Category: Faith and Values

Fourth Sunday of Advent 2025 – Candle of Love

by Steve Harsh, posted in Advent, Christian Discipleship, Christmas, Faith and Values, spiritual discipline

In the beginning, God fell in love with creation, and pronounced it very good.  Like romantic adoration, God’s eternal love is blind to human betrayal, rebellion, and stupidity.  When God’s children ignore the prophets and break every covenant offered to us, God continues to love us like a star-struck lover.

We celebrate Advent and Christmas every year to remind us that God still so loves the whole world that He comes to share the risks and sacrifices of being a vulnerable human being. 

In the dark days of December, when wars and senseless violence dominate the news, God’s love simply grows brighter and stronger.  The Advent candles remind us that we are all created in the image of God, and the essence of our God is unbounded, unconditional love. 

So on this final Sunday of Advent, the circle of the wreath is completed.  We relight the candles of Hope, Peace, and Joy.  And today we light the Candle of Love, because the greatest of these is Love. 

[Light all four candles]

Please join me in the prayer on the screen:

O dear God, lover of our souls, we are undeserving and unworthy of your radical love.  Our souls our willing, but our flesh is weak.  Please sweep us off our feet again in your loving embrace.  Help us to share in your wild and crazy romance with this broken world.  Let these candles rekindle in us the dream of your beloved community, so we can throw open the gates of love to all of your weary, hopeless children.  Remind us once more that the Babe of Bethlehem still calls us to love one another, in the same reckless, unconditional way that you love us.  Amen

Northwest UMC, Columbus, Ohio

October 13: A Clash of Cultures

by Steve Harsh, posted in Economics, Faith and Politics, Faith and Values

On this second Monday of October we Americans have a controversial federal holiday about the founding of our nation. With that in mind Father Richard Rohr had some interesting thoughts to share last week in one of his daily meditations.

“After touring Indian Territory in 1887, Senator Henry Dawes described the Cherokees in this way:  

The head chief told us that there was not a family in the whole nation that had not a home of its own. There is not a pauper in that nation, and the nation does not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol … and built its schools and hospitals. Yet the defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they hold their land in common…. There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization. Till these people will consent to give up their lands, and divide them among their citizens so that each can own the land he cultivates, they will not make much progress.”

“Progress,” according to Senator Dawes, meant individualism, materialism, and even selfishness. None of these ideals are Cherokee values, nor do they represent the values of other Native Americans….”

Compare and contrast those values of “individualism, materialism, and even selfishness” with these from Jesus and Christian Scripture:

Jesus tells a rich young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21)

Luke 6:20, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

Jesus’ mother Mary offers her prayer known as the Magnificat immediately after the birth of Jesus: “

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
    and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53)

And then in the Book of Acts we have this description of the early church: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:42-43)

There is no sign of any “individualism, materialism, or selfishness” in any of these descriptions of God’s kingdom. The Christian view of a beloved community sounds a whole lot more like the societies of the indigenous people who lived in the Americas for thousands of years before 1492 than the consumer culture that destroyed who and what was here before the Europeans arrived.

Let’s pray on these things today no matter what we choose to call the second Monday in October.

Peacemakers or Warriors?

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Politics, Faith and Values, peacemaking, spiritual discipline

If I could address a room full of top U.S. generals and admirals it wouldn’t take me two hours to remind them of where the ultimate allegiance of people of faith should lie. Even back in the more militaristic Hebrew Scriptures some prophets knew. Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God”. Those are not the empty and dangerous words of a “warrior” culture, and I’m pretty sure most of the men in those days were “beardos.”

And speaking of bearded men, how about one Jesus of Nazareth who says among other things in his short and succinct Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” “Love your enemies,” and “Turn the other cheek.” He came not as one whose calling was to “kill and break things” but as the Prince of Peace.

And then to conclude, rather than a challenge to either serve the warrior culture or abandon decades of hard work, experience, and service, I would offer these words from Joshua at a critical decision point in the history of Israel: “Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

Ramah and Herod: America’s Dual Role in Gun Violence Tragedies

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Faith and Values, gun violence

“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’” (Matthew 2:16-18)

From Columbine, Uvalde, Sandy Hook, Annunciation Catholic Church, and so many more we can’t even remember we are all in Ramah with Rachel weeping for our children, inconsolable because they are no more. 

