What a Mess ...

What a Mess ... Stoned's Office Project

"I thought Godzilla was a mess, the monster had no character and the humans didn't either" (George Romero)

Well Godzilla was a classic compared to the mess in my office. In this post I decided to give you a glimpse of a good deal of my world ... my office. Supplemented by some photo illustrations. I just received, through the graces of Carisse Berryhill of the Center of Restoration Studies, a complete set of the Millennial Harbinger (42 volumes)... what to do with them?



Here is a view to the left from my chair. Note the construction in the corner ... oh don't miss Sponge Bob the guardian of books ...



Here is a view to the right across the top of my desk. An attempt to capture the mess.



A look at the mess to the rear of my desk. Man I need to clean this mess ...



But I think I'd rather go for a ride ...

Blessings,
Bobby Valentine

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Shattered Dreams ... Picking Up the Pieces?

Shattered Dreams

For many years I lived a sheltered life. No not everything was always hunky dory. I mean there was that time my girlfriend's dad did not like me. There was that time when a certain college said "don't come around here no more" and my friend Wade wrote (and sang) a song called The Ballad of Bobby V. There was that time when I walked into a meeting expecting to get an extra week of vacation and a pay raise and the elders inexplicably said you need to pack your bags and exit quickly. But through it all I thought I discerned the hand of God. To this day I don't know what I was supposed to have "learned" from that ordeal in Mississippi. But I would never have found my friends in Milwaukee had it not been for that ... and my friends at Southside were and are friends in deed. God saw us, the Valentine family, through. The wife of my dreams and daughters that would melt the heart of the coldest snake. But you know what, I had no idea what some folks went through that I preached to every week.

But those dreams shattered! I have learned that lots of peoples dreams shatter. Now my dreams were not extravagant. I dreamed of being a good husband. I dreamed of being a cool dad. I did not dream of being rich, powerful or even the keynote speaker at Pepperdine. Like Tobias when he met his bride Sarah ... I dreamed of "growing old with the wife of my youth" (Tobit 8.7). I believed these were good dreams. But those dreams shattered! All the praying, all the shouting at the night sky, all the pounding the floor, all the making deals with God, all the pleading and quoting Scripture ... did not unshatter those dreams! Sometimes it makes you wonder where the Father of Mercies is ... Indeed sometimes the thoughts I feel ... well Tennyson said it better than me ...

I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise,
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er,
Like coarsest cloths against the cold;
But that large grief which these unfold
Is given in outline and no more.

It is clear that Tennyson had a Shattered Dream too. Shattered Dreams hurt like hell. In fact they are hell. The pious wrestle with guilt because they almost feel like they have "sinned" by even thinking the thoughts they think in the middle of that dark night. How do you move forward? How do we handle it when it seems that we never move forward? In fact when we think hell could be no worse we discover that there is at least one more level down!

Shattered Dreams are enough to make us actually embrace the real Job, the angry Job. Job says he had a major problem with God. He desperately wanted to find God to set the record straight. "If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments ..." (Job 23.3-4). The desperation of his shattered dreams Job says he will go "east" and then "west" and "north" and finally "south" but through it all "I catch no glimpse of him" (Job 23.8-10).

You know what I have learned? I have learned the best of us are capable of incredible self-serving and self-centered hurtful actions. I have learned that for years I had no idea what it meant to walk by faith. I have learned that though God is faithful he does not answer to me. I have learned that the vandalism of God's shalom is real and not make believe ... and that vandalism, that falleness can rip us to shreds. I have learned that Christian ministry is no about debating irrelevancies like instrumental music but rather seeing that a Crucified (yet Risen) Carpenter is truly King ... even in the midst of Shattered Dreams. I have learned that perhaps God is serious when he says we win by dying! That we gain victory through surrender! That "to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Pt 2.21).

One last thing I have learned. I have learned that I hate Shattered Dreams. I hate them. I hate them. And I hate them. I should count it as all joy. But I haven't made it yet. How do we not? We continue to Cry into the Night. We search for him believing that he has truly revealed his intention and his power in Jesus Christ ... and resurrection has occurred. The New Heavens and New Earth are coming. Hope ...

This particular blog is simply a thinking and sharing "out loud." Take it for what it is.

