![]() “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” ~John 6:9 What are they indeed? What do the gifts we have to offer matter in this world of need—especially given the width and breadth and height of the challenges we face? Climate change forces that rage even in wealthy countries. Work-life patterns that seem not to work for or give life to anyone. Political winds that blow with gale force through our communities and our souls. What momentum do we perceive toward real change? What hope do we have for recovering human connections and well-being? It all feels beyond our control. We ask with the disciples, what are our gifts among so many people? And yet we do have good work to do. But it is not our work to control it all. We are the workers; we are the servants; we are the sheep in need of a shepherd, the hungry looking for food. Where is our hope? Whom, this day, will we serve? Leave those last questions to the one says again and again, “Do not be afraid.” Enter into worship. Readings: 2 Samuel 11:1-15 † Psalm 14 or 2 Kings 4:42-44 † Psalm 145:10-18 † Ephesians 3:14-21 † John 6:1-21 About the Art: Swanson, John August. Jesus with Boys, Loaves and Fishes, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56560 [retrieved July 22, 2024]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/. About the Artist: JOHN AUGUST SWANSON makes his home in Los Angeles, California, where he was born in 1938. He paints in oil, watercolor, acrylic and mixed media, and is an independent printmaker of limited edition serigraphs, lithographs and etchings. His art reflects the strong heritage of storytelling he inherited from his Mexican mother and Swedish father. John Swanson’s narrative is direct and easily understood. He addresses himself to human values, cultural roots, and his quest for self-discovery through visual images. These include Bible stories and social celebrations such as attending the circus, the concert, and the opera. He also tells of everyday existence, of city and country walks, of visits to the library, the train station or the schoolroom. All his parables optimistically embrace life and one’s spiritual transformation. John Swanson studied with Corita Kent at Immaculate Heart College. His unique style is influenced by the imagery of Islamic and medieval miniatures, Russian iconography, the color of Latin American folk art, and the tradition of Mexican muralists. His art is in no way “naïve.” It is detailed, complex, and elaborate. Unlike many contemporary artists, John Swanson works directly on all phases in producing his original prints. His serigraphs (limited-edition screen prints) have from 40 to 89 colors printed, using transparent and opaque inks creating rich and detailed imagery. For each color printed the artist must draw a stencil on Mylar film. This stencil is transferred to the silk screen for printing the color ink on the serigraph edition. The resulting serigraph is a matrix of richly overlaid colors visually striking and technically masterful. Mr. Swanson’s art is represented in the permanent collections of many museums, including three museums of the Smithsonian Institution: The National Museum of American History, The National Museum of American Art and The National Air and Space Museum. He is also included in the print collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University’s Fogg Museum, the Tate Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. His painting THE PROCESSION is one of relatively few works by contemporary artists to be selected for the Vatican Museums’ Collection of Modern Religious Art. In 2008, an extensive collection of John August Swanson’s works were purchased by Emory University’s Candler School of Theology to hang on the walls of their new 76,349 square foot building. He was awarded The Dean’s Medal for his art’s transformative effect on the campus. With over 55 works hung, this is the largest open public display of the artwork of John August Swanson.
