How does our preparation for the Christmas season cause us to miss Christ? Often, our lives become cluttered with busyness and sin that keep us from seeing the God who comes to us at Christmas. Both Isaiah and John the Baptist invite us to prepare a path for God in our lives. They insist a call to repent is a comfort for us! How is repentance a sign of God’s comfort during a busy holiday season?
Continue readingAdvent is the season in which we prepare to welcome Jesus into the world. It’s a season of hope – the light has not come, but it is coming into the world. It’s the time of day just before the sun peeks over the horizon. As we anticipate Jesus’ birth, we come to realize that God’s story didn’t end at Christmas – it was only beginning. And the story is still being told today – a story of love, hope and promise.
How often in our preparations for Christmas do we forget to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ? While the prophet Isaiah prays that God will tear open the heavens and come to us, Jesus instead comes humbly, in ways we least expect. How can we be alert and attentive this Advent season so we don't miss when Jesus comes among us?
Advent is the season in which we prepare to welcome Jesus into the world. It's a season of hope - the light has not come, but it is coming into the world. It's the time of day just before the sun peeks over the horizon. As we anticipate Jesus' birth, we come to realize that God's story didn't end at Christmas - it was only beginning. And the story is still being told today - a story of love, hope and promise. What does it mean to say that God is still telling the great story of love through us?
How often in our preparations for Christmas do we forget to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ? While the prophet Isaiah prays that God will tear open the heavens and come to us, Jesus instead comes humbly, in ways we least expect. How can we be alert and attentive this Advent season so we don’t miss when Jesus comes among us?
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In times of trauma and grief, it feels like all the structures that keep our lives stable have been stripped away. But as we enter into the process of Lament, those structures begin to reemerge. It’s not daylight yet, but we can begin to sense that the long night of our grief is ending. Hope draws us together and invites those voices who have long been silenced to be front and center.
Continue readingWe build our lives around all kinds of things that make us feel secure, in control or valuable. But these things cannot give us the meaning and purpose we crave. In Lamentations 4, we see God strip these things away from the people of Jerusalem that they might return to worshipping God alone. How can we return to God before our own idolatry ruins us?
Continue readingWhen do we stop praying for healing? What does solidarity look like with those who are hurting? Artist and theologian Katie Fisher shares from Lamentations 3. Putting dust in our mouths is at once an act of solidarity and a declaration of hope.
Continue readingWhat does it look like when God gets angry at us? Lamentations illustrates that God’s anger is God giving us what we want – life apart from God. How can we learn to see God’s anger as an aspect of God’s love – and an invitation to life?
Continue readingGrief is uncomfortable. In the face of tragedy, no words are sufficient to salve our pain. Yet in the face of others’ pain, we find ourselves offering platitudes and speaking for God so we can avoid their pain. But Lamentations 1 is a funeral dirge. We hear the woman’s honest, unflinching cries of pain and see the prophet join her, offering nothing but his presence. How can we learn to be honest about pain so we can begin the process of reorientation?
Continue readingWe avoid pain and grief as much as possible. When faced with someone else’s grief, we avoid or offer platitudes. But the book of Lamentations invites us to sit with grief, to enter into the prophetic process of Lament. In this series, we’ll explore how to grieve and how to be a friend to the grieving. Ultimately, we’ll see how the process of lament invites us to be agents of healing in the larger world.
Continue readingWe avoid pain and grief as much as possible. When faced with someone else’s grief, we avoid or offer platitudes. But the book of Lamentations invites us to sit with grief, to enter into the prophetic process of Lament. In this series, we’ll explore how to grieve and how to be a friend to the grieving.
We avoid pain and grief as much as possible. When faced with someone else's grief, we avoid or offer platitudes. But the book of Lamentations invites us to sit with grief, to enter into the prophetic process of Lament. In this series, we'll explore how to grieve and how to be a friend to the grieving. Ultimately, we'll see how the process of lament invites us to be agents of healing in the larger world.
We avoid pain and grief as much as possible. When faced with someone else's grief, we avoid or offer platitudes. But the book of Lamentations invites us to sit with grief, to enter into the prophetic process of Lament. In this series, we'll explore how to grieve and how to be a friend to the grieving. Ultimately, we'll see how the process of lament invites us to be agents of healing in the larger world.
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What Lament Looks LikeTim Basselin - October 22, 2017 |
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Sitting with GriefJR. Forasteros - October 29, 2017 |
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When God Gets AngryJR. Forasteros - November 5, 2017 |
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Dust in My MouthKatie Fisher - November 12, 2017 |
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