During this season of Advent, the Emerging Scholars Network invites you to prepare for the celebration of Christ's birth by encountering his names throughout the birth narrative while asking, “What child is this?” Names are intimate and defining. If you have ever named anything such as an animal, something which you created, a nickname for a loved one, a car, or especially a child, you know well with what care and intentionality a good name is chosen and given. In the birth narrative of Jesus, beginning with the … [Read more...] about 1st Week in Advent —“What Child is This? He is Lord.”
Advent
2020 Advent Resources: Week 4, Advent Project from Biola
Each week this Advent season, we're sharing a different resource readers may find helpful. This week we highlight Biola University's 2020 Advent Project, an Advent calendar of devotional reflections with art and music chosen from historical and contemporary sources: http://ccca.biola.edu/advent/2020/ Many Advent calendars end at Christmas, but this one goes all the way through the Twelve Days of Christmas to the Feast of Epiphany on January 6. We pray that it encourages you throughout the rest of Advent and the … [Read more...] about 2020 Advent Resources: Week 4, Advent Project from Biola
2020 Advent Resources: Week 3, The Visual Commentary on Scripture
Each week this Advent season, we're sharing a different resource readers may find helpful. When our minds are overflowing with the complexities of this year, visual art is a form of experience that can help us enter into Advent. The Visual Commentary on Scripture has curated an Advent calendar of visual art for this year. Each day features a suggested Scripture reading and a thought-provoking collection of three images designed to go with that reading. The images include both contemporary and historical art, and … [Read more...] about 2020 Advent Resources: Week 3, The Visual Commentary on Scripture
2020 Advent Resources, Week 2: Black Liturgies
This year, we're sharing a different Advent resource each week. We're especially focusing on resources that provide deep reflection in a doable amount of time, and that feel the weight of this year and also point us to the riches of our hope in Christ. Today we're delighted to point readers to Cole Arthur Riley's Black Liturgies, an ongoing collection of contemplative prayer and reflection shared through Instagram. Cole Arthur Riley describes herself at her website Black Liturgist as "a writer, liturgist, speaker … [Read more...] about 2020 Advent Resources, Week 2: Black Liturgies
2020 Advent Resources: Week 1, The Daily Prayer Project
I love lavish Advent and Christmas decorations--Advent logs with a candle for each day of the season settled on a mantlepiece over the fireplace, real Christmas trees, colorful lights festooning yards and houses. Like many of us this year, though, I'm preparing to honor the season with a variety of adjustments. I don't have a fireplace or an Advent log, and my space constraints and other factors make a real tree impossible right now. I'm excited, though, because I have found some alternative ways to honor the season. … [Read more...] about 2020 Advent Resources: Week 1, The Daily Prayer Project