Category: Art & Music

Visual art opening and exploring the texts we “read, study, learn and inwardly digest.” Music and notes about music used to open and celebrate the texts read in worship.

The Ascension of Christ

We believe … Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. (Nicene Creed)

Commentary by Hovak Najarian                                                                                        

 After the resurrection, Christ’s last appearance to the disciples was at his ascension.  He blessed the disciples and then “withdrew and was carried up into heaven.”   A description of the ascension in Acts of the Apostles adds, “while they [the disciples] beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.  And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men [portrayed usually as angels] stood by them in white apparel; [They] said ‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?  This same Jesus … shall so come in like manner as we have seen him go into heaven.’”   (Acts 1:9-11)

The Ascension, Rabbula Gospel, 6th century. (Wikimedia Commons)

The illustration of Christ’s ascension in the Rabbula Gospel Book shows the disciples standing at the lower half of the illumination looking up at Jesus.  Two men in white robes are talking to them and pointing upward.  At center foreground, Mary is raising her arms but is not looking upward.  Instead, she is looking out at the person that would be reading the gospel book.  In the upper half, Jesus is surrounded by an aureola (a body halo) with angels assisting him skyward.

Ascension from a Breviary, French, c. 1506-1516. Source: “Iconography of the Ascension, Part III of IV — The Disappearing Feet” on Ad Imaginem Dei

Paintings of Christ’s ascension were based also on the statement, “he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”   In these paintings, Jesus is ascending into a cloud with only a lower portion showing.   He is leaving pictorial space into the space beyond the painting.

[When a person in a painting is seen from the back, the placement of a halo presents a problem.  Note the halo on the disciple wearing a yellow mantle (right foreground).]

The Ascension of Christ, fresco, 13-4-1206, Giotto, 1275-1337

           Giotto, The Ascension of Christ (Wikimedia Commons)

The Ascension of Christ by Giotto contains echoes of the work of other artists.   Like the illustration in the Rabbula Gospel, Giotto’s disciples and Mary are in the foreground.  Here, however, they are kneeling and their attention is focused on the two centrally located men in white apparel.  These men – depicted with wings and assumed to be angels – are floating above the ground pointing to the sky and talking to the disciples and Mary.  Jesus is above them and portrayed in greater size than the other figures.

As in other paintings of the ascension, Christ is surrounded by a golden mandorla  –  the term is from the Italian word for almond which it resembles in shape – but unlike many illustrations, he is not looking down, and Giotto’s angels are not assisting in his ascent.  Instead, Jesus is already above the cloud that received him and is being greeted by a chorus of angels with arms raised in praise.  Christ in this fresco is in profile and as he ascends heavenward, his hands have entered partially into the space beyond the painting itself.

Hovak Najarian © 2024

I shall not want

“…I shall not want.” In what ways is this true for you?

Welcome!

On Wednesday, April 17, 2024, we explored Psalm 23 for the voice of the Spirit. Our handout included commentaries on the other appointed texts from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4:5-12), the First Letter of John (1 John 3:16-24), and the Gospel according to John (John 10:11-18).

Here is yet another brief look at Psalm 23. The first verse of the Psalm invites us to trust deeply.

From a commentary on Psalm 23

The psalm has been composed as the exposition of its opening line. The line makes a positive and a negative statement. The positive statement relates the LORD and the psalmist through the metaphor “shepherd.” That metaphorical statement, broadly enough understood, controls the imagery of the whole. The negative statement is a self-description of the psalmist. It uses the word “lack” (NRSV, “want”) in an absolute sense; the transitive verb is given no object. The psalmist lists what he does not lack in the rest of the psalm. […]

To say “The LORD is my shepherd” invokes all the richness of this theological and political background as well as the pastoral. The metaphor is not restricted to associations with what actual shepherds did; it is informed by what the LORD has done and what kings were supposed to do. One does not have to shift to images of guide and host to account for the whole poem. “Shepherd” understood against its usage in Israel accounts for the whole. The statement is a confession. It declares commitment and trust. It also has a polemical thrust against human rulers and divine powers. The psalm entrusts the support, guidance, and protection of life only and alone to the one whose name is the LORD.

The body of the psalm completes the sentence, “I do not lack.…” It does not leave those who say it to fill it out with what they want out of their own subjective wills. It has its own agenda of what the LORD does to fulfill one’s needs. The very personal syntax of the opening confession is maintained in the recitation of “what the LORD (he/you) does for me.” The items in the recitation can be read and understood in relation to three areas. First, what the LORD does draws on what is prayed for in the prayers for help. Second, it reflects the song of thanksgiving with its report of salvation and accompanying festivities, except here the account tells what the LORD does, not what the LORD has done in the past. Third, the recitation is at points connected with the language of Israel’s testimony to its salvation in the exodus.

