” Literature in general, and the narrative prose of the Hebrew Bible in particular, cultivates certain profound and haunting enigmas, delights in leaving its audiences guessing about motives and connections, and, above all, loves to set ambiguities of word choice and image against one another in an endless interplay that resists neat resolution”
Robert Alter, from The Five Books of Moses, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. (London)
I am working my way through this book with great delight. PN
Some years ago a priest friend got me interested, quite unintentionally I think, in religious art. Since that time I have become a true religious art junkie and whenever time allows I head for a museum and specifically the gallery containing works from the 13th through the 16th century. Like most Anglicans old things have an irresistible appeal to me and art is no exception.
I recently read an article by Abram Kielsmeier-Jones, posted to Facebook by another priest friend which advises Pastors that they should remember to actually keep a Sabbath. In that context he is not talking about Sunday worship, though that is also very important, but rather he is talking about a day of rest and renewal as the Sabbath was intended to be. He suggests such a day every week and if time does not permit that at least one hour a day. Stop, rest, and contemplate doing those things which help you accomplish those things. The article was written for harried Pastors who experience Sundays as another busy action packed workday, a far cry from rest, and restoration. But, it should equally apply to harried laymen who volunteer to be eucharistic ministers, and daily office officiants, teach Sunday school attend to child care, etc. etc.
So, my resolution is to make sure I keep a true Sabbath for at least one day a week. On my last Sabbath I viewed and photographed this painting. In the flesh it is much more impressive reaching floor to ceiling on the museum wall with elaborate detail. As you can see above it is titled “The Harrowing of Hell ” and for me the best way to relate the theology expressed here is to repeat a portion of the Apostles Creed from the we recite every day in the Daily Office of the Book of Common Prayer:
“And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified dead and buried ,
He descended into Hell,
I will not elaborate further and leave more detailed explanations to those better trained to provide them. But I will say it is my understanding that on Good Friday Jesus became the master of Hell and once and for all vanquished evil.
On my last Sabbath, therefore, I stood before this wonderful painting trying to stop my cell phone camera from flashing as the use of flash was strictly forbidden in the museum. A young woman and her two children came up beside me. I was just about to launch into my explanation of the painting and the creed when I heard the young woman tell her children “The Christians believe he was a prophet who died and then he came back to life and was remade.. And there is obviously a lot more to this but I don’t now about that.” I froze in my tracks realizing I had encountered some folks who were either Jewish or something else, or nothing, and how thoughtless I was to simply assume everyone wanted to know about the harrowing of hell. Next time I may tell them anyway.
To provide greater details about the painting I am reprinting the explanation on the card beside the painting:
This panel painting, with its arched format, would have been used as an altarpiece at the turn of the seventeenth century. The artist’s name is not known, nor is it clear which European country it comes from.
It is certain, however, that it was produced for a Catholic church at the time of the Protestant Reformation, when the Church sought to restore its religious authority. The subject matter here portrays the Church’s teachings on Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, as well as its Holy Sacrament at Catholic Mass, to save Christians from damnation in hell.
The Risen Christ is placed in the lower center; behind him is the cross with the inscription INRI (an abbreviation of the Latin for Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) and symbols of the Passion: the scourge, the whip, the crown of thorns, the spear, and the sponge soaked with vinegar on a long reed, all instruments of torture during Christ’s crucifixion.
The divine light of God the Father, with the Hebrew inscription Yahweh, shines overhead. In his left hand, Christ holds a white banner, and in his right, a hammer—both symbolizing his triumphant resurrection and victory in opening the gates of hell. He tramples beneath his feet a skeleton and a devil-beast, representations of death and sin.
Christ looks to the left, where Adam, Eve, and other Christians are being freed from purgatory, where they had been forced to stay until Christ’s resurrection cleansed their souls of original sin. In the opposite, lower right corner, are the figures of the damned—sinners and non-believers—being forced into the jaws of a large beast, representing the fiery mouth of hell.
Depicted in the upper background of the painting are other motifs associated with Counter Reformation ideas: a priest celebrating a Eucharistic mass, the Ship of Fools, and the establishment of the new covenant of the Christian era, on the left, replacing the older Judaic law, on the right.
Sharing the Daily Devotion for 21 August from the Living Chruch Foundation and the Reverend Emily R. Hylden. The Reverend Ms. Hylden provides an insight much needed in today’s unsettling times and that is in the main that “No one can bring salvation except Jesus Christ, no one else can heal all the brokenness and disaster that envelops the earth.” Note about the art*(see below).
