Luke 21: 25-36
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Illustrated New Resources
Heroic Virtue in an Age of Anti-Heroes
In recent years there’s been a number of television shows that are remakes or revisit characters and storylines that were popular and enjoyed success in the past. One that is particularly interesting had one of these reboots a few weeks ago. Just a disclaimer, this is not a recommendation or something that I’m advocating in any stretch of the imagination, lest anyone go home and says “the priest was telling us we should watch this.” But it’s hard to deny the impact the show The Sopranos – and in particular the main character Tony Soprano has attracted in the over 20 years since that program first premiered. It remains on the top of critics’ lists for “greatest television dramas.” With a recent movie that was released that was the “prequel” to the series, interest in the show has grown once again along with numerous interviews with the cast and creators…. even going to Barnes and Noble the other night, there was another “tell-all book” on the new release shelf...Close to Home: Yearning
There’s a Welsh word that does not translate well into English. The word is hiraeth. It means a spiritual longing for a home which maybe never was, a kind of nostalgia for ancient places to which we cannot return. Welsh writer Val Bethell says hiraeth is “the link with the long-forgotten past, the language of the soul, the call from the inner self. . . . it speaks from the rocks, from the earth, from the trees and in the waves. It is always there.” [1] Some consider Wales to be the first colony of Great Britain. It became a subject state in 1282. By the mid 1800’s, Wales had been an integral part of the empire for centuries, but poverty and unrest led to riots in Wales and fear of sedition on the part of British officials. The result was a dismantling of Welsh identity by the British and a steady flow of emigrants out of Wales. They went to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, among other places. And they took their longing for home with them. Some point to hiraeth as an explanation for the fact that 40% of the Welsh emigrants returned between 1870 and 1914...When Your Temple Crumbles
In his book, Silence the Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise, Thich Nhat Hanh talks about two kinds of knots. The first knot is our notions, ideas, concepts, and knowledge. These things are not bad, but when we get stuck on them we miss out on the truth of life. If we don’t hold them loosely and someone challenges them, it can seem like the end of a world we have known and loved. The second knot is our afflictions, fears, anger, discrimination, despair, and arrogance. Thich Nhat Hanh believes that until these knots are undone we remain bound up and not truly free. Thich Nhat Hanh writes; “These two knots, which are etched deeply into our brain and consciousness, bind us and push us to do things we don’t want to do; they make us say things we don’t want to say. So we’re not free. Any time we do things not from our desire but out of habitual fear or ingrained notions and ideas, we’re not free.”...Sermon Starters (Advent 1C)(2021)
The movie “Palm Springs” (2020) is the story about Nyles and Sarah meeting at a wedding reception. They separately get trapped in the same time loop where they end up living the wedding day over and over. (It’s like a modern “Groundhog Day.”) When Sarah accidently follows Nyles into the loop, he has already been there for a while and has decided to deal with the hopelessness with predictable coping strategies—booze, drugs, crazy adventures, sex, making scenes in public, you get the idea. Sarah enters the time loop dealing with guilt about an awful thing she did the night before the wedding—she’s essentially stuck in a loop of the most guilt-ridden day of her life. At first, she gives in and joins Nyles in the “distraction from worry” approach, but eventually, she decides she wants to get out. While Nyles tries to continue to distract himself, Sarah uses her daily loop with purpose: learning quantum physics, developing experiments for the epicenter of the time distortion. She has decided to be alert, to be watchful, to stand up and resist the pull of the coping mechanisms. Sarah realizes, and helps Nyles see for himself, that there is always reason to hope, and that there’s a part for us to play in seeing what we hope for come to be...Whispers from the Heart of God
In that regard, Allen Schoonover tells the true story of a massive earthquake — 8.2 on the Richter scale — that nearly flattened Armenia in 1989. It killed more than 30,000 people in less than four minutes. Surrounded by chaos and utter devastation, one father made sure his wife was safe at home and then rushed to the school his son was attending. He was heartbroken to see that the school building was as flat as a pancake, but he pushed his fears aside and began digging in the back right corner of the building, where his son’s class was located. As he dug frantically, he remembered the promise he had made to his son. He had said, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.” Other parents would come and mourn their lost children; some of them even tried to stop the father, telling him, “It’s too late! They’re already dead!” But the father kept on digging. His only reply to those parents was “Are you going to help me now?” When the fire chief and then the police arrived, they, too, tried to stop the father, but he kept digging and asked them to help. He dug non-stop for eight hours. Then twelve hours. Then twenty four hours. Then thirty six hours. Finally, in the thirty-eighth hour, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He screamed his son’s name, “Armand!” He heard back, “Dad?!? It’s me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive you’d save me and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. You promised no matter what, I’ll always be there for you.”...A Living Hope in This Troubled World
Linus and Lucy are standing at the window looking out at the rain falling. Lucy says to Linus, “Boy, look at it rain ... What if it floods the earth?” Linus, the resident biblical scholar for Peanuts, answers, “It will never do that ... in the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” With a smile on her face, Lucy replies, “Linus, you've taken a great load off my mind.” To which Linus responds, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”...
Recommended Resources
Be Still and Wait
("I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope of the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing...")*Our End Is Our Beginning
("King Hussein was for many years the beloved King of Jordan. Hussein was a good friend to the U.S. who once spent six months at the Mayo clinic for cancer treatment. Afterward, he piloted his own plane back to Jordan. The report of that return in the Associated Press is quite remarkable...." and other illustrations)Signs of Things To Come
("The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Are read by more than a few. But the one that is most read and commented on Is the gospel according to you...")
