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"Christ Have Mercy" — Amazon Review |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 08 March 2009 13:27 |
Here is a review from Amazon.Com: August 16, 2008 From its earliest pages, this book commends itself to be a uniquely inspiring work. In the opening sentence of the Foreward, Rev. Ray S. Wilke writes: "I have waited thirty-eight years for this book to be published" -- not because Harrison is such a slow writer but because Wilke had not seen such an unfolding of the Gospel even during his pastoral training at the seminary in the 1960's, the decade of Harrison's birth.
As far as Harrison is concerned, this book couldn't have been written any sooner. First he had to cut his teeth piloting with missionaries in northern Canada, initiating neighborhood renewal in center-city Fort Wayne and traveling around the world as the Executive Director of Human Care for The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), bringing relief to people in diverse cultures and desperate situations. He had to learn that the theology he studied in his early years truly addressed the human condition, seeing how mercy meets misery.
Harrison leads readers in short order from rural Iowa to urban Kenya, from recent anecdotes to ancient history -- and from the visceral to the cerebral. He serves as an expert tour guide who has personal knowledge of the cares and concerns weighing heavily on people in the places he has served and visited. One can easily tell that these pages were not composed by some half-baked wannabe media preacher, but by a well-seasoned pastor who has learned in the theology of the cross what it means to "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep," (Rom. 12:15).
The subtitle of the book, "How to Put Your Faith Into Action," is a bit misleading. Readers will be delighted to find out that Harrison's work is not another "how to" do-it-yourself manual. He neither attempts to manipulate readers with guilt nor challenge them to rely upon their own gumption to aspire to a religious life. Time and again, Harrison demonstrates how people are enlivened by the grace, mercy and peace of God in Christ -- through the means which Christ instituted.
Indirectly, readers will also be introduced to what it is about the Lutheran confession of faith which is unique -- not just another denomination to be blended into a generic religious melting pot. Harrison unabashedly lays out the specific details about how Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, and the Holy Scriptures provide mercy far beyond what bread and medicine could ever hope to provide, but also subsequently provisioning bread and medicine under the shadow of Christ's wings.
This book doesn't just deserve to be read. It deserves to be read more than once -- and to serve as a salutary reference for life in the mercy of Christ.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 08 March 2009 15:56 |