Excerpted from, James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994), 117–118.

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Most Wednesday mornings a group of us gather online to explore the readings that will be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 21, 2024) in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. Please: View or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, April 21, 2024, on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

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Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer

Psalm 4 on the Third Sunday of Easter

Welcome!

Most Wednesday mornings a group of us gather online to explore the readings that will be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Third Sunday of Easter (April 14, 2024) in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary.

On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, we explored Psalm 4 for the voice of the Spirit. Our handout included commentaries on the other appointed texts from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 3:12-19), the First Letter of John (1 John 3:1-7), and the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 24:36b-48).

From a commentary on Psalm 4

Whether in the brightness of daytime or the gloom of night, there are times when the believer is caught somewhere between the mercy of God and merciless humans, somewhere between the God of love and the vile hatred of humanity, somewhere between the tranquility of trusting God and the trappings of human treachery. With a thorough reading of the Psalms from beginning to end, one could easily come to the conclusion that life is full of enemies, tribulations, and hardships. In fact, one could readily conclude that enemies, tribulations, sickness, and hardship go hand in hand with living. This seems to be one of the core truths the psalmists talk about. While these painful realities may not define all of human experience, they certainly seem to be at the heart of all human existence.

Far too often we mistakenly understand what should lead us to praise and what should lead us to feel blessed in terms of the absence of hardship and adversaries. Blessing, as this psalmist will conclude, is about having the full confidence in God in the midst of the inevitable realities of hardship and enemies. To nurture a faith or practice a spirituality that does not recognize or acknowledge adversity and adversaries is to live in a different world from the world of the psalmists. It is to live in a world removed from reality. The psalmists lived in the real world, and they called out to the God they found in the midst of the real world.

Perhaps it is because of the complexity of human relationships that we are driven to seek God’s answer to our prayers. According to verse 2, honor suffers shame, and mortals love vain words and seek after lies. We pray to God because there is no false communication with God (at least on God’s behalf). With God, we have authentic communion and sincere communication.

Psalm 4 confirms some of the things we assert about God.

  • God answers prayer.
  • God gives (breathing) room in human suffering.
  • God is gracious.
  • God is the source of our safety.
Gary V. Simpson, “Pastoral Perspective on Psalm 4” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 414-416

View or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, April 14, 2024, on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Christ the King Sunday, Year A

We ask Jesus, “when did we see you”? His response is unequivocal.

Welcome!

“Homeless Jesus” outside St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village, OH

“You did it to me” commentary on Mark 25:31-46

So many of us, in our devotional and ecclesiastical lives, long to “see Jesus.”  And rightly so.  We pray for an experience of Jesus’s presence.  We yearn to feel him close.  We sing hymns, recite creeds, hear sermons, and attend Bible studies — all in the hope of seeing and knowing Jesus in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with these practices — unless they keep us at comfortable arm’s length from where Jesus actually is.  Unless they lead us to believe that the work of justice and compassion is somehow secondary to the “real” business of Christianity.  The real business of Christianity is bending the knee to Jesus.  And where is Jesus?  Jesus is in the least and the lost and the broken and the wounded.  Jesus is in the un-pretty places.  In the bodies we don’t discuss in polite company.  In the faces we don’t smile at.  In the parts of town we speed by.

It’s not that we earn our way to majestic King Jesus by caring for the vulnerable.  It is that majestic King Jesus, by his own choice and volition, has stooped and surrendered in such a way that he IS the vulnerable.  There’s no other way to get to him.  Period.

Debbie Thomas Lectionary Essay “You Did It To Me” on Journey with Jesus webzine; posted November 15, 2020

Please make the time to read the entire essay by Debie Thomas as you consider the meaning of Christ the King this week.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, November 26, 2023 on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: CNN

Pentecost +12, Proper 15A

Joseph’s story is a reminder to take the long view of events.

Welcome!

Each Wednesday morning a group of us gather online to explore the readings to be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (August 20, 2023) in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

This past Wednesday, August 16, 2023, we explored the readings from Genesis 45:1-15 and Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 for the voice of the Spirit. Our handout included commentaries on the other appointed texts from the Psalms (Psalm 133 ) and the Gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28).