But for us Americans it is so much more complicated.  We are parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, cousins, neighbors, and total strangers who mourn yet more senseless violence, death, and trauma.  But we are also Herod.  There is blood on all of our hands because we have not done enough to end America’s love affair with guns.  We are the only nation in the western world where mass shootings are a regular occurrence, where young children and teachers have to go through the trauma of active shooter drills.  We now have a new generation of shooters who went through active shooter drills as children.  I wonder what impact those drills had on them. And yet our “leaders” refuse to restore assault weapons bans or institute reasonable gun control laws.

We claim to be the “land of the free and the home of the brave” when we are neither.  Our Second Amendment worshippers are so afraid of someone disagreeing with them that they need weapons of war to feel secure.  Our President is such a coward he needs tanks in the streets to prove how tough he is.  And none of us, not even young children praying in a sanctuary, a place defined as the ultimate place of safety, are free from random acts of cold blooded murder.

Yes, this is certainly a mental health problem on so many levels, starting with the fear and paranoia played upon for blood money by the NRA and the gun manufacturers.  It is their ill-gotten gains that bribe legislators to oppose gun control when those Senators and Congress people know fully well that the vast majority of us they supposedly represent support those controls.

And of course the shooters themselves need mental health help, but those same legislators who hide behind that excuse refuse to fund adequate mental health services.  Or worse they try to convince us that immigrants are the problem when we all see with our own eyes on TV that most of these shooters are angry, troubled, young white males. 

I am reminded of the great lament from Bob Dylan:

“Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”

Tonight that wind is blowing through empty bedrooms in Minneapolis, through hospital rooms where helpless parents pray beside young wounded bodies, and through every Ramah across the country where inconsolable Rachels weep for their children.

I only pray that wind is also blowing through the hearts of our country’s leaders till they realize we are all Herod too. 

No Forgiveness Unless We Confess and Face the Truth

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Politics, Faith and Values, spiritual discipline

“ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.” I John 1:8-10

The Bible is very consistently on the side of honesty and truth. That doesn’t mean everyone in the Bible is honest and truthful, far from it. From Adam and Eve’s deceit about the forbidden fruit, to Abraham lying that Sarah was his sister to save his own skin, to Peter’s denying that he even knew Jesus three times, and so many more incidents humanity’s fallible nature shows up in nearly every chapter of the biblical narrative.

That doesn’t mean the standards and values set forward for us in the Scriptures are not high. The 8th commandment is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” and John 8: 32 tells us that it’s truth, not lies, that sets us free.

God knows we are not going to live up to those high ideals because She made us with free will and knew we would abuse that gift regularly. And knowing that, God built into the system grace and mercy and forgiveness.

But as I John points out, there’s a catch. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” But there’s good news because that verse goes on to say “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

That’s pretty straightforward. We screw up, but if confess our shortcomings and failures instead of trying to hide them from, others, ourselves, or from God, which is a fool’s errand for sure, there is redemption.

I bring that up just now because we Americans are experiencing a real shortage of honesty, truth, and confession right now. Yes, I know that’s always been the case, but just now truth is being exiled and threatened at the highest echelons of American society. Our president is so insecure and ignorant of American and World history, let alone the Christian Gospel, that he is terrified by truth.

He is purging exhibits from the Smithsonian because they make slavery look bad! For God’s sake how can anything make chattel slavery, lynching other human beings for the color of their skin, and 400 years of systemic racism look anything but bad? The truth is that The United States was founded on racism and enslavement of African people and on genocide against Native Americans who were here for centuries before white immigrants arrived.

That’s a hard truth to swallow, I know, but trying to bury it with lies, book burnings, and threats to historians only makes the crime worse. As I John tells us, the only road to forgiveness is through the pain of confession, and confession requires a cold hard look at Truth, no matter how awful it is.

