Weaving a Life Story

Academy for Spiritual Formation, adult learning, art, Creativity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Icons, inspiration, Ministry, Nativity, renewal, righteousness, Silence, suffering, vision

Weaving is a metaphor for our life’s story and journey. We envision the weaver in charge of the colors, designs, and textures of the finished fabric. The weaver’s goal is to produce a beautiful product. We often think we are in charge of our own destiny, as “The Weaving Song” by Carolyn Hester, in which an old 1960’s era folk singer would sing:

Choose the right color And push the right tread

Throw through the shuttle And peg down the thread

Work is all laid Before your start

To make your own pallet Of bright hue or dark

The loom of life is moving The weaving is all your own

Choose the right color And push the right tread

Throw through the shuttle And peg down the thread

Rainbow of colors Is at your command

Choose all the right shades Offered in the stand

The loom of life is moving The weaving is all your own

Life’s but a grey And heavy with care

May blooms scarlet With couragе rare

The loom of life is moving Thе weaving is all your own.

DeLee: God’s Eye and Cross, woven canvas, branch, string, paint brushes, fabric scraps, wire, packing materials, 16” x 20”, 2025.

Yet life doesn’t always work out the way we thought it would. The Bible says Job was the most righteous person of his era, and Job complains after losing everything and everyone:

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope.” (7:6)

This wisdom text reminds us sometimes the righteous suffer, even while the wicked prosper, but God is still God, and we will understand this mystery of God when we see God face to face. We call this “theodicy,” (from Greek theos, “god”; dikē, “justice”), or our explanation of why a perfectly good, almighty, and all-knowing God still permits evil to exist.

God gives human beings free will. We make our own choices in life, just as everyone else does. Since we don’t live in a universe of one, other people’s choices impact our choices. Imagine a pingpong ball tossed into a room filled with mousetraps all loaded with other pingpong balls. If one ball hits a loaded trap, it sets that ball off into motion and those balls set more balls into motion until chaos ensues! If more than one person is involved, some sort of disagreement is sure to follow. Some of us are even at odds with our own selves!

As the old joke goes, a solitary man was rescued from a desert island. On this island were several structures. When asked, he said, “That one was my house and that one was my church.” And the other building? “That was the church I used to go to!”

Louise Bourgeois: Spider, metal, National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario. Her mother mended tapestries, like a spider spins a web.

When life is chaotic, creative people find solace in the quiet of their chosen deserts: the studio, the workshop, or their favorite writing chair. While we artists have the illusion we can control the images we produce or the songs which bubble up from our hearts, in truth, what we create is a shared product with our heart, mind, and the creating spirit. If we begin to lose our humility about this shared process, we lose the creative energy underwriting our works.

Louise Bourgeois: Metal Spider wrapped in yarn, Japan

We know this emotion as “pride,” and the ancient cultures warned against it. Throughout history, legendary and mythological figures have been used as examples of either virtue or a moral failing. The story of Arachne and Minerva is no different.

Attributed to Amasis Painter, 6^th BCE, Greece, clay, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A 6^th BCE Attic Black Figure Lekythos storage vessel attributed to the Amasis Painter shows the type of standing loom and the various shuttles of different threads a weaver would use for a fabric. Today we think of weavers sitting at their looms, but the ancients stood at their work.

Arachne was a mortal who excelled in the weaving arts: spinning her own yarn and selecting the correct colors to produce the beautiful images for the finished fabric. Minerva, the goddess of handicrafts and the Roman correlate to the Greek goddess Athena, had heard of Arachne’s prowess and her pride. Disguised as an old woman, Minerva visited Arachne to warn her not to disparage the gift of the gods. Arachne rebuffed her, and held her ground, even when Minerva revealed her true identity.

Minerva (Athena) and Arachne by René-Antoine Houasse (1706), Versailles

When the weaving contest began, both were even in technique and design. Minerva’s image was of the pantheon of the gods, but Arachne told the stories of the god’s mishaps with humanity. This angered Minerva, who struck Arachne with a weaver’s shuttle. Embarrassed, Arachne took a rope to hang herself, but Minerva had pity on her and changed her into a spider instead. We call spiders, ever weaving their gossamer webs, “arachnids” in her memory.

In Christian art, the theme of listening beside a well or spring is connected both to the angel’s annunciation to the Virgin Mary and to her weaving curtains for the Temple. The third-century Dura-Europos church baptistery has a fresco of a woman drawing water from a well, which Yale theologian Michael Peppard believes represents the Annunciation to Mary at a well, from a scene from the gnostic writing, Protevangelium-18.

Woman drawing water at the well. Possibly the Virgin hearing the Angel’s voice. Dura Europa.

Others think it represents the Samaritan woman at the well or Rebecca from the Old Testament. Because the fresco doesn’t include Jesus, the empty space instead represents “the bodiless voice” that Mary hears in the Protevangelium. Also, a five-pointed star appears on the woman’s torso, which could symbolize the new child in her womb. The star in later iconography was repositioned to the shoulder of her mantle, and the water vessel survives all the way into the Renaissance art as a vase with flowers.

From The Protoevangelium of James, section 11: And she took the pitcher, and went out to fill it with water. And, behold, a voice saying:

“Hail, you who hast received grace; the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28) And she looked round, on the right hand and on the left, to see whence this voice came. And she went away, trembling, to her house, and put down the pitcher; and taking the purple, she sat down on her seat, and drew it out. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood before her, saying: “Fear not, Mary; for you have found grace before the Lord of all, and you shall conceive, according to His word.” And she hearing, reasoned with herself, saying: “Shall I conceive by the Lord, the living God? And shall I bring forth as every woman brings forth?” And the angel of the Lord said: “Not so, Mary; for the power of the Lord shall overshadow you: wherefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of the Most High. And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” And Mary said: “Behold, the servant of the Lord before His face: let it be unto me according to your word.”

This apocryphal Greek text, which was first written in the 2^nd CE, with Syrian revisions into the 5^th CE, is important because it increases our insights into women’s history, the childhood history of Jesus, Jewish-Christian relations, and the impact of Christian apocrypha on Islamic origins. This text, which contains the infancy narratives of the Virgin Mary, John (the Baptist), and Jesus is the source many of the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox religious feast days. Moreover, it’s also the origin for the icons representing the birth of Jesus in a cave.

Duccio: The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, tempera and gold on panel, 1308-1311, National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. Part of a series of the Life of Christ, the rest of which are in Sienna, Italy.

A similar Marian birth narrative, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, gives more details on the life of the Virgin, the miracles surrounding her marriage and the birth of Christ. It also tells the story of the Annunciation in two visits rather than one. The angel’s first greeting is beside a fountain and the second is inside while Mary is weaving the curtains for the Temple.

When I was on a recent Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation retreat, one of our hands on projects was a small weaving. Our package had a small loom, some yarn to weave with, and beads to attach. Of course I had to use a second packet to finish out my weaving because I tightened the horizontal rows more tightly than the organizers thought the regular attendees would do with their yarns and ribbons.

I also had my eye on a nice lichen covered branch to use as a hanging support. When I picked it up, it had red ants on it. I had to do some mad shaking to get them off! Anything for art! During one of our quiet reflection sessions, I sat beside a small lake under a pavilion to let my hands work. I’ve always needed a quiet space to process the flood of ideas and the rush of emotions when meeting new people and hearing new ideas. I operate as an extrovert, but when I get full to overflowing, I need quiet to recreate and recharge. I find new power in the admonition of Psalm 46:1-6—

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Diedrick Brackens, “prodigal” (2023), cotton and acrylic yarn

When my hands touch the different textures of the threads, and I let my spirit work with the creating Spirit of the word and world, I can shed all the strain and stress of being on a different schedule from traveling, having nerve pain in my neck from a bulging disk, and more interaction than I’m used to since I no longer work.

I always fought to carve out quiet times when I was in active ministry, for listening to God is the first calling of any leader worth their salt. I knew I wouldn’t hear God’s voice in the pell mell rush and cacophony of our world. The disembodied voice is more likely to come to us when we’re alone or in a receptive moment. It’s important to note Mary was one of the virgins of the House of David chosen to weave the curtains for the Temple in Jerusalem, according to The Protoevangelium of James, section 10. She was busy, but working for her God. It was when she took a break to draw water from a life giving well that she heard the messenger from God.

Bruce Conner, Arachne, 1959, mixed media: nylon stockings, collage, cardboard, 65 3⁄4 x 48 3⁄4 x 4 1⁄4 in. (167.0 x 123.8 x 10.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.12

When I was appointed to a church, I always had a list of tasks to do, but I often never completed them because God would send “interruptions” to my well laid plans for the day. After several years, I began to understand these interruptions were my real tasks of ministry for the day. We have plans, but God has a better plan.

The prayer in my weaving supplies was appropriate for me on this retreat:

Teach us to listen, O Lord.

Quiet the noise of our lives

so we can hear your voice. Amen.

After several weeks, I’ve come back to finish this blog. In the meantime I’ve had anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for my neck pain and numb fingers. It’s for the bulging neck disk that causes pressure on the spinal cord. If this happens in the lower back, a person gets sciatica and numbness in the legs. In the neck,the same condition affects the arm and hands. I feel better than I did before, so I’m thankful for all healing mercies. I have to be careful not to overdo my activities. The instructions “Don’t do housework!” were gladly received.

I hope you seek out your quiet spaces and quiet moments to hear the sheer, still sounds of silence, the inaudible voice of our God.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

NOTES:

Carolyn Hester: The Weaving Song, Track 10 on At Town Hall, One, Produced by Norman Petty, 1965.

Troubadour: Weaving Song: similar words to Hester coffee house ballad above. https://music.apple.com/us/album/weaving-song/400303687?i=400303767

Myth of Arachne https://www.worldhistory.org/Arachne/

Ally Kateusz: Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership,1st ed., 2019, Kindle Edition

Annunciation or Samaritan Woman, Dura-Europos Baptistery
https://www.christianiconography.info/Wikimedia%20Commons/annunciationDura.html

Charles Bertram Lewis:”The Origin of the Weaving Songs and the Theme of the Girl at the Fountain,” PMLA, Jun., 1922, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Jun., 1922), pp. 141-18, Modern Language Association. http://www.jstor.com/stable/457

Susan B. Matthews: Dura Europos—The Ancient City and The Yale Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, 1982, Yale University Printing Service. https://artgallery.yale.edu/sites/default/files/publication/pdfs/ag-doc-2378-0002-doc.pdf

Camille Leon Angelo and Joshua Silver: “Debating the domus ecclesiae at Dura-Europos: the Christian Building in context,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 37 (2024), 264–303, doi:10.1017/S1047759424000126. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E76ED3AD86D09A74893368840DEDFA6A/S1047759424000126a.pdf/debating-the-domus-ecclesiae-at-dura-europos-the-christian-building-in-context.pdf

The Protoevangelium of James, section 11. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, section 9. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0848.htm

Horn, C. (2018). The Protoevangelium of James and Its Reception in the Caucasus: Status Quaestionis. Scrinium, 14(1), 223-238. https://doi.org/10.1163/18177565-00141P15

The Iconography of the Nativity

Alexander the Great, Apocalypse, art, Bethlehem, Faith, Icons, Imagination, incarnation, inspiration, Nativity, Painting, Ravenna Italy, Savonarola, vision

What Makes a Nativity Scene?

