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The Harbinger: It Begins

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In the humblest of spaces where the reportedly important are loathe to go we find truth, meaning, and value. In a world ripped apart by violence, anger, hate, and incivility all powered by greed, God arrives in the simplest guise of all. God’s arrival is the greatest of all messages, even when we miss the point. As much as we portray ourselves as important, superior, and greater than any and all others, the Greatest of all enters our midst with no semblance of fanfare. As far as anyone in Chickasaw knew, it was another night like any other. Nothing special was going on that evening, unless you count a newborn baby’s cry. There was nothing of note in most of the ways we consider something important. The newborn did not cry out in a sterile hospital delivery room. There were no doctors or nurses attending in scrubs. We’ll never know its Apgar scores. No one recorded weight, length, race, or footprints. The only people to know of this baby’s birth should have been the very few i...
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Demolition Cabinet

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I keep hearing people bemoaning Trump’s cabinet picks. I hear them railing against their lack of qualifications, their criminal history, their sex crimes, that they would never pass background checks, that they know nothing of running the departments of the Federal government they are being tapped to run. What I see very little of is open recognition that these cabinet picks are not being tapped to run a government at all. We saw this in Trump’s last term, but now he has the backing to go much further. Remember Betsy DeVos tapped for Department of Education? She was named because she had a competing interest with public education in the ownership of charter schools. She was not placed there to make the Department of Education run more smoothly or improve public education. She was there to help bleed the department, making it less effective and shifting funding to cronies with profit motives. Remember Louis DeJoy elevated to the US Postal Service? He had competing pro...
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What Was It?

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America, why did you vote for a narcissistic, uncouth, white supremacist, Nazi, convicted felon for president. Was it due to one of these traits? Violent rhetoric? Pussy-grabbing? Bankruptcies? Lying? Cheating? Mocking? Insults? Boasting? Lack of filter? Immorality? Pretense? Adultery? Rape? Pedophilia? Visible anger? Nepotism? Destruction of standards? Incivility? Base instincts? Anti-social behavior? Anti-intellectualism? Crass ignorance? Distrust of government? Disregard for decency? Abuse of the system? Blatant self-promotion? Disregard for expertise? Or did the racism and misogyny outweigh all of that? — ©Copyright 2024, Christopher B. Harbin  http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ My latest books  can be found here on Amazon
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Abusing Reconciliation

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I hear many calls for reconciliation, a la Rodney King, to just get along. Reconciliation is a bit more complicated. It requires an admission of guilt and wrong. It requires change. It cannot accept simply sweeping wrongs under the rug as though no harm has been done. We can become reconciled if I have hurt you, but only as far as I am willing to make amends and change course into the future. Anything less is a cover for more abuse. To be reconciled requires a meeting of minds and intentions, respecting and honoring each other’s human dignity. I am in control only of myself and my actions. I can only do so much toward reconciliation. It takes accepting responsibility for my own actions. It does not necessitate taking responsibility for the actions of others, nor should it. Jesus does not ignore injustice, abuse, anger, hate, and violence. Jesus addressed issues regarding abuse and oppression. It's the same with reconciliation with God. It requires ...
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Recognizing Anti-Christ

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Popular Christianity works under a false notion of what the Bible speaks of in terms of “The Antichrist.” First of all, John’s epistles are much easier to read, translate, and understand than Revelation. An essential rule for Biblical interpretation is that what is clear takes precedence over what is not clear. Secondly, what is repeated received more weight than a one-off statement. John’s epistles should be given more credit than the uncertainties surrounding a few verses in Revelation. John speaks clearly of multiple anti-Christs that had already arisen in his day. That refers to the turn of the First Century. He starts that comment with, “You have heard that anti-Christ is coming.” He is fully aware of an already popular concept of a coming anti-Christ. He then disparages that notion by saying that indeed, “many anti-Christs have already come.” The term anti-Christ means just what the terms signify. It is any who are in opposition to Christ. As such, John points to ...
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Civilized Healthcare

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We enjoyed excellent healthcare as missionaries in Brazil. The mission board was self-insured and covered whatever the doctors determined to be the best care for their patients. Any oversight of care was done by a couple of medical doctors who worked for the board in the US, making recommendations and looking at medical practices worldwide. A visit to my cardiologist cost $50. The same for our pediatrician, OB/GYN, or any other doctor we needed to see. Each one of them was a professor at the medical school in Porto Alegre. My cardiologist made two trips a year to the US for the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association meetings. Our pediatric surgeon lectured in Canada. A visit to any of them meant spending a full half-hour face-to-face with the physician who took their own notes and ran any in-office tests personally. We had cell-phone, beeper, and email access to them otherwise. The only other person we encountered in their offices was a receptionist. ...
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Stumbling on Christian Nationalism

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Mark 9:38-50 [Sermon preached at Wingate United Methodist Church on 06 October 2024]. Power, force, might, coercion are the tools we tend to look at as either shortcuts or the only possible means to an end which seems out of reach. If we could just exert more control, we could make others bow to our understanding of how the world should operate. We are not necessarily looking for an evil result. We are looking to accomplish good! We’d even like that good to coincide with God’s will, with bringing about God’s Reign on earth as a fully implemented reality! If I could force everyone to love each another, we would finally live in peace and harmony. What could possibly be wrong with that? We’ve heard, “The ends don’t justify the means.” Then again, we have seen example after example of good people using questionable means to achieve results with which we have agreed. I have never been so focused on following rules I would not be willing to bend a few to accomplish...
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