Illustrated Resources from 2018 to 2020
We Need a Little Hopefulness
On May 24, 1966, a new musical opened on Broadway. Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, starring Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur. It’s the story of the madcap life of eccentric Mame Dennis and how her bohemian, intellectual, arty clique is disrupted when her deceased brother’s 10-year-old son Patrick is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo, “Life is a banquet, and most [people] are starving to death.” At one point in the course of the play, Mame and her new ward are feeling sad. Patrick is mourning the death of his father, and Mame her brother, after all. She decides to make happy, leading into the song We Need a Little Christmas. In the midst of the song, Patrick protests, “But, Auntie Mame, it’s one week past Thanksgiving Day now,” as if to say it is too early to decorate or celebrate Christmas...It's the End of the World
A few months ago, my Mom had picked up my nieces from school and had gotten home to find that Floyd had gotten out of his cage – and seemingly had targeted my youngest niece’s art work (and hers alone) ripping it down and destroying it into shredded pieces all over the floor. (I say seemingly targeted hers, since the works by the other two nieces, which were all in close proximity were left intact without even the slightest of paw marks near them). As my mother recounted the story for me later that night, she talked about how traumatic the whole things was… She had to move into crisis mode as my oldest niece took the dog out of the house for a walk (separating the criminal and the victim is a good first step); my second niece went into clean up mode collecting the pieces of what remained, while my Mom had to sit with and try calm the little one down who was utterly devastated that her masterpiece had been destroyed by this vicious animal...Same Old Story
The secondary challenge of faith is remembering that it does not belong to a single one of us, but to all of us – the Body of Christ. This faith is ours. We are not alone because we stand together, bound by our faith, called by our God to be caretakers of our world and each other. We can cry, we can lament, we can fear. These are our human, God-given emotions. God also gave us the capacity to act in response. So as we cry out, let us stand together and act out the ways Jesus taught us to live. “Inscription of Hope” by Z. Randall Stroope was based on words found scrawled on a cellar wall by Jews hiding from the Nazis in Cologne, Germany during the second World War. I believe in the sun even when it is not shining And I believe in love even when there’s no one there And I believe in God even when he is silent I believe through any trial there is always a way. But sometimes in this suffering and hopeless despair My heart cries for shelter and to know someone’s there But a voice rises within me saying “hold on my child” I’ll give you strength I’ll give you hope Just stay a little while May there someday be sunshine May there someday be happiness May there someday be love May there someday be peace.Preaching Helps (Advent 1C)(2018)
According to a story that Os Guinness tells, two hundred twenty years ago the Connecticut House of Representatives was in session on a bright day in May, and the delegates were able to do their work by natural light. But then something happened that nobody expected. Right in the middle of debate, the day turned to night. Clouds obliterated the sun, and everything turned to darkness. Some legislators thought it was the Second Coming. So a clamor arose. People wanted to adjourn. People wanted to pray. People wanted to prepare for the coming of the Lord. But the speaker of the House had a different idea. He was a Christian believer, and he rose to the occasion with good logic and good faith. We are all upset by the darkness, he said, and some of us are afraid. But, “the Day of the Lord is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. And if the Lord is returning, I, for one, choose to be found doing my duty. “I therefore ask that candles be brought.” And men who expected Jesus went back to their desks and resumed their debate.Stand Up
On Tuesday this week we gathered for the funeral of Matt who was but 41 years old. Born with a number of chronic health challenges, Matt would not ever have the future is parents imagined for him before he first he burst into the world. But they kept hope always before him. They kept seeking out doctors — looking always for those who would believe along with them. They traveled the country with him, ensuring that his world would be bigger than it otherwise might have been. And because of his dad’s work as a firefighter, Matt was given a connection to a world of heroes who made him their own. On Tuesday afternoon before the funeral began, I stood in the back at the funeral home and watched as more than fifty firefighters from all over the county stood in line and processed to his casket and one after another saluted him. And oh, there was not a dry eye in the room as we saw this amazing reversal of how the world measures things. That one after another in their dress blues and in their work clothes, they stepped away from work — some of them literally running in at the last minute to join the procession — to honor one who the world would too often ignore. And in that moment I found myself wondering at this — that if I, if we, had not simply stood up and raise our heads we might have missed this altogether: this living witness to a promised world where the lowly will all be lifted up in Christ’s return.Near
Christmas is now drawing near at hand Come serve the Lord and be at his command God a portion for you will provide And give a blessing to your soul besides...Advent 1C (2018)
In her memoir Educated, Tara Westover tells of growing up in rural Idaho with nearly daily descriptions of the “Days of Abomination,” her father’s literal interpretation of the end times, his belief in catastrophic events when Jesus came again. She was taught from an early age to watch for the moon to go dark and the sun to cease shining or stars to fall from the skies as signs that the end was happening (Mk 13:24-5); she watched daily and puzzled that she never saw such. Meanwhile her father kept preaching the end times and stockpiled food, water, and guns, for when they’d need to escape. Each of the children kept a “head to the hills” bag ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Her father claimed to regularly receive “words from the Lord” which instructed him to be ready, and vigilant for the “end of days.”...Advent Is a Time to Face Your Fears
In These Truths: A History of the United States (2018) Jill Lepore retrieves forgotten people and overlooked stories in our American saga. Everyone knows that Samuel Morris invented the code that still bears his name. Lepore reminds us that he originally created his cipher as an instrument of self-defense. As Morris himself explained in his pamphlet “Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States through Foreign Immigration,” he feared that Catholics were plotting to take over these United States. What had spooked the young inventor?...Advent 1C (2018)
One of my favorite movies of the last several years is The 33, the story of those thirty-three Peruvian miners who were buried alive in a mining accident, trapped twenty stories under a collapsed mountain in the desert, unable to free themselves. What do you do in that situation, except faint from fear and foreboding, except for despair and lay down to die, except resign yourself to your bitter fate? There’s a scene where after weeks of being trapped, the miners gather together for their ‘last supper’, to finish their last survival supplies, a tiny piece of bread, a tiny sip of water, “If that’s my last meal from this job then I quit,” says one! But it’s also the story of a rescue effort, of 10 huge drills simultaneously burrowing deep down into the mountain, of the love of the miners’ families, “I’m not leaving without you,” each family above pledges...Joyful Expectation
