“Mary’s Lullaby (Tonight You Are Mine)”

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

Text by Bertha Anderson Kleinman (1877-1971). Music by Wanda West Palmer (1930-).

I discovered this song on The Lower Lights’ latest album, Sing Noel, which released this week. Their rendition, with three-part harmonies and guitar accompaniment, is lovely indeed: reverent, earthy, and sweet. Follow the link to purchase the track, or if you have a Spotify account, you can listen below.

 

For non-Spotify users, here is a video performance by YouTube user iammischief:

 

“Mary’s Lullaby” really humanizes the Nativity event. All the grand, flashy details that are so familiar to passers-on of the story—of angels and kings, shepherds and stars—are deemed secondary to the profound yet simple intimacy shared between mother and son. Mary knows that Jesus belongs to the world—“but tonight,” she says on the night of his birth, “you are mine.” Let angel, man, and beast adore you in their own ways, but I give you the adoration of a mother.

As she sings Jesus to sleep, Mary pleads with God to delay for as long as possible the agony that she knows they will both one day face. She tries to suppress the portents of her son’s death so that for at least this one night, all will be perfect.  Continue reading →

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“Blessing of the Stew Pot” by Alla Renée Bozarth

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

Blessed be the Creator
and all creative hands
which plant and harvest,
pack and haul and hand
over sustenance —
Blessed be carrot and cow,
potato and mushroom,
tomato and bean,
parsley and peas,
onion and thyme,
garlic and bay leaf,
pepper and water,
marjoram and oil,
and blessed be fire —
and blessed be the enjoyment
of nose and of eye,
and blessed be color —
and blessed be the Creator
for the miracle of red potato,
for the miracle of green bean,
for the miracle of fawn mushrooms,
and blessed be God
for the miracle of earth:
ancestors, grass, bird,
deer and all gone,
wild creatures
whose bodies become
carrots, peas and wild
flowers, whose bodies
give sustenance
to human hands, whose
agile dance of music
nourishes the ear
and soul of the dog
resting under the stove
and the woman working over
the stove and the geese
out the open window
strolling in the backyard.
And blessed be God for all, all, all.

Used with permission.
http://votingwellbyallareneebozarth.blogspot.com/
http://allabozarthwordsandimages.blogspot.com/p/all-saints-day-and-i-begin.htm

Sculpture by Allan Houser

Allan Houser (1914-94), Desert Harvest, 1982. Bronze sculpture. Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, USA. Photo: Victoria Emily Jones

Sculpture by Allan Houser

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Tee Time: Nintendo-style Jesus

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

Jesus Super MarioFound at notw.com.

My husband had to explain this reference to me: it’s to an iconic Super Mario Bros. video game cover.

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Marked by our past. Transformed by love.

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

This is the tagline of an ad campaign that launched last month in Lubbock, Texas. Billboards depict a bare-chested Jesus tattooed with words like “Outcast,” “Addicted,” and “Fear,” and direct passersby to the website JesusTattoo.org, where a fuller explanation of this image is given in video narrative form.

In this video, Jesus is a basement tattoo artist who is approached by a string of people who bear shameful tattoos, which they want removed. One by one, Jesus applies his pen to their bodies, transforming their marks into works of beauty. For example, a tattoo that reads “Useless” is replaced by one that reads “Purpose.” After the people leave, an exhausted Jesus removes his shirt to reveal that all their former tattoos have been transferred to his own body. From fingertip to fingertip, he is covered with marks of shame and suffering.

The message is this: Our experiences, our society, our own minds mark us in ways that hurt, that we want to hide. But Jesus does not define us by our past or by our own perception of ourselves; rather, he gives us a new identity that’s based on his own. He marks us as accepted, cherished, confident, free. These words can describe us because they describe him, and at the cross, the Great Exchange took place, transferring all our hurts and unrighteous deeds to him and all his consolations and righteous deeds to us, so that God now sees us in the same way he sees Jesus. This is the “good news” (Old English: godspel) at the heart of Christianity.

Although I can understand that the group behind this video wanted to make the gospel message explicit, I feel that the words that start in at three and half minutes detract from the overall video package. The visuals tell it all. Even if the viewer didn’t have a Christian background, I think that the story told in the first half would be sufficient to communicate the full intent.

Nevertheless, I applaud the folks at Jesus Tattoo for putting together all these materials to tell the gospel in this unique, provocative, culturally appropriate idiom. It’s a clever way of showing people what salvation means, and I can tell from the media coverage that it has been successful in reaching a large number of people and sparking discussion.

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Tee Time: Touchdown Jesus

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

Touchdown JesusFound at ebay.com.

