Las Meninas has been recognised as one of the most important paintings in the history of western art. With its mirrors and windows we are challenged to see things in a new way.Eyes to see.The Church and the Kingdom of God: Mark 4: 35 -41/2 Cor. 6: 1 – 13. Does art or poetry matter in the face of violence or suffering? Can words arranged on a page or painted on a canvas, alter the facts of war or terror or racism or poverty? WH Auden, once famously, said “Poetry makes nothing happen.”. And yet he wrote those words in a poem, one that honours fellow poet W.B Yeats. He goes on to say of poetry: “ It survives, a way of happening, a mouth.” Few would say that the value of poetry lies in making something happen in the world. As W.H Auden said elsewhere, “ If the criterion of art were its power to incite action, Goebbels would be one of the greatest artists of all time.” And yet, poetry makes us see and feel in ways we otherwise wouldn’t; it makes vivid what we would otherwise ignore. Jesus, the poet, Jesus the artist, teaches us to see the world in a new way. The Church has always struggled to understand how Jesus changed the world when evil still clearly continues its destructive work in the world. This was the experience of the early Christian community in Rome at the time Mark wrote his Gospel. Nero was Emperor and had singled out the Christians for a violent persecution after the Great fire of Rome in Ad 64. This is thought to be the historical setting of the Gospel of Mark. A Gospel written for the Christian community in Rome to help them understand the situation in which they were living. A community claiming the kingdom of God had arrived and the victory of God established by the triumph of the Cross and Resurrection but still a small and frightened group of poor and marginal people on the edge of society and now in danger of extinction. The writer to the Hebrews put this contradictory experience in this way:‘Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, he left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him, but we see Him… namely Jesus crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death.’ Hebrews 2: 8-9 There are many of us who would identify with the disciples in Mark’s account of the storm on Lake Galilee. We can see the chaos of the world around us, the continuing violence and the suffering that threaten to overwhelm so many, and we ask ‘where is God?’ For some this has undermined their faith in a loving God and led them to believe that we really are alone in this world without a Saviour. The problem of Evil poses a question to all who claim that there is a God who cares for us and has indeed delivered us from evil. This was the question on the minds of the disciples as they sailed into the storm. Jesus was asleep in the boat, apparently unaware and unconcerned with the disaster that was about to overcome them. “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Mark 4:38. The response of Jesus is to ask “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40. What was Jesus talking about? Not faith in the boat, nor faith in themselves. Clearly both were inadequate in the circumstances. Faith does not look first at the world around us, or even at the resources available to us. Faith looks first at Jesus and asks, as the disciples did, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him” Mark 4:41. The Church, it could be said, has not yet come to terms with the presence of Jesus Christ, living in the midst of us. Maybe we might add that the Church often behaves as if Christ is nowhere to be seen. It struggles on with its plans and projects and forgets that the power lies not in the institution, the boat, if you like, but in the master of the boat. So what difference has Jesus, the Saviour made? Where is he? What is he doing? We echo the disciples, but we also reflect their lack of faith. Jesus taught us to see the world in a new way. The Kingdom has arrived! Jesus came amongst us announcing that ‘the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom is at hand.’ (Mark 14) We celebrate the presence of God, revealed to us in all His fullness in this season of Trinity. The Father, Sustainer of the world, Jesus the Saviour of the world, and the Holy Spirit the presence of God living in His Body, the Church, and at work in the world to make His Kingdom known. The Kingdom will come! However we still pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ because we continue to look for the fulfilment of Jesus' promise that there will come a day when evil will be banished, when wars will cease, when death and disease will pass away and the world will live in harmony with its Maker. Until that time we continue to live as Christ’s body on earth, a sign and a sacrament of that future Kingdom. We are not to be dispirited, or driven or despair by the triumph of evil, but are to: ‘Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith’ Heb 12:2. Between two worlds: The Church is called to live in these two worlds. The world we see around us where it appears nothing has changed, and yet to fix our eyes on Jesus who has overcome death and defeated evil, who has broken down the divisions between men and women, races and religions. ‘But we see Jesus’ Hebrews 2:9. A few days after this incident on the lake, Jesus appeared again on the lake. He called Peter to leave the security of the boat and come to him. All was well until Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the waves around him. Give us faith, Lord, to keep our eyes fixed on you. Rev. Simon Brignall.
