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Having sat lightly on this blog stuff over the years and not letting it rule me, I have decided not to stop, but to move across to Wordpress. In recent times I have heard a good deal on it and like the way I can potentially add pages etc. So have shifted this blog over and will go from there. I also have some study leave coming up and it will allow for some processing on different page.
So Beyond Flatland is now here.

The Caim - a story

The Caim is a midweek reflective service. We follow simple liturgies and read one of the daily readings, we pray together. This year we have met around the Communion Table each Week.

In the prayer time thanksgiving was offereed for the dustmen. A story explained this. One of our folks had a pile of logs arrived and the rain was starting. Going as fast as he could ti get it in under cover a dustman tunred up on his way past. these guys are super fit and run behin the truck tossing recycling etc into the truck. Anyway, the guy stops and offers a helping hand. Then another arrives and the two stash away the wood in no time. Meanwhile our friend is left giving thanks for the help. They ran on their way wishing him a good day! A wonderful simple, thankful story. I thought it worth sharing. Sometimes God surprises us and provides in our need. Incidentally, that was something of the gist of the text we read.

Emerging within the Church of Scotland

Having been part of the New Church Development ministry at a stage of reform within the Church of Scotland when Church Without Walls was also happening it is encouraging to see that there is a sense at least of continuing reform even within this area of the life of the Church,. Indeed, it seems that some of those early lessons, while they may not continue to see new congregations of that sort created, there are out of the 'old' some shoots appearing and taking up call to mission in Scotland. But I am especially encouraged at the full report to Assembly regarding planting/emergening matters. see Report(here) 2.2 Building for the Future is especially encouraging reading. I may reflect on portions in the next few days rather than here for now.

Suffice to note that the General Assembly 2008 meeting this week is deciding to 'financially' get behind the emerging mission shoots:

General Assembly 2008:
Ministries Council to unveil new £1.5 million fund At this year's General
Assembly (15 – 21 May), the Ministries Council will outline their plans
to devote £1.5 million - over five years - to a new Emerging Ministries Fund. This fund, which is available from 2009, would be made available to Presbyteries and charges through a grant making process specifically for new models of ministry and the establishing of new approaches to church. (Section 9.3.3.1.3, Ministries report) As such, the Emerging Ministries Fund will be supporting projects that engage with people in new ways where they are. In many cases this may mean less of a dependence on buildings and getting people to come in.
The Assembly will hear that the Emerging Ministries Fund will support
work in three areas (Section 3, Ministries supplementary):
Missional: work
that focuses on new church growth alongside or beyond the existing
congregation;
Ecclesial: work which is about establishing church from the ground up and exploring what that means for the given demographic and cultural context;
Experimental: work that looks at experimenting with new approaches to ministry. The hope would be to spread the funding across a range of approaches to maximise the learning experience for the Church at large. The processing of applications and general management of the fund will be carried out by the Council's Emerging Ministries Task Group,
who are dedicated to working with the other Funds of
the Church to ensure that applications are dealt with by the appropriate body.Emerging Ministries Fund grants would be made at a maximum level of £30K per annum for a three year period. In addition, Presbyteries and congregations will be expected to demonstrate that they have explored potential sources of matched funding - either private or public sector, or from ecumenical partners - although
there is recognition that such assistance cannot always be secured.
Ministries Council staff will be able to offer advice and support to applicant organisations at all stages of the process. It is anticipated that this substantial investment in local church work will have a
significant impact in the initial 5-year period of the fund, and beyond.

"As slow as possible" ?

Yesterday I caught this pieceon Concert Fm (New Zealand). it caught my attention and so I had to stay seated in the car having parked and I was fascinated. A man called Ryan Knighton was being interviewed.(listen here)

He speaks of John Cage, whom I recollected having read about in Jeremy Begbie's book Theology, Music and Time (Cambridge University press, 2000). Cage shows an unease with control and sought to allow sounds to be themselves. One comment upon Cage notes how he only sees sound as a fragment in the time continuum.

Anyway, it gets quite technical, but Knighton explains it reasonably well. You can visit the John Cage Project and read more and explore.

