Palm Sunday: Art and Resonance

 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Images of Jesus from Around the World

Image
  Here are artistic images of Jesus from places around the world. In the gospels, Jesus lives among the people, he meets them where they  dwell and work and share life together. He receives their hospitality and becomes the living Word of God among them.   The next-to-last image, which hangs in our church's upper lobby, is by American artist Warner Sallman (1940).  We are used to "seeing" Jesus this way. The stained-glass image after it is also American, but clearly very different.  The window is in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where in 1963 white supremacists  bombed the Sunday School of this African American congregation, killing four girls.  Imagine the meaning of a crucified Christ of color to this congregation. PScott has seen this one up close.   Rembrandt's Head of Christ,  which hangs in The Louvre, is included here.  There is a Byzantine image of Christ painted on a wall at St. Catherine'...
Read more

The Community of the Spirit

Image
  "All who believed were together and had all things in common . . ."--Acts 2:44 Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-35 describe a community of faith born of God's Spirit and living in the Spirit's power.  Let's read the texts carefully and note the qualities of a "spirited community:" --daily worship together --a devotion to prayer --a devotion to learning (careful listening and applied practice) --a devotion to fellowship and a shared table --the celebration of the Lord's Supper --glad and generous hearts --constant praise of God --distribute possessions as any have need (no "absolute" private property) --thankful --entire community is cared for --growing ---committed to spreading the good news of God's love everywhere As we read through the texts we marveled at the emphasis on how the people in the first church were wiling to sell their private property, even homes, in order to have enough resources to take care of everyone in the community (...
Read more

The Kingdom (Reign ) of God

Image
  What Jesus refers to as "the kingdom of God" (in the New Testament basileia: realm or dominion) is also referred to in the Gospel of Matthew as "the kingdom of the heavens."  At the outset of his ministry, Jesus announces, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."  The kingdom of God is the place where God's power of love transforms human lives.  This is a realm that can be "seen" and "entered into" (John 3:3-5).   When we pray the Lord's Prayer, as Jesus has taught us to pray, we pray that God's kingdom will come on earth and God's will be done on earth.  The way we live our lives in faith is an answer to the very prayer that we make.   In a Foundations of Faith Class, people shared some of their understandings of the kingdom of God, which included: --"God-with-us" --anywhere, everywhere that God is --the place where God's will is being done --th...
Read more