The gospels remind us the story of Christ’s birth isn’t necessary for our salvation. Only our faith in Christ’s saving work for us on the cross is necessary “to transform our humble body that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.” (Philippians 3:21, alternate translation). Mark has no infancy narrative at all, while John’s gospel speaks of the Greek Logos (Word), who is present with God at creation and as co-creator.

Luke and Matthew both have birth stories. Matthew gives us the ancestry of Jesus, the Wise Men or Magi from the East, and the massacre of the innocents. John the Baptist also figures large in Matthew’s text. Luke brings in the shepherds, the host of angels, and the angel’s annunciation to Mary of her impending birth of a savior.

Luke 2:6-7 notes this point about the birth of the Christ child: “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

Gail W. painted a simple nativity in one class session.

This bit of text sets the scene for all the artists of every era to exercise their imagination. What does a first century CE manger look like? What animals would be there? Would the visitors come by day or night? Who would visit a woman who got pregnant while she was still “betrothed?” In every age, gossip travels fast, even without the internet. Traveling traders and business people carried news from town to town.

After all, word had spread how Joseph, “being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (Matthew 1:19). No wonder there was no room for them at the inn. No respectable place would have them. Or we could be generous to the local folk and say Mary and Joseph travelled slowly because her imminent due date was the cause of frequent stops. A donkey ride might not be the most comfortable ride in one’s late trimester. Either way, if they were late arriving, the rooms may have been booked full already.

The Church of the Nativity, which dates to the 4th CE, was built over the cave in Bethlehem where early Christians believed Christ was born. From Apocryphal sources we learn the traditions of the cave and the stable. The Infancy Gospel of James (chapter 18) also places the Nativity in a cave, but the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew combines the two locations, explaining that on the third day after the birth “Mary went out of the cave and, entering a stable, placed the child in the manger” (chapter 14).

Roman Sarcophagus of Stilicho. It’s found today beneath the pulpit of Sant’Ambrogio basilica in Milan, Italy.

The earliest images of the nativity which currently exist are from 3^rd CE sarcophagus panels. The earliest Nativity scene in art was carved into a sarcophagus lid once thought to be for a Roman general, Stilicho, who died in 408 CE. The ox and the ass and two birds are the only figures that appear in addition to Jesus, swaddled in his manger. Our typical cast of characters, including Mary and Joseph, do not appear may be because this sculpture illustrates a prophecy from the Old Testament. Isaiah 1:3 reads, “The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger…” This Nativity also has relevance to the Eucharist because believers are nourished by the “fodder” of Christ’s flesh, just as the animals receive their sustenance from the manger’s hay. The animals aren’t mentioned in the New Testament, but from the Apocryphal sources mentioned above.

Tim’s Nativity: simplicity rules here—only the lights of the great star, the light of the Christ child, and the minor lights of the heavens.

Nativity with Flight to Egypt in the upper part—from the 4th and 5th centuries, Athens, from before the Middle Ages, and technically “Roman” art. (often referred to as “Early Christian”).

Next added were the shepherds, during the 4th and 5th CE, such as this example from the Palazzo Massimo. We find it on the sarcophagus Marcus Claudianus, on the upper tier, on the left. This dates from around 350 CE, found today in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.

Sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus (Rome, Italy), Palazzo Massimo: Early Christian art is interesting because it can be hard to spot the stories as you know them. Except it seems, the Nativity, in the upper left corner, 330-335CE.

The sculptor carved the sarcophagus in the style called “continuous frieze” because all the figures line up and their heads are of equal height. The appearance of grape harvest imagery on the lid is ambiguous; it appears on both pagan/secular and Christian sarcophagi with identical elements. From left to right on the lid: nativity scene of Jesus, sacrifice of Isaac, an inscription naming the deceased, an image of the deceased as scholar, and a grape harvest scene.

Carvings on the front of the Marcus Claudianus sarcophagus include: Arrest of Peter, miracle of water and wine (with a possible baptism reference), an orant or praying figure, miracle of loaves, healing a man born blind, prediction of Peter’s denial, resurrection of Lazarus and supplication of Lazarus’ sister.

This stone relief carving depicts the detail of the Nativity from the 4th and 5th centuries from the Palazzo Massimo, on the Sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus (Rome, Italy).

A Carolingian Era (751-887) Nativity scene from the British Museum

Eastern Orthodox icons retain the cave imagery while the Western art traditions use a stable or ruins of a classical structure in the nativity scenes. The first is according to tradition and the western imagery reminds the viewer the ancient past with its many gods is no longer ascendant.

The one change we see in the 6th century is the inclusion of Mary lying on a mattress type bed. It may have appeared earlier in art, but we have no surviving example to date an earlier occurrence. Later, we see more actors in the drama appearing, but often they don’t arrive all at once. The wise men visit, or the shepherds visit, but not in the same artwork.

Wise Men Visiting the Birth of Christ, 6th CE

A 10th century ivory panel from Trier, still very much following the now 700+ year old Roman models;
things changed much more slowly in the Middle Ages than they do now.

By the time of the 11^th CE, the nativity scene was becoming more elaborate , but was not yet in full flower. By the 13^th CE, the magnificent portal of the St. Lawrence cathedral, in Trogir, Croatia, by the Master Radovan and his associates has a strong narrative of the many parts of the nativity story. The city of Trogir, a World Heritage Site since 1997, is known as one of the best-preserved Romanesque-Gothic cities, the core of which consists of forts, religious and secular buildings, with the Rector’s Palace and the City Loggia standing out. Its Romanesque churches are supplemented with Renaissance and Baroque edifices.

Romanesque style portal of the St. Lawrence cathedral, in Trogir, Croatia, by the Master Radovan and his associates

The detail of the portal is worth a closer look. In the center, in between the curtained “bunkbeds,” the Virgin and Child rest on the upper tier. The animals also look on in this section. Below the manger scene is a ritual bath. In my Christian world view, I called this the “baptism of Jesus.” In his Hebrew life, he would have undergone a ritual cleansing immersion bath before going to the temple for his circumcision. This ritual would mark him as a covenant member of the nation and people of God. The two elderly people on the left of this scene are most likely Simeon and Anna, prophets who speak to the child’s fulfillment of scripture.

Details of Romanesque style Portal of St Lawrence cathedral in Trogir, Croatia.

Above all this at the center top are the star, with the angels on the left and on the right. Filling the space on the left side of the portal are the shepherds and their herds, while the Magi and their steeds occupy the right side. The Magi ride horses, unlike our modern nativities which have camels.

Sixth-century CE mosaic at the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy

In England, the Venerable Bede (d. 735) wrote the Magi were symbols of the three parts of the world—Asia, Africa, and Europe. They signified the three sons of Noah, who fathered the races of these three continents (Genesis, chapter 10). By the late Middle Ages, this idea found expression in art, and artists began to depict one of the kings as a black African. The kings sometimes have their retinues, which include animals from their presumed places of origin: camels, horses, and elephants are the most common. As with the shepherds, the artists often represented the three kings in the various stages of life: young, middle aged, and old age.

Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi, 1423

Artists added more exotic animals to the nativity scenes in the 15^th CE when trade and travel were expanding beyond the continent. Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi (painted in 1423) presents a remarkable range of animals. Alongside the traditional ox, donkey, sheep (and a couple of dogs thrown in for good measure), the chaotic scene includes a camel, cheetah (or leopard), hawks and monkeys.

“Cabinet of Curiosities”
Engraving from Ferrante Imperato, Dell’Historia Naturale (Naples 1599)

The inclusion of animals which were not native to Europe helped Gentile da Fabriano to emphasize the three wise men’s journey from the Far East, but also to impress viewers with its exoticism and visual richness. This would have reflected very well on the painting’s patron, the rich Florentine banker Palla Strozzi, as it reinforced his connections to foreign lands. In this era, many rich citizens had a collection of exotic animals and imported wares, just as wealthy people today have collections of art, yachts, or sports cars to showcase their riches.

Sandro Botticelli, “Mystic Nativity” (1500), oil on canvas, 42.7 × 29.5 inches (108.5 × 74.9 cm) (image via Wikimedia Commons), now in National Gallery of London.

An even more elaborate nativity comes from the hand of Botticelli, who worked in the wealthy merchant city of Florence, Italy, in 1500. Savonarola was a fanatical preacher who aimed to morally reform the city of Florence, which had a global reputation for artistic output and lavish lifestyles. Savonarola condemned secular art and literature, decried the city as a corrupt and vice-ridden place bloated with material wealth, and, after warning of a great scourge approaching, saved the Florentines by convincing the French king and military to deoccupy and recede during the Italian War of 1494–98.

The people thought of him as a prophet and came from miles around just to hear him preach his apocalyptic message. He preached a sermon telling the people of Florence they could become the new Jerusalem “if only its civilians would part with and burn their luxuries, opulent fineries, and give up their pagan or secular iconographies.”

Botticelli fell under Savonarola’s influence during this time, for his art changed from decorative to religious. The 12 angels at the base of the composition each hold a ribbon that the artist inscribed with the 12 privileges or virtues of the Virgin Mary, which came from a sermon Savonarola delivered about a vision he once experienced. Another unusual aspect is that the three kings welcome Jesus empty-handed, rather than with gold, frankincense, and myrrh — influenced by Savonarola’s sermon, though it could be their ultimate gifts are their prayers and devotion.

Mike brought his good humor to class with a Grinch portrait

Sometimes it’s impossible to know whether the artist was inspired by a non-biblical element or by an apocryphal text in a Nativity scene or if the artistic depiction came first. In their book, Art and the Christian Apocrypha, David R. Cartlidge and J. Keith Elliott contend in the making of early Christian art, written and visual sources are interdependent. “The developing consensus is that oral traditions, texts (rhetorical arts) and the pictorial arts all interact so that all the arts demonstrate the church’s ‘thinking out loud’ in both rhetorical and pictorial images” (2001, xv).

Gail W.’s open perspective nativity inspired by the renaissance artists

When we artists imagine the nativity today, we add to the basic scripture text all of the Hollywood movies we’ve seen, the stories we’ve heard around the fireplaces and altars of our instruction, and every Christmas card and artwork we’ve ever seen. Our memories of Christmas are often more important than Christmas itself. This is because we have an idea of how Christmas is supposed to BE, but the birth of Christ wasn’t what either Mary or Joseph thought it was going to be. Just as most of us, they hoped to be at home and near family, not “away in a manger, no crib for a bed.”

Cornelia worked in the geometry of the scene. I might rework the sky.

God brought the Savior of all into our world into a humble setting, not to a royal palace. God brought to the birthplace of Christ strangers from distant lands and marginalized people from their homeland to have the first opportunity to worship the newborn king. God excluded the political rulers because they were out to destroy this unusual king.

We are part of the Christian community now, so we sometimes miss the disruptive nature of Christ’s birth. As part of the in/dominant group today, we might have a tough time reading the Bible’s challenges to self-satisfaction and complacency.