"The slowest and longest piece of music in the world
John-Cage-Organ-Project in Halberstadt, Germany

Since September 5, 2000, which is the 88th birthday of the avantgarde composer and artist John Cage, the slowest and longest concert that the world has ever heard has been playing: ORGAN2/ASLSP As Slow aS Possible that means this piece of music, for the organ, will be performed for 639 years in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt."

Part of it theologically is the way ijn which this note sounds and hanges over the years according to the score. In particular it is Who changes the note? Who will come along, get involved? Assumptions of song they never strated . Message of hope, but first note is a rest. Story beyond the scale of our own span, a bigger idea of the future. As radio raises these questions, I thought of the way Sabbath rest as the initial movement out of Creation and then I consider the ways in which we are part of a bigger, hopeful story that God has for us in the now and eschatologically.

Further it is always sounding, even if are not present in that monastery in Halberstadt. You can listen! Fascinating that it plays on even if no-one is actually present sounding out. Anyway, maybe this is dull for you and I apologise, but it intrigued me and stopped me enough to pause and listen and ponder about what it may teach uis about faith.

Silence

General reading on Prayer has led me to Merton's 'Contemplative Prayer' .

Some quotes and...

"In the way of prayer, as described by the early monastic writers, meditatio must be seen in its close relation to psalmodia, lectio, oratio and contemplatio. It is part of a continuous whole... not so much a way to find God but as a way of resting in him whom we have found, who loves us, who is near to us, who comes to us to draw us to himself." (p29)

In particularly I also noted the ways in which the Psalms are, in Calvin's words an 'Anatomy of the soul' in prayer. Merton reminds us that meditation is above all meditatio scriturarum. The words of the Bible made their own, memorising, repeating them. Additionally, a life of prayer, praying always, are united to the entire days activities in an organic whole and further has a corporate context. Undertaking this daily is a part of the daily dying and rising, mortificatio and vivificatio of the Christian's life in Christ.

The "healing and creative work of [the monk], accomplished in silence, in nakedness of spirit, in emptiness, in humility. It is participation in the saving death and resurrection of Christ. therefore, every Christian may, if they so desires, enter into communion with this silence of the praying and meditating Church, which is the church of the Desert."

Of course there is a challenge to such rhythms of silence, indeed the world's anti-silence. I am reminded in anotehr way of Arvo Pärt (Composer) whose music emerged anew after some self-imposed silence, re-emerging with his music radically transformed. The technique he invented, or discovered, he calls "tintinnabuli" (from the Latin, little bells), which he describes "I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements —with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials —with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation." The first public appearance of this was in the short piano piece, Für Alina. I recommend it.

I am no musician and have little understanding of the technicalities, but this music is audibly a means to appreciate the balances and interplays between a sound note and silence, yet it is silence that is somehow of the essence to allow the note to be heard. A prayerful life in the every day no less is built from 'primitive materials' - our lives and person - and the rhytms of our life are as much determined by the 'communion' with silences. Daily broken, daily reshaped.

In the midst of confusion there is great need to place ourselves -restful in God in silence, and meditate daily upon Scritpure and especially the psalms. Here is Merton's famous prayer:

My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not
see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I
really understand myself. And the fact that I think I am following Your will
does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please
you Does in fact please you. And I hope I have the desire in all that I am
doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know
that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing
about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in
the shadow of death. I will not fear for you are ever with me and you will never
leave me to face my troubles alone. (Thomas Merton)

Easter Sunday- Dance of the Merrymakers

Dance of the Merrymakers

A day of surprises. We had someone sit up front in white simply sitting in front of everyone. The music from Runrig - Solus na madain (The Morning Light) played with loop video. Then opening responses based around our own arrival in worship at an empty tomb.

Readings were Jeremiah 31 v1-6 and Matthew 28 v1-10

We began by considering the deathliness of Friday and Saturday, indeed, much of life is coloured and shaped by still. We thought of the deathly places and ways of the world we live in and that shape us still. We dared to note and confront death today as a reminder that resurrection flies in the face of death, it is the death of death. SO we read from 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, passages/texts that reshape us for life now and eternity. A resurrection people, hopeful, promised as Jeremiah's exile people so much more - we were encouraged to join the dance of the merrymakers(Jeremiah) on this Easter day!