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![]() And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. ~Mark 6:56 Even the fringe… It doesn’t take much when such power and promise is present, does it? Case in point: the event that fueled the frenzy preventing even a few hours off for Jesus and his disciples can be traced back to a singular event—the healing of the tormented man who had previously lived among the dead in Gennesaret. He called himself Legion (Mark 5). Healed by Jesus, he is told to return home to the friends who had come to fear him: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he does: “he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (Mark 5:19-20). Fast forward…one chapter. Now the region that couldn’t get rid of Jesus fast enough can’t get enough of him, bringing their sick to him, begging for the healing Jesus provides before he even steps off the boat. Oftentimes the Spirit shows up in places that (at first) scare us, breaking norms and taboos, unsettling our tired assumptions and fractured systems. Yet, where God’s Spirit dwells is good news and healing and hope. What stories do you have to tell? Where do you see the Spirit? Let us go there. Rush to it! Enter into worship. Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a † Psalm 89:20-37 or Jeremiah 23:1-6 † Psalm 23 † Ephesians 2:11-22 † Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 About the Art: Latimore, Kelly. Christ: the Tekton, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57124 [retrieved July 9, 2024]. Original source: Kelly Latimore Icons, https://kellylatimoreicons.com/. From the Artist: I started painting icons in 2011 while I was a member of the Common Friars from 2009-2013. Our collective work was about being more connected: to ourselves, each other, our surrounding community and the land. This manifested itself as a place called “The Good Earth Farm” where we held weekly services and meals, and grew produce for our community and local food pantries. Iconography has since become a practice of more considerations: of color and light, of brush stroke and form, symbol and meaning...However, I do not wish to approach Iconography as an art form that simply follows an inherited tradition, knowledge and practice. I want it to be a creative process, meditation, and practice that brings about new self-knowledge for the viewer and myself. Who are the saints that are among us here and now? I was not taught by a traditional Iconographer, and so to some, I am breaking many rules. There are icons here that people may find theologically unsound and wrong, or for others, helpful and inspiring. I think both reactions are important. My hope is that these icons do what all art can potentially do, which is, to create more dialogue. The other may have something to teach us about what we know, about who God is, the world we live in and who are our neighbors. This is the real work of being human and of art. Being more present.
![]() David danced before the Lord with all his might ~2 Samuel 6:14 When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests ~Mark 6:22 This is one of those Sundays when the scriptures are thick with imagery and human drama. Arguably, they are at their best at these times—paralleling the complex reality of our experiences, connecting with the story of our own lives. Dancing and feeding. Performative acts, perhaps, but somehow leading to meaningful social change. For better or for worse. They invite us to ask of ourselves how we use moments and sometimes people to, at best, transform or, at worst, to coerce. To practice religion is to engage with questions of power and purpose trusting that the Spirit of truth and newness will abide with us. David dances before the ark, a symbol of Israel’s God coming home…and the securing of a political dynasty. The gospel text finds us at a dinner party deep in the inner circles of Herodian power. Politicians, military brass, community brokers who have come to this table by virtue of many bartered choices that both empower and now constrain them. Choices have consequences. Some heads are going to roll. As people of faith, we are called beyond the transactional nature so familiar to our culture and climate to ways of truth and love. What might we make of the choices and the opportunities we have? Enter into worship. Readings: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 † Psalm 24 † Ephesians 1:3-14 † Mark 6:14-29 About the Art: St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness (Detail). Kehinde Wiley, 2013. Retrieved on July 8, 2024 from: https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibitions/wiley.
![]() No one really knows how the game is played The art of the trade How the sausage gets made We just assume that it happens But no one else is in the room where it happens ~The Room Where it Happens, Hamilton Being human is messy. This pilgrim way is just messy. Despite our best attempts to mask it, deny it, dismiss it, we are known more by what we don’t know than what we do, by our limits more than our superpowers, by our doubts more than our certainty. And yet, we have to move forward. We have to do something. And that—perhaps more often than not—can get shut down, dismissed, denied. Jesus knew something about this when he came back to his hometown to speak…and was shut down. “Prophets are not without honor,” Jesus says, perhaps more to those of us who look on two millenia later with new prophets to welcome, or not, than to those already decided, “except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” These are not the most hopeful words we could we hope for as we anticipate welcoming new leaders into our midst. Elders and deacons who would lead us, to whom we promise to pray for (easy), to encourage (still easy), to respect (sure, but let’s not get carried away), to follow as they guide us (wait, what?), serving Jesus Christ… And then there’s this other thing. It is not easy to lead in a time when we don’t really know where we are going. When questions are far more abundant than answers. When scarcity and danger seem to rule the day. When communities are devastated by increasingly powerful storms, and cities by well-meaning policies that seem only to create more suffering. In a sense many, if not the vast majority of us want the same thing. We just aren’t in agreement as to how to get there. There’s a thorn in one’s flesh if we’ve ever seen one! David has the far easier gig in today’s readings. A community proud of their new leader. A shepherd to be followed. But this is the beginning of the story, not the end. This is the territory in which we live, the theater in which our songs are sung, our stories given meaning, our future charted. The room where it happens. Only to be sent out. Surprisingly, thankfully, with little. It isn’t, you see, what we carry, what we have, what superpowers we possess, or the “sausage” that is our human process. It is the One who is already out there…and in the room where it happens, going before us, with us, beside us, sometimes against our best intentions for the sake of the kindom for which we hope, for which we long. Enter into worship. Readings: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 † Psalm 48 or Ezekiel 2:1-5 † Psalm 123 † 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 † Mark 6:1-13 About the Art: Pilgrim with staff, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54923 [retrieved June 24, 2024]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pilgrim_Path_Waymarker_(Ireland).jpg.
