The Power of Persecution



Beheading of St. Paul, Alessandro Algardi

Colossians 1:24-28

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

I am no "Dear Abby" or "Anne Landers" (thanks to the Lifetime Network I now know that they were actually sisters), but allow me to take this time to respond to a comment from a reader. The reader is Justin, a friend of mine that I regularly discuss the blog and other spiritual matters with (like which Three Six Mafia songs are the greatest). His comment was about a discussion we had outside of the blog and my blog entry about Vincent Van Gogh. The common thread between the two was the subject of Suffering. Suffering is a great mystery, not because we don't go experience it but because we don't discuss it. Silence is the conduit of Ignorance and the comrade of Suffering.

"Recently, you...  warned me that his message of the "Prosperity Gospel" was flawed in that it suggest that we do not have to suffer. Or that our suffering will always be short-lived if we just pray. You mentioned how the Bible depicts the suffering of people like Paul and that there may be a need for our suffering. I thought about that and remembered what Paul says in Romans 5:3 - 4, "suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Examining that and so many other examples within Scripture (Job, John the Baptist, David, Daniel, etc.), it almost seems as though it is better to suffer; that is, better rewards are reaped from those who suffer. These examples, among others, perhaps inspiring such rhetoric as: "God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers." So is it true? Is it better to suffer? And if so, is there a difference in how we should respond when the sufferings are brought on by our own iniquities versus those caused by others?"
- Justin

Even though I responded to this comment earlier, I think that today's Scripture refers to it as well. Justin is correct in his assessment that some suffering is brought on by others and some is brought on by ourselves. Most suffering actually falls under a third category: things that happen for reasons unknown to us. In Colossians Paul speaks of a certain type of suffering: persecution. Paul spoke about persecution from the perspective of one who was suffering from it. Paul was punished and imprisoned on several occasions for spreading the Gospel. In the end of the book of Acts we find him on house arrest and awaiting a Roman trial. Tradition holds that Paul eventually lost his life to religious persecution. He was martyred by beheading in Rome.



The Beheading of St. Paul, Enrique Simonet

Paul's martyrdom is the subject of both images that I have posted. The sculpture by Alessandro Algardi and the painting by Enrique Simonet seem to be world's apart. Both deal with the abusive relationship between St. Paul and his executioner but Algadi's is more psychological and Simonet's is more gory and explicit. They both are about an interaction between human beings: an aggressor and a victim. Yet Simonet brings an additional type of character: the viewer. The viewers are individuals who see persecution and react... or choose not to act at all. You and I are viewers. Not only do we interact with these images and stories of St. Paul but we also decide to react or refrain from action to cases of persecution around us today.

Persecution always has those three ingredients: the victim, the aggressor and the viewer. Sometimes the persecution turns in the direction of the viewer when he refuses to remain just a viewer. St. Paul spoke about the persecution that comes as a result from doing what is right. When that viewer chooses to act on behalf of the victim. I remember back in the days when I and my wife were dating. We would often go to Blockbuster and pick up a few movies (yes, I'm old). They would include a comedy, a chick flick (a chick flick is by definition any movie featuring a scene with Hugh Grant) and something that featured serious, dramatic acting. One the serious movie that we picked up was Hotel Rwanda. This film starring Don Cheadle tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina a Rwandan hotel manager who found himself in the middle of the ethnic/tribal unrest and genocide that gripped his country in the mid 90's. He stopped just viewing the problem and chose to act by housing refugees. Altogether he was able to save of 1,268 lives, before he and his family fled to Belgium. I know all of this because of Wikipedia, not the movie. My wife and I could not bring ourselves to actually watch the film. We actually rented it several times with the same result. The United States and other Western powers have been criticized often about not mustering the political will to act to end the Rwandan genocide that took five hundred thousand to one million lives. I am as guilty as any Westerner because I, unlike Paul Rusesabagina, could not even bring myself to even view persecution let alone act out against it.    

When St. Paul discusses the persecution that he suffers he speaks of it as if it is something that has a hopeful potential He seems to view it as something that can facilitate a greater good. Paul's suffering was not just for a good cause but it was for God's cause. Through out the ages there have been many Christians who suffered like Jesus for the cause of Jesus. Some like St. Patrick were victorious in converting those who were once against them. Others like Polycarp met their death as martyrs. St. Paul understood ahead of time what Tertulian would later write, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Suffering and persecution is nothing to be pursued for the sake of pursuing it. Trouble should not be sought out: if needs be, trouble will find you. However when persecution does occur to the Church, it seems to act as a fuel for deeper commitment. This isn't just an ancient phenomenon but one that still occurs around the world in places where the Gospel is still repressed by government or cultural pressure. In cases like this the Holy Spirit turns viewers in the crowd into believers and victims into legends.     

The power of persecution does not lie in the hands of the aggressor... even as he takes power away from the victim. The power lies in the fact that the Gospel is repugnant to Oppression. The Cross was forged in the Baptism of Fire and is now repellent to the flames of persecution and when the smoke clears Truth wins out. Truth wins out when we share about suffering. Truth wins out when we stop viewing and start acting. Truth wins out when we embrace that suffering for the sake of the Gospel is yet only temporary when compared to the gift of eternal life. Suffering is not good but it can birth much good if we speak out and act out for Truth. Truth can never remain silenced, oppressed, punished or murdered because Truth has the power to rise again from the dead.

And You Get To Sleep In A Tent Too!

The Scoutmaster, Norman Rockwell

Psalm 15

Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?

He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the Lord;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved.

Norman Rockwell was the master of painting Americana. His illustrations represented everything that was good and pure and 1950-ish. It was the "Leave It To Beaver" ideal America at its most...well, ideal. And what better subject to exemplify this than the Boy Scouts and a Scout Master? The Boy Scouts with their motto of... you know what? I don't know what the Boy Scouts motto is because the Boy Scouts never called me back. Apparently I was not Boy Scout material. Matter of fact I wasn't even attempting to even get into the Boy Scouts. I was trying to get into their junior sidekicks: the Cub Scouts. I was 9 years old and I wanted to be in the Cub Scouts just like my neighborhood homeboy Russell. It was going be great: I was going to hang around in the woods, make fires and wear a scarf around my neck without any gang or Fred from Scooby Doo associations. And bigger than any of this I was going to get to sleep in a tent! So I went to the meeting and all. I filled out the application but no one called me back. Yep, this was my first encounter with rejection. I guess I just wasn't good enough to sleep in a tent. So last that I heard, Russell grew up to be a firefighter. I just grew up to be a guy who doesn't sleep in tents.

But I'm not bitter about it or anything... really.