We sang Lord of the Dance, while the image by Elizabeth Rollins-Scott, provided a beautiful reflection for us too. As we sang though one of our senoir folks - a dancer all her life - came into the aisle and began a very beautiful dance offering in worship, in one verse she took a little girl and they danced to the front and returned to seats. It was a natural response on this day and something that ebvefryone will remember the day for this year. Unplanned, rehearsed and simply wonderful to see. It was no look at me, it was all I'd spoken about dramatised before our eyes.

Blessing
Go forth in the dance of the merrymakers
Resume your singing,
On your feet go,
Join the dance of the Father, Son and Spirit.

God's Friday

Drinking the Cup


A CUP OF SALVATION

Drinking the cup of salvation means emptying the cup of sorrow and joy so that God can fill it with pure life.
(Henri Nouwen, Who can drink this cup?p97)

Reading of the day – Matthew 27 v45-61

We spent some time exploring the image Spencer potrays and began to wonder how we might have the Cross portrayed here on Highgate. The Crucifixion by Stanley Spencer we set alongside the reading for today confronting us with the reality of this painfully disturbing scene. We came to the Table, sharing in the Cup of Salvation.
We closed with these words of assurance:

Romans 8. 31 What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own
Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we
are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Table - Thursday

Lifting the cup

















fOR A GREAT SHORT VIDEO LOOP VISIT http://www.sgmlifewords.com/easter/video.php
(daY 5)

Lifting the cup is an invitation to affirm and celebrate life together. As
we lift up the cup of life and look each other in the eye, we say: “Let us not
be anxious or afraid. Let’s hold our cup together and greet each other. Let us
not hesitate to acknowledge the reality of our lives and encourage each other to
be grateful for the gifts we have received.”…to Life”
(Henri Nouwen, Can you drink the cup? p 61-2)

Reading of the day - 1 Corinthians 10:15-17

Tonight we came to Lift the cup. Paul in writing to the Corinthian church speaks of the dnagers of compromise with 'idols' and more His response though is somewhat surprising. HE bases it upon the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In the few verses there is much emphasis upon 'TAKING PART, Koininos - partnership, partakers together in Christ and consequently one another.

The Cup of Blessing then is more than a mere memorial, it is an active, ever present now activity in the life we have in Christ, through the Spirit. We also read Luke 22 and the 'institution, the inaugurating of the Supper' All aroudn that ATble were themes of alienation, abandonment and betrayal, yet there is also community, love and trusting relationships within the body of Christ. Jesus offers a cup to be passed among them as a symbolic reminder of their unity. (We passed a cup around as we heard more among those gathered in worship at this point). This invitation to dif=vide the common cup among them, to ift and share in it together must have been powerful as each would already have their own cup in front of them. THEN, he bvreaks bread and then they share the cup of blessing. The referneces time and again to fellowshiup, community as well as the pre-figuring of the final banquet. William Willimon says of the meal" A ritual for meeting in which an individual who feels isolated and unaccepted may discover the possibility for community and incorporation."Fred Buechner also says that it' involves our need not just for food but for each otehr' in the midst of our own emptiness, alienation, forsakenness, weariness, betrayal and death we come to this Table as here, despite such rokenness and pain - holding cups of suffering, sorrow, we find Christ accept us, we find in one another acceptance and fellowship, partnership, we partake together.. We also discover at this table that we are never abandoned.

We came to the Table.

PSALM 63

O God you are my God alone,
whom eagerly I seek,
though longing fills my soul with thirst
and leaves my body weak.

Just like a dry and barren land
awaits a freshening shower,
I long within your house to see
your glory and your power.

Your faithful love surpasses life,
evoking all my praise,
through every day
to bless your name,
my hands in praise I’ll raise.

My deepest needs you satisfy
as with a sumptuous feast.
So, on my lips and in my heart,
your praise has never ceased.

Throughout the night,
I lie in bed,
and call you Lord to mind,
In darkest hours I meditate,
how God my strength is kind.

Beneath the shadow of your wing,
I live and feel secure;
and daily, as I follow close,
your right hand keeps me sure.

The Table - Wednesday

Holding the Cup

In the midst of anguished prayer asking his father to take this cup of sorrow
away, there is one moment of consolation. Only the Evangelist Luke mentions it.
He says: “Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him
strength.” (Luke 22 v43)
(Henri Nouwen, Can you drink the cup? p 43)

Reading of the day - John 18: 1-11

Tradere or paradidomai means to hand over. Continuing to holfd the cup we meet a

Jesus who through prayer says yes to his Abba. In John 17 we have more of this prayer.