![]() He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm… [they] said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” ~Mark 4:39, 41 Who is this? In a way, it is an odd question because it has already been answered. Mark 1:1, “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” sent to heal and liberate. One of his first public acts is to exorcise an “unclean spirit” (Mark 1:25-27) and now that act of resistance against death-dealing agents is amplified (along with the silence, the astonishment, the whispering) in case who didn’t catch it the first time. This time, the adversary is much larger—an angry sea, wind and waves. The young shepherd David knows an overwhelming adversary in the legendary Goliath (1 Samuel 17:32-49). And yet, in all these stories, an underdog triumphs. Is it ever not the case with this God? Death-dealing power is overcome when God is in the mix. Who is this? It is one who comes from a God who liberates not just on an individual level, but a corporate one, not with might but calm, courageous healing and liberation. A healer and a healing story write large. Who is this? Indeed, who are we in response to this one? This may be the better question. Sweet Jesus, talking his melancholy madness, stood up in the boat and the sea lay down, silky and sorry, So everybody was saved that night. But you know how it is when something different crosses the threshold — the uncles mutter together, the women walk away, the young brother begins to sharpen his knife. Nobody knows what the soul is. It comes and goes like the wind over the water -- sometimes, for days, you don’t think of it. Maybe, after the sermon, after the multitude was fed, one or two of them felt the soul slip forth like a tremor of pure sunlight before exhaustion, that wants to swallow everything, gripped their bones and left them miserable and sleepy, as they are now, forgetting how the wind tore at the sails before he rose and talked to it -- tender and luminous and demanding as he always was -- a thousand times more frightening than the killer sea. “Maybe” by Mary Oliver Enter into worship. Readings: 1 Samuel 17:32-49 † Psalm 9:9-20 or Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16 † Psalm 133 † 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 † Mark 4:35-41 About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Calming of the Storm, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58522 [retrieved June 18, 2024]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.
![]() [Jesus] also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed... ~Mark 4:30-31a Great storytellers and masterful artists know how to craft a piece of art that has the power to hold our attention while, at that same time, push us off kilter just enough to leave us questioning, wondering, and eager to think and talk more. As they do this, they open us up to parts of humanity, parts of being alive, that we did not see before. They open us to fuller, richer understandings of our own lives and others. Jesus was a great storyteller and a masterful artist. With his parables, accessible stories of real people, he pulled his audience in while also deploying an image or a detail that would have thrown them off kilter.