Birth of Alexander the Great, mosaic, Roman villa near Baalbek, Lebanon, 4th CE

We often forget while these depictions of the Nativity were evolving, the segment of the Roman Empire that was still pagan were also representing famous births, that predate the standard depictions of the Nativity of Christ. For example, in a Roman villa near Baalbek, Lebanon a fourth century mosaic of the Birth of Alexander the Great at first sight almost exactly resembles what later became a standard depiction of the Nativity of Christ. This mosaic, today in the National Museum of Beirut, shows the newborn Alexander the Great being bathed in a circular fluted basin by a female figure labelled ‘Nymphe’, while his mother Olympias reclines on a bed watched by an attendant.

Compare this with the icon of the Wise Men Visiting the Birth of Christ, from the 6th CE pictured above. In the lower right corner of this nativity scene, we see a small depiction of the Christ child being bathed, with water being poured over his head. (Obviously a United Methodist, but a precursor since John Wesley wasn’t born yet!) Our Christian iconography is derived from pagan sources. By this I mean we reimagined the pagan iconography and repurposed it for our own spiritual practices and purposes.

One of our other challenges is the calendar. We in the West use the Gregorian calendar, from the 16^th CE, while the Orthodox Church still follows the Julian calendar, which was in use during the time of Christ. This is why the Orthodox community still celebrates Christmas and Easter on different dates than the Western churches. In the Orthodox Church, they celebrate Epiphany as the baptism of Jesus rather than the arrival of the Magi (Three wise men), which the Western Church celebrates on 6 January. On the Gregorian calendar, this Orthodox Epiphany celebration is January 19^th. They celebrate this date as the Baptism of Jesus, rather than the arrival of the wise men. Their Epiphany is located in the baptism rather than the nativity. That’s a whole other theological discussion beyond the iconography of the nativity!

DeLee: The No Room Inn, mixed media, private collection

I mention this fact of the two calendars because I’m always “calendar challenged.” It’s not a senior citizen thing, because this was my problem even when I was in my twenties also. Sometimes I put too many commitments on my calendar, and other times I underestimate the time to complete my tasks. Then again, there’s always the unexpected interruptions. Always the interruptions. I came to understand in my ministry my list of tasks to do were not my actual work, but instead these interruptions were the opportunities which God would bring to me to do God’s chosen ministry.

So, I’m a few days late on the Western calendar for the visit of the Three Kings, having missed January 6^th, and I’m a few days early for the Orthodox calendar. As Goldilocks said, “Not too hot, not too cold, but just right!”

The last art pieces our class made in 2024 before the holidays and the snowstorms were our nativity paintings. I asked each person to use their imagination and to bring the essence of the nativity to their creative process. Some of us quickly realized our images and used our second meeting to do a personal project or another version of the nativity scene. Others of us took both sessions to perfect our one image. I blame the Christmas cookies and our lack of hand and mouth coordination. Sometimes it’s hard to chew and paint at the same time!

Our first class of 2025 was an instance of “calendar challenge”—I thought we were having it, but the group didn’t. The next week, a major snow storm canceled class every where for everyone. Friday, January 17, should be a good day to begin a new project! We’re going to do some mixed media, along with weaving projects in the days and weeks to come. You don’t need skills, but a willingness to try.

Joy, peace, and a hope for better weather!

Cornelia

The Magi and the Manger: Imaging Christmas in Ancient Art and Ritual

The Magi and the Manger: Imaging Christmas in Ancient Art and Ritual – The Yale ISM Review

The Nativity Tympanum on the Sarcophagus of Stilicho

https://www.christianiconography.info/Wikimedia%20Commons/nativitySarcophagusStilicho.html

UNESCO monuments in the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Glyptotheque

https://gliptoteka.hazu.hr/unesco/en/trogir.html

The Apocryphal Gospels—PseudoMatthew—has Latin text and translation
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Apocryphal_Gospels/Cmbtm4ZZXF0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=M.+Berthold+has+argued+that+Pseudo-Matthew&pg=PA75&printsec=frontcover

The Infancy Gospel of James (2nd century) |http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vii.iv.html

The Arabic Infancy Gospel (5th-6th century) http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vii.xi.html

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (8th or 9^th century) http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.vii.v.i.html

Web Gallery of Art, searchable fine arts image database

https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/support/zearly/1/1sculptu/sarcopha/1/9claudi2.html

Nativity – Visual Elements in the Nativity — Glencairn Museum

https://www.glencairnmuseum.org/nativity-visualelements

Johann International: Search results for Nativity http://johanninternational.blogspot.com/search?q=Nativity

Revisiting Botticelli’s Evocative “Mystic Nativity” https://hyperallergic.com/978201/revisiting-botticelli-evocative-mystic-nativity/

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW: Origins of the Icon of the Nativity of Christ
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2018/12/origins-of-icon-of-nativity-of-christ.html

Intuitive Color Wheels

adult learning, art, at risk kids, cognitive decline, color Wheel, Creativity, Imagination, inspiration, Lost Cause, Ministry, Painting, renewal, vision

The great and wonderful part of art is exercising imagination and discovering new ways to solve problems. One of my favorite memories in art school was the day our professor came to class with a single red clay brick. Our first thought was this is going to be the most boring drawing class ever, but then he asked us, “How many uses can you find for a brick?”

After we quickly named multiple uses for a single brick—doorstop, paperweight, weapon, counterweight, and bookend—we were at a loss to name much more. As we scratched our heads, our teacher prompted us, “Did I restrict you to a single brick?” And we were off to the races! Wall, fireplace, house, road, sidewalk, planter, sculpture, picnic table, bookshelf, and more. I can’t remember if this was an early morning class or we were just dense, but I’ve come to believe we can teach creativity. At the very least, we need to give people permission to accept “multiple art answers can be true” and give them the opportunity to consider “other possibilities.”

When I taught art years ago, children who were troublemakers in regular classrooms were usually well behaved in art class. I attribute this outcome to their ability to express their own individuality in solving the weekly art assignments. Math always has a right answer; there is no “alternative fact” to 2 + 2 = 4. History is the same: the Confederacy seceded from the Union to keep their economic system of enslavement. There was no “states rights movement,” no matter what the Lost Cause proponents pushed in our state approved textbooks. All we had to do was look at the original source documents from the 1860’s.

Adults usually conform to socially acceptable norms. Helping adults with creative thinking is important because the creative process is more important than the tangible result. Most adults give up the idea they will ever paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, while children are humble enough to realize they need many more years of practice before they get that kind of opportunity. Also, what we know about creativity can’t be applied in the same way to all creative endeavors because they involve different subjective decisions and processes.

Gino Severini: Expansion of Light. (Centrifugal and Centripetal), ca. 1913 – 1914, Oil on Canvas. 65 x 43.3 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Creative insight depends in part on new combinations of existing ideas, concepts, and perceptions that the brain has stored over time. This is why we begin each class looking at famous art works. We need good art influences and inspiration to “prime our creative pumps” so we can draw up from the pure wellsprings of our own creativity. Just as we need spiritual food for our soul, we need beauty for our creative ideas.

Last year we worked on copying the color wheel and matching it. That is an intellectual skill. To make this into a creative, intuitive activity, we took strings and wrapped our canvases. This made multiple shapes for our colors. Using the primary colors—red, yellow, and blue, plus white—we mixed various combinations and surprised ourselves with the results.

Our first class was lightly attended, due to doctor appointments and vacations, so we still have room for anyone else who wants to come. All skill levels are welcome, for I’ve taught from K-5 to adults. Everyone progresses from their own level, so the longer you sit and think you wish you were good enough for lessons is merely time wasted when you could be working with a practiced teacher! Anyway, the lessons are free; you bring your materials and discover your unknown abilities and gifts. We journey with fellow travelers. Plus it keeps your brain young.

We will continue to work on this project next Friday at 10 am.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

National Endowment for the Arts: Creativity and the Brain

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/how-creativity-works-in-the-brain-report.pdf

Eclipse T-Shirts

adult learning, art, Children, cosmology, Creativity, Faith, Good Friday, Great American Eclipse, Habits, Icons, Imagination, incarnation, inspiration, mystery, nature, Painting, Philosophy, Spirituality, vision

Friday in art class we painted our own unique designs on t-shirts for Monday’s Total Eclipse of the Sun. Anticipation of an event is characteristic of young children, while adults often feel over saturated with the early build up of attention given to an important event. By the time it gets here, we go, “Wow, what a letdown.” Children, who have fewer years of experience and anticipation comparison, can still marvel at the alternate reality of the total eclipse.

In the sixth century BCE, Anaximandros believed “the moon has a false light and is illuminated by the sun, and the sun isn’t smaller than the earth and it is pure fire.” The Greeks in 290 BCE knew the moon was unlike the sun. Anaximenes wrote it “didn’t shine with its own light, but with the reflected light of the sun,” as Eudimos wrote in his book History of Astronomy. The Chinese also studied the skies and stars. They used bones heated in fires to divine messages from their deceased ancestors as early as the 12^th century BCE.

Chinese oracle bone depicting lunar eclipse of 12/27-28/1192 BCS.

The Death of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels has the record of an eclipse occurring during the time of the crucifixion. John’s Gospel, which comes from a different source, doesn’t mention this time of darkness.

Egon Schiele, Crucifixion with Darkened Sun, Oil on Canvas, 1907.

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ~~ Mark 15:33

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ~~ Matthew 27:45

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ~~ Luke 23:44-45

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ~~ John 19:30

Yet the Gospel of John tells us more about the miracles of Christ and his dual nature (both human and divine), so that we might believe and have everlasting life through him. New Testament scholar Ernst Käsemann is correct when he says of the Fourth Gospel: “Judged by the modern concept of reality, our Gospel is more fantastic than any other writing of the New Testament.”

Bruce Metzger, noted New Testament scholar and lead translator of the NRSV said, “The more often you have copies (of biblical texts) that agree with each other, especially if they emerge from different geographical areas, the more you can cross-check them to figure out what the original document was like. The only way they’d agree would be where they went back genealogically in a family tree that represents the descent of the manuscripts.[104]

Tim’s Eclipse T-shirt: very simple due to his rehab from arm surgery. He uses his arm until it hurts and then he rests. We do what we can, not what we can’t.

We modern folks are used to looking at the world through the eyes of science and education. We look for repeatable patterns and consistent evidence. We have “grown up minds” with calendars, schedules, to do lists, and multiple people who make demands on our time. Often, we are thinking about our next meeting or chore before we even finish the one we’re currently working on at the moment.

We aren’t practicing Brother Lawrence’s admonition to “Practice the present moment.” Our constantly chiming cell phones don’t help us be present, even though we could set our notifications to silent. Indeed, we’re never present or still enough to know the peace of the God whose name means “I AM.”

Lauralei’s Eclipse T-shirt: experimenting with fabric paint

What is “reality?” How can we know the present moment and come closer to God? With the advent of photography people began to think super realism in painting was preferred to some degree of emotional expression. Today, with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, we can make computer generated photos and paintings that go beyond our wildest dreams! This means our new generations may likely begin using tactile materials and hand-built techniques to create future art works. Instead of fantastic other worlds, they might find their inspiration in the environment or in social justice concerns.

Gail W’s Eclipse T-shirt: first stage in class. She came with a design in mind and brought her sewing chalk also.