On the afternoon of April 23, 2017, Dennis Dickey and his pregnant wife journeyed out into the desert near Green Valley, Arizona with some family and friends excited to reveal whether the baby she was carrying was a boy or a girl. This gender reveal party, and gosh am I glad my girls were born before these became a thing, was going to be unique. Dennis Dickey was a US Border Patrol agent who used his skills to pack a small package full of a target practice material called tannerite. From a safe distance away, Dickey shot the small package which exploded with a puff of blue smoke. For a moment, there must have been excitement and joy at the thought of welcoming a new baby boy into the family, but that quickly dissipated as the target’s fireball set the surrounding brush ablaze. In a video made available by the US Forest Service, you can hear the tone quickly change to panic as they pack up their belongings and hit the road. That small brush fire rapidly spread into the Coronado National Forest, and became known as the Sawmill Fire, burning almost forty-seven thousand acres. For almost a week, firefighters from some 20 agencies fought the fire, which caused more than eight million dollars in damage.[1] This September, Dennis Dickey plead guilty to a misdemeanor, was sentenced to five years’ probation, and has to pay almost $8.2 million in restitution. So much for the joyful moment of expectation...Keep Ya Head Up
It’s hard to be legit and still pay your rent And in the end it seems I’m headin’ for the pen I try and find my friends, but they’re blowin’ in the wind Last night my buddy lost his whole family It’s gonna take the man in me to conquer this insanity It seems the rain’ll never let up I try to keep my head up, and still keep from getting wetter You know it’s funny when it rains, it pours They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor Said, there ain’t no hope for the youth And the truth is, there ain’t no hope for the future And then they wonder why we crazy I blame my mother, for turnin’ my brother into a black baby We ain’t meant to survive, ’cause it’s a setup And even though you’re fed up Huh, ya got to keep your head up...Lift Up Your Heads to See an Advent Sausage
According to some recent news reports, the worst year to be alive was the year 536. Not 1349, when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. Not 1918, when the flu killed 50 ... to 100 million people, mostly young adults. But 536. ... A mysterious fog plunged Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and night—for 18 months. "For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year," wrote Byzantine historian Procopius. Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2300 years. Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; people starved. The Irish chronicles record "a failure of bread from the years 536–539." Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse...Advent: A Time to Learn How to Wait
Annie Dillard shares this story about proper waiting: She had been watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon and was fascinated by the process until she grew impatient with how long it was taking and, to speed things up, took a candle and heated the cocoon, albeit very gently. The experiment worked, but it was a mistake in the long run. The butterfly emerged more quickly; however, because adding heat violated something within the natural process, the butterfly was born with wings too weak to fly. Haste and prematurity had stunted and deformed a natural process. Some things can't be rushed...As Time Goes Bye
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived constantly under the threat of martyrdom, offers us this perspective: “It may be that the day of judgment will dawn tomorrow; in that case, we shall gladly stop working for a better future. But not before.” And so, in the classroom, in the pulpit and finally from a prison cell, he spent his Chronos building God’s Kairos. He built God’s kingdom until his work was interrupted by the hangman, eleven days before his prison was liberated. From his writings, we have the portrait of a man who loved this life, cherished his family, and had so much more to give. And yet he put it all on the line and walked right back into harm’s way… because it was the right way. When he speaks of life and death and judgment, those are not academic musings. The author of The Cost of Discipleship knew intimately the price of facing up to evil. He did not run gladly to martyrdom. But he did not run from it if it meant denying Christ by overlooking evil. In the final days of World War II, his fellow inmates were all fiercely obsessed with survival… with getting out alive. Bonhoeffer knew, that come what may, he was getting out alive. He lived in Christ. And his executioners could never take that life away from him...When You See These Things
In his beautiful book of contemplation, In the Shelter, poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama asks a question I’ve been thinking about for several weeks. “How do we say hello to here?” That is, how do we live honestly in our own skins? How do we accept what's in front of us? How do we guard against numbness, denial, and despair? In his opening chapter, Ó Tuama describes the challenge: “Much of our desire to not-name a place is because we fear that in naming it we are giving it power, and by giving it power we are saying we may not escape. It’s a valid fear. There are some suburbs of hell that we wish we’d never visited…. To name something can be to call it into being, and we do not wish to call certain things into any kind of being.” In our Gospel reading for this first week of Advent, Jesus challenges us to name and welcome the “here,” even when the here is perilous...
Illustrated Resources from 2015 to 2017
Fear Factor
Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: 'If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.' Well— one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. 'Help,' said the flight agent. 'Talk to her . What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.'...A God's Eye View
Barbara Kingsolver has a new book of essays called Small Wonder, and it is a poetic proclamation of the power of hope. It is also a stinging diatribe against the hubris of self-centered America. Taking a sharp look at the wars, the natural disasters, the political violence of the 21st century, she writes a modern translation of Luke's little apocalypse...Jesus' Warning
A traveling circus in Denmark caught fire. To fetch help the manager sent his quickest runner, who happened to be the clown. The clown was already dressed in his uniform so when he told the townspeople about the fire, they began to laugh. No, he said, the fire is blazing and it could spread across the dry grass and threaten the village. "Please, bring buckets of water," he pleaded. The people applauded his performance and as he became frantic, they laughed till they cried...Living Out of Control
Starting January 1 it will be legal in Texas to openly carry a gun if you have a license. People with a license can openly tote their firearms in places of business, shopping malls, offices, hospitals, mental health centers, colleges and universities, and even in churches (unless the church has the prerequisite official sign posted on every entrance that firearms are not allowed)...Rooned?
Most are familiar with the Australian poem, Said Hanrahan by John O'Brien. The menfolk are gathered on a frosty morning after the church service for their usual catch up on what's happening on their farms when the conversation turns to the weather. The conversation gets serious as young O'Neill squats down on his heel and chewing a piece of bark, declares, 'It's dry all right' and everyone echoes the same words around the circle. 'We'll all be rooned,' said Hanrahan, 'Before the year is out...Preparing for the Son of Man
"There's an old joke about a gruff Army sergeant who after roll call would pass along important news. Reading aloud several items, he then said, 'Oh, Private Manion? Your folks' house burned down last night.' The brutality of the announcement shocked not only Private Manion himself but also the company commander, and later the captain took the sergeant aside and counseled him to be more diplomatic and less abrupt when he talked about such personal things..."The Nearness of the Kingdom: Jesus Goes, Too
Indeed, as I have been recalling the past, and anticipating my own very personal future, not to mention the chaos playing out all over the globe in these last days, the words of Carrie Newcomer's song, I'll Go, Too keep running through my mind. In it she makes the comparison between the presence of a father with a child --- particularly in moments of anxiety or fear. And in it, she speaks of her own deep hope that when we come to the end of our days, one of God's own angels will be there to 'go, too' --- to accompany us into what follows...In the Days of Advent: Standing on the Treshold
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of a 7 book series, The Chronicles of Narnia was published in 1950. Later in explaining the origins of the Narnia series, Lewis wrote he had no agenda in telling the stories, but rather 'It all began with images: a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't even anything Christian about them. That element pushed itself in of its own accord.'...Tired of Waiting?
