Lee Harmon's Blog
November 3, 2015
Book review: The Abbey
by James Martin, SJ
Author James Martin aims for a story of spiritual awakening and falls short. A divorced mother grieves the loss of her son, when circumstances contrive to bring her to an old Abbey, housing monks. There she finds solace and inspiration in an image of Mary, mother of Jesus.
Martin writes with humor and believability, but lost me when the plotline turned flat. He teases us with the potential for romance, and again with the mysterious image of Mary, but both tangents lead n...
October 28, 2015
Book review: Gifts of the Dark Wood
by Eric Elnes
The soul, says Pastor Eric Elnes, has a native buoyancy. Like a rubber ball under water, it yearns to rise. This book is about “finding your place in this world at the very point where you feel furthest from it” … in the Dark Wood.
No one enters the Dark Wood of their own volition. You awaken there, by the nudge of the Holy Spirit. This, by the way, is as close as Elnes will ever get to preaching Christianity in this book. In fact, you’ll find his concept of the Holy Spirit to...
October 20, 2015
Book review: Wearing God
by Lauren F. Winner
How we talk about God matters.
When we call God our “friend,” it invites a new perspective. Or take a cue from several Biblical passages and try thinking of God in female terms. Calling God “She” can feel uncomfortable, especially if we have old-fashioned ideas about God, but breaking old molds may help us grow.
Winner’s book is not post-modern. It’s respectful, creative, a bit fanciful (though I’m not sure it means to be). The title, Wearing God, stems from thinking abo...
October 19, 2015
Luke 15:11-12, Drop Dead, Dad
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
There are many levels to the parable of the prodigal son, but this one is often neglected. In Palestine, when a son asks his father for his inheritance while the father is still alive, it’s equivalent to saying “Why don’t you drop dead, Dad?”
The typical response would be to toss the son out of the house penniless. The son i...
October 7, 2015
Book review: Charity Detox
by Robert D. Lupton
The author of Toxic Charity is at it again. Lupton insists that most of the work we do in the name of charity does more harm than good. Proclaiming that the only effective charity is the kind that asks more from those being served, rather than less, he lifts capitalism onto a pedestal and incriminates socialism and philanthropy as building dependency rather than affirming that the recipient also has something of value to offer.
Lupton’s arguments are convincing. His focu...
September 30, 2015
John 5:14, A Second Look At Healing (part II of II)
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
//Yesterday, I wrote about how Jesus “healed” a beggar at the pool of Bethesda. The man picked up his mat and walked off, only to encounter “the Jews,” who scolded him for working on the Sabbath. It seems that carrying his mat was against the rules.
Still in character, and probably still miffed at being chased from a prime begging spot, the man replied that...
September 29, 2015
John 5:9 A Second Look At Healing (part I of II)
And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
//In John chapter 5, Jesus comes across a beggar who had for the last 38 years suffered an “infirmity.” The man had been lying for a long time at a magical pool, a pool with the power to heal him, but when Jesus asked him why he wasn’t getting healed, he had a ready response: “Nobody will help me into the pool.”
Um, yeah. For 38 years nobody would give this man a hand? Methinks he had found a prime begging spot, and wasn’t ab...
September 27, 2015
Book review: The Tweetable Pope
by Michael J. O’Loughlin
Everybody but the ultra conservative seems taken with today’s Pope. A friend jokingly said that she believes in the second coming now, and this time Jesus is wearing a beanie.
Perhaps the most famous line uttered by Francis is in reply to a reporter who asked him about gay priests. The Pope replied, “who am I to judge?” Wait. The Pope doesn’t judge? No wonder Ted Cruz called for the Vatican to fire him.
It’s not that Pope Francis is thoroughly modern in his thinking...
June 4, 2015
Psalm 104:23, Too Much Labor
Man goes out to his work
And to his labor until the evening.
//Oh, how I wish that were true! In the evening, our labor just begins anew.
Leslie and I are finding out that starting up our new Fantasy Football service demands more time than we have available, and something has to give. So the Dubious Disciple is taking a break as we try to meet our summer deadlines.
We’ll see y’all in the Fall!
May 22, 2015
Luke 24:46, How long was Jesus in the tomb?
And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: –Luke 24:46
//Most of us honor Good Friday as the day of Christ’s death, and celebrate the following Sunday as the day of his resurrection. Meaning, Jesus was in the tomb only two nights; he rose from the dead on the third day. A host of scriptural references corroborate this. See Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 27:64, Mark 9:31, 10:34, Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:7, 24;46, Acts 10:40, 27:19,...
