"If I could only have been there . . ." Did you ever wish you could have been among those who actually encountered Jesus in person; mingled, perhaps, with those throngs beside the lake; feasted among the five thousand in a Galilean meadow; crowded along the village street as the carpenter from Nazareth passed by? This month of daily meditations seeks to accomplish just that; to place readers in the ways that Jesus walked; to assist those who pray or meditate their way across this thirty-day selection to experience the many moments of Jesus's ministry as narrated in the gospels, through the eyes and minds, the hearts and emotions of folk-ordinary folk for the most part- whose lives were touched and transformed as Jesus walked their way. For Lent, or Advent, or for any season of spiritual renewal, Faces by the Wayside can set you once again in the presence of the Master.
This book is intended as a devotional guide for the Advent season. Through the mediums of meditations, poetry, and prayer, it offers a spiritual resource for readers seeking to explore the many dimensions of this beloved season, and to deepen their appreciation of its mystery and wonder. Each day the reader is provided with either a prose meditation, based in Scripture, or a selection of poems, composed around the traditional themes of Advent/Christmas. The overall effect is that of a journey--a journey which moves, devotionally, through the days and weeks of December, toward Bethlehem, the stable, and the manger. Images, incidents, impressions, and items from the daily news are woven together to form a rich and rewarding tapestry, a pathway leading onward, an open door into the quiet places of the soul. Christmas Eve and Day are given special treatment, followed by a final section covering New Year's Day and the twelve days of Christmas. The book also provides a source of creative imagery and language for clergy, and other worship leaders, as they face the challenges of speaking traditional truths in a new and inviting way. Yet another use would be as a small group study guide for Advent.
In this volume, Shepherd selects from these, and from other unpublished works, to shape a series of poems that seek to portray and even illuminate, to some extent, the life of the spirit. They begin by tracing the progress of a typical year--January through December--but also by noting, and celebrating at times, the high points of "The Christian Year": Lent-Easter, Pentecost, Thanksgiving, Advent-Christmas, and Epiphany. Other, more generally themed, less calendar-related poems follow, including poems that reflect on the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center--an attack in which several of the author's parishioners and friends were killed. This is a book to be dipped into, rather than read right through. It should provide fertile soil for the practice of daily prayer and meditation.
""If I could only have been there . . ."" Did you ever wish you could have been among those who actually encountered Jesus in person; mingled, perhaps, with those throngs beside the lake; feasted among the five thousand in a Galilean meadow; crowded along the village street as the carpenter from Nazareth passed by? This month of daily meditations seeks to accomplish just that; to place readers in the ways that Jesus walked; to assist those who pray or meditate their way across this thirty-day selection to experience the many moments of Jesus's ministry as narrated in the gospels, through the eyes and minds, the hearts and emotions of folk-ordinary folk for the most part- whose lives were touched and transformed as Jesus walked their way. For Lent, or Advent, or for any season of spiritual renewal, Faces by the Wayside can set you once again in the presence of the Master. ""Insightful and eloquent writer J. Barrie Shepherd has engaged us for years with poignant meditations and poetry. Faces by the Wayside, written from the perspective of ancient pilgrims, speaks to all of us who are seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ, and joins Shepherd's other works, Faces at the Manger and Faces at the Cross, to form a trilogy of imaginative meditations."" --John Buchanan Editor/Publisher, The Christian Century ""Faces by the Wayside by Barrie Shepherd is a winsomely crafted insightful look into the souls of people who actually encountered Jesus. Shepherd seamlessly weaves the opportunity for the reader to experience a like encounter. We are enabled to ""see and hear and hope for the Life Abundant that Jesus offers."" We must, of course, confess . . . how we reacted when we saw these Faces . . . a very challenging experience!"" --Ann Weems Author, From Advent's Alleluia to Easter's Morning Light ""Barrie Shepherd is our most poetic of preachers. It is a joy to walk alongside Barrie and Jesus for these roadside encounters. A fresh, beautiful presentation of the gospels awaits us here."" --William H. Willimon Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church Author, Sighing for Eden and What's Right with the Church ""J. Barrie Shepherd's depth of insight have encouraged people and his wisdom has helped them to grow in their own faith. The four hundred people that I teach find his books spiritually helpful as well as enjoyable."" --Jane Howington Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church (USA) J. Barrie Shepherd has written extensively in the area of religious studies, is the author of fourteen books and over six hundred published poems. Shepherd has preached and lectured at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, and other universities and colleges and many of the major seminaries, as well as in distinguished pulpits across the USA and Canada, the UK, Europe and Africa.
Jesus Christ is as popular as ever. Films, books, and news articles ask,"Who was Jesus Christ?" Even outside of Christianity he continues to appeal to people. And yet for so many, the popular Jesus is not the Jesus of Christianity. The popular Jesus makes no demands and never challenges people. He accepts everyone and everything under all circumstances. On the Way to Jesus Christ is a series of meditations that Pope Benedict XVI wrote while he was Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The true Jesus he writes, is the Jesus of the Gospels who "is quite different, demanding and bold. The Jesus who makes everything okay for everyone is a phantom, a dream, not a real figure. The Jesus of the Gospels is certainly not convenient for us. But it is precisely in this way that he answers the deepest question of our existence, which--whether we want to or not--keeps us on the lookout for God, for a gratification that is limitless, for the infinite. We must again set out on the way to this real Jesus." This book also examines whether Jesus Christ is the only savior, and the Church's responsibility to evangelize. It concludes with reflections on Jesus' Presence in the Holy Eucharist, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church's presentation of the Christian mystery as seen through the Catechism's dynamic view of Sacred Scripture. On the Way to Jesus Christ is for anyone--believer or nonbeliever-who wants better to understand the true Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, the Christ of Christianity.
What does geography have to do with the incarnation of God and with our spiritual lives as Christians? We will embark on a theological road trip that explores how geographies are at the heart of understanding of God's incarnation in the world. It is no surprise to Christians that the center of the incarnation is the person of Jesus Christ--God in flesh made manifest. However, it might be a stretch for some Christians to imagine that the promise that God has become flesh is not only in a person but also in a place: in the creation. Christians need to expand what incarnation means and what it means to be created in the image of God so that the scope of God's creative and redemptive action and work indeed reaches to the scope of all things: from the outer reaches of space to the inner reaches of our hearts. To be the creatures of God that God calls us to be requires a kind of dual citizenship: within the details of our daily life, attending to the needs of our neighbors, simultaneously knowing we are part of a greater cosmos whose future is still unfolding.
Profiles Jesus Christ as the human face of God, taking into the account the multiple ways his life has been viewed and retold, and dramatizing the transformation from a man to a myth.
In an era of intensifying globalization and transnational connectivity, the dynamics of cultural production and the very notion of creativity are in transition. Exploring creative practices in various settings, the book does not only call attention to the spread of modernist discourses of creativity, from the colonial era to the current obsession with ‘innovation’ in neo-liberal capitalist cultural politics, but also to the less visible practices of copying, recycling and reproduction that occur as part and parcel of creative improvization.