Gail W’s Eclipse T-shirt: the finished product.
Some of our inspirations are too grand to be completed in a few hours. We need to have the desire to carry the effort forward to meet our goal.

As with the icon, the artwork is only a reflection of the image which is painted. The icon isn’t holy, but the person depicted is holy. As the writer of Hebrews 1:3-4 says:

“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

I didn’t get a photo of Mike’s “Crawford Law Eclipse T-shirt.” Work called and he had cats to herd. He was generous as usual to bring fabric paints for the group to share. We used old newspapers inside our T-shirts to keep the paint from bleeding through to the backside. We had an opportunity to share stories and eat my birthday doughnuts which Tim blessed me with.

Cornelia’s Eclipse T-shirt: I collapsed all the moments of occlusion into three, so I could finish in one sitting.

If we take time to practice our art, we may realize our own works may be only a reflection of the glory of what we saw, but we we can continue to practice our skills in prayer, for God will bring us ever closer to perfection if we commit our work to God’s glory.

Leonardo da Vinci: Study of the technique for observing solar eclipse, Codex Trivulzianus, 1487–1490

Also, Marilyn, who was working with some other ladies of the church on the potato bar posters, had brought the warm-gooecrescent roll-cream cheese-vanilla-cinnamon-sugar dessert. If you ever have a chance to put this into your mouth, you will be transported into an alternate reality. This is the stuff from which dreams and visions arise! If you eat it, and you merely remark, “Good,” my thought is you’re dead to this world or you’ve lost your sense of taste. The child in me screamed for MORE!! The adult in me will see if I can reduce the calories with no depreciation in taste.

Paul Nash: Eclipse of the Sunflower, 1945

I hope we get a break from the clouds on the Great American Eclipse Day. The last one I traveled to in 2017 was very impressive and worth the journey. Watch it on television if you can’t be outside. Only look at the sun with certified eclipse glasses. Some experiences are such that we can only say “Awe!” And we may want to stop time forever, but time will march on, for we can’t move the sun either forward or backwards. No matter how important we are, we aren’t gods, and we aren’t even Time Lords. If we manage to grasp only a portion of the holiness and beauty of God’s creation in this one event, we will better experience the joy of the passing glory of our God:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” ~~ Psalm 8:3,4 (NRSV)

View of the Great American Eclipse 2017 at
Lake Barkley through a pinhole

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

Eclipses and the Ancient Greek Philosophers

By H. Rovithis-Livaniou and P. Rovithis

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=2007ASPC..370..115R&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES

How Ancient Humans Studied—And Predicted—Solar Eclipses | Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-ancient-humans-studied-and-predicted-solar-eclipses/

Historical Reliability of the Gospels, Encyclopedia MDPI

https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29465

https://handwiki.org/wiki/Religion:Historical_reliability_of_the_Gospels

104. Strobel, Lee. “The Case for Christ”. 1998. Chapter three, when quoting biblical scholar Bruce Metzger

In Memoriam: Bruce M. Metzger (1914-2007) | Bible.org

https://bible.org/article/memoriam-bruce-m-metzger-1914-2007

Bruce Metzger was the master of several ancient and modern languages and ended up teaching at Princeton for 46 years after he received his PhD there. As one of the editors of the standard Greek New Testament used today and the senior editor of the NRSV, his scholarship has proved to be almost impeccable. His specialty was New Testament textual criticism, the field whose primary goal is to ascertain the wording of the original text. Many considered him the finest NT textual critic of the 20th century. His death in 2007 left giant footprints for the next generation to come.

Paul Nash, British Military artist, died in 1946 of complications from asthma. He didn’t see the total eclipse, but knew of it and was very connected to nature.

Read about him in A landscape of mortality | Tate

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-nash-1690/landscape-mortality

Map of the 1945 eclipse: SE1945Jul09T.gif 1,121×1,452 pixels

Nativities Then and Now

Altars, Apocalypse, beauty, Bethlehem, Christmas, Creativity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Icons, Imagination, incarnation, inspiration, Israel, mystery, Nativity, righteousness, Savonarola, vision

Every Christmas, my family would put up a beautiful tree and decorate it to the nines. My dad would always tie this living sculpture to the nearest window frame so the tree wouldn’t topple over. He was well aware at least one of his three curious and rambunctious children would no doubt be crawling under the lowest branches to reach the brightly wrapped presents hidden far back in the corner under the tree.

We kids most desired and sought after these hidden gifts, while those near the front always got a cursory glance and shake. If it were hidden, it had to be desired! Package shaking in the hidden, tight quarters could cause a tree to collapse and that would be more drama than our frazzled mother wanted at this time of year. My dad was wise enough, or trained by experience, to know messing with “Mother Nature” wasn’t a great idea.

Mother’s Nativity with other additions from family and friends

Under this tinsel draped tree, with its 1950’s glowing bubble lights, we always had a nativity scene. In our early childhood, it was solid and childproof, but as we aged, and got too large to crawl under the tree, a better quality nativity came to live under the tree. By my college years, my brothers were also grown enough for mom to exercise her creative genius. She hand-painted her own ceramic nativity group. This masterpiece also got its own special display site. Up until this time, we children had no idea our mother had any artistic talent, for she’d spent her days transporting us to our multiple after school activities. Between my brothers’ sports teams and my hobbies, it’s a wonder she found time to do anything else in the afternoon hours.

Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, 3rd century. Fresco, Rome: catacombs of Priscilla, 3rd Century CE

The 3rd century fresco shows the scene of Adoration of the Magi on the the arch dividing the room in the Greek Chapel in the Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome. In depictions of ancient Greek and Roman gift-giving practices, the act and choice of gift were important. They furnish information about both giver and recipient. The wise men adopt the same postures used in Roman imperial ceremony for the worship of an Emperor or other ruler. Roman art has always provided a pictorial model for the representation of the Magi. By identifying with or recognizing such an outward act of homage, the viewer could enter into the Nativity story through the wise visitors, worshipping the God manifest on earth in the Child.

This is why the earliest Christian art is found in the catacombs of Rome, in the hidden places, since worshipping Jesus wasn’t an approved religious practice in the Empire. Only the Divine Emperor alone was worthy of reverence and worship, not some dying and rising god of a far-off province. Today in America we sometimes forget we’re a nation founded on the principle of freedom to practice our religion as we see fit, or not to practice a religion at all, as the case may be. No government can compel the privilege of one religion above another or set one as the official religion.

Tympanum of the right side of the cast of so-called Sarcophagus of Stilicho, sculpted around 385 AD (the original piece of art is in Sant’Ambrogio basilica in Milan, Italy), Detail Nativity scene, Museo della civiltà romana a Roma (Eur), Room 15 (Christianity).

Another early depiction of the nativity isn’t in a Christmas context, but is found on a late 4th C Roman sarcophagus for a high ranking military official and his wife. The unknown artisan rendered the Christ child, wrapped in binding clothes, and lying in a manger, between the ox and the ass, to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 1:3—

“The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

As accustomed as we are today to manger scenes with all kinds of animals present, the scriptures don’t name them. These are left up to our imaginations. Even the elements derived directly from the gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke were slow to appear in visual renderings. Between those early scriptural accounts and the formation of even a basic manger scene lie some centuries during which Christian devotion and depiction developed. Likewise, the celebration of Christmas was slow to develop, but by the 4th century it was well along.

Nativity Fresco in Santa Maria Foris Portas, Castelseprio, Italy, 9th CE

In the ninth century, after the iconoclastic period, when the images of holy persons were forbidden and destroyed, a fresh wave of religious activity began in the arts. In Italy. In the church dedicated to Mary Outside the Gates in Castelprio, Italy, an entire series of paintings covered the interior walls. The church was located on an important trade route and the site was once a Roman fort. The theme honored Mary as the Bride of Christ, thus making her the spiritual equivalent of the Church, which is the Bride of Christ in scripture. In every tableau, Mary is the largest or most significant figure. Over the centuries, the area lost its importance, these paintings were whitewashed over, but after many years and much restoration, they’re now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today Protestant believers have a Christo-centric faith, often ignoring the other persons of the Holy Trinity. When we focus on the nativity, we forget God’s plan was to use humanity to save the fallen creation. This includes Mary and Joseph both, as well as God’s own Son, as Paul so well reminds us in Philippians 2:5-8—

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

Giotto di Bodone, Nativity of Jesus, 1303-1305. Fresco, 200 x 185 cm. Padua: Scrovegni Chapel

Giotto’s frescos in the Padua Chapel are some of the most important works of art because he brought the Holy Family into ordinary human life. The blue skies replace the gold of the traditional icons, which stood for the infinite and eternal spiritual world. In Giotto’s painting, people hunger and thirst, while in the world of the icons, all suffering is transformed and any passion is disciplined.

Duccio di Buoninsegna, Nativity between the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, 1308-1311. Tempera on panel, 43.8 × 111 cm. Washington: National Gallery of Art

Duccio painted in his studio all the individual sections of the great altarpiece of the church in Sienna, Italy. On completion in 1311, the townspeople held a grand parade as they carried the paintings to the cathedral. They were installed in a magnificent framework with some of the works facing the congregation and the rest facing the church officials. The altarpiece remained intact until until 1506 when it was partially dismantled, relegated to side chapels and replaced by a 15th-century bronze tabernacle.

In 1771, the church fathers hired a carpenter to saw up the old wooden altarpiece into seven vertical pieces, and then saw each of those pieces in half laterally to separate the front scenes from the back. He then reassembled the different pieces to form new scenes. Most of the individual paintings stayed together, but others were sold to private collectors or museums. This Nativity between the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel was purchased by the Museum Kaiser Wilhelm Friedrich in Berlin and remained on display there until 1938. At that time, a Nazi-appointed Museum director purged most non-Teutonic art from the collection. Through a trade, this Nativity came to our National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C.

Duccio: Maesta Reconstructed Altarpiece. Front (L) and Back (R)

When we think about hidden meanings in art works, sometimes the journey a work takes to its exhibition home is part of its meaning. The Nazi purge of non-Teutonic art from the collection was based on their idea of a pure race for their homeland, with which they shared a special mystical bond. It meant they would purge or purify all who didn’t meet this white supremacist ideal. I personally am glad America is an open society, which welcomes all kinds of art and artists. When we think of the journey of the Holy Family, they made an arduous trip to Bethlehem while Mary was about to give birth and then had to head out on the lam because king Herod was out to kill all the boy babies. When we look at beautiful nativity scenes, we forget Jesus was born into a troubled world. Indeed, these beautiful works make us forget our own troubles.

Sandro Botticelli, Mystical Nativity, 1501. Tempera on canvas, 108.5 × 75 cm. London: National Gallery.

One of the most unusual nativity paintings is the Mystical Nativity by Botticelli. Painted with egg tempera on canvas, the artist writes in the upper section how he painted this “at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy…in the half after the time, during the fulfillment of the eleventh chapter of St. John in the second woe of the apocalypse…”

The monk Savonarola was actively preaching at this time, and scholars believe he influenced Botticelli. During the time of the Medici rule, Florence prospered with trade and the city’s alliance with France made for a time of peace. Lorenzo d’Medici died in 1492, relations with France broke off, and the French army ran amuck in the Italian countryside. Florence lost her former glory, trade dried up, and a political vacuum allowed for new voices to rise. Savonarola preached repentance and austerity, even going so far to burn luxurious items and artworks. He burned all kinds of vanities: cosmetics, mirrors, veils, and books.

