June 24, 2007 Worshipfully

Here is the finished icon. The final addition is the Spirit, depicted as a dove. The dove has a halo around its head and is set within a star of regeneration. This star, which I used for Easter, is an eight-pointed star, made of two squares. Again, it is interesting to note that the Star of Bethlehem is also an eight-pointed star.

June 17, 2007 God the Father

This week adds God the Father to the Holy Trinity. As with Christ, God the Father's right hand is blessing all and holds a scroll in his left hand. Behind the Father's head is a triangle, signifying the Trinity. Each of these classic icons are very similar as far as the shape of the figure goes. The heads of both figures are quite small while the shoulders are broad. This form begins the Byzantine period and does not change in hopes of keeping a familiarity among the figures seen in icons. No matter when the icon was put together, the people could always tell who was Christ, who was God the Father, who was the Spirit, and even onto the Virgin Mary and the saints. Often the people could not read, but they knew the symbols that belonged to each figure.

June 10, 2007 Christ

In preparation for our Worshipfully event, I started a triptych, a set of three icons, of the Holy Trinity. This week started off with Christ, holding his right hand in blessing toward all, and a Bible in his left hand. Behind Christ's head is a cross. As Baptists, we tend to misunderstand the role of icons in our worship, confusing them with idols. However, these icons were used as devotional items, meant to focus attention on things higher than ourselves.

May 27, 2007 Samaritan Woman

John 4.7-42

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ ¹¹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ ¹³Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ ¹⁵The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ ¹⁷The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ ¹⁹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ²¹Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ ³²But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ ³³So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ ³⁴Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’ This paper cut, done by a Chinese artist named Fan Pu, is my favorite depiction of this story. I've heard someone say that the Samaritan woman at the well was the first missionary ever commissioned, and commissioned by Christ no less. I have since been able to purchase more of her art. She is now teaching others this traditional Chinese art form while incorporating Christian themes.

May 20, 2007 Wooden Star

John 17:20-26 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that 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. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³I 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. ²⁴Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ This is a wooden mosaic put together by my grandfather. This work, with its different colored pieces, put together in a wonderful pattern exemplifies unity among those who are different. The difference is what enables beauty, so may it be in our lives.

May 13, 2007 Tree of Grace

John 5:1-9

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ 7The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ 8Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ 11But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ 12They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ 18For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

This week we talked about grace. The kind of grace that God extends to humankind without thinking of who is deserving, who is grateful, or even who is faithful. In this story, the sick man does not ask for grace, does not recognize Christ for who he is, and does not even thank Jesus for healing him. The man even ratted Jesus out to the fellows at the Temple. However, grace is given. But how are we to do likewise? One small thing is to extend grace where it has not been extended. This piece, along with a few letters, will be sent to the Cho family, who are left heart-broken by the loss of a son and the actions of that son. God grant us thy grace, that we may grant it to others.

By the way, as we gathered the letters, we made sure that people write something only if they were comfortable with it. By no means is something as controversial as this for everyone, which is why it is good that there are so many different people in the world.

May 6, 2007 Loving one another

John 13:31-35

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Jesus tells us to love one another- this is a very large and difficult command. We must practice, we must work at it, even after we fail. As an excercise in this new way to interact with others, we can get to know those 'others.' As we get to know different people, we just might be more able to love those we do not know. On the other side of the same coin, we must learn to love ourselves as well. For how can we love anyone else if we don't love ourselves. Many times, I find this one to be harder than loving others. But I must get to know myself, must learn to love myself, so that I am able to love others. The art for this week includes the record of the handprints of everyone in the church. These will be collected and made into a quilt which will be added to as we grow.