In this post on the fourth Sunday of Advent Bobby Gross invites to open ourselves to this elusive thing called "joy" as we ponder the mystery of the incarnation alongside Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds who heard the angelic announcement. We started this series on Christ the King Sunday longing for leaders who reflect both the strength and the compassion of a Shepherd/King. As Advent began, we voiced our aching desires to see greater justice and shalom in our world. The next week we considered the active work of … [Read more...] about Rejoicing: The Taste of Abundance
Christian Thought and Practice
Hoping: On the Way Home
Our Advent post for the Third Week of Advent focuses on hope, essential yet hard to describe, "a feathered thing" lifting us on our journey from exile to our ultimate home. Emily Dickenson famously described hope this way: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard[i] Intangible. Elusive. Hope is hard to grasp and hard to hold onto. Sometimes singing, sometimes silent … [Read more...] about Hoping: On the Way Home
Waiting: Preparation and Peacefulness within Our Hearts
For the second week of Advent, our focus is on waiting with hope and abiding with peace in our hearts and our actions. We long for leaders of greatness and grace because we ache for a world with greater justice and shalom. The first two reflections in this series probed these elements of our human condition. Underneath these aching longings throbs a deep desire for God and the realm of God, for someone with the power and goodness to save us from ourselves and make our world right. The short season of Advent … [Read more...] about Waiting: Preparation and Peacefulness within Our Hearts
Aching: Justice and Shalom in Our World
The Emerging Scholars Network is pleased that Bobby Gross has once again agreed to contribute a series of Advent reflections to the ESN blog. This, on the first Sunday of Advent looks at the theme of lamenting the ravages of a war-torn, dark world and our longing for God to come bringing justice and shalom. The last of the Thanksgiving leftovers have been downed. The colorful lights are going up around the neighborhood. The carols are playing in the stores and the Christmas movies streaming on the Hallmark channel … [Read more...] about Aching: Justice and Shalom in Our World
Longing: Greatness and Grace in our Leaders
The Emerging Scholars Network is pleased that Bobby Gross has once again agreed to contribute a series of Advent reflections to the ESN blog. This first looks back to Christ the King Sunday just passed and reflects on our longing for a great and good king that is so much a part of the Advent journey of preparing to celebrate the birth of the King and longing for his return. When I first read the coronation scene in Book Six of the Lord of the Rings years ago, unexpectedly, great tears upwelled together with feelings … [Read more...] about Longing: Greatness and Grace in our Leaders