What do we expect of this “holy wisdom” in our day? Do we have more to learn and in what ways—additional knowledge or new points of view or matters of the heart…or all of this? Enter into worship this Sunday. Readings: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 † Psalm 20 † 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17 † Mark 4:26-34 About the Art: Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890. The Sower III (version 2), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58327 [retrieved June 12, 2024]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_The_sower_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg. About the painting (commentary by Michael Banner): In the foreground a deeply shadowed sower in darkest blue works under a vivid yellow-green sky with pink clouds and a large lemon sun, over a violet earth. The intense, incandescent colors are meant to communicate the intensity of the moment, as the sower, with the sun forming a halo behind his head, bends to his holy task. From his right hand the sower broadcasts seed on the rough ground, and approaches a tree which, bending and twisting like the sower, dramatically divides the canvas on the diagonal. The tree guides our eye into the picture, providing scale and depth, and also some visual relief from the wearying extent of ground over which the sower has to tread, reaching away to the long and low horizon. More importantly, however, the tree speaks of the aching mix of pathos and consolation which Van Gogh found in this motif. Just as the tree sharply divides the canvas, so the seed will fall into either good or bad soil, to live and bear fruit, or to die. The tree is heavily pollarded, and at certain times of year, might itself seem dead, like the seed. Yet from its wounds fresh blossom springs, holding over the sower’s lowered head a sign of promise; hope and joy even as the light of the setting sun fades.
![]() “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” ~2 Corinthians 5:1 The Episcopal priest Stephanie Spellers says “Institutions and cultures are durable partly because they obey the law of inertia. Even if you think you’ve exerted a strong external push and knocked a moving object or an entire institution off its set course, wait. Just wait. With barely a nudge, the object will drift right back to its original path.” There is value, of course in institutional stability. Their predictability provides shelter and nurture and a moderating influence that keeps us steady in tumultuous times. The downside, of course, is they delay needed change, repress diverse life-giving creativity, perpetuate inequity, and exclude. It should be no surprise that Jesus would seek to turn upside down his own religious tradition given the disruptive and chaotic scene Mark has for us in today’s gospel text. Indeed, while the institution of family continues to be one of humanity’s greatest blessings, we can see along with him the tendencies to lose sight of these central purposes and fundamental human connections. Who are my mother and my brothers? Who is counted among our true family? What is this durable shelter we have from God, eternal in the heavens? We will have an opportunity to experience a sign of this truth, of the promise of the church as a place of nurture and thriving on Sunday as we celebrate with Violet Montano her quinceañera—the celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, marking her passage to adulthood. Many of us have known Violet and her sister Jasmin and mother Mirna for over a decade when they came to the Center of Hope. They have made a life for themselves and kept company with many of us over the years, including Godparents Roger and Judy Paulsen. We celebrated Jasmin’s fifteenth when we were separated furing the Covid years. You can see that celebration here as a part of our Advent worship in 2020. The family has asked to celebrate with St. Andrew again for this important marker in Violet’s life. Come and join the celebration. Festive dress is perfectly appropriate! Enter into worship. Readings: 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20 † Psalm 138 † 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 † Mark 3:20-35 About the Art: Dennis Oppenheim. Device to Root Out Evil (second version), from Avenue Magazine, Calgary, Canada. Original source: https://www.avenuecalgary.com/city-life/work-of-art/device-to-root-out-evil-by-dennis-oppenheim/. Five years after it disappeared from its former site in Ramsay, the sculpture found a new home in 2019 in Calgary’s East Village neighborhood. Made of aluminum, galvanized steel, Venetian glass, and Plexiglass, the sculpture depicts a New England-style church turned upside down as if to invite scrutiny from the heavens.
![]() “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ~John 3:8 To speak of Trinity is to speak of a God in motion—at work, at play—a divine dance of transforming, creative, inviting presence we encounter in the astonishment of the world around us and in the course of our own pilgrimage. Trinitarian doctrine is not explicit in the scriptures. It is not born from some academic philosophical problem. It is a recognition we live into as we encounter God’s saving ministry in real-world events. In the resurrection, God the parent ministers to the Son through the Spirit in death. God’s ministry, then, is shared ministry. And we too are have a share in God’s life-giving ministry, in God’s arrival in death and death-dealing moments to raise new life. Do you see it? Enter into worship. Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8 † Psalm 29 † Romans 8:12-17 † John 3:1-17 About the Art: Anonymous. Trinity, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56146 [retrieved May 14, 2024]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canteiro_en_Berres,_A_Estrada.jpg. This stone stele was erected along one of the paths that lead to Santiago de Compostela, an important pilgrimage site. Photograph by Noel Feans.