A mosque in Texas was vandalized after the attacks in Paris and a seven year old boy spent some talking with his mother about what churches, synagogues and mosques, are for and how important everyone's place of worship is to them and how terrible it would be for those people to have theirs vandalized. Afterward he decided to empty his piggy bank and donate the $20 inside to the mosque. A board member's response was quoted in the press; saying that this small gesture was like a donation of a million dollars because it gave them hope...Nothing to Be Done
They're waiting. And that's all that they do. They wait. And they wait. They talk while they wait. They sing some. They dream. They even dance a bit, as they continue to wait. When Estragon suggests that they depart, Vladimir reminds him. 'We can't.' 'Why not?' 'We're waiting for Godot.' Samuel Becket's play is perhaps the most famous parable of the twentieth century. And it is a parable, not an allegory...Disturbing Advent Disturbing Us
In his novel, Enduring Love, author Ian McElwain tells about an Oxford professor, a very rational and modern sort of man, who liked his world in order. On a beautiful and cloudless summer day, a middle-aged couple celebrate their union with a picnic. Joe Rose and his long term partner Clarissa Mellon are about to open a bottle of wine when a cry interrupts them. A helium balloon, with a ten-year-old boy in the basket, screaming his lungs out, his grandfather being dragged behind it, has been ripped from its moorings...Signs of Things to Come
"Years ago, I read a book by William Bridges, Transitions, that described the in-between time we experience in any major change in our lives. There is a point, or a period of time, that we spend in between one time or place, and another time and place. In that in-between time, we have to live with things being not so clear or comfortable, not familiar and reassuring, and yet not being what they will be one day..."Heart Like a Water Wheel
"When I was a child, Saturdays were typically allowance day in my family. My father would call the four of us into a room one by one and give us our little dole. It was never that big — although the size of our allowance would grow as we grew. But that didn't really matter. What mattered to us kids was the potential it represented. That allowance stood for a measure of independence. Suddenly we had the power to make some decisions on our own..." and another illustration and quotesIs Today "The Day"?
Luca Signorelli depicted 'the day', but his imagining of the events probably won't make anyone want to lift up their heads. Instead, stars fall from the sky and go pale; fires and earthquakes shake the earth. The painting is half of a lunette and doorway fresco titled Finimondo (the end of the world)...Apocalyptic Figs
But for me, maybe the Bible's, er, wrong! Evidence of our approaching winter (not summer) has been confirmed by the sprouting of a fig tree along the route of my typical morning walk. A few strides from home, inching toward the sky, is a random ficus carica. It grows. It sprouts leaves. And now, with winter near, with Advent upon us, with Jesus' cautionary comments about figs rattling 'bout my lectionary wonderings, I see the first fig fruits emerging. Yikes! A warning! A warning?...Who Am I to Judge?
God's spirit has come into the world, but we can prefer to live outside that spirit, in another spirit. That too is our decision, our judgment. God judges no one. We judge ourselves. Hence we can also say that God condemns no one, though we can choose to condemn ourselves. And God punishes no one, but we can choose to punish ourselves...As Time Goes Bye
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived constantly under the threat of martyrdom, offers us this perspective: 'It may be that the day of judgment will dawn tomorrow; in that case, we shall gladly stop working for a better future. But not before.' And so, in the class room, in the pulpit and finally from a prison cell, he spent his Chronos building God's Kairos. He built God's kingdom until his work was interrupted by the hangman, eleven days before his prison was liberated. From his writings we have the portrait of a man who loved this life, cherished his family, and had so much more to give...A Cry in the Dark
Famed psychiatrist Viktor Frankl remembered a terrible day during World War II. He was on a work gang, just outside the fences that hid the horrors of Hitler's infamous Dachau death camp. "We were at work in a trench," wrote Frankl. "The dawn was gray around us; gray was the sky above; gray the snow in the pale light of dawn; gray rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and gray their faces." Frankl tells how he was ready to die. It was as if the gray bleakness had claws and each moment they dug deeper and colder into his soul. Why go on? What could be the purpose in "living" if, indeed, he was even still alive at this moment? There was no heaven, no hell, no future, no past. Only the clutching grayness of this miserable moment. Suddenly, to his surprise, Frankl felt "a last violent protest" surging within himself. He sensed that even though his body had given up and his mind had accepted defeat, his inner spirit was taking flight. It was searching. It was looking. It was scanning the eternal horizons for the faintest glimmer that said his fleeting life had some divine purpose. It was looking for God. In a single instant two things happened, says Frankl, that simply could not be mere coincidence. Within, he heard a powerful cry, piercing the gloom and tearing at the icy claws of death. The voice shouted "Yes!" against the "No" of defeat and the gray "I don't know" of the moment. At that exact second, "a light was lit in a distant farmhouse." Like a beacon it called attention to itself. It spoke of life, warmth, family, and love. Frankl said that in that moment he began to believe. And in that moment he began to live again...Expectant Children
"Sometimes it seems we're living in a world gone mad. You've only to look at the headlines to see what I mean. Under a black banner, a terror group has made parts of the middle east a depopulated wasteland, their brutality driving people from towns and villages their families have lived in for centuries. Millions of refugees of all ages take to leaky boats, risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean. Parents are so worried for their children's future, they take them into the boats with them. The risk of drowning, they figure, is lower than the risk of staying at home..."
Illustrated Resources from 2012 to 2014
Victim or Free?
("I'd like to tell you about a guy who faced that question in a much bigger way. As a child he noticed that he had different feelings and attractions than other boys. He felt bad about them, but as he grew up, people told him that was simply the way he was - and that he should act on those feelings...")Live Expectantly!