Out of sight may be out mind, but it doesn’t change the truth. Rounding up and imprisoning people experiencing homelessness may make some people more comfortable who don’t have to witness that problem, but it doesn’t change the truth that the wealthiest nation in the world refuses to address the grave social issues of poverty, hunger, health care, and adequate shelter that should be basic human rights

We cannot solve problems we refuse to admit we have. That’s the essence of confession. Climate change is the biggest current disaster caused by denial of its existence. Had we confessed as a nation that we were poisoning our planet decades ago we would not be in the mess we are in today.

The truth can set us free, but only if we have the humility and courage to face it. Until then, “If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and God’s truth is not in us.”

Compassionless Leadership: Destruction of 500 Tons of Food

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Faith and Values

I am one who is certainly grateful that Jesus and the New Testament teach us that our God is merciful and gracious. I John 4:8 plainly states that “God is Love.” I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

And Jesus taught and practiced forgiveness right up till the very end. He taught his disciples to forgive not seven times but seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:22). And Jesus practiced what he preached. In the throes of a most painful and gruesome execution he forgave one of the thieves crucified with him ( Luke 23:43), and even asks God to forgive the very men who nailed him to that cross (Luke 23:34).

But you know who he didn’t forgive? A bunch of goats! Now, before you call the SPCA on Jesus go read Matthew 25:31-46, and if it makes you feel uncomfortable, read it again slowly. And if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable read it two more times with an open mind and heart. This parable is, of course, not about four-legged goats and sheep, but about humans and how we treat those who by the world’s standards are “the least.” The goats in this parable are those who lack basic human compassion and concern for their fellow human beings.

Here’s what Jesus has to say about those people: “Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46)

What made me think about that parable this week is a story in the news that has gotten much less attention than it deserves. Buried under all the coverage generated by the Jeffery Epstein saga, which is important, is a horrific report that makes me furious. Because of the deep cuts in USAID, which provided humanitarian relief to starving people in some of the world’s poorest countries, 500 tons of food already bought and paid for by American taxpayers to feed thousands of the “least” of our brothers and sisters will be destroyed. Yes, 1,000,000 pounds of food being destroyed while millions of children and adults starve to death.

That is simply criminal, immoral, and inexcusable! As I said at the beginning of this post, I am grateful for a merciful God. Because of that I do not believe in hell as a place of eternal punishment, but I am starting to rethink that. Forgive me for playing God, but I think there has to be a special form of punishment somewhere for those who cruelly withhold food from starving people.

In the parable of the sheep and goats the goats are accused of a passive failing to care for the marginalized people, but the MAGA cuts to USAID and the destruction of 1,000,000 pounds of food are an intentional act of cruel and inhumane treatment, and the Scriptures tell us that is the same as starving Christ himself. And to those Jesus says, “You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

I’m not sure what this all means; so let me end with this frequent biblical admonition: “If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark 4:23 and several other verses). 

Where Oh Where is God?

by Steve Harsh, posted in climate change, Faith and Values, hope

As I have been shaken by the Texas flood tragedy this week my mind has wandered back to all the times I was responsible for a group of young people at camp or on mission trips. I keep wondering if I would have had the courage, composure, and strength to help save those children and youth entrusted to me by their parents if I awoke in a horror movie of rushing flood water filling our cabin?

I hear people asking as I do where is God in tragedies like this? Why did God let this happen? Why does God let cancer, war, and gun violence destroy innocent lives? Of course, I really don’t know any definitive answers to those age-old questions scholars categorize as theodicy, i.e. how do we explain how an all-powerful, loving God allows evil and suffering to exist in the world.

My answer for this week is that God is not a helicopter parent who swoops in to protect and prevent anything bad from happening to us, God’s children. There comes a point in every parent’s life where you have to let your children make their own mistakes and suffer the consequences. No amount of advice or warning or sharing our own past failures will stop a grown child from blazing their own path.

God has gifted us mortals with free will. Oh how many times I have wished I could return that gift which has allowed me to screw up so many times by pursuing my own pleasure, desires, and goals instead of a higher path.

