That is the question! Vince reflects personally and intellectually on how a good, full life seems to involve BOTH a commitment to alleviating suffering AND an embrace of the inevitability of suffering. What do we do with that? How does one hold that tension? Jesus' life and ministry offer needed insights.
Read MoreHayley brings us to the provocative, beautiful suggestion from 13th century mystic Meister Eckhart that we are all called to be mothers who give birth to God -- bringing God's Spirit into the uprootedness of life, into the most unfathomable of circumstances. (Art by @osageandfern)
Read MoreVince asks questions about poverty, exploitation, and perceiving God's Spirit as we turn again to Matthew's Christmas story about the confrontation between Herod and the Magi. (Art: "Herod greeting the three magi" by Rolf Nesch, 1922)
Read MoreFor the second Sunday of Advent, we visit again Mary's Magnificat -- the song of longing and revolution that formed Jesus in the womb.
Read MoreWhere is God when we feel stuck or trapped? For the first Sunday of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we look at Isaiah 9, a traditional Advent passage, with help from womanist theologian Monica Coleman. (Art: Isaiah 9 by Amy Lindahl)
Read MoreInstead of a message this week, we have our annual update on the financial and business side of running BLC. Plus, we're celebrating our community's 10 year birthday! (Image from Hamid Roshaan on Unsplash)
Read MoreThrough the lens of the Nap Ministry's Tricia Hersey and her book "Rest is Resistance", Hayley continues our church's discussion of how to address societal burnout. (Illustration by Kumé Pather)
Read MoreThe forces of acceleration behind our societal burnout are experienced as guilt by the middle class, and as injustice by the working class. Vince points us to the Bible's Zacchaeus to help us imagine how communities can counter this "tyranny of acceleration" by holding up alternative visions of fullness of life.
Read MoreTwo friends of Vince, in different helper professions, join us to continue our discussion of societal burnout (Cartoon by Bruce Mackinnon)
Read MoreThe most natural response to burnout in our culture, according to scholars of the Modern World, is a good response in many ways, but, alas, it can't save us from busyness. Vince explains, and point us to Jesus' alternative vision of a good life that isn't busyness.
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