People followed him because he was charismatic, and his words seemed to match their circumstances. Florence under his rule was an example of theocracy, the government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. Under this system, the people prosper if they care for one another and live godly lives, but they fail to thrive if they cheat the poor so the rich can live in luxury.

Prosperity religion teaches the good thrive and the sinners suffer. It’s not a new idea: retribution and reward appeal to people, but sometimes the good suffer and the evil prosper. The book of Job is a counter argument to this worldview. The life of Christ also shows the best of us will be sacrificed on a cross by those who don’t know what they’re doing. From birth to death, Jesus and his family were under duress from the powers of state and religion. He was a new voice of love and acceptance, of grace and forgiveness, of a righteousness by faith, not works. This new voice would upend the world as people knew it then.

Douce Apocalypse – Bodleian Ms180 – p.042 Woman Clothed in the Sun, Oxford University, London, c. 1265-70

The Mystic Nativity is a combination of the Nativity and the Last Judgment. On top, the angels hold hands in a circle, the center is the birth of Christ on earth, and the lower third is the vanquishing devils due to the Christian’s reunification with God. The number twelve represents the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem, the City of God. Twelve are also the number of stars in the crown of the woman in the apocalypse linked to the Virgin Mary. Other symbols also occur, but the overall meaning is Botticelli painted to deal with his fears about the end of the world.

Sometimes we make a cursory glance or reading of a painting, only to see its surface meaning. If we were to take this path with Botticelli’s Mystical Nativity, we might only see pretty angels and lovely ribbons. It looks like a homecoming at a sorority weekend with all the hugging and kissing. But Botticelli was painting during a time when the theological ideas of the monk Savonarola were in ascendance. He believed, “The more creatures approach and participate in the beauty of God, the more are they themselves beautiful, just as the beauty of the body is in proportion to the beauty of the soul.”

Virtuvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, 1490, pen, brown ink, and watercolor on paper, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy.

As an interesting aside, about contemporary with Botticelli’s work in Florence, while Leonardo da Vinci was in Milan in 1490, he drew his Virtuvian Man, considered one of the greatest scientific and humanist works of the early Renaissance. Da Vinci used Vitruvius’ classical treatise on architecture as the source for his drawing. Notes from his translation are written in his famed mirror script below the image. This artwork is now so fragile, it never travels and only copies are shown.

While his outer world may be falling apart, and prosperity has left his vicinity, Botticelli still had hope for a better world. His faith was grounded in the birth of the savior, the son of God, who came in flesh to make all flesh divine. We forget this crucial message of the nativity, which is to make holy all flesh. More often we focus on the magi’s gifts brought to the child: riches fit for a king, or the gifts of presence, from the poor shepherds. The true gift is the one in the manger, for Christ is God’s gift to us. He came to make us all At-One with God, the very best atonement possible. At the Last Judgment, all who are at one with God’s purposes will be separated from the rest.

Banksy, “The Scar of Bethlehem” (2019) (courtesy Bisher Qassis), located in The Walled in Hotel in Bethlehem, closed since 12/12/23, due to fighting against Hamas

How can we practice seeing past the surface of everyday life? Sometimes we have to be shocked. Modern nativities bring us again and again to confront the same world of challenges and discord into which the young Christ child was born. If we wrap ourselves in warm swaddling clothes so we too won’t cry over the lack of a Christmas in Bethlehem this year, we lose sight of the common humanity of all God’s people. The extremists will take retribution on everyone, but those who take the middle path punish only those who did wrongs. Is there hope for those who take the “my way or the highway?” Or do we need to join the Holy Family and become refugees to avoid King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents?

This 2020 nativity was created as a public art project by ceramics students in Castelli, Abruzzo, Italy, a region known for its ceramics. It had nineteen figures including an astronaut and a Darth Vader figure, whose creation predated the Star-Wars series and represented a generic “sinner” figure. In modern nativity scenes, artists often integrate characters not mentioned in the gospel accounts, in order to bring the interests of contemporary audiences into the biblical story. As you can imagine, it created quite a buzz. Some said it lacked “beauty,” while others thought it was a joke. Some thought it disrespectful to the honor of the Holy See, the Church, and to the good Lord himself. It’s a truism “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Also, “we’ve never done it that way” still has a strong hold on people’s hearts and minds.

Sinner and Astronaut: Large Ceramic Nativity at the Vatican, 2020

Seeing deeper meanings in art or scripture is no more complicated than seeing a deeper understanding of a literary experience, such as a book or poem. In art, we do have the hurdle of acquiring some visual background and “visual language.” Just as we can’t understand a foreign language without learning some phrases, we need to know some art history and styles. We can only understand in part at first, but later we’ll understand as if we were old friends. No one is a savant right away. If we pause as we read a scripture, let the words sink into our deeper minds, and let the Holy Spirit open up new insights into God’s word, we can do the same with art works.

After all, bread is just bread: ordinary flour, yeast, oil, and water. Once we bless the bread and invite the Holy Spirit to transform it, we understand these same ordinary materials to be signs of the extraordinary presence of the Body of Christ, as recorded in Luke 22:19 at the Last Supper—

Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

We’re always surrounded by the mysteries of hidden meanings, if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear. May you know God more deeply in the days and years to come.

The Christ Child in the Rubble, Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine, West Bank, 2023

Joy and peace,

Cornelia.

Featured image—Nativity, 3rd century. Stucco, Rome: catacombs of Priscilla.

Category: Sarcophagus of Stilicho in Sant’Ambrogio (Milan) – Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sarcophagus_of_Stilicho_in_Sant%27Ambrogio_(Milan)

Duccio, The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, 1308-1311
https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights/duccio-the-nativity-with-the-prophets-isaiah-and-ezekiel.html

Botticelli’s’ Mystic Nativity: Symbolism, Savonarola and a Reflection of an Era | Renee Farina – Academia.edu
https://www.academia.edu/1262474/Botticellis_Mystic_Nativity_Symbolism_Savonarola_and_a_Reflection_of_an_Era

Leveto, Paula D. “The Marian Theme of the Frescoes in S. Maria at Castelseprio.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 72, no. 3, 1990, pp. 393–413. JSTOR. Free account to access. https://doi.org/10.2307/3045748. Accessed 24 Dec. 2023.

Katarína Šimová: The Fresco Cycle of Santa Maria foris portas, MASARYK UNIVERSITY! FACULTY OF ARTS, DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY, 2021. Open source
https://is.muni.cz/th/ufv2u/castelseprio_frescoes.pdf

Significance of Leonardo da Vinci’s Famous ‘Vitruvian Man’ Drawing
https://mymodernmet.com/leonardo-da-vinci-vitruvian-man/

Baby Jesus Bread Buns · How To Bake A Roll Or Bun · Baking on Cut Out + Keep
https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/baby-jesus-bread-buns

The Adoration of the Magi: Mosaic in S. Maria Maggiore https://www.christianiconography.info/staMariaMaggiore/epiphanyArch.html

The Magi and the Manger: Imaging Christmas in Ancient Art and Ritual – The Yale ISM Review https://www.ismreview.yale.edu/volume-3-1-fall-2016/the-magi-and-the-manger-imaging-christmas-in-ancient-art-and-ritual

Radical Love

art, Attitudes, Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, holidays, Holy Spirit, hope, inspiration, Love, Martin Luther Ling, Ministry, Reflection, silkscreen, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is all about love. Television advertisements push candies, dipped gold “eternal” roses, gaudy jewelry—a price for every pocketbook—and the dating apps have been in full swing since the new year.

“Everybody needs somebody to love,” the old song goes. The Blues Brothers sing this oldie before their mad escape from the Illinois Law Enforcement Community. Solomon Burkes treats it with his indigenous soul blues from his lived experience and The Rolling Stones give it their percussive upbeat treatment. Wilson Picket has a good cover, but I don’t recommend the explicit version of Rod Wave’s Sneaky Links. Fitz and the Tantrums was interesting. My “old person “ is probably showing about the edges here.

We all can love our friends or sweethearts, especially in mid February. After all, February is “for lovers.” The bigger question is, How do we love our enemies? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his book, A Gift of Love, writes:

“First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. (The one) who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one’s enemies without the prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us.”

Well, how can I forgive the person who hurt me, my child, my family, my tribe, or my community? We all want that person to come crawling to us and ask for forgiveness, but that’s not how radical love works. We want the wrong doer to show remorse and ask us for mercy and forgiveness. This puts them in a subordinate position and us in a position of power. But that’s not how radical love works. Radical love initiates forgiveness, even if the wrongdoer never shows contrition.

Dr. King goes on to say:

“It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression.”

Sir Terry Frost: Sun Tree, 2003, Silkscreen on Paper with 9 collage elements. Frost was a prisoner of war in WWII with Adrian Heath, who taught him to paint. They were both imprisoned in Stalag 383, in Germany.

Why must the wronged take on the indignity of offering forgiveness to unrepentant wrongdoers? In this act, we become most like Christ on the cross, who in his final moments, forgave not only the thief who asked for forgiveness, but also all those who crucified him, who had no intention of repenting. Our problem is we enjoy being like the risen Christ, the one with the “name above all names,” but most of us don’t want to “pick up our cross and follow” Jesus, especially if it leads to an ignominious death on that very cross.

Sir Terry Frost: Blue Love Tree, 2003, Silkscreen on Paper

As Dr. King wrote,

“The wrongdoer may request forgiveness. He may come to himself, and, like the prodigal son, move up some dusty road, his heart palpitating with the desire for forgiveness. But only the injured neighbor, the loving father back home, can really pour out the warm waters of forgiveness.”

The injured one, whose heart has been broken and wounded by someone else’s words or deeds, is the only one who can heal the broken rift between them. This is why the deepest lovers of Christ are most often the wounded ones who’ve been healed by God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness. The woman with the alabaster jar of ointment anointed Jesus’ feet in the house of the Pharisee, but the host had failed at the minimum hospitality for his guest, so Jesus reminded him (Luke 7:47):

“Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Mending Broken Hearts, silkscreen, artist unknown

If we would be healers in our broken and fragmented world, we need to first address our own woundedness. Each of us has a hidden pain or suffering, for this is the human condition. If we give this to God, our healing makes us into vessels where our cracks are filled with precious gold. We can offer more love, more forgiveness, and more hope to people who have been sitting in darkness and despair. People are waiting for joy and love to flow out in abundance from God’s heart into our hearts and into their world. Then we can be the light in the darkness for them, the holy fire that lights the embers of hope in their hearts, not just on St. Valentine’s Day, but every day.