I’m sure there were many times God wished people would not house innocent young girls in cabins on a flood plain. I’m sure God would have wanted and may have urged people in positions of authority to better prepare for floods like those on the Guadalupe River last week. I’m sure God shook her head in dismay when arguments prevailed that sirens and warning systems were too expensive.

I heard on the news tonight that some people who regularly camped in RV’s along the Guadalupe ignored warnings of potential flooding last week saying, “It floods here all the time.” Basing present precautions on past experience can be dangerous. We don’t live in pre-climate change times, and those of us who trust science know that we are living in a new normal where extreme weather events are more frequent and much more severe.

There will be finger pointing and blaming and many law suits filed because of this tragedy. None of those things will bring back any of the victims or ease the trauma of the survivors. The only redeeming quality of this disaster is that our free will enables us to learn from our past experiences. We can ask what would have helped make this tragedy less horrific? What needs to be in place to prevent or limit future flooding occurrences and to improve rescue and recovery operations?

Where is God in all this? Not zooming in like a master puppeteer to prevent the consequences of poor free will choices; not picking and choosing who will survive and who will not. No, God is there comforting those who mourn, weeping with those who sob uncontrollably, and giving strength to the brave first responders and volunteers who are doing the horrible/wonderful work of searching for those who are still missing.

God is there offering hope to the hopeless, absorbing the hate and pain of the angry, and sitting peacefully and patiently with those for whom there simply are no words – at least not yet.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

Prayer for Father’s Day 2025

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Values, Gratitude, prayer, purpose

O Heavenly Father, we use many metaphors to describe your holy mystery, terms like Father, Mother, Parent, Spirit, Friend, all pointing to your very essence which is Love. Today we honor those who can be one reflection of your love, the men who are or were fathers to us, biological or honorary. Many earthly fathers or father figures are great sources of wisdom, encouragement, and love, and for them on this day especially we offer thanks and praise.

But, unfortunately not all fathers are created equal. Some, because of their own trauma, are less than Hallmark papas, and because of that this day can be difficult for some of us. Where there is strife or pain associated with such relationships we pray for comfort, forgiveness, and reconciliation where those things are possible. For others we simply ask for the serenity to accept the things we cannot change.

Ideally, we pray for the closeness that you, God, had with Jesus. He referred to you with the term of endearment Abba, which is translated in English as “Daddy.” For fathers and those who fill that important role we pray for the wisdom, closeness, and love reflected in your holy relationship with Jesus. We know none of us mere humans can achieve that depth of agape love, and we do not want to create guilt for our mortal weaknesses and failures. But in you, God, we see a model for the kind of parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or friend we strive to be for those young in years or new in their faith journey.

Whether we realize it or not all of us are mentors and teachers for young people who observe and imitate our words and actions. Help us, Heavenly Father, to be worthy models of integrity, courage, faith, and love in all we do. May all of us so live that our fathers and children will be proud of us, but most importantly that you one day will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

We pray as we try to live, in the name of Jesus, who taught us how to live, to love, and to pray using these words: Our Father, who art in heaven . . .

Northwest United Methodist Church, Columbus, Ohio

Prayer for a Dying 401-K

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Values, hope, prayer

O God of the universe, my retirement funds are in the dumpster, they’re dropping faster than that first big stomach-churning drop on those big roller coasters. I’m so old I don’t know if those funds will have time to recover even if the market does, and I’m scared.

The other stuff I depend on for my well-being, e.g. Medicare and Social Security is also under attack from rogue billionaires in Washington who have no idea what life is like for us common folks. Without medicare I would not have been able to get the life-saving cancer treatment I just finished, and things are much worse for others who are uninsured or underinsured.

But you know all that already, O Holy One, and you know I’m better off than millions of others who are living in fear of real poverty or arrest and/or deportation to a hell hole in El Salvador just because they are the wrong color or dare to exercise their right to free expression.

My friends are losing their jobs as the economy craters. Public and higher education are under attack. I know you don’t intervene directly in human affairs. You have blessed (or cursed) us with free will; so I just pray for strength, courage, and faith for all of us to support and love one another no matter how deep this economic hole becomes.

