Following Jesus: Finding our way home in an age of anxiety
A weekday class with Interim Rector, Gary Jones
Wednesdays, January 8 – February 19, 10:00 – 11:30
Please contact the church office if you wish to join the class. Number of participants is limited.
The new year is a time that finds many of us are making resolutions to live healthier and more joyful lives. We know ours is a time of pervasive loneliness, stress, and anxiety. This class, led by Interim Rector, Gary Jones, is designed to help us respond faithfully to our deep longing for a better life.
In 1985, one of the most highly regarded and beloved spiritual guides of the 20th century, Henri Nouwen, found himself struggling with the deepest desires and longings of the human heart. It was a time of considerable loneliness and anxiety for Nouwen, even though he had only recently accepted a coveted, tenured position at Harvard University.
That year, he gave a series of six compelling talks at a local church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, talks that were deeply personal for Nouwen, about re-centering and re-grounding his life in that which matters most. Not long thereafter, Nouwen made profound changes in his life, including leaving his prestigious position at Harvard, indicating that perhaps his six presentations at that Cambridge church had impacted him as much as they surely had impacted those who had gathered to hear him.
These six talks have been published posthumously in a little book entitled, Following Jesus: Finding our way home in an age of anxiety. It is a book for our time. Highly personal and very readable, this little book addresses our present-day struggles in a way that is remarkably prescient. It is not about “following the Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago;” rather, it is about attuning ourselves to a very real and living Presence in our lives today.
Over the course of seven sessions, Gary will supplement our weekly reading and discussion of Nouwen’s talks with contemplative practice, introducing class participants to the rich and ancient tradition of Christian meditation, a practice that finds its source in Jesus’ teaching and practice. Each of our sessions will include time for contemplative practice. If you are able to make a commitment to prayerful reading and regular practice in preparation for our weekly gatherings, please consider joining us.
Books will be available for purchase in the church office ($15)
Contact the church office if you would like to join this class; participation is limited.
(For those unable to join this class, Gary intends to pursue themes related to this class in his sessions of the weekly Sunday Forum.)
An excerpt from Nouwen’s introduction to Following Jesus: Finding our way home in an age of anxiety:
“This book has been written to help you and me to hear that voice of love, to hear that voice the whispers in your ear, ‘Follow me.’
“What I hope to do is guide us from restless wandering to joyful following; from being bored people just sitting there doing nothing to being excited because we have heard a voice.
“The voice is not a voice that will force itself on us. It is a voice of love, and love doesn’t push or pull. Love is very sensitive.
“There is a beautiful story in the Old Testament where the prophet stands at the mouth of a cave and the Lord is passing. There is thunder, and the Lord is not in the thunder. There is an earthquake, and the Lord is not in the earthquake. There is fire, and the Lord is not in the fire. Then there is a still, small voice, and the Lord is in that voice. (See 1 Kings 19:11-13.)
“The voice is very sensitive. It can be very quiet. It is sometimes hard to hear. But the voice of love is already in you. You may have already heard it.
“Start trying to hear that voice. Get quiet and spend some time trying to hear it.
“Listen. It says, ‘I love you,’ and calls you by name. It says, ‘Come, come. Follow me.’”