("In a Peanuts comic strip, Linus and Lucy are standing at the window looking out at the rain falling. Lucy says to Linus, 'Boy, look at it rain...What if it floods the earth?' Linus, the resident biblical scholar for the Peanuts, answers, 'It will never do that...in the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again...")Come, Lord Jesus
("I was grateful for the news feed from Facebook on Tuesday night. That time, this picture flipped by that had caught my attention that I had shared it myself. It was of a New York City Police Officer, and there he was squatting down next to a homeless man sitting on the street with his bare feet and legs exposed...")Advent 1C (2012)
"It was over twenty years ago. We were on one of those endless car trips from South Atlanta to Mount Airy NC for Thanksgiving weekend. We finally got everything and everyone loaded up and ready to go and got on our way about 3PM. About 30 minutes from home a little voice from the back seat piped up, 'Are we there yet?' 'No, we're not there yet. We just left home.' Five minutes later, 'Are we there yet?'..." you gotta read this humorous illustration!!Reclaiming Prophecy and Repentance
("A fellow was hired by a church to paint the outside of the meetinghouse. In order to maximize his profits, he purchased as little paint as he possibly could. Partway into the task, he realized there was not enough to go around, so he started adding paint thinner to his can...")A Posture of Hope
("It is unexpected, it seems to me--- this kind of posture in the face of the struggle described in Luke's Gospel now. In fact, I got a glimpse of its opposite just last week. It was at the end of the funeral of a young man. His death was entirely unexpected and there was not a person in the room who was not shaken. His family thought it was the flu. It turns out it was something much more profound and he died before they could get him medical attention...")Advent 1C (2012)
("My name is Ela. I am seventeen years old. I am not Muslim, but my friend told me about her friend being discriminated against for wearing a hijab. So I decided to see the discrimination firsthand to get a better understanding of what Muslim women go through. My friend and I pinned scarves around our heads, and then we went to the mall. Normally, vendors try to get us to buy things and ask us to sample a snack...")Looking for Light
("'He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've ben bad or good, so be good for goodness'sake'. Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, Saint Nicholas...the figure we have now derived from a person who lived in southwestern Turkey in the 4th century. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, and he was credited with miracles involving sailors and children...")Advent Fig
("along the route where I walk my trusty dog Hannah for our morning stroll, I have observed evidence of the coming summer winter by the sprouting of a fig tree. Yup, not far from my home, inching toward the sky, is a random ficus caricas...")Advent: A Time to Learn How to Wait
("Annie Dillard shares this story about proper waiting: She had been watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon and was fascinated by the process until she grew impatient with how long it was taking and, to speed things up, took a candle and heated the cocoon, albeit very gently. The experiment worked, but it was a mistake in the long run...")Fireweed: A Symbol of Hope
Fireweed or Wickup (Epilobium angustifolium), 4"-10" high. It invades burned woodlands and cleared land. It is said that you can tell how far along the summer is by how high up on the stalk the flowers are blooming; the higher up the blooms, the later into the summer. See also Fireweed and Fireweed in Anchorage.All Roads Lead to Bethlehem
('Perhaps the first "Christmas carol" Christians should sing, in keeping with the theme of "Advent", is the Willie Nelson special "On the Road Again". As stores keep having cut-rate sales and on-line deals; and as holiday partying, parades, and posturing swamp every level of our lives: it is good to stand back and look at the bigger picture. What is the purpose for which Jesus came into this world in the first place?'...")Something to Look Forward To
("Rufus Jones tells the story about the great Hellgate Bridge that was being built over the East River in New York. Just when one of the central piers of the bridge was to go down to its bedrock foundation, the engineers came upon an old derelict ship, lying imbedded in the river mud that was in the way. No tugboat could be found that was able to remove the derelict ship from its ancient bed..." and another illustration)
Illustrated Resources from 2009 to 2011
*In the End, Jesus
("Helmut Thielecke, the German theologian, was on a ship, crossing the ocean from Germany to New York. On board was one of the most pitiful, confused frightened animals he had ever seen. Its owner had arranged for the dog to travel alone. Tail between its legs it stood and searched without success for a familiar face...")Advent: Waiting and Working for the Kingdom
("Mother Teresa told a story about the time she came down with a terrible fever. Her temperature climbed and she became delirious. She had a vision of being at the gates of heaven and telling St. Peter that she was ready to pass from this world to the next. But St. Peter refused her entry into the high vault of heaven. Mother Teresa asked why. Peter replied: 'Because there are no slums in heaven.'...")Advent 1C (2009)
("From the Neal Plantinga sermon In the Interim: 'Be on guard, says Jesus, that you don't get weighed down with parochial anxieties and parochial amusements to relieve them. Be on guard against that fatal absorption with yourself! Take care! Stay alert! Stand up and raise your heads because the Kingdom is coming.'...")*Whispers from the Heart of God
("Cyprian was the bishop of Carthage in northern Africa from 249-258 A.D. During that time, he wrote, 'Who cannot see that the world is already in its decline and no longer has the strength and vigor of former times? There is no need to invoke scriptural authority to prove it...")Interruptions
Fred Craddock tells of a person who, in a time of crisis, reached down but had no resources upon which to draw: I went to see a lady in our church who was facing surgery. I went to see her in the hospital. She had never been in the hospital before, and the surgery was major. I walked in there and immediately saw that she was a nervous wreck. She started crying. She wanted me to pray with her, which I did. By her bed was a stack of books and magazines: True Love, Mirror, Hollywood Today, stuff about Elizabeth Taylor and folk. She just had a stack of them there, and she was a wreck. It occurred to me, there's not a calorie in that whole stack to help her through her experience.[1] God had interrupted her life and she was completely unprepared...Advent: Curing Fire by Fire
("T. S. Eliot wrote: 'The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre— To be redeemed from fire by fire. Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar name Behind the hands that wove The intolerable shirt of flame. Which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire Consumed by either fire or fire.'...")Coming Soon
("We human beings are not too good at reading the signs. On the door to my office hangs one of my favorite Gary Larsen Far Side cartoons. In it a somewhat nerdy-looking boy is trying to enter the Midvale School for the Gifted. He's carrying a book under one arm and leaning with his other arm, with all his weight, against the door, straining, trying to push open the door. On the door there is a sign in great big letters that explains his problem. It reads, 'PULL'....")