Seeking Shalom,
Bobby V

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A Stoned Top Ten Posts List

Stoned's Top Ten List

I have been blogging now for about two years. I began my dubious cyberspace career in Milwaukee, the land of beer and cheese, and since have migrated with my family to the land of saguaros and scorpions. In the time I've written 256 posts (that was the last count I had). As with all things many of those were very forgettable! Yet last night as I was home alone and found the movie No Country for Old Men particularly boring I began to reflect on my writing. Inspired by David Letterman I decided to create a Top Ten Stoned-Campbell list. The criteria for Top Ten was not simply the number of comments (though that was a factor) but the way people responded both on and offline to a post. And I also added a personal factor ... how well did I like it and did I express something deeply from me in it ... there is one that this will be obvious that this is the case. So without further ado here is my Stoned Top Ten list of posts:

10) My "Anti" Creed (December 23, 2006)

9) David Lipscomb, James A. Harding, the Mission & the Renewed Earth (July 13, 2006)

8) Wal-Mart, Dresses & Hermeneutics (August 12, 2006)

7) Quest for THE Pattern (August 9, 2007)

6) Jesus the Jew and Hanukkah (December 15, 2006)

5) Contradictions that are Bobby Valentine (January 19, 2008)

4) Anamolies in the Pattern (February 11, 2008)

3) Voices from 1968: A Leaf from the Page of a Subversive Journal (March 17, 2007)

2) Damaged Goods: A Biblical Pattern of Grace & Renewal (June 12, 2006)

And there is a tie for #1 so I guess this is really the Top Eleven

1) Tears: God's or Mine (April 16, 2008)

1) Jesus, The Welcoming Friend of Sinners (May 9, 2006)

There are also three series of posts that I have done that I personally have enjoyed doing and so I will mention them without listing the individual posts

3) Heaven: Pie in the Sky or Meek Inheriting the Earth This series went for 14 installments. Just search under "eschatology" and you will find all of them.

2) Marcionism & Churches of Christ: What Value, Really, Is the OT?: Pt 1; Pt 2; Pt 3; Pt 4; Pt 5; Pt 6

1) Women on the Family Tree; Huldah; Susanna; Judith; Perpetua; Argula von Grumbach

Those of you who have been reading all along you may remember some of these. It has been a joy to be able to share and learn from you ... and I have learned lots.

Blessings,
Bobby Valentine

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Of Dating, Engagements, and Fulfilling the Law ... Matthew 5.17

Of Dating, Engagements, and Fulfilling the Law …

In our continuing quest to understand “What value, really, is the ‘Old Testament’” particularly in the Churches of Christ we have looked at some historical and textual concerns. Not long ago we asked What was nailed to the cross in Col 2.14 and concluded the text did not teach that the Old Testament was regardless of the frequent rhetoric of some.

Another horrendously abused text in the restoration hermeneutical tradition is Matthew 5.17. The text reads “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them” (NIV). One recent interpreter understands this text to be such a violent rejection of the Torah that he compared it to Moses coming down from the mountain and smashing the tablets to bits. “Although the commandments were written again, the day came when Jesus would fulfill them and throw them down once and for all (Mt. 5:17). (Wade Webster, “Crucial Questions Concerning the Old Covenant,” Power {June 2008}). 

I confess that I find this a shocking reading of what Jesus claims he is doing. If Jesus is “throwing them down once and for all” sounds an awful lot like what Jesus explicitly claimed he was not doing.

In our convoluted way we take the word “fulfill” and then we interpret through a
misunderstanding of Colossians 2.14 and then twist it till it has the exact same meaning as “abolish” does which is what Jesus said “do not think” he came to do.

But what if “fulfill” really does not mean abolish? The English word “fulfill” has a range of meanings. According to the dictionary the term has the range of: to put into effect (execute), to meet requirements, to develop the potentialities off. But it is the Greek of Matthew that we need to be concerned with. Matthew uses the term pleroo frequently and needs to be understood with his larger fulfillment motif. For example Matthew says Jesus came to “fulfill all righteousness” (3.15) which clearly does not mean Jesus came to do away with righteousness. In 26. 54 and 56 Jesus’ suffering is seen as “fulfilling {anapleroo} the Scriptures” does not mean doing away with the Scriptures. Matthew’s ten explicit “formula quotations” all use the same term (pleroo) as 5.17 and when Matthew says this was to “fulfill that” he does not mean do away, nail to the cross or abolish or even "throw them down once and for all."