JOHN 17 1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up
to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that
the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all
people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And
this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work
that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence
with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

the insight we get is the 'relationship' that existed between Father and Son before creation. Rublev's image Icon comes to mind yet again. Luke reminds us of how the Father sends a messenger to minister and 'strengthen' Jesus in the time of trial, as in the desert. he is now, as John portrays him holding the cup of suffering out of the union with the father, rooted around the Trinitarian table we might say. It is this that now sees him handed over also in the other direction, at the disposal of those who will now deal with him.

The cup we hold as disciples means learning to live and risk the very presence of Jesus, that as disciples our lives are immersed and embedded in the very life of the Jesus Christ, the Son in and through the Spirit and in this way Jesus offers prayers and perfects our prayers to the Father. This equally makes us vulnerable to the world. he prays:

20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who
will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you,
Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,
so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you
have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that
the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have
loved me.

Grace be with you.
Thanks be to God.

Go in peace this night.
We go in the name of Christ.
Amen.

The Table - Tuesday

Holding the Cup

Holding the cup of life means looking critically at what we
are living. This requires great courage, because when we start looking, we might
be terrified by what we see. Questions may arise that we don’ know how to
answer. Doubts may come up about things we thought we were sure about. Fear may emerge from unexpected places… holding the cup of life is a hard
discipline.

(Henri Nouwen, Can you drink the cup? p 30)

Reading of the day - Mark 14 v32-42 Gethsemane

People arrived and held a small communion cup filled with water. It was to be held as we read and dwelt around the text tonight.

Abandonment and forsakenness surround this event in the Garden. A no less troubling scene for us confronted with sleepy disciples. We also see Jesus lonely and his agony begin. Attending to his words it is intense. "If it is your will, take this cup from me...' he has hold of this cup, at present it is filling up and is a crucible of sin, suffering, agony, pain, sorrow, forsakeness, abandonment and death. It is bitter to taste and hard to hold, yet it is as if his grip cannot let go, even if he wants to. It is a crushing scene and the fiery cup remains in his hand. 'Yet not my will but your will.' No mere resignation, but as God in flesh he gives himself to his Father so utterly.

Deep within us,we too know of Gethsemane. We too pray holding the cup of sorrow/suffering. We know life's sorrow, pain, anguish and as we seek to cope with such sense of abandonment, darkness and uncertainty that surrounds us at times, we pray "Why?" or 'If it is your will take this cup from me'

As we wait tonight, not fallingh asleep but attentive to the cup of water/tears symbolic of the sorrowful, sufferings of others, the world and personally, we meditate upon the wrestling at this point with the cup firmly in hand.

After the silence, people came forward pouring out prayerfully the cup of sorrows as they came to receive at the Table the bread and wine.

A Prayer:

The grace of Christ attend you,

the love of God surround you,

the Holy Spirit keep you now and for evermore.

Go in PEace.

Thanks be to God. Amen

The Table- Monday

Who can drink this cup?

Can you drink the cup?
Can we hold the cup of life in our
hands? Can we lift it up for others to see, and can we drink it to the full?
Drinking the cup is much more than gulping down whatever happens to be in there,
just as breaking the bread is much more than tearing a loaf apart. Drinking this
cup involves holding, lifting and drinking. It is the full celebration of being
human.

(Henri Nouwen, Can you drink the cup? p 24)

Reading of the day - Matthew 20 v20-23 Who is the greatest?

The question from James and John's mother is for Jesus to declare them in key positions in the Kingdom. Imagining the scene, there are the boys with mum before Jesus. She askes the question, but JEsus response is to turn look at the boys and ask them a rather uncomfortable question that we sat with and meditated upon as disciples today: "Are you able to drink the cup from which I am about to drink?"

Allowing the question to ring in our ears a Table we hear that in all our own clamour for recognition for status, there is no need to jockey for Kingdom position or even to Lord it over one another, but we have every reason to serve one another. Jesus points them and us to practices that are more radical than those we are conditioned to, that make it possible to live in and from God's presence, a sharing in the very life of Father, Son and Spirit. Holding the cup is to accept a radical new way and life, to say 'We are able!' - willing and able to render Christ in our daily living. This uncomfortable question demands not just verbal, notional ascent, but action.

