July 15, 2007 Griffin

The Griffin, A symbol of Christ

Lord of Heaven, as the Eagle

Lord of Earth, as the Lion

In One, as in Christ

July 8, 2007 Churches

Our brothers and sisters, to whom God has chosen to make known among the Gentile the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Amen. While traveling to see family, often I stop to photograph the churches along the way. This week I chose to use the photos and drawings from photos to show the many brothers and sisters we have that we don't often think about. However, we are all the keepers of the riches of the gospel that Christ has given us and with which he continues to teach us.

July 1, 2007 Saint Augustine

Great are Thou, O Lord and greatly to be praised; Great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of the Thy creation, desires to praise Thee- Man, who bears about with him his mortality, The witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou "resistest the proud"- Yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee. Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; For Thou hast formed us for Thyself, And our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee. Saint Augustine This is an illuminated text inspired by the Bromeliad standing above it. I used cut paper and pasted it onto the original. In college we read Augustine's Confessions many times and I highlighted nearly every other line. The last line in this passage always resounds true in my ear.

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.