So what if I told you that God stayed in a tent... or at least that was the thinking (I know, seems like everyone but me gets to be in the tent). Well that is what Psalm 15 is about. God being in the tent and Him being selective about who gets in. Maybe a little background information will suffice. After the Israelites fled with Moses from captivity in Egypt they received the 10 Commandments on two tablets of stone. They carried it with them during their 40 year trek through the Sinai wilderness. It was house in an ornate structure called the Ark of the Covenant (since the Commandments were a covenant, or agreement/contract, between God and the People). Yes it is the same Ark of the Covenant from the Indiana Jones movies. No it doesn't melt Nazis. Since the Israelites spent such a long period being nomadic, they lived in tents and the ark was hosed in a very specialized tent known as "the tabernacle." So when David asks in the Psalm, "Who may abide in your tabernacle", he is referring to the tent that housed the Ark of the Covenant (which in return housed the Commandments...which encapsulated God's Word). Since God's Word is closely identified with His being, the Ark of the Covenant was seen as a place where God's Presence literally dwelt. They believed that God was in this tabernacle. That being the case their were only a select few that could actually enter the tent to perform the religious rituals for the people. And even select few of those few could get very close to it. Becoming one of these priests or Levites (worship assistants to the priests) was impossible for most people. If you weren't a man: you were out. If you weren't Jew (natural born, not a convert): you were out. If you weren't of the specific tribe of Levi (one of the 12 tribes of Israel): you were out. And even among the tribe of Levi, you had to be of a certain family's lineage. We can actually still trace this family's lineage. If you or someone you know has the last name Cohen or Kohen, then your ancestors may have been priest in ancient Israel (because the priests were known as "Kohenim" in Hebrew). Even among those who were qualified to be priest, there were strict rules for ritualistic purity and moral uprightness. After David, his son Solomon would build an actual building to house the Ark of the Covenant, known simply as The Temple. It was destroyed and rebuilt a few times, but the rules from back in the days of the Tabernacle still prevailed. To put it simply, there were more people rejected from being in the tent than were accepted.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- John 1:14

So what about all of those who were rejected from the tabernacle: the women, the gentiles, the sinners. Was there ever any chance for them to abide in God's presence? The Gospel of John starts out with a beautiful poetic chapter about how the Word of God came to dwell in human form with us. The Greek word that is used for "dwelt" is σκηνόω and it literally means to "tabernacle." In times past those deemed unworthy by sin, gender or unfortunate birth were not able to tabernacle with God, so God took the form of the lowly to tabernacle with us. If you look through either of Christ's genealogies in Matthew or Luke you will notice that even though Jesus is indeed Jewish, he is not from the tribe of Levi (he is from the tribe of Judah). God chose to reveal His Presence in someone who would not have been allowed in the Tabernacle. That's what type of God we have: One that became rejected to show His love for rejects. Jesus was known as much for his association with lepers, prostitutes, and tax collectors (seen as sell-out, scoundrels to the Romans) as he was for his holiness. Christ is the big tent, that accepts all and covers all. It is in Jesus that all those who are rejected by the world find acceptance by a Loving God. He is a God of the misfits.    

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
-1 Corinthians 6:19

St. Paul took it one step further. Go did more than step out of his tent and encamped with you: if you are a Believer then God in the form of the Holy Spirit dwells within you. Just like the Tabernacle gave way to the Temple as a more permanent dwelling for God's presence, when Christ ascended into Heaven he would later send down his Holy Spirit to be our guide. The thing is that we have to remember what the whole tabernacle/temple thing's purpose was for in the first place. It was recognized as God's dwelling place because God's Word resided there. God's contract with humanity was kept in the tabernacle. It was surrounded and kept by select, upright men. If the Holy Spirit dwells in you is it dwelling in the temple of an upright man/woman? Is your body a place where the Word of God is honored? If it is honored, is it practiced? Or just like history (and Indiana Jones) has Your Ark of the Covenant become lost? If so, then there is still hope. The Holy Spirit is a Comforter, a friend and cleaner of darkened hearts. The greatest thing about having God dwell within you is that He is never too far to hear your prayers for a clean heart. He is always attentive to your cries for rescue. He will save you from the cold wilderness and bring you into the safety of His warm tent.
 

The Hospitality Industry

The Hospitality of Abraham, Unknown Artist

Genesis 18:1-10

Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

I have worked in the Hospitality industry consistently for several years now. Yes I do Accounting, but I do it for a Hotel. Even when I did Accounting for companies that managed restaurants, I still kept a second or third job working at a hotel. Plus restaurants count as hospitality too, so I feel like my experience should count as quadruple. Be it high brow, low brow or no brow, I have experience of working every level of hospitality. Yes I have crazy stories. Yes I have graveyard shift stories. Yes I have celebrity stories. Yes I have medical emergency stories. Yes I have cute old people stories. Yes I have earthquake at the hotel stories. Yes I have robbery stories. Yes I have drunk people stories. Yes I have kick people out of the hotel stories. Yes I have big tip stories. Yes I have charming tourist stories. Yes I have post-wedding reception fight stories (thankfully not mine). I even have a crazy/celebrity/fight story (but I can't tell that one for a few years). Outside of a heap of stories I have learned a few things about giving good hospitality service. Hotels and restaurants that give good hospitality know that the little things that count. It is all about giving to people. Not just a clean bed or a steak and salad. Quality hospitality is about being attentive to needs and giving more than is expected. The best places (large or small, family run or corporate) focus extra attention on giving. That is why the most complete hotels are called "full service." They take every opportunity possible to give.

The bulk of these verses from Genesis are made of details about details. The author doesn't just state that Abraham and Sarah treated their three mysterious guests well. We are given the play by play of every detail of their hospitality to their visitors. Some read this narrative and assume that Abraham knew right out that they were angels. The artist of the icon has pictured them that way. However I am of the thinking that Abraham was just a kind Middle Eastern fellow (his hometown that he emigrated from was in present day Iraq) that took pride in his hospitality to strangers. As a travelling herdsman he knew the toils of life on the road and offered a rest stop for these three strangers. Kindness to strangers was standard to Abraham, You may read something into Abraham calling them "My Lord" and referring to himself as their "servant." Yes, it may be that he realized early on that he was encountering the Divine, but it may be that he was referring to them as "Lord" like we refer to someone as "Sir" or another title of honor. His referral to himself as their "servant" showed his humility. By this point Abraham was a rich herdsman who hobnobbed with Pharaohs, but humble acts of service toward those in need were not beneath him. Humility was standard for Abraham. So he set a comfortable meal before be fore his gusts, and that's when things got weird... 

Our snippet of the story ends with the strangers telling Abraham that his wife Sarah will bear a son. It is strange because these are total strangers and because they are speculating about future medical events. But more than that it is strange because Abraham and Sarah and 30 years into their senior citizenship. Abraham and Sarah had been getting in half price to matinee movies after a meal at the local Bob Evans for some time now. They were elderly and childless. They wanted children but it never seemed medically possible... especially now. That may be why God chose to do it in their senior years. A gift of a child at this point would no be seen as normal, it would be understood as a miracle. It would be seen as a gift of God. It would be seen as God's hospitality. Abraham (who is known to history as Father Abraham) was promised by God to be the father of nations... that through him the world would be blessed. He would go on to have a son named Isaac. His relationship with God would birth Monotheism. He is understood to have been the first Jew. It could be said that Abraham was blessed because he trusted and served God. This is true. But it is also true that God trusted and served Abraham. Before Abraham knew Him, God was planning out His hospitality to Abraham.

Trinity, Andrei Rublev

All of the big three Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) place Abraham in high esteem, however, in Christianity we see much more to God's promise of greatness to Abraham's descendants. We read into God's promise to bless the world through Abraham's offspring the glimmer of hope through his descendant Jesus. The promise of the Messiah is like a snowball that starts in the Garden of Eden and rolls throughout the Old Testament scriptures until it builds big enough to take out a BMW. Most contemporary Jews accept some notion of the Messiah... God's special servant who rules as a King and makes all right with the world. It is debated whether the Messiah is an one actual person, an age or the people Israel collectively. Christians (obviously) believe that Jesus is that long awaited Messiah (hence the name Christ, since Christ & Messiah mean the same thing in two different languages). But it is more complex than choosing whether the Messiah is a person, age or Israel collectively... Jesus is obviously a person, yet he is more than just a person. We believe that Jesus is God. We believe that God's special servant who rules as King is God Himself in flesh. So what about the times when Jesus prays to God as his "father"? Or the times that God speaks from Heaven about Jesus when Jesus is around? Well that's because they are different people... or "persons"...but all the same God... Okay, it's complicated. Oh yeah, and when Christ sent down the Holy Spirit to the Apostles to dwell in the hearts of believers... that was God too. like I said: it's complicated. So when Christians looked back on scripture in light of Christ they not only saw foreshadowing of Christ and the Church but they also saw pre-revelations of the Christian understanding of God's nature. Most throughout Christian history have seen the three strangers/angels that visited Abraham to be the Trinity Himself. Therefore Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev revisited the commonly reproduced icon of "The Hospitality of Abraham" and remixed as a painting of the Trinity. All he had to do was crop out Abraham and Sarah. It's an interesting testament to the evolution of theological belief. It shows how a familiar Biblical narrative can give us new gifts when we view it with fresh eyes. Even God's Word practices it's own form of hospitality.

So it appears that we have God in three persons but the same being. I would attempt to use an illustration to simplify it, but many of the illustrations used to simplify our understanding of the Trinity usually simplify it too much and lead to borderline heresy. I think that the best thing to keep in mind when contemplating the triune nature of God is that God is different. That's it. We accept that other things in life are greater/different than us. Why can't we accept this with God? God uses metaphors in Scripture to show us what He is "like" or what his relationship to us is comparable too, but these analogies have their own limits. God is greater than anything we can imagine. Holier than we can percieve. More perfect than we can fathom. In the end he is way more gooder than we could ever be: the mostest gooderest of all... and yes, I know that "gooder" and "gooderest" are not real words. But that's just it: my words and grammar fail to explain what and who God fully is. When words fail God has given us a better teacher to reveal his identity: experience. Scripture is filled to the brim with the ancients experiences with God. How Abraham experienced Him to be a friend. How his wife Sarah experienced Him to be a healer. How his descendant Moses would later experience Him to be a deliverer. In our own lives we experience Him to be a loving Father, a saving Son and a comforting Holy Spirit. And the attributes of God that Scripture testifies to but we have yet to experience we will know fully when He resurrects us to eternal life with Him. God is a wonderful caretaker who understands the detailed needs of all under His care. When we experience His giving nature it reveals to us more details about who He is. He gives because God's business is hospitality. If you are one of God's children (and the spiritual offspring of Abraham), how hospitable are you? Are you inheriting your Father's business?      

Go And Do Likewise

Where We Come From, Emily Jacir

Luke 10:25-37

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Parents use guilt trips to teach their children a lesson. Grandparents tell stories. God does both. If you've heard anything about Jesus before then you've probably heard of "The Good Samaritan." If you've tuned in today expecting a good message centered around the Good Samaritan then you may be disappointed. I will discuss the Samaritan, but only in the extent that it pertains to the rest of the narrative. The subject of the narrative found in Luke 25 is not the Good Samaritan. The subject is not even Jesus. The subject is a lawyer who had a few questions for Jesus. The predicate, the verb that takes action and interacts with this lawyer is Jesus' response. So the question is how did Jesus fully respond and why did he respond this way?

The lawyer asked Jesus a basic "How-to" question for Jesus: How to inherit eternal life? If Jesus ever authored one of those "For Dummies" instructional books, it probably would have been about inheriting eternal life. So Jesus responds twofold “What is written in the law?" and "What is your reading of it?” By "the Law", he (and most other references to The Law in Scripture) means the Jewish scriptural Law, the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament authored by Moses). This lawyer would have been very familiar with it because he wasn't a scholar of secular Roman Law but of religious Jewish Law. But Christ isn't just concerned about the lawyer reading Scripture but understanding Scripture, so he asks him what his "reading" of it was... or how he understood it. The lawyer's response of quoting a mash up of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 was correct. This is the textual recipe for inheriting eternal life. The problem is that it only works if you know how to act out the meaning of the verses: How do I love God and how do I love my neighbor as myself? The lawyer brings this problem to the forefront when he asks the identity of his neighbor. It appears that he already had an opinion on this matter because it says that he asked this to "justify himself." So to explain who his neighbor was, Jesus goes into grandfather mode and proceeds to tell a story.

Jesus tells the story of a (presumably Jewish) man who while travelling is attacked by robbers, beaten and left for dead. While he lay roadside he passed on two occasions by men who would have been expected to assist him. Both were Jewish and religious clergyman (a temple priest and a Levite...think deacon). The person that stops and helps him is a Samaritan. The Samaritans and Jews were not only seen as different, they were seen as openly hostile. Their relationship is similar to how we currently view Israelis and Palestinians (even though Samaritans still exist). This Samaritan would have been expected to show disdain or at least avoidance for his ethnic enemy, but instead he showed intimate mercy. He did more than treat this Jewish man as a neighbor. He cared for him as a brother. He nursed and provided for him as a son. He loved this man as he loved himself.



Where We Come From, Emily Jacir

Why did Jesus give the example of the Samaritan? Because the Samaritan was as different as the lawyer could imagine? Because Jesus wanted to show the lawyer that love for your neighbor means love for your perceived enemy? Yes, but Jesus could have achieved all of that by making the Samaritan the victim and the Jewish man the hero that saves and nurtures him to health. Why did Jesus make the Samaritan the sacrificial hero? Well their appears to be a tradition of Jewish prophets and writers in Scripture showing faithfulness amongst Gentiles (non-Jews) to show the faithlessness of their Jewish listeners. These include the stories of Elijah and the widow, Ruth and Naomi (a whole book about this subject) and Rahab the harlot to name a few. This is the equivalent of a parental guilt trip. Specifically it is the shaming tactic that parents use when they compare you with one of your peers that is outside of the family, "Why don't be more like that Johnson boy." Jesus used this method a few times himself. Like when he encountered the Roman military leader who had unusual faith, greater than Jesus had seen in all of Israel. Jesus was telling this pious Jewish legal scholar that in his years of studying the Torah he had missed the whole point. Jesus was telling him that to inherit eternal life he would have to be like this Samaritan. He would have to be more like this Gentile.