We sat with our hands cupped sitting holding a cup with the question that askes of us all about our own discipleship.

A Prayer:

God bless and keep us, God's face shine upon us and be gracious to us,

and grant us peace and light this night as we go to rest. Amen.

Towards Holy Week

Our years practice of Hospitality will see us have opportunity throughout Holy Week to gather at the Table. The basis of this theme comes from Henri Nouwen's little book entitled "Who can drink this cup?" which someone gave me last year.

We will invite people to hold the cup, lift the cup and drink the cup. But more on the week as we go through it.

I had some fun finding some lovely little cups to add to the table, such as the one shown here. In fact the potter who made this has also found a use for 'didymo'(water snot) and had fired some potter which had a wonderful colour and glaze. She was delighted that her cups would be used at Communion.

Lent reflections

Among many things I decided after holiday to hit Lent without this blog. This year as a church we are focussed upon the practice of Hospitality. Interestingly, encouraging people through varipous texts and learning about this biblically, sitting at Table each month and at Caim each week now, it is something that spills into other areas, such as prayer. It has been amazing sitting aorund the Table and waiting in prayer for others, unhurried.

Amidst demands, I needed space to 'learn to pray' and reset some patterns. Lent has been filled with many lessons as I have pursued the psalms in prayer.

We started the Caim and have added the celebration of the Lord's Supper at each service. We also have started using set liturgy according to the season, providing some framework and prayers to learn as well as leaving enough space for listening and creativity of the Spirit. I can't speak for others but in the midst of some demanding ministry this has been pivotal and centring.

Added to this I have undertaken through Lent to reread the psalms encouraged with a little book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled:"Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible" a simple yet useful little book. (More later) Among the many things taking place on Sunday mornings, we have introduced each first Sunday on the month 'The Prayer Cafe' - a space before a Communion Service at which anyone can gather to use the prayer diary we hold up weekly in worship. There is also provison for children in a neighbouring room in which they are gathered to write prayers which we will take into worship later.

A friend has also started a Retreat centre near my first Parish in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Peter is a great guy and if you are interested beyond Iona, then make a quiet space in your journey to Sacred Space at Linne Bheag.

Christmas Day

People say that there won't be many about Christmas Day

The night before with our B@tCH congregation the hall was full and a great atmosphere. Today we followed on.

- New Zealand on holiday. But we were jammed (nearly) as good as any other Sunday!

Had a BBQ out up front and we took the service selected off the BBQ at random(people took the tongs and came and took something off. Worked really well. In fact - a young mother ended up reading Luke 2:1-15 Near the close she was a little in tears overcome with reading how Mary pondered these things in her heart deeply. Her child only 3 weeks old and all that the birth meant and the child was to the her and the family. She shared why and it has spoken deeply to many in thier own reflections - indeed, a number who were only there that day! What a God given blessing her tears and story were amidst the celebrations of Jesus birth. It said it all.

Shalom

Advent Shed

I recently came across the art of Nicholas Mynheer, whose work is iconographic in what strikes me as having a simplicity, yet is very evocative and inviting. Consequently, in preparations for something else and beginning to refelct on this artists amazing work I have tried my own version on our Advent Shed. (See below and slideshow opposite) This is - 'Micah and the Bethlehem event- after Mynheer.'

The figure calling into the darkness is Micah, the prophet, sounding a wake-up call to the people to the God who is 'Second -to- None.' He points to a scene with Mary and Joesph in Beth-lehem overlooked by an angelic figure. The side you can't see has 3 red gift boxes and the words from Micah 6 v8 'Do Justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.'

Through Advent we will be exploring the prophetic message - 'WHO IS AS GOD?" - and the incarnation as a word for us today! The Shed is a simple presence to the traffic that flows steadily past - postcards have also been run and sent out and available.

Restful Restlessness

A long break away from this blog, but there are priorities in ministry from the pastoral to the directional aspects of the ministry and mission we are in. The past few months have invovled a restful restlessness, and my seeking to balance things.

