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Art, Bible, Christianity, Faith, Holy Week, Hope, Jesus, Pilgrimage, Spirituality, spirituality, Suffering, Theology, Uncategorized

Pilgrims on the Rooftop

Gary Furr

In 2010, I was part of a group of ministers who went to Israel together on pilgrimage.  We were all Protestants—Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, UCC, and Episcopalians, along with one Mennonite for good measure. We were used to going on trips as church leaders, but this was different. We went as pilgrims. Pilgrimage is not a familiar term for Protestants and surely not Baptists. A friend of mine once said our spirituality is “extraverted, programmatic, and evangelistic.” Being silent, mystical contemplation and words like “pilgrimage” smacked of Catholicism, and when I was growing up that was negative, even if I didn’t … Continue reading Pilgrims on the Rooftop

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A Call from Ukraine

Gary Furr

President Zelensky tonight delivered a stunning and inspirational speech to a joint session of Congress. After too long a time of bickering and arguing in our public life, we were treated to a moment of moral clarity, born in atrocities against a suffering people. He raised our vision to see that it is not only for Ukraine but the world itself that democracy and freedom must prevail. This includes the Russian people themselves, captive to the delusions of a single tyrant. For just the briefest moment, the room was together and the finest instincts of the American resolve stirred in … Continue reading A Call from Ukraine

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A Word from George

Gary Furr

This is a quote from George Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796, after he had refused a third term.  It was published in every newspaper in the country.  This is only a section I thought relevant to now, as election hysteria causes us once more to wrongly believe this is THE worst situation our nation has ever faced, that our politics right now is a matter of GOOD vs. EVIL, and when we cannot agree which is which, and a time in which we cannot bear the past unless we either gloss over its truth and exchange it for a myth of our own construction or … Continue reading A Word from George

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Thoughts on Suffering

Gary Furr

From a sermon two years ago. This was a post from a listener (and one of my staff) from that day. I am not fond of theories and theologies that discount the depths of human suffering for some exotic notion of “making us better people.” It can pass over the misery and sorrow too quickly. Better to see it, as perhaps the Ukrainian people are teaching us (as did Jesus), that sometimes suffering is the only alternative to yielding to wickedness and evil. I prefer Romans 8 which pictures the entirety of God’s good creation yearning for wholeness and completion, … Continue reading Thoughts on Suffering