Underwater Mystery

Blue Chandelier 1, Dale Chihuly


Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him...

In the miraculous case that my wife and I ever become suddenly and obscenely wealthy there are three things that we plan to do...

1) Hide the face that we have become suddenly and obscenely wealthy from others...especially our kids, until they are mid-college age. I mean, look at what happened to Denise Huxtable.
2) Donate to our churches, the poor and other deserving non-profits...I know that you are secretly judging me for not putting this as #1, but I am simultaneously judging you for judging my spending of my imaginary money.
3) Buy a Dale Chihuly chandelier...We wouldn't necessarily get an amazing new house. You'd just walk into a regular house and *bam!*, you run into a Venice Biennale quality hanging sculpture.

Dale Chihuly is an imposing figure who makes imposing pieces. For centuries glass blowers have been known for being the most manliest of all artists. They have to possess the old school, rough and tumble. barrel chested physique to be able push enough air out of their diaphragm to shape hot melted glass. Add to this the fact that Chihuly creates bigger than life sized works and he wears an eye patch. He carries an air of mystery about him and looks like the arch nemesis of the Dos Equis man. There is also a mystery as to what exactly is the nature of Chihuly's work? How do you classify it? Are his pieces pure abstraction or loose representations of undersea life? Are they blown glass art or large scale sculpture? Maybe the answer to both questions is all of the above... and that's what makes them amazing. They are colorful celebrations of the extreme possibilities of blown glass that is turned into large scale sculpture and explores the explores the abstracted inspirations that can come from representing those areas of the sea that the common man knows the least about. They are about light and form, delicacy and strength. They play with the illusion of weightlessness while flirting with the potential dangers of mass. They seem to represent movement and fluidity yet they are stationary. They are multiple things at one time. It is both a recognized hybrid and something that skirts on the barriers of classification. It is interesting that his works seem to make allusions to the sea because one can imagine that the ancients viewed water in the same way that I view a Chihuly piece: elusive yet accessible and plentiful, formless, yet able to take form, invisible yet reflective of light and able to take upon and mirror color. It is with this mystery of water that some of Christianity's greater mysteries are discussed in today's scripture.



Persian Ceiling, Dale Chihuly

The Medium

Water is a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. We encounter it daily and it is the majority of the expanse of our globe yet there are many mysteries to it: Such as what lies in the depths of the abyss. We have magazines and television channels that dedicate much programming to wowing us with the exotic, vibrant and Chihuly-like creatures that inhabit those inaccessible places. Water contains things both personal and foreign. One of it's greatest powers in our daily life is that of the medium for life and cleanliness. It sustains our internal life but also beautifies our external appearance. Biblical literature capitalizes on this aspect in explaining mankind's spiritual dilemma. In our personal external context water deals with our physical dirt. In our personal internal context the image of water deals with our spiritual dirt: Sin. Water shows sin and beautifies us by removing it. Scripture uses water as an agent of judgment and repentance. In the first book of the Old Testament we find the story of Noah where God sees Man's sinfulness and sends the Flood as judgment. In the first book of the New Testament we find the story of John the Baptist where God sees Man's sinfulness and provides baptism in the Jordan River as a sign of repentance from sin. This act of acknowledgment of sin and simultaneous submission to God is what makes way for God's salvation. In like manner John the Baptist's ministry of repentance was the precursor of Jesus' ministry of salvation. So the water of baptism doesn't save anyone in itself. It is an outward sign of an inward change. It shows the world that you have recognized your sin, repented and submitted to God. If this repentance is authentic then God saves you and creates good works through the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist is even shown in scripture discouraging inauthentic baptisms. If it is inauthentic then it is just another counterfeit: it may look like the real thing but it actually holds no value. Adolf Hitler was baptized but he is not known for producing acts of righteousness but rather acts of horrendous evil. Baptism isn't a magic bath. Of course Christians will still deal with sin in their lives once they have been baptized, but the Holy Spirit acts as a continual reminder to repent and lead a life that displays holiness, mercy, love and justice. The water represents repentance from sinfulness, selfishness and hatred: this repentance isn't just an act but a continual lifestyle. The water of repentance continually displays the dirt of sin in our life and asks us to continually scrub.

 

Mille Fiore, Dale Chihuly

The Man

 ...And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; ...

So the question that you may be asking yourself is Why is Jesus getting baptized? Isn't Baptism an acknowledgment of sin? Isn't Jesus sinless?" Great question. John the Baptist seems to have had the same question. He prevented the baptism of certain unrepentant Pharisees and Sadducees and he also attempted to prevent the baptism of the Son of God who needed no repentance. Why is God being baptized by a man? Is it because Jesus is also fully a man (in addition to being fully God)? Jesus' answer seems perplexing too: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” There may be several answers as to what this means and what exactly Jesus was doing, but one of the better explanations that I've heard ties in his reasoning for his death on the cross. When Christ was crucified he took the punishment for all Mankind's sins: though he was personally sinless. He was a scapegoat, a sacrificial substitute. In consciously doing this he identified with sinners. Christ befriended sinners, submitted in an act of repentance like sinners, was punished for the acts of sinners and in doing so bought our salvation. Now he can freely offer forgiveness for sinners and freedom from sin and judgment. His obedience to baptism publicly certified God's approval of John the Baptist's ministry of baptism and God's acceptance of believer's repentance through baptism. It was God saying that he accepts our apology. Christ also set the precedent of his followers using this act as a means of initial repentance. God accepts our repentance through baptism because in it we identify with His Son.



Persian Loop, Dale Chihuly

The Mystery

...and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

So what is the nature of the relationship between Jesus and God? Why do we refer to Jesus as being God yet simultaneously treat Him as separate (the whole "Father and Son" thing). You may heard of God's nature discussed as being the Trinity: the ol' three in one. This is what Christianity has understood God to be like for millennia: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Sometimes you may encounter suspicions on the biblical basis of the Trinity since it was formally recognized at the Council of Nicaea hundreds of years later. However this seems less to do with the idea being new and more to due with the fact that Christianity had not been forced to be as formal and declaratory on this fact in the past. It was just something that most understood. Even though the Bible may not explicitly state "trinity" the triune nature of God is understood in the New Testament community. This passage in Matthew actually is a good example of how they understood it. At this baptism God is shown in all three "persons": active and complimentary. The complimentary nature of these actions show a unity of being. The Father shows His love, intention and design. The Holy Spirit shows its inspirational, illuminating and empowering activity. The Son shows his commitment to teaching, saving and identifying with the cause of humanity. The Trinity is a mystery like water and a Chihuly sculpture: It is beautiful and life giving and somewhat elusive to the intellect while yet being able to be possessed... due to God's desire to possess us and be possessed by us in love. This is the greater mystery of community.

Salute Chandelier, Dale Chihuly

In considering the mystery of God's desire for communion with Mankind the Psalmist once wrote:

What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

- Psalm 8:4-8

 

This Psalmists inquiry starts with wonder of God's love for us and ends with water. Our inquiry starts with wonder of God's love for us, is grown stronger through baptismal water and continues through our acts of worship and thanksgiving to Him and forgiveness and kindness to others. This mystery and beauty is love. Love that starts with our recognition of our need for love (repentance) and need to show love to others. It is a love that responds to our every need. It is a love that is mysterious and hard to understand but beautiful to behold.

 

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?