Lots of actual encouragements along the way and thankful to be sharing so much with the ministry team and the leaders here. They've done heaps and we have kept our mission moving ahead. Indeed, there is a liberty among people that is starting to come andf the creativity of the Spirit through this. We experienced a turning point this year back in May and we've agreed to fcus upon 'practices' rather than burnout on huge goals. Been doing much reflecting and planning for Advent (more later), for CAim congregation, for setting up a retreat at Roslyn for a pilot of people to reflect and learn something of church plant. So already looking forward to these and other things on the cards.

Finally, art.... I had 3 great weeks refreshing holiday space too in Sept/October. I managed to finish some paintings and work on others. A sample are on the slideshow now on my blog.

Power of Art - Picasso

It strikes me that in the likes of Picasso through the development of his own art, we come through so muych 'disorientation' and wrestling in life, such as we find written and expressed in the psalms. I was intrigued by the ways in which he almost shunned anything political and yet in time came to gather up so much of his own 'nightmare scenes' with that of the world stage of the time. The way he expressed this was shown in several ways, but Schama uses Guernica, after the little town bombed and devastated. The painting below is the result. (from his surrealist period)

Schama states,

"This is the reason why the painting has such an impact. Instead of a laboured literal commentary on German warplanes, Basque civilians and incendiary bombs, Picasso connects with our worst nightmares. He's saying here's where the world's horror comes from; the dark pit of our psyche."

This picture remains a powerful political artwork against such attrocities, it is a visual 'lament' really that lingers and echoes on into our day.

Reflecting on Picasso's image alongside Lamentations 3 speaks powerfully...

I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God's anger. 2 He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. 3 Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. 4 He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones. 5 He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. 6 He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. 7 He shuts me in so I'll never get out, manacles my hands, shackles my feet. 8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. 9 He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered. 10 He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce. 11 He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me. 12 He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. 13 He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver. 14 Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads. 15 He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks. 16 He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. 17 I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. 18 I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause." It's a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God 19 I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. 20 I remember it all - oh, how well I remember - the feeling of hitting the bottom.
21 But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: 22 God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. 23 They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! 24 I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. 25 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. 26 It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. 27 It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. 28 When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. 29 Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. 30 Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst. 31 Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. 32 If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. 33 He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way: 34 Stomping down hard on luckless prisoners, 35 Refusing justice to victims in the court of High God, 36 Tampering with evidence - the Master does not approve of such things. God Speaks Both Good Things and Hard Things into Being

Power of Art - Van Gogh

Week 3- and it was Van Gogh. The story of his life is powerful and tragic. Indeed, his own life a wrestling of faith, evangleism and the descent into the raw fabric of life among those 'outcast' and in the gutter. He may have been no preacher, but through the torment of the life communicated in his art there is meaning conveyed. I am no art critic, but I stand amazed and in awe at the shift from the darkness of the potato eaters to the transformed and brilliantly colourful world of his later works.

See here the Wheatfield with Crows(1890)

Schama says, "His art would reclaim what had once belonged to religion - consolation for our mortality through the relish of the gift of life. It wasn't the art crowd he was after; he wanted was to open the eyes and the hearts of everyone who saw his paintings. I feel he got what he wanted. So what are we looking at with this painting? There’s suffocation, but elation too. The crows might be coming at us, but equally they might be flying away, demons gone as we immerse ourselves in the power of nature. It's a massive wall of writhing brilliant paint, in which the colour itself seems to tremble and pulse and sway."

What intrigues me is wha must have been going on in his head. The tensions of the grind and brokenness of his life and that of others he had immersed himself in and yet this wonderful artistic genius that had him paint a painting a day at one stage, the rapid energy that poured out of him and generated such artworks and yet drained him of his very life too.

Recently we reflected upon Psalm 8 at the Caim readings. As I look at van Gogh's art here it comes to mind:

PSALM 8
1 God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name. 2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.
3 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. 4 Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way? 5 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden's dawn light. 6 You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, 7 Made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, 8 Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps. 9 God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.