No matter what happens to our standard of living our standard of loving can thrive and grow because it is not founded on the whims of human greed, but on the bedrock of your eternal love that nothing in all creation can ever take from us.

Clinging to that assurance our fears for the temporary stuff of this life fade as we affirm our real confidence in what it says on the money we used to have, “In God We Trust.” Amen

Eternal Love: A Journey Through Lent

by Steve Harsh, posted in Aging to Sageing, Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values, Lenten devotion

I was not in the mood for Lent this year. With everything going on in the world and my own ever-nearing 80th birthday in just 19 months the last thing I wanted to hear was “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I already felt lost in the wilderness and didn’t think I needed to add any more of lostness to my weary soul.

But even good habits die hard and this annual tradition kept nagging at me; so my wife and I decided to attend our church’s Ash Wednesday service on line, and I’m very glad we did. On-line worship is not usually the best way to worship for me, but I am grateful for that option when I need it. The service at Northwest UMC on Ash Wednesday was an exception to the rule for both Diana and me. It was a very well done service that was contemplative, and being at our kitchen table with only candle light to illumine the room was ideal for that particular kind of worship.

Our church had provided packets for the service that included ashes and a small piece of clay. At one point in the service, after hearing the traditional Scriptures for Ash Wednesday read, we were asked to take the clay and form it into something symbolic that would have meaning for us during the 40 day journey of Lent.

We were give time to pray about that assignment while soft guitar music played. Thanks to the wisdom of several authors I’ve been reading in the chaotic days since January 20 (Richard Rohr, Kate Bowler, Diana Butler Bass, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Brian McLaren, and Sarah Bessey) my mind was led to think about the one constant and trustworthy thing in any time of crisis, namely God’s eternal love.

So I formed my clay into the symbol for infinity which always looks like an 8 lying down to me. Then as I had time to ponder that a little longer it came to me that what I was thinking and feeling was not just a mysterious concept of never-ending infinity or even in Buzz Lightyear’s famous quote “To infinity and Beyond.”

What I was trying to capture in clay was something quite tangible and real – Love. I’ve felt that love more powerfully than ever before through my family and friends who rallied around me during my health crises in the last 8 months. I discovered that my village is a lot bigger and deeper than I realized before. The ministry of presence took on a more beautiful meaning for me in the physical and spiritual companionship that surrounded me and got me through a wilderness journey of my own.

So I decided to shape one end of my clay infinity symbol into a heart (pictured above), and it is still sitting on the kitchen table to remind me several times a day that St. Paul got it right in I Corinthians 13:7-10 when he wrote: ” Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.”

That worship experience was a much needed reminder for me of that eternal love which is the constant, solid ground under our feet even when the foundations of everything we thought we could trust are shaking like an earthquake, to borrow a phrase from the great theologian Paul Tillich. The Ash Wednesday service I didn’t think I wanted helped me to surrender a lot of the anger and frustration I’ve been dealing with about our current political crisis, and I am very grateful.

Today I put that picture of my clay symbol on my watch and phone as wallpaper to be an even more frequent reminder for me the power of eternal love.

A funny thing happened after that Ash Wednesday service. When my wife Diana looked at my art work she said, “I like your fish.” After I explained to her what I intended my symbol to be I realized that the fish is also a great symbol for eternal love. I was also reminded that art is also mysterious and can mean different things to different people at different times.

The fish symbol has been a Christian symbol for 2000 years because the early Christians used it as a secret code to identify themselves as Jesus followers to one another in a way that they hoped would not be recognized by their Roman persecutors. The origin of the symbol came from the Greek word for fish, Ichthus. It was and still is used because the letters of the word ichthus are the first letters of the Greek phrase “Iēsous Christos theou hy ios sōtēr”, which translates to “Jesus Christ Son of God Savior”. 

So whether I see a fish or an infinity symbol when I see this piece of clay doesn’t matter. They both speak to me of God’s eternal love that will sustain me through these 40 days of Lent and through whatever the future holds until I return to dust and beyond. I hope it might do the same for you.