; it is the place where our inherent worth is found.

Being aware of this inner person (which I use interchangeably with “soul” and “true self”) gives us a guide for ordering our outer self – our activities, work, and relationships.

If we are unaware of what’s happening deep within us, or pay little to no attention to the soul, our outer person becomes a false self. A gross disconnect then occurs between how we think and feel within, and what we choose to display for everyone.

In paying attention to the inner person, we will likely find that there is a lot of anxiety within us. Anxiety may even transform itself into a despair of self and/or the world.

The Anxiety Within

This anxiety, however, is not all bad. It certainly can lead us to a struggle with life, an experience of strained relationships, and a crippling fear of what will happen. Yet it can also help us become in touch with the soul, and enable us to gain an awareness of what is happening within and what to do about it.

It is my firm understanding and unshakable conviction that if we are to learn anything at all about healthy functioning in this world, it must begin with learning about one’s self – the true self, the inner person, the soul.

Knowing Ourselves

“Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol.1

As we commit ourselves to the journey within, we come to discover our place in the cosmos, and the image of God that is inherent in us. We come to know ourselves as integral to creation.

If we never gain this sense of humanity and of the divine, then we lose our special perspective on reality, and of the vital interconnectedness we have with God and others. Separateness then replaces the unity and oneness which exists. As a result, the person lives without a sense of their true place or function in this world.

Feelings of isolation and estrangement take over. This profound experience of disconnection with God, people, and even self creates a powerful sense of anxiety. Fear becomes a dominant theme. Unconscious emotions and desires drive the anxious person. A belief that my conscious self is all there is to me is a path of denial that leads to abject misery.

Knowing ourselves – before we know anything else – must be our pursuit. Failure to do this is perhaps why we live in such an era of worry, pessimism, and fear.

Addressing Our Fears

Have you ever felt that there is no one to whom you could turn to in your time of loneliness and despair?

Is there a time when you felt as if you were in a deep dark hole of quiet anxiety?

Did you ever brood over your situation in life so much that all of your courage melted like ice cream on a 100 degree day?

Was there a season in your life where you felt the world could not understand your grief?

Has God ever felt aloof to you, with your prayers seeming as if they were bouncing off the ceiling?

Depending upon who we are, the self believes that if I am right enough, help enough, achieve enough, unique enough, know enough, plan enough, party enough, lead enough, or withdraw enough, then I will relieve this bothersome anxiety and fear within me and can get on with life.

Others may seek solace in the finite things of this world. But that approach only exacerbates the existing problem. Believing that freedom from an ethereal illness can come by having more of something you can see only increases the despairing feelings.

Any sickness of the soul must be addressed by means of infinite resources.

The Need For Integration

If we lose ourselves, we are fragmented and in need of integration. The work needed is to bring our spiritual internal parts into a unified whole. This then puts us in a position to experience the grace and peace of God. Indeed, the process itself becomes the divine mercy and settled rest.

We tend to hold onto what we are afraid of experiencing. This very problem often becomes the solution. Our anxiety has the potential to lead us toward the grace of God, or away from it by self-conjured solutions and/or coping mechanisms.

Rather than holding our anxieties and fears close so that we can keep an eye on them, we need to let go of them. This is accomplished by actually feeling our feelings. By holding our emotions loosely, they can express themselves and then fly away.

If we never experience anxiety, worry, discouragement, fear, depression, or despair, then we internally see no reason whatsoever to pursue transformation of life – to go after that which is immortal and invisible.

The Apostle Paul’s Struggle

At the end of a frustrating litany of anxiety over his inability to control the trajectory of his inner self, the Apostle Paul concluded:

So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:21-25, NRSV)

Sin presupposes itself through anxiety. And anxiety awakens the awareness of needing freedom and deliverance. Worry is not our master. Anxiety has no authority over us. Fear merely exists for us to pay attention to something.

In Christianity, that something is a someone: Jesus. Christ is the Deliverer from sin, death, and hell. The oblivious and lonely darkness we find ourselves trapped within has a way out, or rather, up. A divine hand reaches from above to snatch us from our inky hole.

If humanity never had a need of God, people would not know themselves. They would fail to realize that there is immortality in their very souls.

Taking the Journey Within

It takes bravery to engage in a journey within, down into the core of one’s being. It’s neither a vacation nor a weekend adventure. The path unfolds slowly over time; it is circuitous, and often frustrating. Yet, when we find the incredibly bright blue diamond at the center, we immediately know every part of the journey was worth it.

The illness of our era is that we are soul-sick with anxiety, even despair, and most of us don’t know it. But why?

Like a cancer lurking unaware within the body, the years of ego construction has smothered the image and likeness of God within.

