On the Hevel Level - A Blog About Nothing

“If you press this button, someone on the other side of the world – someone you don’t know will die and I will give you $250,000 dollars”.  This was a line from a Twilight Zone reboot I watched as a young teenager.  The gist of the episode was that a strange man showed up on the door step of a struggling couple’s run-down apartment and left a box with a mechanical button and the dark offer for the woman.  The man told her he would return the next day.  The woman told the husband about the strange visit.  The husband responded that she should have nothing to do with it, regardless of their financial struggles.  After a sleepless night the wife gave in and pushed the button.  The stranger returned the next day and traded her a bag of cash for the magical box back and told her, “Don’t worry, I will be sure to give the box to somebody far away that you don’t know.” We interact on a regular basis with the nameless and...

On our wedding video, there is a clip where my wife’s grandpa offered me marriage advice. “Don’t complain when she brings you burnt toast in the morning, just consider it burnt offerings!”  It’s debatable if what passed for humor or good advice in his day, has stood the test of time.  There is, however, a concept in his statement that points to a reality that goes much further back than the time of our grandparents.  There was a day when the word worship might cause a mouth-watering Pavlovian response, because food was being talked about. In Ancient Israel, the idea of worship or sacrifices was synonymous with "barbecue".  A main activity at the temple was animal, grain and drink offerings prepared on the front porch.  A whole burnt offering was enjoyed by God alone.  This was done by completely cooking it.  The word ola  refers to “rising up” as the sacrifice ascended to God in the form of smoke.  Most other sacrifices were shared meals ...

It’s natural in the midst of this pandemic to ask “Why Corona Virus?”  There may be an answer to that question, but I don’t have it.  I have heard some proclaiming this is God’s judgment, and others wrestling with the question “Is this God’s judgment?”   This pandemic has been one of those big storms of life that won’t soon be forgotten.  The reality is there will be more storms after this one.  We could make our best attempts to be people who answer the why question, sorting out what is God’s judgment. Or, we can accept that storms beyond our control will be part of our future and decide how to live in response.   What comes to mind for me is the wise and foolish builders from Matthew 7.  Those who listen and put into practice the words of Jesus will experience storms and survive them with their house on the rock.  Those who do not have a foundation built on putting the words of Jesus into practice are positioned for a crash when storms ...

At the church I attend, we are in the midst of a sermon series on Spiritual Formation called “Forming Habits that Form Us”.  While this series has been going, I started reading a book that has helped frame the topic and I find that I’m better able to benefit from what’s being preached.  The introduction of the book  You are What You Love  by James Smith [i]  has a concise way of describing “the why” of spiritual formation.  It says that the bottom line of being human is answering the question "What do you want?”.  Another way to say it is “What do you love most” or even “What do you worship”.  Along the same line of thinking, the early church leader Augustine is known for describing the human plight as coming from our disordered loves.  According to him, we've promoted the wrong things to the place of our ultimate desire.  The aim of discipleship is to put our heart in order. Some forms of “discipleship” are aim...

Security has a strong attraction.  I have some money in the bank and a good job.  I live in a safe neighborhood and my kids go to a good school.  I’d like to be a little more physically fit, but I’ve avoided any huge health problems.  But am I really secure? Life’s circumstances have a way of challenging our notion of security. In life the unthinkable  will  descend upon us. When tragic circumstances hit we find out which things provide real security and which foundations turn out to be quick sand.  The four horsemen of the apocalypse, described in Revelation, could surprise us with their practicality in assessing if our feelings of security are rooted in the right things.  If we approach this text as a riddle about the future to be solved we miss the value of the questions it whispers. “I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voi...

One of the tenants of the Protestant Reformation is the “priesthood of all believers”.  For me the word “priest” has often brought to mind images of old guys dressed in impractical robes.  The result of this image is a loss of significance for what it means for every Jesus follower to be a priest. We need to put meat on the bones of what it means to be a priest and replace the images that get in the way.  In order to do this, I would like to look at how doctors embody what it means to be a priest (in what follows, doctor can be substituted with any medical professional, PA, LPN, RN, CNA, Medical Administrator, etc.). Doctor and priest sound like very different professions.  In order to change that perception, it’s useful to look at what Jesus said each time he healed people with leprosy “…go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matt 8:4 see also Luke 5:14, 17:14) Jesus gives this instr...

When it comes to words that are frequently used in church contexts, sometimes it is necessary to step back and parse what a word really means.  Holy is one of these words.  In what follows, I’d like to offer a brief description of the word holy and then examine the word through some illustrations that are intended to open a new lens to look at scripture through. Holy has to do with categories.  If something is “holy”, that means it belongs in the category of special or unique.  Often the pitfall has been to focus on moral goodness or purity when the word is used.  While the word can often carry this significance, that understanding is secondary.  One way to better understand a word is to look at its opposite. For holy, the opposite is not ‘evil’, but ‘common’.  As a simple illustration, the Sabbath is understood to be a holy day.  If evil was holy’s opposite, the Sabbath would be holy and the rest of the days of the week would be evil.  The...

A question many ask is this; “Is God with me?” For the orthodox Christian, the theological answer is simple. “God is omnipresent, so yes, he is with you.” But orthodox claims aside, is that commonly what we experience? Do we always know that God is with us or do we from time to time find ourselves intimidated by circumstance in the world around us? If that happens (and I know it does in my life), this would suggest at times we struggle to hold on to the reality of God always being present with us. Several years ago, I was learning my first few Hebrew words. I remember starting to put a few together. I learned “ eem ” is “with”. Next, “ anu ” is a pronoun for “us” that attaches to words. In this way “ eemanu ” means “with us”. Then I realized when you add “ El ” to the mix, one of the words for God, you get “ eem-anu-el ” or “God with us”. I learned that Immanuel means “God with us” and was excited by this new discovery. In reality, I had known that Immanuel means “God with us” for...

Hevel  is a Hebrew word meaning: Breath; by extension:  something with no substance, meaningless, worthlessness, vanity, emptiness, futility; idol.  Breath; futility; meaninglessness; temporality; vanity; worthless.

Can you imagine being dropped in the middle of a nation in great turmoil, fighting to re-find its own identity? On the one hand, it might appear that insurmountable social and political forces are at work that would make the task of rediscovering the country’s God given roots seem impossible. At the same time, one could look at some of the resources in play and imagine renewal as a great nation possible. One of the clear challenges is the lack of agreement between factions on how to go about it. On one side of the political spectrum you find one group who insists that faithful keeping of God’s scriptures always results in God’s blessing.  Those focuses on persuading people to understand that if the nation collectively follows God, the blessings he had promised would come to pass.   There’s a subgroup within this group who agree with this point of view but also think that it stops short of necessary action.  In their fervor, they purs...