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*The exquisite art accompanying this devotion is from a digitization project of works in the Bibliothèque des Champs Libre a cultural center in Rennes, France. The featured work is a depiction of the nativity from a Book of the Hours (Daily Offices) of Béatrice de Rieux dated 1390. This rendering uses all four of the “primary” colors used by artists during the medieval period: white symbolizing light in this world and purity; gold symbolizing the “divine”light closely relating to the idea of absolute divine wisdom; red symbolizing love in the sense of selfless love, like Christ’s love for humanity; and blue as a symbol of heaven,contemplation, things which are divine, life lived in accordance to the highest standards. For further reading see Art History, Symbolism and Legends
This is Friday, 19 August not 20 August the Feast of Saint Bernard. But in anticipation of the Feast we celebrated it this morning with prayers, scripture, and incense. The life and history of Saint Bernard’s ministry is aptly summed up in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and Holy Women, Holy Men. In summary he was an abbot and “… a fiery defender of the Church in the twelfth century who was famed for the ardor with which he preached love for God “without measure”. He was completely absorbed , even to the neglect of his own health, in support of purity, doctrine, and prerogatives of the Church. He fulfilled his own definition of a holy man (or woman) : ” seem to be good and charitable, holding back nothing for himself, but using every gift for the common good”.
The phrase “holding back nothing for himself, but using every gift for the common good” holds special meaning for me with regard to daily prayer in the form of praying the Daily Office. Saint Bernard, at least from what I know about him, was not so much different in his thinking than the later evangelical reformers who put the love of God above all else. Unlike them he was not so radical as to suggest that we reduce or do away with the sacraments.
In a recent Facebook post the vicar of a parish church in Texas talked about the parish’s consideration of using a curriculum from the Catechesis of the Good Shepard as a way of teaching young children the faith. He was sharing an article published in the Living Church by Sarah Puryear from which I will quote. The credit for quoted material go to the article and is not originate with me . The conclusion that this Catechesis is equally applicable to adults is mine.
The Catechesis is based on the work of Maria Montessori (1870-1952), the Italian physician who developed an alternative curriculum for teaching children in ways that they actually learn and which is the basis for the Montessori school curriculum today.
The Catechesis emphasizes first the gifts of God in the form of Scripture, baptism, Eucharist, and the Church Calendar. Children are “given time to reflect upon the stories of Scripture, the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, and the way in which we pattern time upon the life of Christ upon the life of Christ in series of feasts and fasts (The Feast of Saint Bernard being one of them) . The CGS invites children into mystagogy (the interpretation of mystery) which was the final form in the ancient Christian initiation rite.
Second the Catechesis “engages the entire child : body, mind and spirit.” The Catechesis rejects the enlightenment notion that the intellect is the supreme capacity of the student. It, rather, “assumes that the children learn through imitation, active participation, and quiet reflection in a space that does not assault them with the facts but invites them into mystery.” Some of the ways in which the Catechesis does this is ” inviting children to encounter and be with God in ways that honor their physical, spiritual and intellectual capacities. The child is invited to help lead short corporate times of prayer, to make prayer cards, to respond to a presentation with a prayer drawing, to sing a song of praise in response to a Bible story. The catechesis makes room for children to practice the Christian faith in body, mind and spirit.”
The article goes on the relate one story about a student who was in a class taught by a Dominican sister . The student had a particularly difficult and unstable family life and at times stayed with relatives because of his parent’s inability to care for him. One morning he showed up at class early with a pillow case stiffed with clothes, saying that the relative with whom he was staying had kicked him out of their home and told him not to return. The sister invited him to stay in her classroom until she could decide how to best respond to the incident.
As she thought about the incident she noticed that the young boy had gone over to the baptismal font area of the room. “He began pouring water from the pitcher over his hand into the font, the gesture of baptism he had learned from the presentations. Each time he poured water he said ” I am a child of God”. “It was a beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful story of how God had reminded this young boy of the central truth about his identity at a time when he was surrounded by mistreatment and instability . ”
As adults we learn in much the same way as children especially in areas of the faith. I suggest that like children learning the faith is best accomplished through “practicing it” in a way that it “engages the entire child : body, mind and spirit.” The methods employed in this catechesis did not completely originate with Maria Montessori but rather with the ancient Church Fathers who in developing the monastic offices created a practice which instilled the faith by engaging the body, mind and spirit of the participant. In praying the Daily Office, and especially in leading it , we utilize the same methods that the catechesis prescribes for children. The preparation for the prayers and leading opens the door. We make the prayers, we read from the bible, and we make responses with the psalms and canticles.