Have you ever wondered if you might have a great masterpiece hanging on your walls?I know someone who did!Anne, a member of our congregation in Lewknor, Oxfordshire, was a brilliant artist, she has drawings in the National portrait gallery, but on her wall at her very modest house she had a drawing by Delacroix of a rearing horse, a preparatory sketch, I think, for the oil painting, ‘Napoleon crossing the Alps’. Anne knew it was a Delacroix, but the thieves who came to rob her did not. Though Anne had inherited a large fortune from her parents she lived a very frugal life, and there was nothing of value in her house except the drawing by Delacroix, which the thieves knew nothing about.In our museums and art galleries there are stored away in the vaults hundreds of paintings whose provenance is unknown or uncertain, and the art series ‘Britain’s lost masterpeices’ goes searching for them.Our painting this week is called ‘Virgin and child with a Pomegranate’, and was stored in the collection of the National Museum of Wales. Bought by a remarkable pair of sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, it was attributed as a Botticelli, but later downgraded to a copy. Bendor Grosvenor, the presenter of the show, thought he would have another look, and after conservation and infra-red examination revealed under drawing typical of the Renaissance artist hand and studio, it was reclassified as a Boticelli masterpiece. This is the sort of story Jesus would have told. It is a tale of the hidden treasure we have within us. We can all imagine and identify with the disciples in the storm tossed boat, not knowing that asleep in the stern is the master of the wind and waves. Jesus is talking about us! As Paul counsels:‘For we live by faith, not sight’ 2 Corinthians 6:7We have two parables in our readings which speak of the hidden riches which we possess, though we may not know it. Like the story of the lost masterpiece, the parable of the seed speaks to us of the hidden presence of the Kingdom of God within us and amongst us. Jesus tells us that this Kingdom, like the seed, lies hidden and sometimes completely ignored, but within that seed is a powerful force of nature that will generate growth and abundance, given the right soil and climate. The seed has, Jesus says, within itself, all that is necessary for growth. The Farmer can add nothing to it, the power lies within the seed. Not only does the seed grow ‘All by itself’ Mark 4: 28, but it is able to produce an amazing abundance, far beyond what we might believe possible. Its small size is not to be misunderstood as a limit to its future growth.‘The smallest seed you plant...becomes the largest of all garden plants’ Mark 4: 31 – 32The Parables often come just before an event which Jesus will use to teach the disciples their true significance. Here in Mark we find the story of the stilling of the storm. Jesus is now in a boat, crossing with the disciples to the other side of Lake Galilee, when a storm overwhelms them, but Jesus is asleep. In panic they wake him and indeed rebuke him for his lack of concern. Jesus is however in control, he is with them just waiting for the call. With a word of command the storm is stilled. Mark records their terror as they see the almighty power of Jesus in action.“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4: 40.Like the seed, Jesus is there, his power though hidden, is available to them, only waiting for the disciples to call on him in faith.The Church in Rome, for which Mark wrote this Gospel was passing through a storm of persecution. It was small and powerless and clearly feared that it would be destroyed if the persecutions continued much longer. This account of the disciples' despair must have encouraged them to trust in Christ's presence with them and to believe that despite their powerlessness they could call on him, not only to save them, but to strengthen them.History bears witness to their faith, as the Church not only survived, but thrived and grew far beyond what they could have thought possible. Like the Mustard seed it grew to a size that enabled it to nurture and sustain others.The Church today faces a similar crisis as our secular culture threatens to overwhelm us. We too can be confident that Christ is not just with us, but the power within us, not just to help us survive, but to strengthen and enable us to grow. Like the lost Botticelli we may have forgotten that we have hidden away and forgotten all the resources we need not just for ourselves, but the needy world around us.
The Fountain - Marcel Duchamp 1917The Fountain may look like a cheap joke, but the fundamental motive was to call into question how art is defined and to shine a light on the 'rules' we use to attach meaning and merit to works of art. Jesus in the parable of the 'divided Kingdom' calls into question the 'rules' that give merit and meaning to life. Jesus - The Disruptor : Mark 3: 20 – 30/2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1The events of the last few days marking the D-Day landings in Normandy give us pause to reflect on the sacrifice of those men and women who put their lives on the line for the sake of the freedom of Europe and the future of generations to come. All those who have commented on the heroism of the ordinary men and women of the armed forces ask the same question. ‘Would this generation be prepared to make the same sacrifice?’And then there is another dimension to the story of D-Day, the cost of civilian life. Thousands of French citizens died in the bombing raids that flattened Cherborg and Caen, and yet the invading armies were welcomed in by a grateful people. France was liberated from the grip of Nazi power and given back its dignity as a nation.The invasion of France in 1944 provides us with an excellent analogy to understand the parable of the ‘Kingdom divided against itself’.Jesus the Liberator In our readings Mark records an incident when Jesus liberates a man in the grip of evil forces, like a Kingdom in the grip of enemy forces. To liberate this kingdom the ‘Strong man’ who has captured it must be bound and thrown out.Jesus puts the problem like this: “No one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. “ Mark 3: 27Jesus’ enemies, however, accuse Jesus himself of using evil powers to drive out evil, replacing one devil with another! Such a person, though, would, Jesus points out, be like a ‘Kingdom divided against itself’. You can’t drive out evil with evil.In other words, we might say, a Kingdom or a person in the grip of forces beyond their control can be said to be possessed and in need of liberation by someone with the intention not to bind them, but to give them their life and dignity back.Jesus the DisruptorThis is a strange parable, for Jesus seems to be suggesting that he is the thief in this tale who relieves the strong man of his booty!