Walter Brueggemann at Elmhurst College March 15th

Our “Faith Journey” group goes on a “field trip” on March 15^th to Elmhurst College to be part of one of their “Still Speaking: Conversations on Faith” presentations. This one features scholar and teacher Walter Brueggemann and EC president S. Alan Ray. We’ll circulate some e-mails among the group to see if we want to car pool, and we’ll open the invitation to others in the church family. Below is the very brief blurb the College distributed about the evening.

STILL SPEAKING: CONVERSATIONS ON FAITH

A Conversation on Evil with Elmhurst College President S. Alan Ray
Walter Brueggemann, Elmhurst College Class of 1955, is widely acknowledged as the foremost Christian scholar of the Hebrew Bible. No scripture scholar in America sells more books or informs more sermons. Jane Fisler-Hoffman, of the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, is a former student of Brueggemann’s. “When we pastors are at our best,” she says, “we do what he does—wrestle with the Word, look at the world around us, and put the two together in a way that touches lives.”

Special Appearance
Tuesday, March 15, 7:00 p.m.
The Frick Center, Founders Lounge

One Student's Hope

Henri J.M. Nouwen once asked his college students to describe what they meant by “hope.” One of his students wrote this…

I hope I will always be for each person what that person needs me to be.

I hope that each person’s death will diminish me, but fear of my own will never diminish my joy of life.

I hope that my love for those whom I like will never lessen my love for those whom I do not.

I hope than another person’s love for me will never be a measure of my love for that other.

I hope that every person will accept me as I am, but that I never will.

I hope that I will always ask forgiveness from others, but will never need to be asked for my own.

I hope that I will always recognize my limitations, but that I will construct none.

I hope that love will always be my goal, but that love will never be my idol.

I hope that every person will always have hope.

William Stringfellow

There is a small picture frame on my desk at church with this thought from lawyer and theologian William Stringfellow that might “set the table” a bit for our conversation next Tuesday. The emphases are mine…

 

“The most obstinate misconception associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that the Gospel is welcome in this world. This conviction – endemic among church folk – persists that, if problems of misapprehension are overcome, and the gospel is heard on its own integrity, the Gospel will be found attractive to people, become popular, and a success of some sort. The idea is curious and ironic because it is bluntly contradicted in scripture and in the experience of the continuing biblical witness in history.”

 

Hope to see you Tuesday.