From the commentary on Genesis 45:1-15

Matt Skinner has a new book out on Acts, subtitled Catching Up with the Spirit. In it he makes a helpful remark regarding what he thinks is often an assumption at play, “that God’s ‘activity’ in the world is like a puppeteer pulling strings.” It’s different for him, it seems. “It’s easier for me,” he notes, “to look back on situations, after the fact, and wonder. With the help of hindsight, I might perceive ways in which I was open or closed to God’s presence.”

This is the power of Joseph’s final confession: that though none of what has happened to him over the course of his life is what he’d have chosen it to be, he can yet now see that God has set him up to preserve life.

“Joseph’s whole story” by Liz Goodman in The Christian Century, February 18, 2022. 

You are invited to view or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 20, 2023 on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 15, Year A.

I Am Your Brother Joseph from the Ad Imaginem Dei blog curated by Margaret M. Duffy. This post explores the story of Joseph revealing his true identity to his brothers. See Genesis 45.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Pentecost +11, Proper 14A

Seeking God: a lifelong invitation.

Welcome!

Each Wednesday morning a group of us gather online to explore the readings to be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost (August 13, 2023) in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

In our Forum on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, we carefully explored the readings from Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b and Matthew 14:22-33 for the voice of the Spirit. Our handout included commentaries on the texts from Genesis (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 ) and Romans (Romans 10:5-15).

From the commentary on Psalm 105

Not that we will ever be able to nail down God so that all will be sunny tomorrow. Psalm 105:3–4 uses the verb “seek” three times, as if to underline that God is to be “sought.” The psalm does not say “find” the Lord, but “seek” the Lord. In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6)—not, “Blessed are those who are righteous.” We seek God; God is not to be possessed. We never quite grasp. We long for God, we reach out for God. If we get a question answered, we discover new questions. The pleasure is in the not quite having tied God down, as this God is as elusive as the events of history. We seek.

We seek this God, and not some other divinity, because of the past; we seek this God, instead of relying only on our own initiative and energy, because of the past. This is hope: to stand in the river of time and to be swept forward on the waters that have been flowing toward us for quite some time.

By James C. Howell in Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Additional Essays, vol. 8, Feasting on the Word (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)

Please view or download the handout we used to guide our exploration.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 13, 2023 on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 14, Year A.

Down the Well But Not Out For the Count from the Ad Imaginem Dei blog curated by Margaret M. Duffy. This post explores the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers as presented in Christian art through the centuries. See Genesis 37.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Pentecost +12, Proper 17C

What is pleasing to God?

Welcome. Our handout features the readings for the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (August 28, 2022) in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

In our Forum on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, we explored Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 for the voice of the Spirit.

Please view or download the handout we used in our discussion.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 28, 2022.

Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 17, Year C.

View or download the Art for Sunday, August 21, 2022 (Proper 17C) with commentary by Hovak Najarian.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Pentecost +11, Proper 16C

Bless the Lord, O my soul …

Welcome. Our handout features the readings for the Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost (August 21, 2022) in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

In our Forum on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, we’ll explore Hebrews 12:18-29 for the voice of the Spirit. Time permitting we will listen for the Spirit in Psalm 103, as well. We listen for whisperings (or maybe shouts) about the gift of faith.

Please view or download the handout we’ll use in our discussion as we meet.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 21, 2022.

Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 16, Year C.

View or download the Art for Sunday, August 21, 2022 (Proper 16C) with commentary by Hovak Najarian.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Pentecost +10, Proper 15C

Faith … the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Welcome. Our handout features the readings for the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost (August 14, 2022) in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

In our Forum on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, we’ll explore Hebrews 11:29–12:2 for the voice of the Spirit. We listen for whisperings (or maybe shouts) about the gift of faith.

Please view or download the handout we’ll use in our discussion as we meet.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 14, 2022.

Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 15, Year C.

View or download the Art for Sunday, August 7, 2022 (Proper 15C) with commentary by Hovak Najarian.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Pentecost +9, Proper 14C

Faith. It is a gift …

Welcome. Our handout features the readings for the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost (August 7, 2022) in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

In our Forum on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, we’ll explore Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 for the voice of the Spirit. We listen for whisperings (or maybe shouts) about the gift of faith.

Please view or download the handout we’ll use in our discussion as we meet.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 7, 2022.

Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 14, Year C.

View or download the Art for Sunday, August 7, 2022 (Proper 14C) photography by Vince Heuring with commentary by Hovak Najarian.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro