Balance

Mobiles and Stabiles, Alexander Calder

Matthew 22:34-40

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Today I want to talk about Alexander Calder, your toddler's favorite artist. Yes, I am assuming a lot in that last statement. I assumed that you have a child, who is indeed toddler-aged and that this young child can speak already... or at least speak enough to express his or her appreciation for 20th century American kinetic sculptors. If this is the case then you should be less impressed with my talent for guessing and more impressed with your baby's class, sophistication and impeccable taste in Modern Art. All jokes aside, most babies are fans of Alexander's artwork by extension. They may not be familiar with his actual works of art but they enjoy (and may possess) a sculpture that is based off of his creations. It is hanging right above their crib. Alexander Calder invented the Mobile. No, not the Zach Morris mobile phone, the Mobile sculpture hanging sculpture that hangs above your baby's crib. Babies love Mobiles because they capture the imagination with their diverse moving parts. A Mobile have been known to entertain babies, dogs, cats and adults who are intrigued with the simple things in life for hours upon hours. A Mobile is comprised of an array of intricate and separate pieces, all going in seemingly diverse directions, yet when you really consider it, there are just two pieces in a mobile sculpture. They are rods and weighted objects. Wikipedia describes it this way:

"A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. The objects hanging from the rods balance each other, so that the rods remain more or less horizontal. Each rod hangs from only one string, which gives it freedom to rotate about the string."

Jesus understood the Old Testament Law in the same way. The Law is comprised of an array of intricate and separate pieces, all going in seemingly diverse directions, yet when you really consider it, there are just two pieces in the Law. It was the great Rabbi Maimonides taught that there were 613 mitzvot (or commands) in the Biblical Laws, but for centuries readers recognized that there seemed to be innumerable rules, regulations and observations for the pious to adhere to. This was of special interests to the Pharisees and the Rabbinical tradition that would follow them because they expressed their religiosity through the study and fulfillment of the Law. Different rabbis approached the Law in different ways but all understood as the way to please God. So for a Pharisee to ask Rabbi Jesus to identify the greatest commandment was tantamount to asking him the most important question and the most seemingly unanswerable question at the same time. Surely this question would either stump Jesus or at least get him in trouble. But Jesus didn't see an uncoordinated disarray in the Law. On the contrary, Jesus saw God's finely crafted work of art in motion. He saw God's Mobile. Jesus the carpenter (a sculptor of wood himself) recognized that this handiwork was only crafted with two parts to it: loving God and loving your neighbor. Like a Mobile, the rest of the Law and the Prophets hang on these in chandelier-like fashion.

Love God

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.

The aspect of a Calder Mobile that makes it chandelier-esque is the it emerges from above and is suspended in mid air. That is the beauty of this type of artwork, it possesses a magic that goes beyond the natural by allowing our mind to flirt with the notion of defying gravity. Now it actually does obey gravity (that's what makes it hang) but the image of it not touching the ground alludes to floating. It makes us dream of flight. All of this is done by rods that anchor the sculpture to the ceiling. Unlike our usual notion of that word, this anchor is not something that holds down but rather uplifts. The Law is often seen as something that holds us down. It is imagined as an anchor that weighs us down with condemnation. Yet Jesus saw the beginning of the Law as something different. Jesus saw the beginning of the Law as the rod in Calder's mobiles. The Law begins with an anchor that uplifts us to the ceiling and beyond...to the heavens. The beginning of the Law holds us up from falling to the depths. With it we defy gravity and our natural state. With this anchor that is the beginning of the Law we upheld by the super-natural. The beginning of the Law is the love of God. In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus says that we are uplifted by loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Yet the other two synoptic Gospels word it a little differently. Luke 10:27 says:

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,’

While Mark 12:30 words it:
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 

Why do the other two gospels include the word strength? Jesus' concept itself is anchored in previous Scripture. He is roughly quoting The Law in Deuteronomy 6:5:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Instead of noticing the differences in these texts, let us focus on the similarities. All share that we should love God with our heart and soul. Mathew says that we also should also love God with all of our mind while Deuteronomy says that we should love Him with all of our strength. Both Luke and Matthew include our mind and strength, so they agree with both Matthew and Deuteronomy. However I believe that Matthew and Deuteronomy' seeming contradiction is actually an agreement. It is all contingent on how we imagine the "mind." I believe that both mind and strength connote the will.  If someone has a "mind to do something", they are "willing it" to be so. More specifically they have a "strong will" or "strong mind" to make it so. So, loving God with our heart and soul is all about engaging our full will, and strong mind, in pursuit and affection toward Him. So we know about this uplifting love because God has revealed it to us (at least) four times in Scripture. This love of God uplifts us because it is based on God's love for us that He has revealed in his Word. We love God because he calls and causes us to love Him. Like the mobile, we are suspended from an anchor above.

Love your Neighbor

And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ 

If Calder's mobiles were just mobiles were just rods then they would be interesting to look up at but they would not be complete. Maybe they would be inspiring but they would not be fulfilling their function. The function of the rods is to uphold the "weighted objects." The rods are usually painted, which makes them act as a functionally visible structure to carry the bigger and colorful weighted objects. The beauty of the mobile is the seemingly unseen rods that enable the colorful and diverse shaped weighted objects as they float above us. The rods make the whole thing happen, but the "happening" that is made is the floating interplay of the flats sheets of colorful metal. Metal that we know would not naturally suspended from the earth where it not for the rod that anchors them above. Likewise the beginning of the Law (the Love of God) is fulfilled when we also love people. Loving God is the anchor that uplifts us past anger, vengeance, strife and hatred. It elevates our dealings with our neighbors. Once again Jesus' concept is anchored in the law that was revealed to Moses from above. This time Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

So both Jesus and Moses reveal to us that the will of God is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Remember that this was working on the previous revelation that we were to love the God who has first loved us. If we know that God has considered us worthy of loving, then we probably have elevated our perception of our loveable-ness. We are to take that new perception of loveable-ness and apply it to others. This is not just out of blind allegiance to God but rather because we have new eyes to see that God indeed sees others as lovable as he sees us. We then are to love all of God's children in the open, forgiving and self sacrificial way that He loves them. It is a love that lifts them from the depths and pulls them closer to the anchor that suspends us from above.

One Love

On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

When Alexander Calder created his multifaceted, moving sculptures out of essentially two parts he did not create two works. He did not call them rods and weighted objects. That is what we call them. He called them Mobiles because they were one thing. The rods and weighted objects were fused together in cooperation to become one work of art. Likewise Picasso did not call his works paint and canvases; they were paintings. Any Master's masterpiece is not considered the sum of its parts but rather the parts transform into one new and beautiful thing. When the lawyer asked Jesus about the greatest commandment, Jesus responded by telling him about two commandments. But he really was explaining one thing. Even though their are hundreds of mitzvot in Scripture and Jesus boils them down to essentially two commands, we never describe it as "The Laws" but rather "The Law." Jesus then says that on these two commandments hang two other things; the Law and the Prophets. yet even the Law and the Prophets are two parts of one greater thing; the Word of God. All of the God's revealed Word to Mankind is founded upon the first three words of both of Jesus' commandments "You shall love." That's it...Love. Love is the commandment that God has given to mankind. Everything else in Scripture is an explanation and/or illustration of that love. Yes, that love can be tough love sometimes but this toughness is the steel chain that binds us to our anchor. It is the chain that reaches down for us least we should fall from the Grace that calls us. The constraints of this grace are not restrictive of our will, but rather free our will to love God.



Flamingo in Chicago's Federal Plaza. Alexander Calder

Mobility

Alexander Calder was not a one trick pony. Along with his mobiles he also created stabiles. These sculptures were the antithesis to his mobiles. Where mobiles were whimsical suspensions that moved through the air, stabiles were bulkier, solid structures that sat stationary, bolted to the ground. Sadly this is how most view the law of God. They see it as restrictive, heavy and unmovable. Indeed this is how the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in Jesus' time practiced their religion. Jesus criticized them for this in Matthew 23:4:

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

The Pharisees were constructing stabiles when God was calling his people to be a mobile. Now I'd like to say that all of Jesus' disciples took heed to criticism of the Pharisees and lived out a religion that uplifted heavy burdens of the oppressed and aided those in distress. Many of those in that first generation of disciples did, but all to often the followers of Jesus throughout the ages have been known as the perpetrators of religious guilt and social rigidity. It is so much so the case that it is hard for me to think of how to teach Christianity without being "preachy" or just pushing the "rules." Ironically this is what we call "legalism." Now rules are important and so is structure, but only so when we can re-imagine them in the way that Jesus saw the true beginning and end of the Law. So ask yourself.: is your notion of Christianity focused on how remove burdens and barriers to God's love? Is your love of God completed in your love of your neighbors and even your enemies? Are you grabbing hold to the anchors above or are you just admiring them from below?