Power of Art - Rembrandt

Week 2 of Simon Scama's Power of art explored Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669)

A man of humble birth who came to know the good life basically. Sounds like he and his rich wife could 'shop to you drop'. Amazing portraits and yet after the death of hsi wife his paitings begin to change from the very finished dutch style to a rougher 'incompleteness' is suggested, but et how powerful. He also seems to have been an artist who knew what the people wanted and could provide it in his art. The painting Schama focussed upon was one destoned for the City Chambers of Amsterdam

Schama says,

"Claudius Civilis is a painting drunk on its own wildness. It is a painting that would not just be the ruin of Rembrandt's comeback, but also the ruin of his greatest vision. Or so I think, for I can't be sure. None of us can, because we don't know what the big picture looked like. What we're looking at here is a fragment, a fifth of the original size, the bit rescued from Rembrandt's knife. This may just be the most heartbreaking fragment in the entire history of painting. The painting was commissioned as a stirring depiction of the legendary story of how the Dutch nation came to be born. What they got was Rembrandt's version of history: ugliness, deformity, barbarism; a bunch of cackling louts, onion chewers and bloody-minded rebels. The paint slashed and stabbed, caked on like the make up of warriors. Despite making him bankrupt he's saying: these are your flesh and blood, rough and honest, your barbarian ancestry. They made you Dutch."

A brave thing really - yet how powerful this art was and is.

The Return of the Prodigal is of course a favourite, made more so by Henri Nouwen's book on the painting.

"Often I have asked friends to give me their first impression of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son. Inevitably, they point to the wise old man who forgives his son: the benevolent patriarch.
"The longer I look at 'the patriarch', the clearer it becomes to me that Rembrandt has done something quite different from letting God pose as the wise old head of a family. It all began with the hands. The two are quite different. The father's left hand touching the son's shoulder is strong and muscular. The fingers are spread out and cover a large part of the prodigal son's shoulder and back. I can see a certain pressure, especially in the thumb. That hand seems not only to touch, but, with its strength, also to hold. Even though there is a gentleness in the way the father's left hand touches his son, it is not without a firm grip." (excerpt)

However, from the programme I was introduced briefly to his painting of Simeon. Here is the old man almost overwhelmed and his hands holding Jesus yet almost prayerful at the same time. A reverence.

Power of Art- Caravaggio

Here in NZ a new series by Simon Schama on the 'Power of Art' is now running Sunday nights.

I want to use tis for my own reflection as one who enjoys art.

Week one was on Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Schama is a narrator to the life and paintings of Caravaggio that invites you into the paintings of a man who was deeply disturbed and troubled in himself. In many ways painting became a means of confession and a reckoning. Schama gives focus to his painting of David with the head of Goliath. Notably, Goliath is painted in the image of Caravaggio.

Schama says,

"In this painting of the victory of virtue over evil it's supposed to be David who is the centre of attention, but have you ever seen a less jubilant victory?
On his sword is inscribed "Humilitus Occideit Superbium", that is, humility conquers pride. This is the battle that has been fought out inside Caravaggio's head between the two sides of the painter that are portrayed here.

For me the power of Caravaggio's art is the power of truth, not least about ourselves. If we are ever to hope for redemption we have to begin with the recognition that in all of us the Goliath competes with the David."

Schama also points out the ways in which Caravaggio paints the fleshly humanity he knows, the earthy-ness of humanity he portrays in so many religious artwork he paints.

For me I have always appreciated his Supper at Emmaus. But there are 2 versions: on in London (1601) the other in Milan (1606).

In the first (London) the image is full of rich, victorious splendour. The light throughout the paiting, the shadows created help our eyes 'read' the painting. Jesus is portrayed without a beard which is quite unusual. His hand gesture appears soft and gentlein blessing. Indeed it almost reaches out to us.There is also a full table of food before them . The intensity of the emotions of Christ's disciples is conveyed by their gestures and expression at this moment in time (of recognition) when Jesus is blessing their meal. We are made to feel a participant in the event from the perspective we are permitted at the table. The painting in so inviting us asks us to consider what the resurrection of Christ means for us.

Some 5 years later though and the image has changed. Is there a shift in Caravaggio’s understanding of the resurrection of Jesus? The arrangement of the figures tells the story. No more the victorious Christ, nor the energy of the disciples recognition of who this 'stranger' is. In contrast, the arrangement of the figures in the Milan Emmaus makes us aware that people need time to recognise the reality of Jesus at this table and so the resurrection. The light here is more subtle and subdued, indeed here is an older, bearded Jesus blessing the meal and a different pace of recognition conveyed. Here the disciples hand rests near Jesus' hand, no large gestures. I sense here a quiter and gentler invitation to come share at this table at a meal that is far simpler too.