Joy, Peace, and Love,

Cornelia

Excerpt from A Gift of Love | Penguin Random House Canada
By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chapter 5, Loving Your Enemies

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/212014/a-gift-of-love-by-martin-luther-king-jr/9780807000632/excerpt

Change and Tradition

arkansas, art, at risk kids, butterflies, change, disaffiliation, Faith, holidays, Holy Spirit, Homosexuality, inspiration, john wesley, Love, Ministry, Prayer, renewal, Spirituality, United Methodist Church, vision

One of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons was Rocky and Bullwinkle. I loved Mr. Peabody and Sherman, who would climb into the WABAC machine after setting the controls to a time and place of historical importance. That a bow tie wearing dog had adopted a human boy never crossed my mind as being strange. It was a cartoon, after all. In the 1960’s we didn’t take cartoons as real life. We knew they were fantasy.

Votive relief. Pentelic marble. Found in the sanctuary of Eleusis.

In times of change we always want to hold on to traditions: our rituals, our places of worship, our routines. I think the newly minted Christians in the first century, who had friendships and business relationships tied up in the pagan temple sacrificial banquets, most likely had this problem too. The temples were where they ate food sacrificed to the pagan gods, drank to celebrate new deals or cement old relationships, and soon one thing would lead to another. It was the “another” that Paul had words about, for In sharing these meals, Christians were also indulging in the sexual activities that resulted from the feast. (1 Corinthians 8)

If Christians were to live a new life and their lifestyles were to reflect this newness, they needed to make an outward change to reflect the inward transformation of their hearts. We don’t keep the old but take on a newness of heart that transforms our outer life. Consider the caterpillar. It only knows how to be a caterpillar, but it has an inner drive to spin a cocoon. Once inside, it rests, reflects, and directs its energy to becoming a new creation. Then it breaks free to become what its new and true self is meant to be. If it remains bound in a cocoon, it won’t fulfill the wonderful design of God’s best hopes and dreams for its life.

We too have to reimagine and revision our spiritual lives. I’ve always based my vision for ministry on John Wesley’s doctrine of Christian Perfection: “A heart so full of love for God and neighbor that nothing else can exist.” Like the lawyer in the parable, many of us ask, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus and Wesley say “Everybody is our neighbor.” I’d add, even those we’re most upset with, even if they’ve part of our family and we have disagreements with them.

Most of us have a Bible, but we don’t all read the same translation and we also have major disagreements on how to interpret this holy book. A particularly fraught scripture is 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

“Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (NRSV)

Wesley wrote in his Notes on the New Testament on 1 Corinthians 6:9—

“Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because they generally accompanied it. Nor the effeminate—Who live in an easy, indolent way; taking up no cross, enduring no hardship. But how is this? These good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites! We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought the least; nor, indeed, till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell.”

In Wesley’s Notes on The Entire Bible, of which his Notes on the New Testament is part of our United Methodist Doctrinal standards, he also reminds us, “ Fornication—The original word implies criminal conversation of any kind whatever.” (1 Corinthians 6:9)

That was Wesley in 1754, or the mid 18th century, but most modern Wesleyans today would be shocked at that interpretation of this text. Interestingly, Wesley departed from the KJV in over 12,000 instances in his Notes on the NT. Wesley valued the Authorised Version of the Bible (KJV), but he always preferred to study the Scriptures in their original languages over any and all translations. If we’re traditionalists, we need to remember Wesley was a radical in his time. As Albert Outler was always keen to remind Methodists, Wesley looked better without his halo.

A later day hero was my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Billy Abraham. As his research assistant at Perkins, I had the wonderful opportunity to learn from his thought and appreciate the early church fathers and mothers. Through him I was privileged to meet and learn from Dr. Roberta Bondi, a noted expert on early church history. I learned from Billy about differing views of scriptural authority and from Roberta how a heart of love and mercy helps us live in community.

I decided I’d go with Wesley’s view: “The Bible contains everything necessary for salvation.” This meant I didn’t have to get into creationist arguments because that’s not going to interfere with anyone’s salvation. Of course, that was the big issue a quarter century ago. Even our disagreements change over time. I learned to pray from Dr. Bondi, “Help us to love one another as God loves us.”

When we read scripture in translation, we read from the vantage point of our times and our context. We don’t have a 1960’s Rocky and Bullwinkle WABAC machine to visit the historical people who wrote the Bible. (If only we could time travel!) Only by studying the life and times of that era can we read with a clearer mind what the original authors meant. Even then, we’re caught up in the translation, for we don’t have many full copies of the holy books from the earliest times. Our earliest complete New Testament dates from the 4th century, long after Christ and the first apostles walked these rocks and clods we call earth.

Then too, we have concepts today which ancient people hadn’t yet conceived. In Roman times, which is the time of the earliest New Testament writings, the day was divided into watches or hours. We think of those hours as having 60 minutes each, but they had no mechanical clocks for precision time keeping. The sundial kept the hour count, so a summer day had long watch hours, while a winter day had shorter ones. Since everyone was on the same system, everyone was on time, or they were late if they were my ancestors.

We all read the same Bible, but we have different translations in our hands. I choose the NRSV because it’s a modern translation that’s as literal as possible and as free as necessary, unlike the NIV, which is a dynamic translation or one that seeks to make the best readable sense of the text. Those translators have to make decisions on how to render rare words in the text. For instance, the word “arsenokoitai,” which shows up in two different verses in the bible, wasn’t translated to mean “homosexual” until 1946. It appears in the RSV, whereas in the KJV, the word gets translated as “nor abusers of themselves with mankind” (or to put it less delicately—trigger warning—masturbation).

Douris: Drinking cup (kylix) depicting an erotic scene of Eros and a youth

How was the word translated previously? It referred to the common Greek practice of pederasty: adult male love for younger boys, which everyone today would be opposed to and disgusted by this cultural practice once common in Greek society. Abuse of youths by adults is something all of us can dislike because that experience isn’t a relationship of equals. One has too much power, authority, and dominance over the other. For the same reason we object to other unequal sexual relationships: clergy and laity, counselors and campers, teachers and students, bosses and employees, and so on.

Circle of Euthymides: Two-handled storage jar (pelike) depicting young athletes jumping

This particular word shows up exactly two times in the whole Bible. It’s now translated as “sodomites.” This too is an unfortunate translation, since the sin of Sodom wasn’t homosexuality, but the townspeople’s failure to respect the laws of hospitality. When the visitors came under Lot’s protection in his home, the townies gathered outside his door and begged to have their sport with his guests. We’re horrified Lot would offer up his own daughters, but in that day and time, protecting the honor of the patriarch’s offer of hospitality to strangers was more important than anything that happened to the women of the household. We don’t have to like the culture as it was back then to get the lesson of “entertaining angels unawares.” This is an instance we’re glad fathers today have respect both for their guests and their daughters. Cultures change and we’re very glad for that.

The word “μαλακός” or Malakos refers to something soft and effeminate. It could refer to silk clothing or to an adult man who shaved his beard or grew long hair. In the Ancient Greek society, once a boy grew a beard, he was no longer subjected to pederastic abuse. Instead, he passed “the gift on” to the next generation. We’re well aware today how child abuse is generational. This is what Paul railed about in this text.

When the holidays crank up, the greedy, drunkards, and maybe a few adulterers and fornicators will go to town. The angry criticizers will probably be driving the bus and the swindlers (robbers: ἅρπαγες) will be grifting the unsuspecting flock as they barrel along. We don’t have any temples with male prostitutes as the ancient Greek cities once had. There were also women prostitutes serving at these temples, so everyone had their pick when visiting with a celebrant for an intercession with the gods. I’m really glad our current clergy orders don’t include this ritual as part of “pastoral care.” Culture changes. Maybe today’s clergy body is glad this duty isn’t added to their holiday activities.

It’s good the culture has changed from that of Rome and Athens of the first century. In fact, culture keeps on changing all the time. This is why Jesus spoke of “new wine in new wine skins.” We’re no longer a first century church, but some principles still apply. We can’t pour the new wine into an old skin, or the fermentation will burst open the weak old skin. This is why we are a new and changing church, for just as butterflies break out of their cocoons, we too have to break free from what has bound us in a past time. The Holy Spirit keeps refreshing and invigorating a living community, whether it worships in a tent, a rented room, or in a set place.

Now we look forward, to a new land, a new existence, and new possibilities. If we hear the voice of God, we hear the calling: “Go to the land I will show you.” God has always led God’s people in every place and in every time. God has brought God’s people through good times and bad, through war and peace, and in exile to the promised land. We can trust God to be faithful once again.

Joy, peace, and hope,

Cornelia

Drinking cup (kylix) depicting an erotic scene of Eros and a youth
Signed by: Douris: clay, Greek, made in Attica, Athens, Late Archaic Period, about 490–485 B.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

Two-handled storage jar (pelike) depicting young athletes jumping
Circle of Euthymides (Greek), Archaic Period, about 520–515 B.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

Drinking cup (kylix) depicting pentathletes
Onesimos: Greek, Late Archaic Period, about 500–490 B.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

NOTES:
(PDF) Canon, criterion and circularity: An analysis of the epistemology of canonical theism of Billy Abraham
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328641188_Canon_criterion_and_circularity_An_analysis_of_the_epistemology_of_canonical_theism

Crossing the Threshold of Divine Revelation: Abraham, William J.
Here Abraham argues for divine revelation as another leg of understanding and interpretation of church traditions and scripture.

Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology: From the Fathers to Feminism
by William J. Abraham
This is a seminary textbook and historical overview.

“John Wesley’s Notes On The Entire Bible” by John Wesley (1754)
Start reading it for free: https://a.co/3UKifSG

Has ‘Homosexual’ Always Been in the Bible? – United Methodist Insight
https://um-insight.net/perspectives/has-“homosexual”-always-been-in-the-bible/

The Use and Misuse of John Wesley on the Authority of Scripture |
Glen O’Brien – Academia.edu
https://www.academia.edu/5946863/The_Use_and_Misuse_of_John_Wesley_on_the_Authority_of_Scripture

Michael Roberts: Connected in Christ—great discussion on this topic
https://connectedinchrist.net/2022/07/14/wesley-on-human-sexuality-and-his-commentary-on-often-cited-verses/

Strong’s NT 3120: https://biblehub.com/greek/3120.htm

Strong’s 733: https://biblehub.com/greek/733.htm

Strong’s 727: https://biblehub.com/greek/727.htm

NOTES ON μοιχοὶ οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται—

STRONGS NT 3120: μαλακός
μαλακός, μαλακή, μαλακον, soft; soft to the touch: ἱμάτια, Matthew 11:8 R G L brackets; Luke 7:25 (ἱματίων πολυτελῶν καί μαλακων, Artemidorus Daldianus, oneir. 1, 78; ἐσθής, Homer, Odyssey 23, 290; Artemidorus Daldianus, oneir. 2, 3; χιτών, Homer, Iliad 2, 42); and simply τά μαλακά, soft raiment (see λευκός, 1): Matthew 11:8 T Tr WH.

Like the Latin mollis, metaphorically, and in a bad sense: effeminate, of a catamite, a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness, 1 Corinthians 6:9 (Dionysius Halicarnassus, Antiquities 7, 2 under the end; ((Diogenes Laërtius 7, 173 at the end)).

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance: effeminate, soft. Of uncertain affinity; soft, i.e. Fine (clothing); figuratively, a catamite — effeminate, soft.