God still gives us real life examples of the Good Samaritan. The photographs at the top of this blog entry are from Palestinian artist and activist Emily Jacir. She was born in Bethlehem (no I didn't make that up) was raised in Saudi Arabia and Italy and pursued under and post grad studies in the U.S. Even though she was part of the Diaspora abroad, Emily still kept abreast of the political struggles of Palestinian people back home. Having an American passport gave her an advantage that many other Palestinians don't have: freedom of movement in Israel. From 2001 to 2003 she contacted 30 Palestinians living abroad and in the occupied territories. She asked them "If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?” After collecting these requests she went all over Israel, Palestine and the occupied territories and fulfilled such wishes as:

"Go to Haifa and play soccer with the first Palestinian boy that you see on the street."
"Drink the water in my parents' village."
"Go to Bayt Lahia and bring me a photo of my family, especially my brother's kids."
"Go to the Israeli post office and pay my phone bill."
"Go to my mother's grave in Jerusalem on her birthday and place flowers and pray."
"Do something on a normal day in Haifa, something I might do if I was living there now."

Emily Jacir documented and performed all of these acts as artwork... but it may be a little more. It is the Lord's work. It is what the Samaritan did. It is doing for others when they do not have the ability to do for themselves. It is showing mercy. It is showing love through acts of kindness. It is nursing the stranger on the side of the road when others pass him by. 

Where We Come From, Emily Jacir

Now some of you may respond that Emily Jacir is not a perfect parallel to the Good Samaritan because both she and the people that she aided were all Palestinian. Touche! However she is not the same as me and you, and that is the crux that Jesus' story rest upon. Emily Jacir is a Muslim. You know, one of those people that the TV News tells us that we should be afraid of and our television ministers infer are the farthest from God's grace. Remember the Culture Wars? I mean the ones that aren't surrounding abortion and Gay Rights. The Culture Wars make us think that Christianity and Islam are destined to have unending animosity and that the Crusades were the best thing since sliced bread. They allude that Israelis and Palestinians political struggles are somehow justified in the Bible. They say that the Palestinians (or pick any other Middle Eastern group) are the same folks that the ancient kingdom of Israel fought with in the Old Testament. Now I am not saying that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict isn't messy and that both sides don't have some blood on their hands... and at the end of the day I am neither Palestinian or Israeli, so I cannot speak with full investment. I am a Christian though, and as a follower of Christ I see that our Islamophobia makes us blind to any good from our Muslim neighbors. It also makes us blind to the good that we fail to do. When we see past the fog of war and bigotry God has some interesting things to show us. He may even surprise us by using a Samaritan man to show his hand at work. He may even use a Muslim woman.    

The reason for Jesus' response to the lawyer and the source of eternal life are both wrapped up in Christ's last line to lawyer, "Go and do likewise." What are we called to go and do? In general, be like the Samaritan. In specific, show mercy. The showing of mercy is what made the Samaritan the traveler's neighbor. The showing of mercy is what makes us "holy", if by holy you mean "like God." For it was God who showed mercy to a stranger and enemy when he found him in need. He extended mercy and saved them from death. The stranger was not a Samaritan. The enemy was not a Muslim. That stranger and enemy of God was you and me.

Go and Do likewise.

Religion, Art, Accounting... and Bacon

Portrait of Luca Pacioli, by Jacopo de Barbari

Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Have you ever played that game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? It's basically a party game based on the Six Degrees of Separation concept with the actor Kevin Bacon in the center. Word on the street (and by "word on the street" I mean "something my wife told me") is that Kevin Bacon 's agent created the game to promote his client. By that point the young Kevin Bacon had starred in several films with numerous high profile actors. Those actors themselves had starred in films of their own with other high profile actors. So if you keep following the line then you can connect Kevin Bacon to any actor in Hollywood's past and present. So when you think of any great actor, you also think (by association) of Bacon. Occasionally life gives us amazing cases like that: individuals that tie seemingly unconnected things in surprising ways. Like when comedian Steve Martin also became a Grammy winning Blue Grass banjo player. You know that Eddie Murphy could've been a comedian/ Grammy winning musician combo too, if he just hadn't kicked Rick James out of his house for muddying up his new couch.

By now many of you are aware that I am interested in Christianity and Art. You may have also picked up that I do paintings myself. What you probably don't know is how I pay my bills (and how rude of you to ask). I work in Accounting. Yes, I know that most of you don't see the connection and I didn't either... until I learned about Luca Pacioli. He was a 15th century Italian Franciscan monk and mathematician. He is generally recognized as the father of Accounting for codifying the double entry bookkeeping system that is still used in contemporary accounting. His work for the powerful de Medici family (who ruled Florence and were mammoth patrons of the Arts) put him in close proximity to Leonardo Da Vinci. He served as Leonardo's math tutor and together they collaborated "De Divina Proportione." In this work he discussed such things as the golden ratio, a geometric concern that is important to both painting and architecture. Luca Pacioli is one of those rare individuals who is the central tie between seemingly disparate things. However I know of at least one other individual that is a central link between images, bookkeeping and religion: Jesus Christ. St. Paul's verse for today in Colossians is all about that connection.

In this Epistle to the young church in the city of Colossae (in modern day Turkey), St. Paul describes Jesus Christ as the image of God. Scripture reveals that God by nature is invisible. This would have seemed like a disadvantage by potential converts from other religions. They most likely would have come from religions with idols that either represented their gods or were recognized as their gods. Their idols of wood, stone or gold provided for them a point of contact with their notion of the divine. It gave them something at hand that they could have faith in. Religious belief was a very visual and tactile thing. It also proved to be a very lucrative thing for the artisans of the time. Idol image production was such a large industry that it had its own labor unions (or guilds) in certain cities. Paul had encountered the angry side of one of these art guilds before in Ephesus. Paul came to Colossae preaching about a God of the entire universe. A God who could not be seen or touched like these Pagan idols. But then that very God who had created the cosmos humbled himself and took the form of a simple carpenter and prophet from a small town in northern Judea (basically Israel's name as a province in the Roman Empire). It is the equivalent of someone telling you that God had appeared in the form of an auto mechanic from Guam. But many believed! Why? They may have believed because though there was majestic about the appearance of this crucified rabbi that Paul spoke of, there was something that revealed the divine in the message that he spoke. It was a powerful message that it made the listeners reevaluate their notion of who and what a god was. Was Divinity a golden statue of an anthropomorphized beast or natural force, or was Divinity a being that valued mercy so much that he would take the form of a servant and die for it? If they did believe in this message of good news from Paul then they had also received the one who had sent him, Jesus Christ, who was actually God Himself. This game of Six Degrees of Separation had just connected these young Gentile believers with the God of Eternity.

