By Cathy Stoner, campus pastor
This week’s theme: Dare to imagine God’s goodness!
This week’s Scriptures: Jeremiah 33:14-16 | Psalm 25:1-10; 1 | Thessalonians 3:9-13 | Luke 21:25-36
Advent is a time of waiting, of Yearning, of longing for the coming of Christ. But who is Jesus and how can we access his power in our lives? Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada worship planners have titled this year’s Advent theme “Dare to Imagine,” which captures this sense of waiting, yearning and longing. The theme also points to the fact that our knowledge and experience of Jesus is limited and We Want More! So, to that end, this series of devotions opens the conversation to voices of Goshen College students, faculty and administrators who dare to imagine who Jesus is and what he could mean in our lives.
In my never-ending personal quest for insight into these questions, this fall I’ve been reading Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner. A few days ago the entry was titled “Who Jesus is.” There Buechner recalls the Matthew 26 story of Peter denying Christ after his crucifixion by saying “I do not even know who he is.” but this is as much of a confession of Truth as it is a denial. “Peter really did not know who Jesus was, did not really know, and neither do any of us really know who Jesus is either,” writes Buechner. He goes on to say “we can love him, we can learn from him, but we can come to know him only by following him – by searching for him in his church, in his Gospels, in each other.”
So welcome to the search! May these entries be a blessing, a challenge, a support to you as we dare to imagine together who Jesus is as we enter this season of Advent.