What if fulfilling the law is more like a man or a woman fulfilling his or her marriage vows? What if the coming of a “new” covenant is more akin to dating, getting engaged and then married than a repudiation or a destruction of the “old”? Does a marriage negate the value of the life shared previous to saying “I do?” Far from it. Instead that period we call “dating” and “engagement” are crucial in the development of a later healthy relationship called marriage. Can you imagine a man sitting down at a table and his wife says to him “do you remember the letter I wrote to when we were dating?” What if that man then said, “No I don’t. That was fulfilled and I smashed it like Moses did the tablets because we now have a ‘new’ relationship. I forgot all those things from before we had our new covenant” Do you think that man would be in the dog house? I do. And rightfully so.

As there are levels of intimacy to dating, engagement and marriage so there are deeper depths as we move into the “new” covenant. Yet just because one can enjoy intercourse in marriage does not mean they cannot retain and enjoy the level of intimacy available to them at engagement. Indeed holding hands and a kiss take on even deeper significance but we don’t reject them.

That period of dating and engagement will have continuing validity precisely because their promise is being “fulfilled” in a marriage covenant. And just as a marriage counselor will take a couple “back to the sources” to help them understand themselves and their circumstances (she does not say ‘oh that died when you said “I do”’) so Christians must return to the sources when they are out of sorts. Just as returning to the sources helps us as humans to refocus, evaluate and understand … indeed to help us live up to and understand the very promises we made so returning to the source will help us as God’s People know who we are and what our task is in this world.

Returning to the source helps us as Christians see when we have polluted our relationship with pagan (Platonic) views of creation and the world. Returning to those early years of engagement helps us weed out neo-gnostic views of spirituality. Remembering the walk with God then helps us reject deistic views of God’s involvement with his world and our lives. Embracing, rather than rejecting, our heritage in the Hebrew Bible calls the bluff of Modernism’s hyper-individualism and loss of communal wisdom. All these egregious “relationship” issues are refocused when we return to the sources. Then when our “wife” (or our God) asks us “do you remember the letter I gave you” … and we say “yes, what a precious gift it has been.” And then our wife (or God) says “what it said can really shed light on where we are right now” we see that in spite of it being shared prior to the “new” covenant of marriage it is rich and has continuing validity. Indeed, it gives the present meaning and validity!

Just perhaps when Jesus said he came to “fulfill” the law rather than “abolish” it he meant something like going from “dating” to being “engaged” and then to “marriage.” He fulfills it by bringing out the promise of relationship and the potential of intimacy showing how it continues to shape God’s People.

“Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground under your feet.” (Mt 5.17f, The Message)

Blessings,

Bobby Valentine

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Traveling ...

As I write this I am in the Atlanta International Airport ... but I can't get online. They want me to pay to get online!! I was reading a little bit of Jim McGuiggan's recent book The Dragon Slayer that I picked up from Jack Martin and it is a good read so far.

My visit with the folks at Green Ridge was great. I met a lot of people that I can now thank God are my friends. I found folks who read my blog and I never knew it. I was uplifted and encouraged as much as I uplifted and encouraged them. It is interesting how God works sometimes is it not. I thank the church there for their graciousness and for putting up with my feeble attempts at preaching and teaching. There may be some extra stones in their crowns for putting up with that, ;-)

Well my plane has arrived ... I hope it works better than the last 757 I was on ...

Blessings on all,
Bobby V

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Collective Soul - The World I Know (Video)

Collective Soul was in Phx on Tuesday nite. Speaks in powerful ways. Sometimes the world does seem unkind and painful. The Edge seems like a good place to be ... then God sends a gift of grace ... a bird to help refocus and see things anew

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Tagged From A to Z by Wade

I am currently in Nashville Tennessee sitting in the Comfort Inn doing a seminar on "Spiritual Renewal" for the Green Ridge Church of Christ. A fine group of God's People let me tell you. Jack Martin is serving them as a minister and doing a great job. I am having a good time.