St. Paul goes on to state that not only is Christ the revealed image of God and His agent of creation but he is also His agent of reconciliation. Christ as the reconciliation of all things and in his sacrificial death on the cross he reconciled the world back to God. If you have ever spent any time in accounting (or doing personal bookkeeping) then you know that it all comes down to reconciling. Reconciling that an account (or several) are balanced. It is why Accounting is called "accounting." You must account for things: money, inventory, sales, etc, etc, etc, multiple hours of mind numbing etc. Accounting is the measure and tracking of ones possessions and transactions and it therefore touches every area of an entity's enterprise. It is all very important to any financial endeavor because it is the measure of consistency. It is how things are maintained and their smooth operation is ensured. In Luca Pacioli's double entry bookkeeping, the "double" refers to the two columns on each ledger page: one for credit and one for debit. An account is reconciled by matching the debits with the credits. If there is no match then there is a problem and a deeper audit needs to occur. Consistent failures of government audits (usually in the subject of taxes) is what leads to jail time or a fine. Now I know that you utterly hate the "guys down in accounting" at your job, but in the end they are the ones who are keeping everyone out of jail. That fear of judgment and punishment is why accounting exists in every company... even Heaven (it's a large family run non-profit). Christ is God's accounting system. To use Luca Pacioli's double entry bookkeeping method, God has several accounts that are all under the general title of Creation. The accounts have various names such as oceans, Jupiter, ducks, stars, three toed sloths and other miscellaneous accounts. The largest account (or at least the most important one in my view) is for Mankind. This is also the account that presents the most problems. Mankind's books never balance. What we owe God and what we give God are never equal. We receive more than we pay and that is not a just system. God's ledger has two columns: one is labeled Justice and the other is labeled Mercy. An audit of Mankind's account revealed that our sins had become so grievous that Mercy was overused. God would only be fair in exacting Justice upon Mankind for our offences. That is what God's judgment is: an acknowledgment of debt to the Divine and a subsequent collection upon that debt. The execution of this collection of this debt would prove painful. That is where Christ stepped in. Being both divine and human, Jesus understood that mankind did not have the equity in blood to meet God's judgment. So Jesus took the judgment upon himself. The capital that this poor Jewish prophet possessed was his life and he gladly gave it as collateral to settle our account with God. In Christ's sacrifice lies not only the reconciliation of Mankind's account but the salvation of all Creation. Christ is the unique individual that ties God to mankind in the bond of sacrificial love.

Therefore it is in Christ that we see the image of God: an image of one that is both the source of creation and but the consistency of Creation. Jesus is integral to the making and maintenance of everything that God deems as precious. He is the head of both Heaven's Design and Operations departments. You may hear a ring of scriptural harmony between this verse in Colossians and the opening of the Gospel John. They both testify to Jesus being the face of God that did not remain afar in the heavens but came down to Earth and "tabernacled" among us as one of us: bearing our burdens and relieving our shame. He became the God that we could see and touch. As the Holy Spirit he becomes the God who dwells within the hearts of our mortal flesh. In Jesus God put an end to the Six Degrees of Separation that distanced Him from us. Therefore I can say without reservation that Jesus is even better than Bacon.

 

Drowning

The Drowning Artist, Linnea Strid

Psalm 69

Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
Where there is no standing;
I have come into deep waters,
Where the floods overflow me.
I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Those who hate me without a cause
Are more than the hairs of my head;
They are mighty who would destroy me,
Being my enemies wrongfully;
Though I have stolen nothing,
I still must restore it.

O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.
Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers,
And an alien to my mother’s children;
Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting,
That became my reproach.
I also made sackcloth my garment;
I became a byword to them.
Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.

But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O Lord, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.
Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor let the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
And do not hide Your face from Your servant,
For I am in trouble;
Hear me speedily.
Draw near to my soul, and redeem it;
Deliver me because of my enemies.

You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
My adversaries are all before You.
Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table become a snare before them,
And their well-being a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.
Pour out Your indignation upon them,
And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
Let their dwelling place be desolate;
Let no one live in their tents.
For they persecute the ones You have struck,
And talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
Add iniquity to their iniquity,
And let them not come into Your righteousness.
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
And not be written with the righteous.

But I am poor and sorrowful;
Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull,
Which has horns and hooves.
The humble shall see this and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
For the Lord hears the poor,
And does not despise His prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise Him,
The seas and everything that moves in them.
For God will save Zion
And build the cities of Judah,
That they may dwell there and possess it.
Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it,
And those who love His name shall dwell in it


Sometimes you just can't stay afloat...

That's what drowning is. For one reason or another you find yourself overcome by the current and you cannot save yourself. Why am I talking about this morbid subject? Well because in this Psalm David talks about drowning. He actually writes about a lot of things in this lengthy Psalm but he talks about drowning twice. When he repeats the drowning motif you realize that this is a song and he is establishing a "hook." You know, that's the young folks word for a chorus. And when you look at it again in the terms of the hook I realized that the whole song was about drowning. Ironically a hook is what David could have used. Specifically the hook on the end of a shepherd's staff. No doubt he had used it many times before, in his former life as a shepherd, to save sheep who had slipped into the deep. Now the former shepherd was a king and he needed saving of his own.

I'm Erasing You, Linnea Strid

King David was drowning. Psalm 69is not just about drowning in water but about drowning in "mire." What is mire? Well ask your nearest elderly deacon and he will tell you that mire basically means mud... and slush... things that lead you to sink deeper and deeper. Land that betrays you and reveals its liquid tendencies. Mire is that mud on the banks of a river that a sheep may have stood on to get a sip from the water. Then they realize that this seemingly stable ground had ensnared them. It's like that quicksand episode that every cartoon and family sitcom from the 70's and 80's had to include..."Oh no Scooby and Shaggy, apparently you've stumbled into quicksand for the 415th time!" But when David speaks about drowning in water and sinking in mire he is alluding to an even more vile danger: Sinking into sin. Not just any sin but drowning in addictive sins. Becoming engulfed by iniquitous relationships, like the adulterous one that he orchestrated with Bathsheba. Falling into problems that shame you and ensnare those who surround you, like David's plot to murder Bathsheba's to cover us her and David's child. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you were lucky enough to have had a spiritual Indiana Jones there to save you from this sand pit. Maybe you are still there slowly sinking until you find yourself fully submerged in it. 

