{"id":1150,"date":"2013-12-17T23:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T23:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2013-12-17T11:09:31","modified_gmt":"2013-12-17T11:09:31","slug":"bearing-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2013\/12\/17\/bearing-god\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Bearing God&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Submitted by:<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Debra Auger, Dean of Students<\/em><br \/>\n<em>North Park Theological Seminary<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A new church year commenced three weeks ago when we lit the first advent candle. Now we are just days away from celebrating the incarnation of God in Christ\u2026the coming of God to humanity, enfleshed as an infant. Here is where power is perfected in ultimate weakness: that of a child completely and totally dependent on mother for care, protection, food and safety. It really is an astounding thing. Perhaps most astounding is that God limited God\u2019s self to a human body in a particular time and culture to demonstrate what true love looks like. Equally astounding is the limitation of God to the womb of a young girl to be formed and nurtured and parented. In this Advent season perhaps we can imagine Mary as an archetype for all those who are called by God to nurture embryonic faith in others. God calls young and old, women and men alike, to \u201cbear God\u201d in a world desperate for love. In this advent season let us remember to celebrate the burgeoning ministry of young women who are faithful to bear the love of God and who have responded, as Mary did, to God\u2019s call to serve.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cO thou who bears the pain of the whole earth, I bore thee.<br \/>\nO thou whose tears give human tears their worth, I laughed with thee.<br \/>\nThou who, when thy hem is touched, give power, I nourished thee.<br \/>\nWho turns the day to night in this dark hour, Dayspring for me.<br \/>\nO thou who held the world in thy embrace, I dandled thee.<br \/>\nWhose arms encircle all with thy grace, I once held thee.<br \/>\nO thou who laughed and ate and walked the shore, I played with thee.<br \/>\nAnd I who with all others, thou died for, I now hold thee.\u201d<br \/>\n(Madeleine L\u2019Engle, The Irrational Season, 9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=1150&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted by: Debra Auger, Dean of Students North Park Theological Seminary A new church year commenced three weeks ago when we lit the first advent candle. Now we are just days away from celebrating the incarnation of God in Christ\u2026the coming of God to humanity, enfleshed as an infant. Here is where power is perfected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19332],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Bearing God&quot; - Commission on Biblical Gender Equality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2013\/12\/17\/bearing-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Bearing God&quot; - Commission on Biblical Gender Equality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Submitted by: Debra Auger, Dean of Students North Park Theological Seminary A new church year commenced three weeks ago when we lit the first advent candle. 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