Illustrated Resources from 2006 to 2008
*Advent 1C (2006)
("In the days before satellites, when your cruise ship sailed the navigator kept track of where the ship was in one of two ways. The best way, celestial navigation, uses the stars to plot the ship's course. Should the skies be clouded over, the ship did what's called dead reckoning. That is, the ship just stayed on its planned course...")Advent 1C (2006)
("William Miller was a wealthy farmer who believed he could calculate the date of Christ’s return. After a series of miscalculations, he eventually determined that people should expect Jesus to return sometime in 1844. Some of his 100,000 then abandoned their farms, sold their homes or quit their jobs in order to wait for Jesus’ return...")The Coming of the Son of Man
("In her poem On the Mystery of the Incarnation, Denise Levertov (1923–1997), whose father was a Hasidic Jew who converted to Christianity and then became an Anglican pastor, captures the miracle of this 'first coming' of Jesus...")The Threat and Hope of Advent
Will Willimon told a story of a man who lived with his family close to a church. His yard was a disaster. The children seemed poorly cared for. Rumors were that he got drunk on Saturdays and terrified his wife and kids. The church decided to reach out. The pastor visited his home...Advent 1C (2006)
("When Mollie Whuppi and her friends were in eighth grade, they discovered at one of the parks in their neighborhood a game called women's softball. It wasn't really sixteen inch softball like we play in Chicago but smaller softball which is played in most of the rest of the country which is not as civilized as Chicago...")Advent 1C (2006)
("Not long ago a couple went to a church, a large and prosperous one, for the first time. As they walked down a corridor they smiled at a number of people, but no one greeted them. Everyone was preoccupied with herding the choir and acolytes, getting business attended to about the coming bazaar, and depositing their children in Sunday school...")*The Terrible Day
("'Twas on a May-day of the far old year Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, A horror of great darkness, ... The low-hung sky Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs The crater's sides from the red hell below..." and another illustration)Advent 1C (2006)
("When there is a change in the weather, we can smell it. When someone has something they are going to surprise us with, we sense something is going on. When someone is very sick and failing, we will say, after they have died, "I could feel they were failing. I felt death was near...")Apocalypse: Then and Now
("Dickens' classic holiday tale A Christmas Carol is a story replete with social criticism. Throughout, the author offers scathing commentary on the treatment of the poor, and harsh words for his society's failure to educate the neediest children, thus compounding the problem of poverty...")Be Alert!
"Many of you have enjoyed the series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. They are set in Botswana, Africa, and are the story of Mma Precious Ramotswe, a lady detective. In the fourth book of the series, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, Mr Molefelo came to Mma Ramotswe with his story of being attacked by ostrich rustlers..."Purple Rain, Purple Reign
("In a neighborhood in Baghdad, a child plays on the sidewalk outside of his home when a military convoy drives by. Suddenly a truck explodes. Gunfire breaks out. The child is hit. His body, battered and bleeding, lies on the sidewalk. His mother cries for help. Soldiers come – Iraqis, Americans – it doesn't matter to her, she simply wants someone, anyone, to help her child...")*Advent 1C (2006)
("Meister Eckhart put it bluntly: 'What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the Son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I did not give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture. We are all meant to be mothers of God.'...")Coming
("A computer program says that the word 'come' occurs 1462 times in the Scriptures. More than a thousand times in the Old Testament and more than four hundred times in the New Testament. The single word 'come'...")Suddenly
("It was January 27, 1986. We were getting ready. The whole nation was getting ready. It was going to be a great day. All eyes were watching the television sets. It was going to be the 'all time greatest' space launching. We had a schoolteacher; a woman; an astronaut. It was one of the most exciting days in American history..." and other doomsday illustrations)Wake Up! Don't Fall Asleep!
("When I was fourteen years old, my parents had gone to Chicago, and I was left in my little town of Jackson, Minnesota. My parents left me in charge of the house. Now, when you were fourteen years old, growing up in the late 1950s in Jackson, Minnesota, it was really safe to leave your kid alone..." and other illustrations)*Signs of the Times
("In the late 18th century in Poland, the Kaiser decided to send his armies to destroy all the Jewish villages in his kingdom. Shortly after one village had been burned to the ground, an old Jewish gentlemen pounded a few boards together to serve as a seller's stall and opened it up for business...")Stand Up and Raise Your Heads!
("One of my colleagues recalls a children’s book by Judith Viorst, entitled Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. You probably know how Alexander's day goes, because you’ve had days like that yourself… terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days...")Living with Hope
("A woman who was completing a ten-month back-packing trip through Africa and Asia was ready for the long airplane trip from Tokyo to North America. Tired and lonely, she was in the railway station trying to find out which train would take her to the airport. People were streaming past her, hurrying to get to their destinations...")The Promise: Waiting
("J. Ellsworth Kalas, author of Christmas from the Backside, writes 'when I watch the late news this evening, or look at the faces in passing traffic tomorrow . . . I will know that although Christmas has come to our world, it still hasn’t come, in any deeply effective way, to vast numbers of people.'...")A Promise Is Kept
"A man I know is approaching his ninth decade. He has just buried his second wife and in his solitude spends a lot of time reflecting on his life. He left his first wife after 35 years. She had cancer, he found someone else. He left, breaking promises, fracturing the extended family. He was married to his second wife for almost 31 years..." and other illustrationsHope for the Overwhelmed
("Rufus Jones tells the story about the great Hellgate Bridge that was being built over the East River in New York. Just when one of the central piers of the bridge was to go down to its bedrock foundation, the engineers came upon an old derelict ship, lying imbedded in the river mud that was in the way...")