![]() “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your daughters and your sons shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both women and men, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”… ~Acts 2:17-18 In the human family tree, the genus Homo goes back about 3 million years, and includes more than a dozen named hominin species, including modern humans, according to our best scientific understanding. Seventy thousand years ago, there were at least six different human species on earth. They were insignificant animals whose ecological impact, according to Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens, “was less than that of fireflies or jellyfish.” Today, only one human species remains, us, Sapiens, who rule the planet. Something revolutionary happened in the Sapiens brain that enabled language, and imagination, and the development of myths, stories about non-physical things, about things that, technically, don’t exist. We can believe in things that exist purely in our own imagination, like states, and money, and human rights. We can believe in God. We can imagine possibilities and futures; we can prophesy and dream dreams, and we can organize ourselves around them. As long as communal beliefs persist, the imagined reality exerts force in the world. The story of Pentecost is a story of imagining the possibility that we belong to one another, that we are siblings in a story of salvation that leads toward connection, that leads toward mutuality rather than division, that leads to love rather than hatred, that leads to peace. Enter into worship. Readings: Acts 2:1-21 † Psalm 104:24-35b † Romans 8:22-27 † John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15 About the Art: He Qi. Holy Spirit Coming, Oil on Canvas, 1998. Retrieved on May 6, 2024 from https://artandtheology.org/tag/he-qi/. Original source: https://www.heqiart.com/store/p96/50_Holy-Spirit-Coming_Artist_Proof_.html.
![]() The opposite of an ordinary fact is a lie. But the opposite of one profound truth is complemented and given life by another profound truth.” ~Nils Bohr, Nobel Award winning physicist This Sunday we are pleased to welcome back Yarrow Durbin to our Sunday morning gathering. Rather than worship in our traditional way, we will gather together for a day of learning as we did on March 17th. Led by experienced presenter Yarrow Durbin, we will further the concept of polarities and how they play out in our own life together and shared mission. To that end, we are both deepening and expanding the conversation. This time around we are welcoming community partners to the conversation. Polarity maps allow us to explore tough, persistent dilemmas that are not actually problems that can be “solved” but ongoing polarities which can be navigated constructively. They involve a polarity—a relationship between two opposing ideas that each have some good in them. In fact, you need both sides to achieve your goals. And guaranteed, if you overdo one side, you get trouble. The good and bad news is that you can’t get rid of a polarity. Ever. Based on the work of Barry Johnson, Polarity Management is a powerful yet very accessible model of thinking, assessing, planning, and acting that moves individuals and teams from resistance and conflict towards embracing the complexity of their challenges and working together towards their common purpose. When groups learn it, they are more able to work effectively with “opposition”, build stronger teams, make better decisions, and focus their energy where it will make a bigger positive difference. If you’d like to do a little work in advance, here are two excellent resources: 1. Polarity Thinking 101 2. Polarity Thinking: A Powerful Tool for Building Leadership Capacity Come and join us Sunday morning beginning at 10:00am. We will finish at noon. About the Presenter: For 35 years, Yarrow Durbin has been creating stimulating, powerful and engaging learning experiences for individuals and groups, integrating state of the art approaches from many disciplines. Yarrow works with individuals, small and large groups in a wide variety of settings, committed to making a positive difference for children, families, and our diverse communities. Her focus is on transformational learning for leaders and groups facing conflict or breakdowns in trust, rapid change, and those desiring truly equitable and supportive environments in which everyone feels included. She launched CourageWork in 2005 to offer individual leadership coaching, team retreat and workshop facilitation, and change consulting in education, human services, government, health care, law, and social justice-oriented not-for-profits and businesses. She built on skills gained teaching high school for 18 years, working in adult professional development, and founding a non-profit based on the work of Dr. Parker Palmer. Yarrow has a master’s degree from the University of Washington in Curriculum and Instruction, as well as certification as a Courage & Renewal® facilitator, Integral® Coach, Certified Polarity Management® trainer, Immunity to Change® consultant and coach, Leadership Circle Profile and EQ in Action Profile, and many others.
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