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, STRONGS NT 733: ἀρσενοκοίτης
733 arsenokoítēs (from 730 /árrhēn, “a male” and 2845 /koítē, “a mat, bed”) – properly, a man in bed with another man; a homosexual.
ἀρσενοκοίτης, ἀρσενοκοιτου, ὁ (ἄρσην a male; κοίτη a bed), one who lies with a male as with a female, a sodomite: 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10. (Anthol. 9, 686, 5; ecclesiastical writings.)

OAKLAWN FRIDAY ART CLASS

adult learning, art, Attitudes, brain plasticity, cognitive decline, Creativity, Faith, Imagination, inspiration, john wesley, Ministry, Painting, perfection, purpose, Retirement, United Methodist Church, vision

WE’RE BACK!!!

Ready or not, the creative juices must be stirred. If the brain has lain fallow all summer, or it’s been overworked keeping the youngsters occupied, now you can find your own groove again. Yes, it’s time for Adult Art Class at Oaklawn UMC.

Our first meeting will be Friday, September 9, at 10 am in the old fellowship hall. Bring your own acrylic paints, brushes, and a canvas or canvas panel to paint on. We begin with a short visual inspiration from some great art works, I’ll give some direction on the skill we’ll work on in the session, and then everyone is free to bring their own unique expression to their paintings. We don’t copy my work and judge how well a person can match it. We learn from the great masters and stretch our own skills to create something new.

Of course, making great art isn’t our first purpose. As we age, we will lose our ability to learn new skills until we lose our memory of what we just ate for breakfast. Challenging our brains is one of the best ways to keep our brain cells firing and “chatting with one another.” Our brains have the immensely powerful ability to remodel themselves because each of us have 1,000 trillion synapses, which are constantly being modified every second of every day. Socialization and encouragement also helps to keep our brains young.

Of course, we have to give up our desire to be perfect. Perfection comes from practice, or working at it. Every baby stumbles and falls when they learn to walk, but dotting adults encourage every trembling step. This is what art teachers also do. I’ve always had a rule in my classes, especially when I taught in middle school: No Negative Talking about People or Art. This included a student’s own art works. They always had to give at least three positive comments about their work before they spoke about the negative. “My work needs improvement” became the replacement phrase for “My work stinks!”

De Fem. Titel saknas, 1908. HAK 1274. Kat. 12. 52,5 x 62,8 cm

Of course, we’ve all grown up and worked in environments where negativity is the rule. Art class is a place of grace because this is how life should be. If we can transform a blank canvas into a field of color, why can’t we transform our communities and our world into fields of hope, joy, and love? Perhaps because we try to make everyone copy/fit into our idea of the proper end product, rather than allow everyone discover their own creative response to the given subject of the day. The museums of our world are richer and more vibrant because artists have listened to the Spirit of the Creating God. We might do well to realize God’s creative energies are varied and vibrant also, just as Isaiah wrote about his vision of God’s Glorious New Creation:

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.” (65:17-18)

I hope to see you there. I don’t charge for the class sessions, since this is one of my ministries as a retired elder in the United Methodist Church. As John Wesley once said, “The World is my Parish.”

Joy and Peace,

Pastor Cornelia

Wes Ely: How long covid reshapes the brain — and how we might treat it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/08/25/long-covid-brain-science-fog-recovery/

A Map of a Changing World View

art, change, cognitive maps, cosmology, Creativity, Faith, Healing, Icons, mappa mundi, nature, Painting, Pantocrator, renewal, Spirituality, vision

When our world is changing “faster than we can say Jack Rabbit,” sometimes life can get overwhelming. My dad often used this quaint phrase when he wanted something in a hot minute, like a bowl of ice cream just before bedtime. Or when he wanted us kids to get a move on and not dilly dally. Usually we were messing around and goofing off when our parents had time constraints, so the tone of his voice sometimes sharpened with the promise of consequences if we weren’t front and center right now. My parents were usually in hurry mode, while we kids never quick unless the destination was the local Dairy Queen. We all screamed for ice cream in my family.

This clock knows which way the wind blows

Grownups have a different sense of time than children do. Adults know from experience how short lived is the human existence, for they’ve lived long enough to have loved and lost. Children, who’re generally protected from such harsh realities, live in worlds in which time both stretches into eternity and seems to stand still. I call this variable sense “rubber band” time, since it can both stretch to the moment of breaking, but also snap back to inertia or non movement. For children, especially at year end, Christmas comes on lumbering feet, but for parents, the season is far too brief. The day blows through on a wind from the north, like a polar front charging into the Deep South on a mission to freeze every fragile magnolia blossom before the new year can make an appearance.

Children’s worlds are different from adults, for they still have a sense of wonder and all things are new to them. I remember seeing my first rainbow high up in the sky. I put up such a clamor on the front porch as I called for my mother, she was sure I’d seen a snake or some dangerous animal. She was put out I’d called her away from her household tasks “just to see a rainbow.” To this day, I still think rainbows are wondrous writings in the sky and meant to give us joy for our mundane lives. Seven decades later, the child in me still celebrates rainbows.

Our sense of time changes as we age, for everything a child sees is a first and a best. This is why we can have such deeply imprinted memories from our childhoods. Later on, we’re doing the same things over and over, so unless these events stand out for some different reason, they all tend to blend together. We also tend to think of these as “this is the way life is,” or they become the “model” for our world. This is also known as our cognitive map.

Some people can give good directions to their home, while others wouldn’t be able to get someone to their place even if they lived in a teacup. Those “others” lack good cognitive maps, for they don’t have a good mental image of the landmarks on the way to their home. Today, our cognitive maps are undergoing rapid change. The world we used to know doesn’t exist, mostly because of COVID. Once we had a service economy, but now we don’t do face to face experiences because of the pandemic, so we buy goods. We’re buying so many goods (can we ever buy bads?), we have supply chain problems trying to provide them all. We’re so used to same day or next day delivery from our pre-pandemic lives, we think our world is coming to an end if it’s going to take a week to get our cherished gifts delivered.

That old world existed back in 2005, when Amazon Prime partnered with the US Postal Service for its packages’ last leg of delivery. Today we have on demand groceries ordered through the app for immediate pick up or delivery, as well as restaurant foods for the same. This was unimaginable just a decade ago. It’s still so new, some folks won’t use it, even if they were on their death bed. Their cognitive map won’t let them try a new thing, for these new places and experiences aren’t encoded on their mind maps.

The ancient world maps, dating from the peak of the Middle Ages, take their cartography from both faith and geography. One of the earliest is the Map Psalter, which takes its name from its full-page illustration of a map of the world. It’s design shares close parallels with the famous Mappa Mundi, now housed at Hereford Cathedral. The manuscript was made in London during the latter half of the 13th century but after 1262, as the Psalter’s calendar commemorates on 3rd April the feast day of St Richard of Chichester (d. 1253) who was canonized in 1262.

The image shows Christ holding the orb of the world, flanked by two angels. The map itself is highly detailed. Jerusalem is marked in the center, with Rome appearing slightly below it. Major rivers, such as the Ganges and the Danube, are drawn in blue, and the Red Sea is also included. Representations of the so-called ‘Marvels of the East’ line the right-hand side of the painting. The British Isles are found to the lower left.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is unique in Britain’s heritage. An outstanding treasure of the medieval world, it records how 13th-century scholars interpreted the world in spiritual as well as geographical terms. The map bears the name of its author, ‘Richard of Haldingham or Lafford’ (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire). Recent research suggests a date of about 1300 for the creation of the map. An unknown artist drew the Hereford Mappa Mundi on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin), measuring 64 × 52 inches (1.58 × 1.33 meters), tapering towards the top with a rounded apex.

The geographical material of the map is contained within a circle 52 inches in diameter and reflects the thinking of the medieval Church, which places Jerusalem at the center of the world. Drawings of the history of humankind and the marvels of the natural world are superimposed onto the continents of the world. These 500 or so drawings include around 420 cities and towns; 15 Biblical events; 33 plants, animals, birds, and strange creatures; 32 images of the peoples of the world; and 8 pictures from classical mythology.

We all make maps in our minds, otherwise we’d get lost going from our easy chair to the kitchen to get a snack on a commercial break. This is because our hippocampus is working well. Some of us have a talent for getting lost in a proverbial tea cup, especially when landmarks aren’t visible. When I lived in Colorado, I always knew which way I was headed as long as I could see the mountains. At night, I had no idea, so I could get lost easily.

The ancient western world oriented their maps with east at the top and Jerusalem at the center because the sun rose in the east and faith was primary in their world view. The Chinese, who were the first to invent the compass, often drew maps with South on top because they always thought the compass pointed to South. South was their sacred direction, for in any religious or royal ceremonies the kings faced south. This perception may have come because the northern parts of China were cold and dark.

The Islamic maps of the era also drew the south on top, since the initial Islamic habitations were north of Mecca. Therefore, South-oriented maps would show the followers looking up towards it. Yet, our maps today orient north instead, due to Mercator, the noted mapmaker of the 16th century. By this time, sailors were navigating not only by the North Star, but also with the compass. Their sailing records were complete and detailed. Mercator used these to create the first Mercator Projection map, which was more correct than any map beforehand. After this map, all western maps set North as the top of the map.

Columbus managed to find the Americas in 1492 with the map he had at the time, but he was convinced he’d found islands outlying Japan or Asia because he’d traveled the distance the map had indicated was necessary to find the Asian continent. This is a classic case of cognitive dissonance, for the map Columbus had in his mind and in his hand didn’t correlate with reality. This disconnect can cause us discomfort or cause us to make decisions or conclusions based on a reality that no longer exists or doesn’t fit the facts in hand.

All of us have this problem, to one degree or another. As we grow up, we discover our childhood myths are just stories, and the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Rabbit, and Santa Claus aren’t real, but just our parents acting in secret to bring magic into our childish world. As the oldest child in my family, I recall the Christmas I realized Santa Claus wrote in the same distinctive script for which my father was known. Unlike many doctors, my dad had elegant and legible handwriting. At the tender age of five, I made the choice to keep the secret of Santa Claus safe for my younger brother’s sake. Besides, as long as I believed, I would get presents from both my parents and Santa. Keeping the Santa secret safe had its advantages.

These old maps also remind us how our point of view determines our world view. If we see the world with the eyes of faith, we’ll observe the world through a different lens than the person who looks through a microscope or telescope. A person of faith can look through these tools and see the wonders of God in the smallest or most distant bits of creation, but without faith, these views will be unique, but not inspiring.

In ancient times, while sailors navigated with their eyes fixed on the Northern Star, they also depended on the written records of previous sailors. They depended on the capricious sea gods to protect them and their cargo from harm. Sailing was a dangerous occupation and goods were often lost at sea. The apostle Paul was caught in a storm on the Mediterranean for two weeks, when the crew finally threw the cargo of wheat overboard to lighten the load. Even in the first century, there were supply chain issues in the grocery business (Acts 27). Afterwards, Paul met and healed people on shore and the ship finally got under way with new supplies to replace the old ones.

Today, our settled lives have been upended by a tiny virus that seems to mutate and persist. What we used to know as normal now feels strange. I grew up hand washing dishes at the kitchen sink, but since COVID and the demise of my garbage disposal, I’m back to hand washing them until the plumber can rotorouter my drain and I can put Mr. Dishwasher back to work. I’m not sure my dishes are clean or sanitary. Of course, I obviously made it to a ripe old age without a dishwasher, but the pandemic has changed my worldview. I see germs everywhere now.