Illustrated Resources (and Other Resources of Merit) from the Archives
Advent 1C (2000)
("There were three women in Ghana, in West Africa, who wanted children and had tried every means they knew to get pregnant and had not been successful. As a last resort, they decided to go to a local medicine man or healer to see if he could help them...")A God's Eye View
("Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders are Presbyterian mission workers in Palestine. For several years they have quietly ministered to a small Christian population in the occupied West Bank village Zababdeh..." and other illustrations)The Advent of God
("some of us have been reading through Karen Armstrong's fine book A History of God. Her thesis is that the three great monotheisms—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have experienced God down through the centuries in remarkably similar ways. She writes, 'My study of the history of religion has revealed that human beings are spiritual animals..." and other quotes)First In Advent Sermon
("following the disastrous winter of 1997 with its many blizzards and ice storms, and its record losses of cattle, an older rancher welcomed several helping professionals to his ranch. They had come to visit with him on behalf of his church, and to assess the extent of his losses from these disasters...")Looking Forward in Hope
"A friend of mine back East had a horrendous week last week. He was expecting his wife to have a baby. He had a million and one obligations to take care. He felt rushed off and his feet and distracted and unable to appreciate what was happening around him...Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
("I remember once attending a Pentecostal church where the preacher that day was talking about the second coming of Christ. The preacher made it sound like one of the most terrifying events imaginable. He focused on the negative and missed the positive in all that he was speaking about. He didn't tell us about the peace, the joy, the hope, and the love that a Christian person experiences..."When Jesus Comes Again
("There was once a spider who lived in a cornfield. He was a big spider and he had spun a beautiful web between the corn stalks. He got fat eating all the bugs that would get caught in his web. He liked his home and planned to stay there for the rest of his life. One day the spider caught a little bug in his web, and just as the spider was about to eat him, the bug said, 'If you let me go I will tell you something important that will save your life.'...")Advent 1C (2003)
("Once upon a time a family won a trip to Ireland in a parish raffle. Everyone else in the parish was envious of them. Wouldn’t it be great to take your three kids to visit the land of their ancestors, all expenses paid. How come you’re so lucky?...")Advent 1C (2000)
("Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Tom was the star player on his high school’s football and basketball teams. He scored the final touchdown as his team won the city championship. During the basketball season he saved many a game with brilliant shots and a near perfect free throw record...")*Security
("THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal and Hugh Marlowe, and is regarded as a classic science-fiction film with a very strong pacifist message. Sent by a federation of planets to warn the people of Earth to stop all nuclear testing before the planet is destroyed, the Christ-like Rennie descends into Washington, D.C. in his spaceship...")*Look Up and Live
("There was a man who had the good fortune of finding a $50 bill on the ground as he was walking through the park one day. There it was lying on the ground with no one around, so he picked it up, put it in his pocket and carried on. From that day on he walked around with his eyes to the ground — you never know what you might find!..." and another illustration)Are You Ready?
("Growing just about everywhere in Alaska and the north country is a peculiar plant called a 'Fireweed'. What makes this common weed different is the fact that it blooms throughout the summer season. But it’s the way in which the fireweed blooms that makes it distinctive. The buds on this tall plant begin to open at the beginning of summer, but only the blossoms closest to the bottom...")At That Time
("The movie A Distant Thunder follows the lives of several college-age kids following the rapture. In classic dispensationalist, pre-millennial style, the movie suggested that at some point Christians will disappear from this earth and a period of tribulation will follow...")*Vodka, Alka-Seltzer, Pepto-Bismol, Coffee
("On the morning when Jeeves first comes into Bertie Wooster’s life, Bertie has a hangover. Now the Jeeves of the P. G. Wodehouse stories is not your ordinary mortal. He is the ultimate gentleman’s gentleman. Most people walk from place to place. Jeeves shimmers silently...")Signs of the Times
"In his award winning book, The Education of Little Tree, writer Forest Carter writes of life with his Cherokee grandparents. He tells of sitting with his grandfather watching the morning sun rise over a mountain one winter morning. '... we watched the mountain while we ate. The sun hit the top like an explosion, sending showers of glitter and sparkle into the air..."The Star of Hope
("Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in the Netherlands the eldest of six children. His father was a Protestant minister. Vincent grew up happily in a church parsonage and loved to wander in the countryside. His father apprenticed him at 16 as a salesperson to a company that sold paintings ...")Stay Awake, Praying at All Times
("I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do. I had to hurry and get to work For bills would soon be due. So I knelt and said a hurried prayer, And jumped up off my knees. My Christian duty was now done My soul could rest at ease..." and another poem)Eyes Up!
("In the Peanuts comic strip, Linus and Lucy are standing at the window looking out at the rain falling. Lucy says to Linus, 'Boy, look at it rain...What if it floods the earth?' Linus, the resident biblical scholar for the Peanuts, answers, 'It will never do that.'...")Heads Up!
"Some years ago, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks did a wonderfully popular series of comedy sketches called the 2000-Year-Old Man which prompted several hilarious albums. The premise has Reiner interviewing the age-2000 Brooks and inquiring concerning life way back when. At one point, Reiner asks the old man, 'Did you always believe in God?'..."Prepare for Celebration
("I was called to baby sit our neighbor's children when they were called out unexpectedly. It was to be for a short time, which eased my anxiety about taking care of someone else's children. I was still nervous about it. So I instructed the little boy and his sister to play together in their basement family room...")Futurologists and Their Vision for the Future
("Aldus Huxley wrote a famous book BRAVE NEW WORLD. In the book, the future was controlled by science and technology. Babies were bottled in test tubes. I couldn’t believe that babies were bottled in test tubes when I first read that book as a fifteen year old. Now today, it seems that babies are being bottled in test tubes..." and other cinematic illustrations)In the Clouds
("Consider this short poem by Brother Thomas Imhof, a Trappist monk, titled simply Advent: The woods without a stir are listening; trees have spread their leaves like pages of a book in summer; limbs and bushes are limp; withered leaves have this to say: there is still something to wait for...")Waiting
There is a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in which Calvin speaks to Hobbes and says, “Live for the moment is my motto. You never know how long you got.” In the second frame, he explains, “You could step into the road tomorrow and, Wham, you get hit by a cement truck! Then you'd be sorry you put off your pleasures. That's what I say, live for the moment.” And then he asks Hobbes, “What's your motto?” Hobbes replies, “My motto is ‘Look down the road.’” Luke says, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” And if you look down the road you will see that Jesus is talking about, not your personal redemption, but the redemption of the whole creation...Waiting Again