‘But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man’; then indeed the house can be plundered.’ Mark 3: 27Such language reminds us of the bondage in which humanity finds itself. We are held in the grip of powerful forces that control our lives. Only the one who has defeated evil not by evil but by love, one who has replaced the rule of evil with selfless service can offer us freedom.Mark pictures Jesus as a ‘Distruptor’. As we saw last week he changes the 'rules' by which we live in the world, making room for a new dynamic of love and freedom that he calls ‘The Kingdom of God’. In this new world of freedom we are no longer in the grip of forces that control us, but given the grace to take our lives back.Freedom in the Holy SpiritJesus uses strong language because he knows the strength of the enemy. He carries with him many attractive possessions all offering immediate reward, but he cannot offer freedom because in return for those attractive possessions he wants control of our lives.What Jesus offers us is a different driver, the Holy Spirit who comes into our lives as a gift not a reward. The freedom the Holy Spirit brings is indeed a freedom from possessions,that is, things that possess us!The strong man in Jesus' parable is in fact weak for he is a captive of his possessions; if he is to be really strong then he must first be captured by the Holy Spirit who brings life and freedom.Perfect freedom then is found in service to God and neighbour. When the Holy Spirit guides our choices and decisions not in the pursuit of the ‘temporary’, short term interests, but in what Paul calls the ‘eternal and unseen’.‘We fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal.’ 2Cor. 4: 18.It could be said that our society has moved in exactly the opposite direction. We have as a Nation lost that vision of faithfulness to future generations that we will see and pursue short term interests that may rob those generations of a future.We will need that spirit of sacrifice that motivated a whole generation of young men and women to forgo their youth so that those who came after might have theirs. Rev Simon Brignall
I have one last painting from our visit to the French riviera. ‘La joie de vivre’ 1946. Picasso had escaped from the darkness of a post war Paris to Antibes. Here like so many artists he found a new lease of life and renewed creativity that produced great works in both painting and ceramics.The painting is a scene taken from Greek mythology and portrays a mythological garden of Eden in which nymphs and fauns frolic. In the centre of this garden is Picasso’s Eve, his new lover Francoise Gilot, beside her Picasso places himself, depicted as a Centaur, half animal half man, serenading the beautiful Gilot. Two ‘Kids’, literally baby goats, play beside them, (Gilot was soon to become pregnant).Behind them on a clear blue sea is a boat, representing their escape from the darkness of war. They have arrived in a world coming into being after the destruction of the past five years. The French artist, poet and dramatist Antonin Artaud captures in verse this post war world in words that echo the images of Picasso.“We are not yet born, we are not yet in the world, there isn’t yet a world, things have not been made, the reason for being has not yet been found.” Antonin Artaud 1946A new world announcedAlthough Picasso's vision is taken from Greek mythology, not Christian iconology, it speaks of a primordial longing for a new, reborn world. This is the message of Jesus to the disciples at a confusing time, he is about to leave them, but they are not to despair because the way is being prepared for the arrival of something ‘yet to come’ John 16:13. We might call this time of preparation the ‘In between’ times as we await the arrival of God’s kingdom in all its fullness and glory. To help us to prepare we have the light of the Holy Spirit who gives us a vision of what is promised.The Spirit of Truth: Like the bright light, and blue seas of the Mediterranean, captured in Picasso’s ‘Joie de vivre’, the Holy Spirit brings the light of another world to us. John speaks to us, in his gospel, of Jesus as the ‘true light that gives light of every man’, and now Jesus makes it clear to the disciples that this light is to continue the work he has begun. “He will testify about me” John 15: 26. This the light of Christ sent into the world both ‘to guide us into all Truth’A Person and a Promise: Picasso, escaped the darkness and like many other artists ran towards the sun finding new life. The Holy Spirit has the same effect on people, some will welcome and embrace Jesus as Lord and Saviour, but others will prefer to live in the dark. Like every light the Holy Spirit illuminates as well as exposes darkness.A new world: Picasso imagined a new world, or a world restored to its classical past. The vision shared by Jesus with his disciples, is not of the past, but a world renewed where peace is made possible by forgiveness, where barriers are broken down and fellowship made possible by his reconciling love, where there is no condemnation because judgement has been passed on the prince of this world.Picasso donated all the paintings and ceramics of these productive years to the Musée Grimaldi, now renamed Musée Picasso in Antibes to be shared with the world.The Holy Spirit is sent into the world to bring new life, to stir up the gifts and graces given to us that we might share our light with the world. This new world must be announced in every community so that we can all get a vision of what is to come.Rev. Simon Brignall
