Jesus with Two Disciples, by Rembrandt Van Rijn
Dear Friends,
I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving. I did, while it was different this year. I find much to be thankful for, including planning the Advent Through Art retreat that begins on Wednesday. You can still sign up by clicking HERE.
People who write fiction write what they want to read, as people who write sermons write what they need to hear. And so, planning this time on Zoom with art and the scripture of Advent helps me ready myself for the season. In this blog post, I share some of my notes for preparing to begin the four-week journey.
I am grateful too that we were able to have our annual Bible Symposium this year. Rev. Dr. Wesley Hill came and spoke from the experience of writing his book on the Lord’s Prayer. Not to spoil it for you (as his talks were recorded and we will release them someday) I found it interesting how he unpacked that prayer using the Gospel of John in which we do not find the text of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Gospel of John is a different kind of critter, as a professor of mine would say. Not one of the synoptic gospels—the other three whose stories all more or less parallel each other—John appears as an outlier. This causes assumptions that it was written either before or after the other three.
It contains no story of Jesus’ early life and in it Jesus seems more divine than human. Therefore it would seem that we do not look to John for the narrative of Jesus’ birth in the flesh. But it is there, while its scene would make a better abstract painting than a nativity set.
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:5)
John makes Christ’s birth through poetry—art—symbolic words best suited to the scope of what he wanted to convey. John’s Christ is dynamically revealed to the world as he casts the world into shadow…..
And therefore we read John 1 at Christmas. But a setting of light and dark that reveal word and action sets the stage well for our performance of Advent, I think. So, as I risk messing up the drama of the lectionary, I mention the Gospel of John now….
….In thinking about the beginning of the liturgical year and its Sunday readings (you can click HERE for them), contemplating a couple of questions might be help. What do these bring to mind?......there are no right answers, just what God might want you to consider as you walk toward the Advent stage....
"What is the place from which I go to God?" You might imagine what it looks like--how easy is it to see? Is there a light burning? Is it so dark you cannot see your feet? Are there others there (who?), or are you alone? How do you feel when you approach the curtain? Excited? Bored? Fearful?
"What “props” am I carrying that I did not have last year?" We are leaving a year of things we might not be ready to put down yet because they show where we are right now. What are you holding? — specific people and events, images and feelings. Weighing and examining what we carry helps us be ourselves and notice when God makes us lighter.
It is impossible for me to not think of Rembrandt here—a painter who was known to pose his subjects in costume and well-considered light and shadow. Indeed, some of his ink-wash drawings seem to be mere and quick observation of those scenes.
Rembrandt’s work recalls what John did in casting his gospel in dark and light. Asking God to reveal our hearts by the light of his word is like sketching the scene inside of ourselves in preparation for an master work…..