In one of his books, the best selling author Robert Fulghum told about his encounter with a powerful teacher named Papaderos. At the end of a conference Papaderos asked what most speakers ask at the end of a lecture. It was a polite rhetorical question. “Does anyone have any further questions?” To which someone said, “Yes, tell us about the Meaning of Life if you would?” Laughter followed, but Papaderos without skipping a beat, took a little rounded mirror about the size of a quarter out of his wallet and told its story. During World War II when he was just a little boy, Papaderos found a piece of mirror on the ground at the site of a motorcycle wreck. Poor, and resourceful, Papaderos took that little fragment of glass, carefully rounded its edges by grinding it on a rock, and transformed it into his favourite toy. It seems that he got really good at being able to catch the sun in that mirror and reflecting it into dark places where the light never reached; into deep holes and the hidden crevices in the rocks. And as he grew, Papaderos began to understand that more than just a toy, that little rounded mirror was symbol of his life’s mission. He said that he understands himself to be a fragment of a mirror designed to catch the light and reflect it into the dark places of this world, into the hidden recesses of the human heart, transforming them through insight, discovery and understanding...Anticipation
("In his book Abel's Island, William Steig tells the story of a mouse (Abel) who is marooned on an island for an entire year. In the first part of the book, Abel is all alone on the island. Unlike the participants in the Survivor TV series, he has no one around to help him survive -- or to vote him off the island and thereby return him to his home...")*Advent 1C (2003)
("Another reason waiting may be good is that our hearts may not yet prepared for all that God wants to give us. Think of the Dr. Seuss story of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The Grinch's heart at the beginning of the story was at least two sizes too small, and not even cute little Cindy Lou Who could change his evil ways on her own...")When the Holidays Bring No Joy
("Each year newspaper columnists write articles about how people celebrate Christmas but also about how some people have to cope with depression during the Christmas season. They usually interview noted psychologists and medical doctors and solicit their advice. The columnists will create lists that are striking similar. With minor modifications the suggestions will include:...")The Hope That Gives Life
("Lourdes was the most empty person I ever met. She seemed to have no inner self, direction or authority. She just floated along, like a piece of paper on water, blown by every breeze and carried by every current. Her three elder sisters had married 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively. She fell into the pattern and got married in 1978...")Between Two Advents: In the Interim
("According to a story that Os Guinness tells, 220 years ago the Connecticut House of Representatives was in session on a bright day in May, and the delegates were able to do their work by natural light. But then something happened that nobody expected. Right in the middle of debate, there was an eclipse of the sun and everything turned to darkness...")*Jolted Into the Kingdom
("There was this man who lived with his family almost next door to the church. His yard was always a mess. The children were poorly cared for. Rumors were he got drunk on Saturdays, abused his wife, cursed his children. The church decided to help him. The pastor visited the home. Some of the youth stopped by and invited his kids to go with them on their trip to the mountains...")He Is Coming!
("I have an uncle who is a recovering alcoholic. He has been dry for over twenty years now, but I remember when he first began to deal with his alcoholism. We never thought he'd make it - he never had seemed very strong - my aunt used to take care of everything for him, from handling money to making home repairs...")He Comes with Words That Last
"Phillip Yancey wrote, in What's So Amazing About Grace, that there are a number of accounts very similar to the one in Matthew 22, spread throughout the Gospels. Yancey said his favorite account of this kind of story comes from the Boston Globe in 1990. A story ran about a woman and her fiance who went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston, to plan their wedding feast..." and another illustrationWake Up!
("I have often told the story of a Christopher being asked to draw a picture about his first year at Sunday School. He drew a blue sky and pink clouds, and a huge yellow sun and put the Large letters GOD somewhere between the sun and the clouds. Then he drew a brown earth with yellow flowers and put the letters GOD beside them..." and another illustration)When God Breaks In
("Garrison Keeler tells of seeing a young boy one cold winter day in Minnesota stepping out on the steps of his home doing up zipper of his jacket, just standing there for a moment and taking deep breath of the cold air, being excited by the air. You could see that the cold air just raced through this kid...." and other illustrations)Fear Not, Be Prepared
("In January 1960, an astounding event occurred in a tiny peasant village of Tsirkuny in the Ukraine. A smelly, sunken-jawed wretch named Grisha Sikalenko appeared one morning before his shocked neighbours. Everyone thought that Grisha had died a hero’s death while fighting the Germans in World War II...")On Being Prepared
("Martin Buber once asked his audience what the difference was between himself, a Jew, and the Christian audience. His answer—Christians believe the Messiah has already come, whereas the Jewish people believe he has not come yet. When he comes, Buber suggested that the most pressing question for Jews and Christians would be whether this was the Messiah’s first or second coming...")The Healing of Troubled Minds
("I've been on Wall Street at the end of the workday, when the stock market closes. As the doors of the trading houses swing open, brokers rush out like stampeding bulls, heading for the nearest bar. They pack themselves by the dozens into Wall Street's tiny watering holes, trying to drown their emotions in alcohol. Why aren't they happy? Why are they so troubled in mind?..." and another illustration)Advent 1C (2003)
("C. S. Lewis once asked why God does not land in force and invade our world? Why does God not show Himself as He really is. 'Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely...")Take Heed to Yourselves (RCL)
("When I was serving a little church in rural Georgia, one of my members' relatives died, and my wife and I went to the funeral as a show of support for the family. It was held in a small, hot, crowded, independent Baptist country church. They wheeled the coffin in and the preacher began to preach...")Apocalypse Now?
("As the philosopher Gunther Anders put it, we move into an apocalyptic mode when we no longer find ourselves asking 'How shall we live?' and ask instead, 'Will we live?' The normal eschatological situation, which gives life urgency by facing us with the inevitability of our own death, the hunger for meaning, and the fear of suffering and loss, becomes apocalyptic when it appears that there is no longer time for normal urgency...")
Currently Unavailable
*Signs of the Season
("Jonathan Kozol’s book Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation is a poignant and moving account of the extraordinary lives of children in the most devastating of social circumstances in the South Bronx, in New York City. He tells of Cliffie, a seven-year-old who seems undaunted by growing up in the poorest and most abandoned of places...")Godsmacked!
("Round about now, in our recovery from this hurricane, I suppose it's understandable if you'd start asking the question, 'Why?' Why did it happen? Why did God let it happen? What role did God have in the course of that mighty tropical-storm system, that slowly worked its way up from the Caribbean?..." can easily be revised to apply to this text)How to Keep On Keeping On
("The French news agency, Reuters, has dubbed the decade 1994-2003, the Decade of Disasters. 'From 1994 to 2003, 5,677 reported disasters killed 673,070 people and affected 2.58 billion people, causing $691 billion in estimated damage. That compares with 1,021,605 reported killed and 1.63 billion reported affected by disasters from 1984 to 1993...")