After I mentioned this project yesterday, my friend Chad started a group tumblr for the reading and discussion of these sermons. You’ll find these sermons for online here. Join us if you have some time. Enjoy!
Blogging Through the 52
Last semester, I had a class on the theology of John Wesley as part of my studies at Asbury. Some friends of mine from there have tossed around the idea of reading and blogging though the 52 Standard sermons of Wesley this year, and I’m going to attempt to join in. Each week, we’ll read through one and reflect on them. I’ll probably post a weekly link to the sermon and some link love for those participating with us. If you are interested in reading along and even posting with us, let me know.
Post on #1 will come later this week.
Silent Night
by Rosie Thomas
Rosie Thomas - Silent Night
By far my favorite Christmas music discovery this season. Have a great Christmas and New Years - the blog will probably be silent until then.
Some people, my wife and I included, treat their dog less like a dog and more like a person. This, however, is taking it a little too far.
Three Great Things about “Shouting At God”
In an earlier post, I mentioned that my friend and former-local-partner in ministry Steve Rose has just released his first book, Shouting At God, which follows Steve’s journey and reflections upon his father’s diagnosis and battle with cancer. I just finished reading the book today, and wanted to highlight three great things that Shouting At God offers its readers:
1. Shouting At God doesn’t minimize the difficulties of cancer or faithfulness while facing it. Steve gives a lot of unfiltered perspective on his own questions, doubts, and struggles in seeing someone he loves face this sickness. Cancer and similar diagnoses cannot and should not be trivialized as mere hurdles in the race of life; Steve writes with a raw conviction that cancer is hard on everyone involved, and faith in the midst of it is as well.
2. Shouting At God refuses to give ground to the lie that sicknesses are overcome through “more faith”. Let’s be honest: we’ve all been in situations where we have heard others say, or perhaps even said ourself, “If only we (or they) had more faith, God would ____________” Whether it’s healing someone, fixing something, or just seeing God act, the general lie that “If I do X, God will do Y” has wiggled its way into many of our hearts. This logic amounts to the manipulation of the Divine; it attempts to control situations, even control God’s actions, and I appreciate how Steve stands against this kind of belief in his book.
3. Shouting At God gives anchoring to those who find themselves in the midst of what may be the hardest season of their life. Steve is a pastor at heart, and it is clear that this book is aimed primarily to encourage and anchor families facing cancer head-on. If this book offers any one thing to pass on, it is the companionship and perspective of someone who has walked through the sickness and death of his father. Through his doubts, his questions, his hardships and ultimately his faith, Steve offers himself as a friend and pastor to the reader; for many, and especially for those in the midst of this fight, it will be a welcomed presence.
"For His it was once more both to bring the corruptible to incorruption, and to maintain intact the just claim of the Father upon all. For being Word of the Father, and above all, He alone of natural fitness was both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be ambassador for all with the Father."
Review Coming: Shouting At God
My friend and former-partner-in-ministry-now-church-planter-in-Surprise-Arizona Steve Rose has just released his first book, Shouting At God. The book reflects on the journey Steve and his family took as his father, Bob, was diagnosed with cancer. I’ve read through some of the initial chapters, but finals have come with a vengeance, so I won’t finish the book until next week. But so far, there are a lot of great insights. If you or your friends or family have walked through a similar season, you might consider giving it a read.
More to come. Pray finals end quickly, or that Jesus would come quickly. The latter is actually my preference, but I’ll be ready for either.
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"But in your resurrection you persuade men concerning your birth. You were pure in the womb that was sealed and alive in the tomb that was sealed. The womb and the tomb, being sealed, were witnesses to you and to your divinity.
The belly and hell cried aloud of your birth and your resurrection: The belly, which was sealed, conceived you. Hell, which was closed up, brought you forth. Nature did not cause either the belly to conceive you or hell to give you up! Thus do they proclaim that you are of heaven.
Sealed was the tomb to which they had entrusted you, that it might keep you dead, that is, safe, and virgin was the womb, which no man knew. Virgin womb and sealed tomb, like trumpets, proclaimed him in the ears of deaf people.
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Overshadowing Joy
I’m slowly prepping for my sermon this Sunday, where we’ll be lighting the third candle of Advent and talking about joy. There is a lot of joy in and around the birth narratives. It breaks in through strange avenues- the announcements of angels, the kick-drum beat of unborn John the Baptist kicking in Elizabeth’s womb, the prophetic praise of a virgin mother and a de-muted priest. Joy bursts forth all around Jesus, or better yet, just like Jesus (I know…gross).
We usually talk about joy on this Sunday in Advent in link to the joy of child birth. Jesus himself said,
When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. (John 16:21)
I’ve been asking friends of mine who have had kids about their experience in this sudden turn from sorrow/pain to joy, and their stories have been incredible (please feel free to add your own in the comments section). The most common theme I’m hearing is that no amount of pain made the joy of seeing that child enter the world. The joy was unstoppable when the child was finally seen, and the sorrow was almost forgotten completely in comparison.
Which makes me wonder: what sorrows are being overshadowed by the birth, the presence, even just the announcement of the Christ’s arrival? What do you find in the stories of the Advent?