Ours is a faith demanding more than just intellectual understanding. We must use our body, mind and spirit not to understand but rather to experience God. Saint Bernard opposed the efforts of Peter Abelard in his attempt to reconcile inconsistencies of doctrine by reason, because he felt that such an approach was a downgrading of the mysteries (of the Church). And, C.S. Lewis in his dialogue between Screwtape and Wormwood in his Screwtape Letters repudiates the notion as expressed by Sameul Taylor Coleridge that prayer can be performed without the necessity of kneeling or standing or otherwise engaging the body but rather by just sitting an thinking good thoughts. Coleridge’s prescription is just what Screwtape advises Wormwood to push.
So my argument is that praying the offices, and especially leading them, is a primary way to experience God. In preparation and leading you will learn the faith in a time tested and highly effective manner. Remember that first of all we are a child of God.
Tomorrow, 18 August in Seibels Chapel, Trinity Cathedral (Episcopal) we will remember and commemorate the life and ministry of the Reverend William Porcher DuBose who was born in 1816 on a plantation near Winnsboro, South Carolina. The details of his life and ministry can be found here William Porcher DuBose Wikipedia. The opening sentence of his biography in Lesser Feasts and Fasts published by the Episcopal Chruch states: “William Porcher (pronounced por-shay) Dubose, probably the most original and creative thinker of the American Episcopal Church has ever produced, spent most of his life a professor at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee. He was not widely traveled, and not widely known, until at age 56, he published the first of several books on theology that made him respected, not only in his own country, but also in England and France.”
“He treated life and doctrine as a dramatic dialogue, fusing the best of contemporary thought and criticism with his own strong inner faith. The richness and complexity of DuBose’s thought are not easily captured in a few words, but the following passage written shortly before his death in 1918, is a characteristic sample of his theology: God has placed forever before our eyes , not the image but the Very Person of the Spiritual Man. We have not to ascend into Heaven to bring Him down, not to descend into the abyss to bring Him up, for He is with us, and near us, and in us. We have only to confess with our mouths that He is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead- and raised us with Him-and we shall live”
It is men such as those that makes me proud to be a “South Carolinian” though once removed as a humble immigrant from Arkansas. Praise be to God for all his mercy in raising up men and women like William Procher DuBose.
Sharing a devotion from the Living Chruch Foundation and the Reverend Emily Hylden. Emily always does a great devotion and this is no exception. As she concludes .., (a) combination of Jesus’ divinity and simple human faith in it … is a fusion that creates miracles. Look for Jesus in your daily life, and in the people from who you least expect to find him and you will find him.
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Death- a reality of life. As it says in the burial office “In the midst of life we are in death” Every parent will at some time hear their child ask “am I going to die someday?&…
Source: The Three at The Gate
Death- a reality of life. As it says in the burial office “In the midst of life we are in death” Every parent will at some time hear their child ask “am I going to die someday?” I can remember graphically the occasion when I posed that question to an adult. And received a response I did not want to hear. “Yes, you will.” “Oh my, but I am so young.” “It doesn’t matter,” she said, “it will happen.” “But honey child the Lord will on that day take you up into heaven and keep you safe forever, so stop your worrying.” The voice giving those comforting words was for me one of a wonderful, loving, black woman who took care of me in my fledgling years and became like a surrogate mother. May God rest her soul. She has remained for me a true icon of Christian virtue throughout my life. She is the main reason that to this day I continue to believe that any form of discrimination, or assignment of worth, based on skin color is wrong, plain and simple.