Transforming, Linnea Strid

If you do find yourself slowly being submerged then the answer is to surrender and be immersed. The first step of faith in Christ is belief but the second step is immersion. I am obviously alluding to baptism. And why wouldn't I? As a Baptist I belong to a group that named itself after the act. If you look through this verse about sin, shame and drowning you may also notice verses that Christians look to as foreshadowing of Christ's crucifixion and death. Even though David's iniquities came hundreds of years before Christ's sacrifice, his hope for mercy would be intertwined in Christ's actions. That is because all of God's mercy in history past and history future was tied to Christ's taking upon humanity's collective sin... Soooo, what does this have to do with baptism? Well St. Paul will later identify our Christian rite of baptism with Jesus' sacrificial death. As you hold your nose and are lowered by a minister into a pool of water, Paul says it parallels Jesus' being lowered into the grave... both are done to wash away sins. You may have heard it referred to as the "liquid grave." As you arise from the water you parallel Christ's arising from the dead, both having shed the dirt of sin. Paul spoke this way because Christians didn't invent baptism per se, they just imbued it with renewed meaning. And no, the Baptists didn't invent baptism either. This is another ritual that we inherited from Judaism. In Judaism it is referred to as a "Mikveh", a purification ritual. It is heavily practiced in Orthodox and Conservative Jewish congregations. There are several reasons to have a Mikveh performed, but the one that closely resembles Christian baptism is for conversion to Judaism. In biblical times the most famous proponent of Mikvehs for conversion was a desert prophet named John the Baptist (who also happened to be Jesus' cousin). His argument for this spiritual cleansing however was to people who had probably already converted to Judaism. They actually had probably been Jewish from birth and some of them were Pharisees and Priests in the temple in Jerusalem. John the Baptist's notion was that they were converted externally but not internally. Conversion is not just a matter baptizing the body but also baptizing the heart. Even if you have been baptized there are times when we must analyze our ways and thoughts to discover if we are truly spiritually cleansed. If we are honest with ourselves we may realize that we are often far from purity. We may realize that just like David, we are adults who have gone through all of the religious rites required of our youth but have now sunken into sin. We have gone from being immersed in baptismal waters to engulfed in sin. 

If that is your case then take confidence in the fact that you have hope in Christ. This hope cannot be drowned because this hope floats. This is the hope of spiritual breath that relieves on of sin's suffocation. No, baptism is not a magic bath. As a Baptist I don't actually believe their is any salvific power in the act of baptism itself. However their is power in the internal spiritual conversion that it symbolizes. A conversion that you may need to have repeatedly to varying degrees several times over in your life. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. It shows that you personally relate with Christ's sacrificial act. If you haven't made this internal change then you may have pulled the wool over your own eyes. Even if you didn't realize this at the point of your baptism, there is still time now to make an actual spiritual conversion. This is the hope of Christianity: that you can always surrender to the Holy Spirit's baptism of your heart. This is the hope of wayward sheep who long to be saved by the Good Shepherd. 

Inside My Skin

The Two Fridas, Frida Kahlo

Deuteronomy 30:9b-14

"For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."

Today is my second wedding anniversary. On August 20, 2011 my wife and I exchanged vows with her priest and my father (who is a preacher) co-officiating. My wife is a tremendous blessing to me. No, honestly she is...It's not like I'm trying to score points with her because I forgot our anniversary or something. She is both the loveliest and classiest person that I know. It's like someone merged the personalities of Roma Downey and Clair Huxtable. Our relationship, with its growing, forgiving, patience and learning really does teach me more about the Lord. Honestly that's why I first fell in love with her... she truly was fascinated and amazed with who Jesus of Nazareth was (and is). It made me have an amazing draw towards her. There was something deep within my being that wanted to be around her. It was magnetic. As our relationship grew our denominational differences made us focus on what we both had in common, Jesus. And in the end that is the greatest thing to share with anyone. Now we are not necessarily your classic Christian family: the Duggars or the Winans or whomever your ideal. We are different but our differences lead me to learn, humble myself and grow. We are not perfect but Love itself is perfect and that's what we aspire towards. That is what we made our vows about: the ones written on paper and the that had been forged within the inside of us.   

Being with my wife is terrific because we can share our whole world of references with each other. She exposes me to the worlds of Opera and Orchestral music and I expose her to McDonald's and witty Lil' Wayne lines... or at least I try to. We actually do share a love for music. Music can be a great means of sharing the lyrics of love that your heart felt but you never knew how to express. That's why I love listening to my wife as she practices singing in the evening while I paint. One of my favorites that she does is a song by Jewel called "Absence of Fear." The lyrics are so powerful because it delves right into what it means to love, want and need someone. It wasn't one of our wedding song (and it may not have been played at our reception) but it plays inside of me when I think of how beautiful her soul is. 

Inside my skin there is this space
It twists and turns
It bleeds and aches
Inside my heart there's an empty room
It's waiting for lightning
It's waiting for you
And I am wanting
And I am needing you here
Inside the absence of fear
Muscle and sinew
Velvet and stone
This vessel is haunted
It creaks and moans
My bones call to you
In their separate skin
I make myself translucent
To let you in, for
I am wanting
And I am needing of you here
Inside the absence of fear
there is this hunger
This restlessness inside of me
and it knows that you're no stranger
you're my gravity
My hands will adore you through all darkness aim
They will lay you out in moonlight
And reinvent your name
For I am wanting you
And I am needing you here
I need you near
Inside the absence of fear
-Jewel

Relationships are not perfect institutions. Vows are not always kept or respected. Maybe that's why so many people try and avoid marriage. Ironically they still involve themselves on some basic level, because everyone needs to be connected (except for this weird trend going on in Japan that I heard about, but that's beside the point). Art history is full of art couples. Some of them good, like Christo and Jeanne Claude, and some of them not so good, like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. But let's only discuss the bad ones because let's be honest, you are messy and you just finished reading MediaTakeout.com (a gossip website that makes TMZ seem like a church bulletin). Paramount among these tumultuous relationships amongst art giants is the marriage of Mexican painter/ feminist icon Frida Kahlo and Mexican muralist/ Communist activist Diego Rivera. The reason that Frida was such an amazing painter was that she laid it all bare on the canvas. Art had already evolved to being about the painter and not necessarily the patron, but Frida took it to the extreme and made it about a specific painter, herself. Her balance of her Mestizo identity, he debilitating health concerns after a tragic auto accident, her miscarriages, her love for Diego but her hate for his philandering ways: Frida exposed the whole of her self in her paintings. I doubt that Frida made a painting every day, but if she did her schedule would look a lot like this:

Monday: Make painting about my love for Diego
Tuesday: Make painting about my tragic accident
Wednesday: Make painting with me and a bunch of parrots
Thursday: Make painting about Diego breaking my heart
Friday: Make painting about the tragic health affects after my tragic accident
Saturday: Make painting with me and some random monkeys
Sunday: Make painting about Diego breaking my heart but me still loving him

This background gives us a peek into the meaning of The Two Fridas. In it Frida Kahlo has painted two self portraits holding hands. They are dressed differently but both have their hearts exposed. They one on the left wears the wedding dress that Frida wore at her wedding with Diego. She also holds scissors that have cut open her heart. This symbolizes the way that her husband Diego has repeatedly destroyed her heart while running after Hollywood starlets. The other Frida figure holds a picture of Diego in her hand... because in the end she still loves Diego and is willing to reconcile with him despite his past adulteries. Love can be messy. Love can be hurtful. Love can pierce you deep on the inside.

Moses knew about the tumultuous love affair between God and His people well. As a prophet He was almost like God's wing man. He was the go between that would tell the Israelites how God loved the, remembered them and wanted to give them the world... or at least a plot of land in Palestine that is about the size of New Jersey. He also was the go between that would tell he people how God was infuriated with them, but that the anger was just because he loved them and didn't want to lose them.
In Deuteronomy 30 Moses tells how God will rejoice if only they would keep his statutes and commands, just like he did with their parent's generation... back in the beginning of their relationship, when they made promises to each other. God promised to be their God, to love and protect them. Israel promised to honor and obey Him... to put no one else before Him. Things weren't perfect back then, but Love is perfect and that's what they aspired to have. Moses reminds the Lord's beloved that the things that His demands are not far off. They are not unheard of. They are familiar because they are what their Love was based on. They are actually stored within the Israelites' hearts and souls. They were etched on their hearts and sung in their mouths. His commands were within them because His they were the vows of their love.

