Where the Light Shines Through: Discerning God in Everyday Life

By Wes Avram

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587430886
• ISBN13: 9781587430886
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Brazos Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

It's OK Not to Know Everything

Wes Avram is a Presbyterian pastor who also teaches preaching at Yale Divinity School. This thoughtful book developed out of a series of sermons on practical application of the Christian gospel to daily life in the post-modern era. It appeared from the sub-title to be about perceiving God in daily life, perhaps a practical guide to daily meditation in a busy life. And to some extent that is the focus. But it involved more than that. Avram deals reflectively with possibilities for interpreting the core meaning of the Good News, and practical implications in real-life situations. He builds his topics around anecdotes that arose in his experience with people. Avram also ends with what he calls an Epilogue, which is an interpretation of what preaching is and how to approach it. He sees the art of preaching as a practical engagement of the ultimate, a mediation of the reality behind the visible activities and feelings and challenges of life. The preacher is seen as the humble focus for a divine word. He emphasizes that the preacher has an awesome, humbling role, and realizes - or should realize - that any value in his words is beyond himself, but arise as he/she becomes the channel of divine happening in the spoken word. That somehow the human words, the result of study and preparation, of prayer and uncertainty, of awareness of need, becomes a word from God when proclaimed. He concludes that the preacher gains an assurance and confidence from knowledge that his own efforts and words are not the focus and purpose of his task. Rather his words point to the reality of the Divine which underlies and involves everything in our lives. These philosophical insights, fully practical in implication, were a bonus in an already valuable collection of reflections on regular events and life-challenges that take on ultimate meaning and value when seen in terms of the Word of God, the life of Jesus Christ. Avram assures us in a new, practical manner that the Incarnation message is still current and practical. It just gets obscured sometimes by the church and all its in-talk and organized self-sufficiency. You don't have to be a preacher to enjoy this book. It provides a practical, workable philosophy grounded in the full awareness of human inability to master the ultimate. Avram assures us it's OK not to know everything! The reader will experience an inspiring reminder of the immensity of God's involvement in our complex modern, changing, confusing world.

Gracefully Sensitive

"Where The Light Shines Through" is an anthology of sermons designed to assist thoughtful Christians as they consider how God is present in their lives. The title fits the collection well, for each message sheds uncommon light upon our common lives. Wesley D. Avram is a preacher who has served as a college chaplain and as the pastor of a large suburban Chicago congregation. He is the pastor-elect of the 3500-member Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, on Philadelphia's Main Line, one of the denominations' twenty largest. Avram will be leaving the academic world (he is currently Clement-Muehl Assistant Professor of Communications at Yale Divinity School) but taking with him to the parish an approach to the faith that is deep-rooted in Scripture and full-leafed in articulation. Unlike the "don't worry - be happy" style of preachers, Avram does not subscribe to quick, easy and pat answers to life's imponderables. Indeed, he expresses the rich ambiguities of Christian faithfulness in ways that are so articulate one might be tempted to call them poetic. They certainly are gracefully sensitive and allow the listener to think along with Avram as he thinks out loud. For example, in speaking of the providence of God he writes, "So let there never be preached a theology so glib as to imply that as long as Air Jesus has got the ball, it's okay if we're down in the fourth period. For the waters of God's providential care are much deeper, choppier, and more life-giving. For rather than simply winning at the buzzer, God's sovereignty sometimes changes the game." (Page 29). When one is struggling with a difficult personal situation, this kind of a message offers a large measure of integrity as well as hope. Avram explores some of the hard realities of life, with engaging titles, such as "9/12 Living in a 9/11 World". He responds to them with wisdom, notably this: "We are called to a kind of living that is attentive to the world around us in ways we just can't sustain without God." (Page 42). He honors his listeners' intelligence and engages his listeners' feelings. Throughout his sermons, Avram recounts personal stories that are accessible to the reader, from the circus, to the annual nativity pageant, to the world of advertising. One can picture the congregations who first heard these sermons being uplifted and supported by their lyrical messages, whether on the campuses of Bates College and Yale Divinity School, or in the sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church, Wilmette. Indeed, the messages are finely tuned to reach a wide-ranging, attentive audience. Here is a people's preacher with a pastor's heart. Throughout this volume, one gets a strong sense of what a joy it would be to hear Dr. Avram's sermons week by week, and an equally strong sense that the congregation at Bryn Mawr will be in very good hands indeed.