Always one to bring joy and comfort she quickly followed that devastating news with a story about the apple thieves and the grumpy old man in a wheelchair, his friend the clergyman, and his attendant. It seems these three unlikely companions were passing by a cemetery one evening and as they passed the main gate they heard voices coming from the main burial area. “One for you and one for me” went the voices. As he heard this the clergyman’s mind began to whirl as he heard what sounded to him was obviously a division of souls. Who else could it be but God and the Devil parceling out those who had passed on. “One for you, one for me”. It seemed perfectly logical and theologically correct. The clergyman could not contain himself and he related his thoughts to his companions. Now the old man in the wheelchair was a sort of Donald Trump type who owned much of the town and refused to be cowed by a group of unidentified voices. But upon hearing the clergyman’s thoughts he paused and listened intently bringing his hearing aid up to his ear so he could hear the voices plainly. And he heard quite plainly “One for you, one for me”. Well, it was a very dark night and at such times our logic and reason begin to slip and that primeval nocturnal instinct suppressed by thousands of years of evolution begins to reassert itself. The old man’s mind started to churn and he could just see the great Jehovah and Beelzebub greedily diving up the souls of the dead buried in that cemetery. But arrogance has no bounds for some and the old man refused to budge from the Gate. Until; the voices said “what about those three down at the gate?” At that moment terror held no boundaries and the clergyman and the attendant found themselves running at flank speed and entering the old man’s mansion only to find the old man waiting for them sans wheelchair. It seems the experience at the gate had wrought a great healing of the old man’s crippling illness.
Meanwhile back at the cemetery the thieves who had stolen a large number of apples from a local farmer stopped their division of the spoils long enough to retrieve the three apples that had rolled down the hill and stopped near the front gate of the cemetery .
Now I am not sure what theological value this story has but when related to me by my caregiver I found it very comforting. Perhaps there is a Trinitarian reference or maybe it’s just a good story? What I see in it now is a confirmation of the hope of the resurrection and rebirth. The old man was restored not by modern medical treatments but rather by his faith. His faith both in God and in the Devil caused him to experience a form of rebirth. I think it was that thought that turned me from fearing death into an almost joyful acceptance of it as a process of change and not just a process of destruction. And again this came not from a bishop or learned theologian but rather from a very poor black woman whose economic circumstances held her in bondage very much in the same way as her ancestors had been by dogs, and whips, and patrollers. But she escaped her boundaries and found a rebirth through the message of love and hope she conveyed to two children not her own and whose parents were a part of the very system whose oppression she sought to escape. She could easily have resorted to the conveyance of a harsh fear but rather she chose love and compassion. By her example she illustrated what would happen in death and resurrection. She transmitted the message of hope.
May God rest her soul, Amen.
Sharing an article from Tax Notes Today proving some detail concerning the Trump economic team.
TAX NOTES TOAY – Monday, August 8, 2018.
TRUMP UNVEILS FINANCE-ORIENTED ECONOMIC ADVISORY TEAM.
Published by Tax Analysts(R)
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump unveiled on August 5 his team of economic advisers, a baker’s dozen heavy with wealthy financiers, including one who made billions of dollars betting on the 2007 subprime housing crisis.
Trump lauded his “experienced and talented” team in a statement, saying, “For too long we have watched as President Obama and Hillary Clinton have ruined our economy and decimated the middle class. I am going to be the greatest jobs President our country has ever seen.”
Only one member of his economic team appears to have any background in tax policy or tax administration. David Malpass was deputy assistant Treasury secretary under President Reagan and Republican staff director of the Joint Economic Committee from 1989 to 1990.
Trump is expected to unveil a more detailed tax and economic plan when he speaks in Detroit August 8.
Dan DiMicco, Trump economic team adviser and former CEO of Nucor Corp., told Tax Analysts August 5 that Trump’s Detroit speech is “going to point out some very key areas in taxes, trade, regulatory excesses, and energy, among others, but those will be four of his cornerstone issues that he will talk about — what needs to be done to improve our global competitiveness.”
One Trump team member, John Paulson, was credited with making $ 20 billion for his investors, and $ 4 billion for himself, by betting against subprime mortgage bonds before the housing crisis in 2007, according to author Michael Lewis’s history of the collapse, “The Big Short.” Paulson did not respond to a request for comment.
Another Trump team member, Peter Navarro, a senior policy adviser to Trump and a professor at the University of California-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, said tax reform will be critical to the success of Trump’s trade policy, which aims to double the U.S. GDP growth rate, create tens of millions of jobs, and increase American workers’ wages.
“Cutting the high corporate tax rate is essential to keeping American factories on U.S. soil,” Navarro said in an email to Tax Analysts August 5. “Right now, the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world among major countries and that pushes our corporations offshore.”
Malpass, who worked on the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which lowered the top marginal individual income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent, agreed in an August 5 email to Tax Analysts that tax reform is a top Trump priority.
INTER ALIA 