Scripture is a love song and a painting about heart break. It is about God and his wife Israel. It is about Jesus and his bride the Church. It is the courting of the Holy Spirit, whispering to your heart about you and God getting back together again. Sometimes our relationship with God is as beautiful and complete as what Jewel sang about. Sometimes we play Diego Rivera and leave God like Frida. But God never stops loving us, never stops wanting us back and like an Ex that won't give up He keeps sending us text messages through the text of Scripture (by the way, that was very funny). Maybe that's why it is hard to read the Bible when your life isn't quite right. It is not just about the guilt trips, but its that the guilt trips are based in something real, something beautiful, something that's gotten complicated, a relationship. So instead of talking to Him you just don't read His messages anymore. That's the thing, most relationships don't end with a huge break up. They fizzle out when you just stop talking. Sometimes absence doesn't make the heart grow fond at all. It just makes the heart grow cold... and suddenly you don't believe in or consider the other person at all. That's why I see loving relationships as one of God's secondary forms of communication. God repeatedly shows his love in Scripture wrapped in the metaphor of a loving relationship: as a parent, as a spouse, as a mother bird, as an adoptive parent. But he also shows his love in everyday life through relationships: for better or worse. More than often in life we experience God's grace through the hands of others. When I look at my wife I get a glimpse of how much God must love me. How much He can look past my faults and see my needs. How much He can be angry at me but still forgive me. And its all based on vows that we took together. Vows that are written on paper but also deep inside of us.  









 

The Harvest of Peace and Tumult

Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Sun, Vincent Van Gogh

 Luke 10:1-9

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.  Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.

My wife is Irish Catholic and I’m Black Baptist: the comedic extreme versions of each group. Maybe we’ll raise our future kids in a Korean Seventh Day Adventist Church just to keep it interesting. In spite of our denominational differences we still visit each other’s church services. The other week I went to my wife’s church and heard an amazing sermon. One of our family friends, who is a newly ordained deacon, preached the sermon this very same verse in Luke. We had actually attended his ordination at Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. Now he was dressed in his Deacon's robe (with the diagonal sash that makes him look like he's the mayor) delivering a homily about the great call that he had just answered... to be a Harvest worker. He reminded us that just like the nameless 72 followers of Jesus in this verse, we too are called to go out into the world and spread the message of Christ’s kingdom and to offer his peace to the restless. Before the mass started he and I chatted about the sermon itself, sermon construction and the art of preaching in general. While he preached I thought about the fact that over two millennia there have been countless others that have been added to the 72. Whether they were preachers, missionaries, teachers or just nice old ladies on the bus: many have been sent out in to the world, feeling the call to spread the message of hope in Christ. Just like the 72 many succeeded and reaped the joy of the Lord as their reward, however, some did not. Some did not receive a captive audience. Some did not return home. Some did not receive the joy of the Lord in the end. Today I would like to share with you about one those from that last group. One who went out to spread the message of peace but never received God's peace himself. His name was Vincent Van Gogh.

There is no doubt that nearly all of you have heard of Vincent Van Gogh as an artist. Even people who know the least about art know about "that guy who cut his ear off." I have even less doubt that those of you that are familiar with Van Gogh's paintings probably list them as some of your favorite works of art. Van Gogh as an artist is the art equivalent of Tupac as a rapper, Wagner as a composer or Kobe Bryant as a basketball player: whether they're the best is debatable but if you don't like them its probably due to their personal flaws than their artistry. Van Gogh is a giant among painters for several reasons. His expressive colors and thick brushstrokes are the envy of any painter who desires to let loose and apply the paint several inches thick. His ability to deliver a character's psyche and personality in their portrait or even a painting of their shoes is the envy of any aspiring novelist. His fulfillment of the "troubled artist" archetype and failure at financial success during his earthly life are the envy of any self loathing, Emo musician. Even with this universal admiration of him I do wager that their are many of you that are unaware that for a time Van Gogh was a preacher and that a good portion of his works have scriptural themes and symbolism in them. 

Van Gogh picked up professional painting later in life. Before that he spent time as a Methodist minister in training and missionary to the poor. At this point in history Methodists held the title for their missionary and evangelistic efforts. The Methodists were not initially started as a separate denomination but rather as an Evangelical renewal movement within Anglicanism (which is the same as Episcopalian in the United States). It's founder, John Wesley, focused much of its spiritual discipline on personal holiness (the theological conversation that he started would eventually lead to the Holiness, Pentecostal and Charismatic movements as well). John Wesley's movement's success was due to his brother Charles Wesley's hymns and Methodist missionaries willingness to go anywhere to serve the underserved and church the unchurched. Their efforts amongst the poor laborers of Europe were especially noble. It was these efforts amongst the working poor that attracted Van Gogh.

The Sower, Vincent Van Gogh

Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.  Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.  Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.

To say that Van Gogh was interested in Harvest is an understatement. Van Gogh spent massive amounts of time and energy considering the harvest in thought and brushwork. Whether it was a depiction of the field itself, the labor in the field or the laborers, Van Gogh did the Harvest like Andy Warhol did Campbell's Soup, like Cosby did Coogi & HBCU sweaters, like Kenny G did elevator music. Vincent Van Gogh's love for the Harvest wasn't just a love for the aesthetic of a European farm landscape but it was also a love of the souls of the Harvest worker. These underserved, rural souls were the same ones that held Bible studies for. Van Gogh would also go on to minister to coal miners, but wheat harvesters held a special place in his artistic cosmos. Jesus also repeatedly used harvesting images in his greatest works of art: the parables. As Christ informed his closest followers on the need for ministry workers he used an analogy that workmen would understand: "The harvest is ripe but the laborers are few." The time for the spread of Jesus' message is now. It is ripe. Like a wheat plant that has grown from seed to stalk, salvation history has grown from the promise of Abraham to the arrival of the Messiah. This plant has developed its fruit and the fruit has ripened. The fruit of the wheat is the grain, ready to be made into bread and drink and enjoyed by the people. The fruit of God's Seed is the Gospel, the sacrifice of Christ, ready to be made into spiritual bread and drink and enjoyed by mankind. But a laborer is due his wages so it is only right that workmen of the Gospel may partake in the fruit of their labor: the Peace of God.   

Sheaves of Wheat in a Field, Vincent Van Gogh

But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.