I noticed last nite that my good friend Wade has tagged me with a list of questions from A to Z. As I understand the unspoken etiquette of tagging I am supposed to respond with answers to the questions and then tag someone else. So here goes:

A. Attached or Single: I am a divorced single ... I hate the sound of that

B. Best Friend: Wade, John Mark Hicks, Lee Freeman and (shock) Don Neyland and Greg Tidwell

C. Cake or Pie: Cheese cake

D. Day of Choice: Saturday

E. Essential Item: Harley or laptop

F. Flavor of Ice Cream: chocolate with Reeses peanut butter cup

G. Gummy bears or Worms: let me bite the head off of a gummy bear

H. Hometown: Metropolis (Florence, Al)

I. Indulgences: poker with the preacher

J. January or July: September ... football!!

K. Kids: Rachael (13) and Talya (11)

L. Last Movie I saw in a Theater: Get Smart (one of the funniest movies ever!)

M. Middle Name: Wolverine

N. Number of Siblings: Four but not all claim me

O. Orange or Apples: apples

P. Phobias or fears: growing old alone

Q. Quote: "If you get Romans God gets you" -- K. C. Moser

R. Reasons to Smile. I truly am blessed. I have the two greatest daughters a man could ask for. I have a great church family. I have a super bike to zip down the road on ...

S. Season: There all the same in Tucson

T. Tag: Don Neyland and Steve Puckett

U. Unknown fact about me: I have a Batman toothbrush

V. Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: give me a steak

W. Worst Habit: procrastinating.

X. X-rays or Ultra-sounds; Superman and I share 20-20 x-ray vision

Y. Your favorite food: mexican or italian

Z. Zodiac: Orion the Hunter ... to bad his is not part of the Zodiac

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Silent Lucidity - Queensryche

One of my favorite groups from days gone by. Great song ... great video. Life is full of twists and turns ... and sudden shear drops. This song makes me contemplative.

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What Was Nailed the Cross?

Paul & The "Old Testament:" What Was Nailed To the Cross: A Look at Colossians 2.14

"having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross."

It is commonly assumed across much conservative Christianity (and Churches of Christ included) that with this verse Paul taught that the "law" or the "Old Testament" was blotted out or abrogated or done away with. This particular interpretation has contributed to the semi-Marcionite view toward the Hebrew Bible among CofCs. A recent writer for example claims that this interpretation is so clear and established that one has to "shut his eyes, stop his ears, and scar his heart like the Pharisees of old to miss this truth" (Wade Webster, "Crucial Questions Concerning the Old Covenant," Power {June 2008}). I confess that I am guilty because I do not agree that Colossians says anything of the sort about the "Old Testament."

Something was nailed to the cross but it was not the "Old Testament." It is an interesting fact to note that if Paul was concerned about the Law why he never even used the word a single time in Colossians. "Law" or nomos does not occur even once in the epistle. A strange fact if it was the "law" that was nailed to the cross.

Whatever was nailed to the cross Paul says it was "against us and stood opposed to us." This statement is hard for me to reconcile with not only Paul's attitude toward the Torah/Hebrew Bible elsewhere but also what the Bible itself says. For example the following attitude is directly contradictory the attitude expressed in those words

"The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right giving joy to the heart"

This attitude in Psalm 19 could never be understood as saying the law was "against us or stood opposed to us." Further no one could read Psalm 119 and come away with such a conclusion. The Bible itself does not support the idea that the Law was "opposed to us." Paul does not support that idea either. In fact he states in Romans "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good" (7.12). He further declares that the Hebrew Bible is "spiritual" (7.14). Paul says that the problem was not the law but you and me! Paul is not anti-torah, nor anti-Hebrew Bible and Paul never believed that God's word was destroyed or obliterated.

Paul says that the cheirograph was nailed the cross. This word is a Pauline hapax and never occues again in the NT. In the 19th century the word turned up in the sands of Egypt inscribed on papyri. Adolf Deissmann in his epoch making book Light from the Ancient East demonstrates that the term refers to an I.O.U., a certificate of debt incurred by a person (cf. pp. 331-334).

Historical context is a cardinal rule in biblical interpretation. In Jewish apocalyptic there was an idea that there existed a book of records that kept track of our evil deeds. This book, like the mortgage (an I.O.U.) at the bank, provided powerful leverage with less than friendly spirit beings called principalities, powers, angels and the like. This book is mentioned often in Jewish literature of the time (1 Enoch 89.61-64; 108.7; Testament of Abraham 12.7-18; 13.9-14; and many other places). Enoch, for example, tells how he heard the words "write down every destruction {sin} ... so that this may become testimony for me against them." We have an IOU that stands against us and that IOU is our own sin debt. It is that sin that the malignant powers hold over us.

