Monthly Archives: March 2015

Journey: Peace March

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Steve Harper

Read “Peace March” today (Palm Sunday) without an accompanying meditation from me.

Posted in Journey | Comments Off on Journey: Peace March

Journey: So…what?

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Steve Harper

[Note: this meditation is coming to you on Saturday, as a way of synchronizing it with McLaren’s writing, which next corresponds to Holy Week] Read: “The Choice is Yours” Every good preacher ends a sermon with some kind of decisive … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey | Comments Off on Journey: So…what?

Editorial: And Jesus Wept

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Steve Harper

The passing of Indiana’s religious freedom act yesterday–along with similar laws already on the books–is eerily familiar to the civil-rights’ era which scarred our nation and still leaves an open wound to this day.  To say that it is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Editorials | Comments Off on Editorial: And Jesus Wept

For the Bride: Holy Experimentation

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Steve Harper

Years ago, I heard Richard Foster say that prayer is to the spiritual life what experimentation is to science.  In early Christianity, the monastic communities understood this, and they practiced prayer in an “ask, seek, knock” spirit.  We have come … Continue reading →

Posted in For the Bride | Comments Off on For the Bride: Holy Experimentation

In-Sight: The Impossibility of Consistency

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Steve Harper

Over the years, I have sometimes been charged with being inconsistent in my theology.  When it happens, I remember Emerson’s statement, “Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.” Applied to the theological task, Emerson’s words simply mean that our reach … Continue reading →

Posted in In-Sight | Comments Off on In-Sight: The Impossibility of Consistency

Journey: From the Inside Out (2)

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Steve Harper

Read: “Why We Worry, Why We Judge” I see this chapter in tandem with the last one, so I have titled this week’s post and last week’s the same.  The difference is that last week, I noted that healing comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey | Comments Off on Journey: From the Inside Out (2)

For the Bride: Love With Skin On

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Steve Harper

The schools of love established by the early Christians made the curriculum of love concrete.  While they could engage in deep studies about love and participate in inspiring conversations about love, eventually they had to love a real person. Love, … Continue reading →

Posted in For the Bride | 3 Comments

In-Sight: As Before, So Again Now

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Steve Harper

One of the gifts of getting older is living long enough to see trends, not just events.  One of the ways I have been doing that recently is with respect to the unity/schism debate in the United Methodist Church and … Continue reading →

Posted in In-Sight | 2 Comments

Journey: From the Inside Out

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Steve Harper

Read:  “Your Secret Life” Not long ago I got a spider bite.  Truth be told, I should have gone to the doctor.  But, well…you know…it’s a guy thing.  I promised myself to keep an eye on it and to go … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey | Comments Off on Journey: From the Inside Out

For the Bride: Simply Love

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Steve Harper

The early Christians made love the essence of holiness, and practicing it in community meant there were almost unlimited ways to express love to others: gestures, facial expressions, simple acts of charity–what Brother Lawrence would later call “little things for … Continue reading →

Posted in For the Bride | 1 Comment

In-Sight: Three Transforming Words

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Steve Harper

Hardly a week goes by without a speech or writing about how to move past various empasses in the Church–to say nothing of the society and larger world.  We are admittedly a very conflicted, confused, and contentious generation.  Some proposals … Continue reading →

Posted in In-Sight | 2 Comments

Journey: “Tra–di–tion!”

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Steve Harper

Read:  “A New Path to Aliveness” I hardly ever read the word  ‘tradition’ without hearing the song of the same name in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’  I don’t think it is a detour, because it is clear from the play … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey | 2 Comments

For the Bride: The School of Love

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Steve Harper

The last time I was on retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky, I noticed the community had published a new brochure about themselves, their ministries, their daily schedule, etc.  It was entitled, “A School of Love.” When I … Continue reading →

Posted in For the Bride | Comments Off on For the Bride: The School of Love

In-Sight: In Good Hands

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Steve Harper

As I move through my 67th year, I am disciplining myself to read Scripture asking, “What does this passage have to say to an aging adult like me?”  Often, I find small nuggets of insight; at other times, the entire … Continue reading →

Posted in In-Sight | 3 Comments

Journey: Upside Down

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Steve Harper

Read:  “A New Identity” With laser-beam clarity and power, McLaren shows how counter-cultural Jesus was from the outset of his ministry.  The Beatitudes–those seemingly benign invitations to godly happiness–first pierced the egoic balloons of those who thought they could have … Continue reading →

Posted in Journey | Comments Off on Journey: Upside Down