http://currentsoffaith.com Ruminations on culture, religion, and politics from diverse perspectives of faith. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:04:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/gods-presence/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/gods-presence/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:40:28 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/gods-presence/ Christmas is the season during which the whole church celebrates the theme that is most central to process theology: God’s incarnation. That God is present in us and in the world, working for our healing and growth, our direction and our comfort, our reconciliation and our redemption, is our message. The church historically has been [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/gods-presence/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-21-20/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-21-20/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:39:58 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-21-20/ One of the things that has always struck me about the Christmas story is the way it is a mass of contrasts: there is squalor, and there is splendor. There is the stinkiness of the stable, and the aurora of angels. There is the violence of the Roman imperial overlords, and the peace proclaimed to [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-21-20/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/the-child/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/the-child/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:39:13 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/the-child/ The best thing I ever did was to take the newest baby in the congregation on Christmas Eve [could be any Sunday near Christmas], when no one is interested in the sermon, frankly, but the STORY says something to us . . . in some deep way. So you say, "if our story says to [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/the-child/feed/ 1 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/john-15/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/john-15/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:38:43 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/john-15/ “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5) This year, we will be spending Christmas day in the oncology ward with our recently married 27 year old son Matt and wife Ingrid. While other families will be unwrapping presents on Christmas morning, our son will be in the middle [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/john-15/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/mother-and-child/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/mother-and-child/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:38:29 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/mother-and-child/ It’s a familiar image: mother and child. I’m looking at one now on my computer. She is looking down to the sleeping child cradled in her arms. It is the image we contemplate at Christmas. So far away, yet so close. It’s the look on Mary’s face, and Sarah’s, and many other women in the [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/mother-and-child/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/inside-our-experience/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/inside-our-experience/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:38:02 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/inside-our-experience/ This very week, a week that included lighting the first Advent candle, I learned of two friends who received diagnoses of metastatic cancer. One was told by her doctor to “go home, sell your house and travel.” The other, who had been assured that her cancer was one that had a high “cure” rate, was [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/inside-our-experience/feed/ 1 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-28/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-28/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:36:54 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-28/ "And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." Luke 2:8 Sometimes we know the most about God, when we know the least about God. Imagine you are a shepherd, alone on a dark and starlit night, keeping watch over your sheep. All is calm and all [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/luke-28/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/incarnation/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/incarnation/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:36:32 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/incarnation/ What we find in the message of the Christmas story is the idea that the Sacred, the Spirit of Love, is incarnate in the world; incarnate in that most profound symbol of new life, of possibilities, of hope—in a child. This was not a once and only event. The incarnation of Love was the very [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/incarnation/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/hebrews-11-4/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/hebrews-11-4/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:36:07 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/hebrews-11-4/ This passage from Hebrews, stressing Christ’s unique status, sets the stage for the claim—so central to this writing—that the revelation we have in Jesus is in fact the final revelation. Near the end of Hebrews, however, this sense of fulfillment is balanced by an emphasis upon hope in the midst of unfulfillment, as the author [...]

]]> http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/hebrews-11-4/feed/ 0 http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/light-in-the-midst-of-darkness-isaiah-9-2-7/ http://currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/light-in-the-midst-of-darkness-isaiah-9-2-7/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:35:40 +0000 Blog Administrator http://www.currentsoffaith.com/2007/12/13/light-in-the-midst-of-darkness-isaiah-9-2-7/ During the Christmas season, we are inspired and enlivened with phrases from the prophet Isaiah. Among them: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. . . . For a child has been born to us . . . and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God . . .  Prince of [...]

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