Anxiety becomes the initial symptom that something is askew with us. We’d better get checked out and find what the root problem is.

Are you up for the discovery of yourself, and thus, of God?

Work, Love, and Dignity (Proverbs 27:1-27)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Farm Women at Work, by Georges Seurat (1859-1891)

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring.

Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth;
    an outsider, and not your own lips.

Stone is heavy and sand a burden,
    but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
    but who can stand before jealousy?

Better is open rebuke
    than hidden love.

Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
    but an enemy multiplies kisses.

One who is full loathes honey from the comb,
    but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

Like a bird that flees its nest
    is anyone who flees from home.

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart,
    and the pleasantness of a friend
    springs from their heartfelt advice.

Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,
    and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—
    better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart;
    then I can answer anyone who treats me with contempt.

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger;
    hold it in pledge if it is done for an outsider.

If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning,
    it will be taken as a curse.

A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping
    of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;
restraining her is like restraining the wind
    or grasping oil with the hand.

As iron sharpens iron,
    so one person sharpens another.

The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit,
    and whoever protects their master will be honored.

As water reflects the face,
    so one’s life reflects the heart.

Death and Destruction are never satisfied,
    and neither are human eyes.

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
    but people are tested by their praise.

Though you grind a fool in a mortar,
    grinding them like grain with a pestle,
    you will not remove their folly from them.

Be sure you know the condition of your flocks,
    give careful attention to your herds;
for riches do not endure forever,
    and a crown is not secure for all generations.
When the hay is removed and new growth appears
    and the grass from the hills is gathered in,
the lambs will provide you with clothing,
    and the goats with the price of a field.
You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed your family
    and to nourish your female servants. (New International Version)

Hard Work

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15, NIV)

Work itself is not a result of humanity’s fall. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were tasked to work and take care of the Garden of Eden. Therefore, work is inherently good. Yet, hard labor is certainly a result of the fall.

What we humans ought to have done through our created nature, now because of the fall into sin and disobedience, we have to work with focused deliberate intention. And even then, we often don’t perform our work as we would like.

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19, NIV)

This is why wise persons throughout the ages have given priority to hard work, and branded laziness as detrimental to our human welfare.

Much of our labor is menial and mundane, no matter what the work is. Yet, through vision and persistence, the fruit of our labor eventually breaks through. It is important for us to keep our nose to the grindstone, namely, because this is what it takes to produce, and to keep ourselves out of trouble!

Like a shepherd who cares for the sheep, we are to be present, pay attention, do whatever it takes to help the sheep flourish, and hang in there through the thick and thin of the job.

Diligence and consistency are vital to our hard work. The temptation of get-rich-quick schemes and other supposedly easy paths to success and wealth sometimes rear their heads to lure us away from our daily chores.

Well-kept sheep will produce wool and milk for several years. Riches and achievements and accolades, however, do not necessarily last for long.

Affectionate Love

Hard work and relationships nurtured by affectionate love are meant to go hand-in-hand. In other words, ideally, the duty and diligence of our daily tasks, and the consistency of establishing relational well-being with others, is well-balanced and works seamlessly together.

Loving another entails both encouragement and correction, heartfelt words as well as open words of rebuke. That is, we continually think of what another needs, and what is best for the community as a whole.

Our love must entail what is good for the one being loved, for the one doing the loving, and for the whole community to which both belong. Love leaves angry speeches and jealous motives behind and doesn’t utilize them, because they are tools of hate and hurt.

Gracious Dignity

Everyone is responsible to extend basic human kindness to one another, without exception. We are to listen to and honor our parents and elders; practice self-control and patience with all; and use gentle words in every communication.

Poise under pressure, and motivation to do what is right and good helps to lift the worth and dignity of others. We extend this to people for no other reason than that it is another human being who is in front of us; this is a person in God’s image.

God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27, NIV)

All persons have inherent worth as image-bearers of God. The wise person amongst us knows this and continually applies it in all their words and actions toward others.

Wise people also understand the value of hard work, and the intrinsic worth of work itself. Furthermore, they discern that love is to be the motivation and animating principle in doing work and working with others.

The bottom line of all the proverbial wise saying in today’s lesson is that we are to help and encourage others through both our words and our working actions. Our individual lives are to benefit the whole community, so that we are a blessing to others, as well as to receive blessings from those around us.

In engaging a healthy rhythm of giving and receiving, we reverse the curse, and enable the world to return to Eden.

Almighty God, we pray that You will bless all of our various labor and work in the world. Help us to pray fervently, diligently work hard, and give liberally. In all that we do, enable us to do it with all the love You provide. Amen.