Paul shows the Colossians that the cross was not a defeat of Christ by the cosmic forces of evil. Rather the cross was where Christ stripped the powers of their power. He nailed the debt we owed to the cross and canceled it. He then paraded those beings in a procession like a victorious Caesar. Once Jesus took our Sin Debt out of the way those beings had no power of us. The cross was a triumph not because it destroyed three-fifths of God's word rather the Cross was victorious because it was there that Christ won the cosmic battle. Eugene Peterson captures the sense of this text in The Message,

"Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate whiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets."

That is what Colossians 2.14 celebrates. The removal of sin ... not the removal of the Hebrew Bible.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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The Word Became Flesh

o( lovgo$ saVrx

The Gospel of John declares the radical message: The Word became flesh. It did not look like flesh. It did not assume flesh. It did not just act like flesh. The Gospel declares the Word became flesh. This notion is so important to John and his community of believers and (using slightly different lingo) it is also important to Paul. For example John declares that if a person denies that Christ came in the flesh that person (not some satanic incarnation of Hollywood) is the antichrist (2 Jn 7).

What is so important about this idea that a person could even be called the “antichrist” for denying? In a nutshell because in Jesus of Nazareth God is showing us what he intended in the beginning. Jesus is the true human being what God wanted from the first day of creation. In the person of Jesus we see restored humanity. Humanity in harmony with God. Humanity doing the will of the Father. Humanity with an unbelievably intimate relationship with the Spirit. In the Flesh, through Jesus the Christ, God is showing us what he wants for you … and me. The incarnation, when the Word became Flesh, connected salvation with creation. John teaches us that God so loved the world, even the “flesh,” that he gave his one and only Son to redeem and save it. It is good news that the Word became Flesh. It is good news to know that God loves all of me and not just some invisible part of me. It is good news that God became flesh in Jesus. What a compliment. John dares to say that we simply cannot understand the story of Jesus without believing this incredible truth.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Reflections on June

Reflections on June

Greetings from the land of Saguaros and Scorpions. As you can tell June has been a quite month for me. I thank all those who have sent me emails and believe it or not some have even called me wanting to know "where are you" and "what's up." For this I am grateful and pleasantly surprised. But June is one for the record books in the annals of Bobby V. The month began with a rather sudden and unexpected trip to Alabama. Because of the "situation" in my life this trip was necessitated or my parents would not get to see my girls until sometime next year. I got back on a Friday and had to pack on Saturday for 2 weeks of summer camp on top of Mt Graham ... about 10,000 feet up in the desert sky.

I had my girls for the month of June and they were my priority above all else ... and now one of the great things that suck about divorce is going a whole month without seeing your girls (which will be the case for July). This was not and is not something I like.

The first week of camp was for Rachael. Talya and I camped out in our tent while Rach was doing her thing. The second week was Talya's week and I was stuck in a cabin with a bunch of 11 and 12 yr old boys. That was an adventure let me tell you. I also served as Bible teacher ... and the lessons were on "Forgiveness" ... how ironic can that be.

In the middle of the week Talya informed me she wanted to be baptized. She wanted to do it at PV though. So we came down the Mt on Saturday and went to the Gathering and I had the awesome privilege of immersing her into the name of Jesus ... just as I had done Rachael a couple years ago in Robinson Creek in WI. Those were two of the most wonderful moments of my life.

We had some wonderful times over the month. We hiked. We struggled. We laughed. We even cried a few times. We went to see Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda together.

Hopefully I will be able to get back to blogging. I posted two videos this evening as well. Check them out. One by Nickle Creek and the other by Jethro Tull ... Here are a few pics from camp.



The Edge of the World ... literally



Straight Down 300+ Ft ... not far from the above image "at the Edge"



The desert from 10,000 ft at the lookout on Mt Graham ...



The Stoned-Campbells at the Lookout ...

Lord Come Quickly.
Bobby V

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Jethro Tull - Broadsword

One of my favs. Great song which sort of has a contemplative mood to it and that sort of describes me at this moment. But on a lighter note make sure you see the "crowd" at the end of the clip. It is humorous!!

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Somebody more like you

This song was shared with me today. I thought I would share it with you. It is sort of haunting ... the words are simple and yet profound.

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