Alas peace is something that Vincent Van Gogh could never find in this world. Like Jesus commanded he took next to nothing for his journey. When he preached to the poor he embraced poverty. He would willingly go without shoes during the winter while ministering to those who could not afford their own. Was this extreme? Yes. And it eventually lead to his superiors questioning his longevity in ministry and general stability. Well, that and the fact that Vincent actually did struggle with mental sickness. The life and mind of this messenger of God's peace could at times be tumultuous. Their are several theories as to why Vincent Van Gogh was troubled and sometimes hear voices. One that I have heard recently was that he may have had a form of Epilepsy that leads to seizures and auditory hallucinations. Van Gogh went without many things but the one thing that he did have was family. We have such an extensive record of Vincent Van Gogh's thoughts because of his letters that he wrote to his brother Theo Van Gogh, a Parisian art dealer. Theo would support and encourage his brother in his art and life. This is the unspoken background to Christian ministry: mutual support. Christ spoke of his messengers spreading blessings of peace upon the house of those that accepted them and their message. But what about the messengers themselves? Who would minister peace to them when they felt rejected and alone? That is why Jesus sent his missionaries in pairs. There are some Christian groups that emphasize the communal aspect of faith wonderfully. Yet there are still some approaches to following Christ (especially in America) that are too "me and Jesus." Yes, in the end you alone are the one who will answer to Christ, but he has also surrounded you with brothers (and sisters) for support and encouragement. They may not be blood brothers (like Theo and Vincent) but they may be that friend that sticks closer than a brother.

But why wasn't Theo enough to save Vincent? Sometimes this brotherhood and support may not come in the form of another believer. Sometimes this support may not come in the form of an individual but in the form of a service. Christians are implored to pray whenever sickness arrives. This is the right thing to do, however, I fear that their may be a false wall that we have erected between faith and medical science. It is almost that we feel that we are dishonoring God if we cannot remedy the situation with hands of prayer and the anointing of the sick. Let me be explicitly clear, the Lord choses many ways to heal people. Your job as a sick person is to pursue them... all of them. He uses prayer and the answer to that prayer may be the healing hands provided by a medical professional. This is even the case when the medical professional is not a believer. God has been known to use non-believers to fee his people (consider Cyrus the Great, a Persian king who emancipated the people of Israel and rebuilt the temple). I am going to go out on a limb and say that this is always the case with mental illness. You cannot just say a prayer and put a band aid on depression, schizophrenia, pedophilia or a score of other mental disorders that we as Christians have swept under the rug for too long. God provides support, but we must open our eyes, swallow our pride and accept his peace from the hands of others.

But Vincent sought medical support and he still took his own life in the end. What does that say about God's peace? Look, the peace of God is so valuable... but at the same time it is yet so elusive. It is hard to grasp. It is a butterfly floating away from a child in the wind and the child's net has holes in it. But if you are patient it will be yours. Sometimes it may not be a case of trying hard but just continuing to try. The Holy Spirit enables us to run marathons not sprints: sometimes it is not about the intensity of your faith but the endurance. Trust me, I have seen hard times when the world of sunshine and roses doesn't pierce through your dank shack of despair, but it does get better. If you suffer with mental illness of any kind then you must realize that God hasn't just called you to minister to others but to minister unto yourself and be ministered to. In Galatians St. Paul discusses the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our life. Of these nine attributes the one that everyone skims over is long suffering. Ironically it is one of the greatest gifts can give anyone who wants the peace of God in hard times. It means what it says: suffering long. It is the spiritual tenacity that enables a believer to weather life's tumults. It is the road that leads to God's kingdom of peace. 

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat Fields

And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.

Visionaries can always be dismissed as dreamers. Sometimes their tales of grand plans can come to fruition. The story of Christ and Van Gogh both involve their own stories of a great community that they would erect. It is a tale of two utopias: Jesus’ & Vincent’s. After his failed attempt at ministry, Van Gogh took to painting. He did not abandon spiritual aspirations for he say painting as a godly calling. As we discussed earlier he encoded many of his artworks with parabolic symbolism. Later he would forge a friendship with Paul Gaughin (the great expressive painter of colorful Tahitian culture and corrupter of young Tahitian women). They eventually set out to build an art commune. Vincent saw this as an opportunity to recreate culture and even our concept of religion... I imagine that Gaughin saw is as a way to score chicks with his wingman Vince. They were roommates and after an argument and the collapse of their art commune idea, Van Gogh sliced off part of his ear. This was not the end for Van Gogh but it was the end of his idea of an artistic paradise. If he only understood Jesus' message that "the kingdom of God has come near you." Often times we misunderstand the whole concept of the kingdom of God as well. Does it mean Heaven, or some place that I go when I die? Yes. But it means more than that. A kingdom means "the king's domain." it is anywhere that a King has sovereignty over. Case in point, King George III of England, the King of England, naturally was the sovereign ruler of England (hence the title). But he also was the ruler over all of England's possessions over seas, which until a fight broke out in 1776 included 13 British colonies in the New World. It didn't matter that he resided in one particular area, he was the sovereign ruler of all that submitted to him. His kingdom extended overseas. Likewise God's kingdom encompasses more than Heaven (the place for angels and dead people), God's kingdom is wherever people submit to his rule. To take it one step further, God's kingdom is in Christ. It is Christ that would be "coming near" the townsfolk that the 72 would preach to. It is in Christ, not, Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem, that Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles will gather to worship God in spirit and truth. It is in Christ that the fullness of the God is revealed. It is in Christ that the harvest and the harvest workers will find God's peace.

 

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows

Although Van Gogh painted several other types of paintings during his career (portraits, flowers, rooms), he stayed fascinated with the harvest of wheat fields until the end. Days after painting the canvas above, entitled Wheatfield with Crows, Vincent returned to the same field and shot himself. He was able to make back to the inn where he was staying and confessed to what he had done. He slipped into a coma and passed away. It appears that Just as Christ said in his parable of the sower after the seeds of the gospel had been sewed the birds of the air came and snatched them from Vincent's heart. This isn't the only story that I know of a minister struggling with impact of mental illness. When I was growing up in New Orleans, Bishop Paul Morton was in the midst of changing the landscape for many Black Baptists across the nation. He had built the Full Gospel Fellowship as an alternative for Baptist believers who chose a more Pentecostal/Charismatic approach to their worship. He also introduced a Baptist conference that was structured in a more diosecan format (hence the title "bishop) and ordained women into all levels of ministry. Even though I was from a more traditional Baptist background it was impossible not to feel his impact on the local Christian community. So when he openly discussed his Bipolar condition and subsequent mental breakdown in the late 90's it opened a new chapter in the Christian community. It showed that it was okay to be not okay. It showed that taking medicine can be an agent of God's grace for you physical and mental health. It showed that many bad things in our life only gain additional power when we hide them out of shame. The God's harvest is ripe. It is hungry souls waiting for the freedom that comes with the peace of God's kingdom. Those who are called to work this harvest must also realize that they too are part of the harvest. When Darkness clouds our minds we too must be nursed by others with lifesaving Light. If you do not have anyone that you can talk to or rely on to minister to you then do like Jesus said and "pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."  You may not be perfect but you can be made better. You are the one that God sees as special. You are the one whose cries he listens to. You are the one who cannot give up. You are the one that Jesus died for, to have peace. You are the harvest.