Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 22
For the final day of Advent, contributing writer Sarah Blackwell ponders what we should focus on as we watch the Christ Candle lit once again this year.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 21
For the final devotional exploring Advent in a time of bloodshed in Israel, Brian Kaylor reflects on how Gaza is significant in a biblical story that doesn’t explicitly mention the place.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 20
Azar Ajaj, president of Nazareth Evangelical College, brings our attention to overlooked Middle Eastern Christians as instruments that God is using to bring peace to the region.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 19
Christmas reminds us it is precisely in the midst of the darkness of hatred that it is time for love to be born.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 18
What does it mean to enter the Christmas story anew in these moments, as so many are desperate for God’s saving presence? To wrestle with this question is to live into this sacred season.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 17
Former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church Rev. Hanna Massad writes that we find solace in knowing that, like Mary and Joseph, we have a place of refuge — the “ark of the cross.”
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 16
Rev. Alex Awad, a retired minister who served as pastor at East Jerusalem Baptist Church and a professor at Bethlehem Bible College, reflects on modern-day Herods and how the Christmas story gives oppressed people around the world hope.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 15
Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, offers this first entry in our week exploring the theme of Advent during a time of bloodshed in Israel.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 14
Rev. Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, writes that we begin to calm our anxieties only when we learn to accept the presence of divine mystery in our lives.
Unsettling Advent 2023, Day 13
Rev. Janna Louie, chief of staff for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, reflects on Psalm 80 and how anxieties can be transformed by collective grief and lament.