Tag: Jesus

Bible, Christianity, Death, easter, Grief, Holy Week, Hope, hope, humanity, Jesus, Jesus, resurrection, spirituality, Story, Suffering, Theology, Worship6 Comments

Easter

Gary Furr

Six weeks ago my father died. I have not spoken much about that except to friends. Grief is deeply personal, and the journey is different for us all. Suffice it to say that as a primary caregiver for my Dad the past three years, two in a nursing facility, I have been up close and personal to the end of his life at 91. My father was a wonderful, larger that life presence in my life. For weeks it is the cursed insane busy-ness after death. Experience is crowded out by necessity, but that is not all bad. Denial has … Continue reading Easter

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

Story

An Advent Prayer

Gary Furr

A prayer offered in 1993, my first year at a new pastorate, as part of a lovely service of lessons and carols led by Mrs. Marlene Taylor and the choir. Beloved in Christ, Advent invites our hearts and imaginations to            bring us again to the angels’ song, To lead us to sleepy Bethlehem where we behold again           the wonder of the Babe, lying in a manger. Therefore let us re-enter the Holy Scriptures and trace again           the trail of God’s loving purposes           that leads from God’s own eternal creative and loving heart           through our first … Continue reading An Advent Prayer

Christmas, The Incarnation

Stories of Christmas

Gary Furr

I am partial to storytelling and storytellers, since I am one. But in no place more than the birth story of Jesus does this reality hit home.  The more rational types are always trying to turn Christianity into a series of propositions which only succeeds in rendering the most thrilling narrative ever to grace a mind into propositions and abstractions that could be used as sleep aids. No, when God set out to save humanity in the Christian telling, it was in stories. The smallest elements of a story. There’s a subject. There is a verb. And you have a … Continue reading Stories of Christmas

Art, Christianity, Death, death, Family, God, Grief, Holy Week, Jesus, Mother, Race, spirituality3 Comments

Mother and Son

Gary Furr

Jaroslav Pelikan’s marvelous book Jesus Through the Centuries takes a sojourn through the vast and complex history of the interpretations of Jesus.  Among the chapters is one entitled, “Christ Crucified,” in which he notes the disproportionate focus on Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection in the gospel accounts.  By even the most “generous” reading, he notes, we have at most information about less than a hundred days of Jesus’ ministry on earth, but of the last few days we have an hour by hour account. Says Pelikan, “What was said of  the thane of Cawdor in MacBeth was true pre-eminently of Jesus: … Continue reading Mother and Son