“‘Adjusting our expectations to account for unpredictability, uncontrollability, and the fact that our lives may be disrupted on and off, and building that into our expectations, would be good for our mental health,’ said Karestan Koenen, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “As humans, we don’t have as much control as we think we do. The virus has just made it very clear.” Many of us have a world view that puts us in charge of all things, when in truth we aren’t the captains of our fate.

The first stage of my icon map followed the original map fairly well, but I let it rest next to my easel for a long time. This was a sure sign I wasn’t happy with it. The old map was a world view which belonged to a different age, but not to me. When I thought of my own world view, Jesus still had priority as Lord and Ruler of creation, but the world over which he reigned wasn’t merely the earth, but all of the known universe.

After a vacation, I decided to repaint it. The central swath of color represents the Milky Way in the night sky, as seen from earth. The warm golds and reds are the energies of all the planets and the stars in our universe, as well as the heat of all the life on earth. If we are all one, and Christ is lord of all, we humans have a particular responsibility to care for life in all its forms. As John 10:10 reminds us, Jesus said:

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Joy and Peace,

Cornelia

Cognitive Map – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/cognitive-map

Map Psalter, British Library
https://www.bl.uk/british-library-treasures/articles/maps-and-views

Mappa Mundi | Hereford Cathedral
https://www.herefordcathedral.org/mappa-mundi

No, It’s Not Just You: Why time “speeds up” as we get older – Science in the News
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/no-not-just-time-speeds-get-older/

Why maps point North on top? – Geospatial World
https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/why-maps-point-north-on-top/

The Washington Post Analysis | This is how America is responding to Omicron
By Olivier Knox and Caroline Anders
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/03/this-is-how-american-is-responding-omicron/

Dreams of Trees and Butterflies

arkansas, art, butterflies, coronavirus, Creativity, Faith, Forgiveness, grief, Healing, Historic neighborhood, holidays, hope, Imagination, inspiration, nature, pandemic, renewal, vision

The saying is true: “If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.” Yet how hard do we humans hold to the past, even if we need to move on into the future? As an artist, I’ve always been caught between my desire to honor the traditions of the past, but also to move into the the unknown realms of the future. Artists already have a vocabulary and boundaries to describe the works of the past, so we can tell if our current works “meet the criteria for excellence.”

Found Object Butterfly: roadside debris, wire, scrap cloth, and metallic beads

When we go beyond this known world into the uncharted territories, we’re like Columbus, who landed in the Caribbean islands, but thought he was on the continent of North America. I wonder if the monarch butterfly, just emerging from the cocoon, has any idea it soon will begin a 3,000 mile migration to its ancestral winter home in Mexico. The butterfly has the innate ability to navigate this path, whereas we humans are like Abram, for we’re going to a land our God will show us. We have no idea where we’ll end up, but we do know we’ll travel by stages and God’s guiding inspiration will always be with us.

During this current protracted COVID pandemic, with cases beginning in mid December 2019, we’ve now lost over 766,206 persons in the US alone and over 47,390,239 individuals have had COVID. Worldwide, the numbers are far greater: over 5 million have died and nearly 255 million have contracted COVID, mostly because vaccines and health care services aren’t available to the extent they are in America and the European Community. Not only has our world as a whole suffered a great grief, but each of us individually have lost friends, neighbors, or loved ones. This adds to our collective grief.

Airport Road at MLK Hwy Intersection, empty lots

When we see the rest of our world changing around us, we feel another loss, and this becomes the grief leading to the death of a thousand tiny cuts. Just as in our workplaces, when the ideas of the young, the female, and the ethnic individuals aren’t valued, their dismissal leads to devaluation of their perspectives as well as their personhood. When we devalue nature and treat creation as an arena for humanity to restructure for our purposes alone, we can fall into the trap of thinking only for our immediate future, but not for the generations to follow. This is why building lots inside the city get cleaned off and offered as a blank slate, since this makes them valuable to the greatest number of buyers.

Death by a thousand cuts was supposedly a form of torture in ancient China. It was reserved for the most heinous crimes, such as matricide, patricide, treason, and the like. From all the tiny slices, the accused finally bled to death. It was a cruel and unusual punishment, rather like flogging the back of a law breaker until the flesh was raw, but this punishment was intended to cause death because the executioner kept at it until he succeeded.

Most of us are blissfully unaware of the loss of a few trees here and there in our neighborhoods. Sometimes we even want to cut down the trees on our own property because we’re tired of raking leaves every fall, or if we have a magnolia tree, we’re tired of our year round duty of leap reaping. Of course, if you want a high strung, classy tree to show off in your front yard, you also need to sign onto the high maintenance these trees require. “Those that wears the fancy pants has to take care of those fancy pants,” my mother always reminded me.

Yard work is a type of infrastructure most of us can understand. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, those of us hosting the feast are also getting the house and yard ready for family and friends to visit. Infrastructure has been in the news lately also, with politicians debating whether soft or hard infrastructure deserves the most funding.

In Hot Springs, we have “Green Infrastructure,” which includes all the natural assets that make the city livable and healthy: trees, parks, streams, springs, lakes and other open spaces. These assets are ‘infrastructure’ because they support peoples’ existence. For example, tree canopy keeps the city cooler while also absorbing air pollutants and mitigating flooding. The Hot Springs National Park forest area is also an important resource for a variety of reasons. The mountain area is in the recharge zone for the hot springs and the forest provides other important ecosystem services.

In urban areas, we can evaluate the landscape on a smaller scale, so even small patches of green space become important, since together they can make a greater large cumulative impact. Smaller urban spaces, such as linear stream valleys, or even pocket parks, can add up to a connected green landscape. When evaluating the ecological health of an urban area, urban tree canopy is a key green asset. For instance, Hot Springs has 57% tree canopy coverage and an additional 12% green space coverage. This adds to our quality of life, for this isn’t only pleasing to the eye, but the trees and grass convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, thus improving the air we breathe.

Cities are beginning to recognize the importance of their urban trees because they provide tremendous dividends. For example, city trees are a strategic way to reduce excess stormwater runoff and flooding. Even one tree can play an important role in stormwater management. For example, estimates for the amount of water a typical street tree can intercept in its crown range from 760 gallons to 4000 gallons per tree per year, depending on the species and age. Taken city-wide, the trees within the city provide an annual stormwater interception of 1.2 to 1.5 million gallons which equates to 7 to 9 million dollars in benefits. The loss of one tree is worth so much money, replanting our tree cover is an investment in our future wellbeing.

I often heard an old proverbial poem growing up, which may not be repeated much today:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

My nanny would remind me of the same principle in other words, “A stitch in time saves nine.” My daddy was from the school of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” While those two schools of thought still persist today, I think making a small, inexpensive repair, rather than a costly replacement, is a better choice, but too many of us live in a throwaway society.

When we lose one small thing, we brush it off as no matter, but after a thousand small losses, we just can’t take it any longer. We look around and wonder what happened to our world, why didn’t we take action sooner, and now we might be in a hole so deep we can’t see the top. When I first painted the trees on this vacant lot, the little coffee kiosk had closed shop and moved on. It was springtime and the violet wisteria vines were bright against a sunlit cerulean sky.

As I was taking a few photos with my iPhone last spring, the local policeman pulled into the circular drive to check on me. We chatted a bit, but he wanted to make sure I was OK. I’m at that age when silver alerts go out for others, but I’m not there yet. I guess “old gal taking photographs of trees” still looks suspicious in my small town. I’m thankful my town is this quiet.

When I told the officer, “These trees called to me,” he might have had second thoughts about my state of mind. Then he realized he was talking to an artist. I was rescued when his radio called him off to take care of some real trouble. I find I do my best work when I feel called to a subject, for I have a spiritual connection with it.

That was this past April, and here at year’s end, this lot is up for auction, with a commercial use zoning. It has easy access to the bypass and would be good for a food place or a fuel stop. Things change and we can’t hold back progress. I know people who buy a vacation home to visit while they still work, but as soon as they retire to this same place, they grouse about all the weekenders who come and spoil their solitude. They put up with it a year or so, griping daily, and then sell and move on. Life changed for them and they didn’t adjust to their new normal. I wonder why they never realized Hot Springs was a vacation destination. We think we need an infrastructure just for the 38,500 people who live here year round, but we actually need an infrastructure to support the over two million visitors to whom we offer the hospitality of our hot springs, our hotels, our fine dining, our attractions, and our natural beauty.

When I saw the trees were gone and the lots had been plowed level, I wondered if the trees had a swift death, or if they had brief dreams and fantasies while the saws pierced their outer skins. I thought of the butterflies encased in their cocoons, and the deep sleep of their transformation. Do butterflies dream in this stage, or do they even dream like we do? I wondered if next April I would see wisteria growing near the ground, for as a weed, it’s hard to kill. I always hope, for I’ve learned over time, if I’m a prisoner of hope, this is better than seeing only the loss.

After traveling and recovering from an autumn sinus infection, I decided to destroy an old mobile sculpture of a butterfly made from found materials and attach it to a canvas. I took some scraps of cloth from some mask projects, and glued the whole to the canvas. Maybe I crammed more than I should have onto the small surface, but I was going with it. This work might be more catharsis than art, or more process and possibility than success. It doesn’t matter, for sometimes art is more therapeutic than anything else.

The first layer held all the colors and shapes of the original Google map. The second layer began to make sense of the shapes and textures, for I started to pull together the small areas into larger spaces. By the third layer, I’d lost most of the color areas and turned them instead into linear shapes. The primary colors of the background I subdued beneath an overall gold tone. The lines now are like an automatic writing or glyphic writing, which might be the language spoken either by the trees or the butterflies, or by all natural living beings.

When we confront suffering in nature, in our lives, or in the world, we often ask, “Where is God in all of this?” In the days past when I suffered, I held on to the words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans:

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (8:18-21)

Often we suffer because we can’t change our past, or we think we can’t affect our future. At some point in our lives, we come to accept our suffering. We don’t have to continue to suffer, of course, but we need to accept that what happened to us is over. We can forgive ourselves for not leaving a bad relationship earlier, or being too young to know we were being harmed. Some of us may have survivor guilt from our nation’s wars, and suffer moral injuries from acts of war. Only good and decent human beings would feel this guilt, and they can heal with Christ’s forgiveness. We can be changed and then begin to change the world, even if we begin only with our own selves.

After all, the Psalms promise us God is faithful both to us and to the creation also: “When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” (104:30)

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

Vegetation Community Monitoring at Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, 2007–2014
Natural Resource Data Series NPS/HTLN/NRDS—2017/1104
https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/HOSP_VegCommunity2007_2014r-508.pdf

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE LANDSCAPE STUDY AND PLAN
City of Hot Springs, AR
Green Infrastructure Committee
https://www.cityhs.net/DocumentCenter/View/6245/Hot-Springs-AR-GI-Study-and-Plan-Final?bidId=

Hot Springs General Information: Hot Springs National Park Arkansas
https://www.hotsprings.org/pages/general-information/

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