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“Revisiting the Question of the Use of Visual Art, Imagery, and Symbol in Reformed Places of Worship” by Geraldine Wheeler

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

This essay is published in Christian Worship in Reformed Churches Past and Present, edited by Lukas Vischer (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003). Here are a few concrete points I’ve taken away from it:

  • If we want to engage the total person in the worship of God, we need to take into account the visual.
  • Images are limited in their ability to reveal God, but so are words.
  • Just because images have been used wrongly in church history doesn’t mean that we should reject them but rather should teach the church how to use them rightly. (The same principle applies to any good thing that is abused by the church.)
  • For Christians, the image is not an end in itself.
  • John Calvin acknowledged that from time to time Scripture speaks of God as giving definite, visible signs of his presence: for example, cloud and fire; a burning bush; a snake on a staff; a dove; etc. We need these signs that point to the mystery of God, and this is exactly what artists can give us.
  • The Bible uses various anthropomorphisms for God—that is, it contains references to his mouth, ears, hands, and feet. These descriptions are nonliteral. So too are visual representations of God. The Bible is full of word pictures as well—for example, God as father, shepherd, physician, etc. If we allow for metaphors in verbal communication, why not in visual communication?
  • Along this same line: Why are visual images of God sometimes considered dangerous/sinful but mental images are not?
  • Baptism and communion are visual symbols instituted by Christ. They don’t convey the totality of the salvation experience but they convey it in part. We wouldn’t argue that God cannot be confined to bread and wine, or to a tub of water. So why would we say that a painting, for example, confines God?
  • The visual artist may be an interpreter of biblical stories and images.
  • Visual art may present aspects of the world for which the church is to intercede.
Posted in Books, Non-Western Art, Western Art | 2 Comments

Roundup: Baby’s wonderland, public prayers, cancelled-wedding-turned-banquet-for-the-underprivileged, marriage under threat, and Noah movie

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones
Wengenn's Symphony no. 1

Sioin Queenie Liao, Wengenn’s Symphony No. 1.

 

“Creative Mom Turns Her Baby’s Naptime into Dream Adventures”: Queenie Liao likes to take fairytale-inspired photos of her son, Wengenn, while he sleeps. She calls the series “Wengenn in Wonderland.” A book of these photos was published last year in Taiwan, and an English edition is in the works. Visit Queenie’s website at wengenninwonderland.com.

“A Pastor’s Reflections: Public Prayers” by VFT: “This may come as a surprise but one of my least favorite things to do as a pastor is offer public prayer. . . .” Very interesting post on how public prayers differ from private ones and how pastors can prepare for giving them. I share this pastor’s hesitance to pray publicly, and I feel that his three tips can be adapted to my situation as a layperson who is sometimes called upon to offer verbal prayers on behalf of a group of people gathering for dinner, Bible study, or some other event.

“Family hosts 200 homeless people for dinner after daughter’s wedding gets called off” by Mia Fitzharris: When life hands you lemons . . .

“Can You Define the Relationship?” by Owen Strachen: “We are living in strange times — specifically, in the age of the abortion contracts, wedleases, and throuples. . . .” Strachen comments on three modern-day relationship practices that debase the institution of marriage. I had not heard of the first two, but sadly, I am not surprised.

Noah trailer now released: This $125 million epic film starring Russell Crowe is scheduled to open in theaters in March. I’ll be interested to see how director-screenwriter Darren Aronofsky interprets the story. The fact that in the trailer Noah says he is building a vessel “to hold the innocent” already makes me skeptical of its theological message. But it definitely looks worth seeing, and it can be a good conversation starter with friends.

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Tee Time: Walken with Jesus

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

Walken with JesusFound at honcho-sfx.com.

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‘Let justice roll on like a river’

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “. . . You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. . . . You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. . . . You oppress the righteous and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. . . . I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5)

Raj, Solomon_Thirst for Justice

P. Solomon Raj, Thirst for Justice, 2001. Batik, 225 x 150 cm.

This over-seven-foot-tall batik (dyed cloth artwork for hanging), called Thirst for Justice, was commissioned in 2001 by Bread for the World, an organization that seeks to end world hunger.

The artist, Solomon Raj, set the focal point at the center, at the man in white. This man—a prophet, maybe Amos—points to a flaming wheel, which represents God’s coming judgment on all those who fail to uphold social justice on the earth, who continue to oppress society’s most vulnerable people. With each turn of the wheel, his righteous anger burns. As God has said, “Cursed be anyone who withholds the justice due to the immigrant, the fatherless, and the widow” (Deuteronomy 27:19), and to those who ignore the plight of the hungry, naked, sick, and imprisoned, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).  Continue reading →

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Tee Time: AC/DC Jesus

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Victoria Emily Jones

Highway to HeavenFound at ebay.com.

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