Images and stuff
expressing spiritual stuff through art. Art: it's not just the medium, the end result, the imagination or the skill or what people think of it that defines it, it is as much the human process of human re-creation that express the indefinable essence of what it means to be human. To engage and to try and appreciate art is a journey of embracing community; trying to see beyond yourself and your own world to the world somebody else experiences. It is intensely spiritual, it is the language of God. It embodies the mission of God and the human response.
Easter Spring
1/4/2012 Palm Sunday
The service was a youth service in that it was put together by a small group of youth from Churches in the Snaith, Selby and Goole circuits. The message was very short and given by Linda Day, the Superintendent minister and was essentially Palm Sunday as the beginning of a revolution.
The image picks up on a number of ideas; the idea of a ‘spring’ being a revolution, youth reclaiming the church and palm Sunday.
Outrageous Grace
15/3/2012 Wesley Study Centre, Methodist Preaching service
Worship Leader: Joy Sykes
Preacher: Andrew Hall
Text: Eph 2:1-10
Andrew was not immediately recognisable as he was in disguise; disguised in a dress and a wig! It was not immediately obvious from the start, or the scriptures, how his attire fitted with the sermon. He began to speak of the grace of God in Christ and of how his understanding was stretched during his placement in the summer. He found himself working with a Church outreach programme to the LGBT community and saw first hand the Grace of Christ at work. His dressing as a transvestite was deliberately intended to shock us and challenge our preconceptions, he urged us to rethink our understanding of God’s grace to make room for those we least expect to find embraced by God’s Outrageous Grace.
A poem inspired by the image can be found here: http://sallysjourney.typepad.com/sallys_journey/2012/03/outrageous-grace.html
Sinners welcome
13/03/2012 St John’s college, Durham, Communions service
Preacher: Kate Bruce
Worship leader: Mark Tanner
Text: Nehemiah 13, Luke 15:3-7
Kate contrast the leadership with Nehemiah with that of Christ. Nehemiah does his best to cajole a people who have lost sight of the reality of God to be faithful. Christ seeks the lost and carries the home.
I am reminded of my own battle within to live what I preach. What I know is that no matter what I think, God in Christ rescues me from the error of my own estimations.
Wisdom
8/3/2012 Wesley Study Centre, Durham. Preaching service
Worship Leader: Neil Maynard
Preacher: Herbert Aparanga
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Herbert began by speaking of the failure of human wisdom to make use of the knowledge that has been accumulated over centuries, and especially with modern technology, to overcome the injustices in the world. He connected the wisdom of God in Christ that shows the love of God and how when this wisdom is used with knowledge then great things can be done.
As he spoke a memory of a story came to my mind that illustrated Herbert’s point very well. Many years ago a small group of people from my home Church took part in a mission of compassion to one of the eastern European countries where they worked decorating and fitting out a school. One of the men who went told me of his experience of sorting out the wiring in a classroom so that the lighting worked. He said “when I switched on the light the teacher just burst into tears”
Failure
6/3/2012 St John’s college communion service, Durham. Held in Durham Cathedral
Preacher: Calvin Samuel
Worship leader: Michael Volland
Scripture: Jn 6:35-40, 47-51 & Nehemiah 9:1-15
Calvin’s sermon drew parallels between the crises of faith experienced by the post Babylonian exile Israel as they struggled to re-establish the centrality of faith in the nation and our own nations struggle to discern the place of public faith. He argues that in the long run, in the bigger picture and the wider context, Britain is a nation that has been shaped by the Christian faith and that those values that we treasure the most are inescapably rooted in the Christian faith. It is simply too much a part of our identity to ignore. I think he has a point.
However he did go on to say that we often failure to live up to those values. The same is true of the Church. Just as the Israelites took time to confess their failure, repent and recommit themselves to God, so too we as representatives of the Church should do the same.
I spent some time thinking about the Church in the UK and its relationship to the country and wondered if we are trying to hang on to the tatters of Christendom in the UK. I wonder if there is more value in being the voice from the edge of society, living counter culturally and ministering to those who find themselves pushed out than trying to compete for airtime and validity of our faith in the public arena.
The image is my reflection on the failure of the Church that has been part of the story of decline of the Church in the 20th century.
Forgiven
4/3/2012 South Milford Methodist Church 2nd Lent service
Preacher: Nigel Curry
scripture: Rom 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38
“The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Rom 4:23-15)
Hope against Hope.
Leap of Faith
1/3/2012 Wesley Study Center Methodist Preaching service
Preacher: Julie Wearing
Worship Leader: David Lawton
Scripture: Romans 4:13-25
The key phrase that inspired the image was ‘Leap of Faith’. Apart from parachuting and Zip wires, I thought bungy jumping was a good visual image of a ‘leap of faith’. Not one of my best images but it has some interesting visual ideas that correlate to the leap of faith.
God Reality
Tuesday 28/02/2012 St John’s College communion
Preacher: Mark Tanner
Worship Leader: Calvin Samuel
Scripture: Nehemiah 8, Jn 10:1-10
Mark spoke primarily from the Nehemiah passage and remarked on how the reading of the Law moved the people to tears and that the response of the priests was to urge the people to celebrate the blessings of God. His point is that when God reveals truth to us that moves us to repentance, the process is not that we end up feeling like miserable sinners but rather that we move through the experience to a place of growth and joy. Repentance is about transformation.
The image tries to capture a sense of the movement from reading the text to a deeper walk with God. The image depicts the Old Testament as a scroll being seen through a Smartphone using ‘augmented reality‘ to reveal a deeper connection with God (symbolised by the mountains) which is accessed via the cross. So the image is trying to say that our encounter with God that brings life changing transformation occurs as we attend prayerfully, intentionally and quite possibly whilst being part of a faith community with shared experiences, through worship and scripture.
I want to add that often we can also encounter God in other ways. Some of this is shaped by some reading and thinking I have been doing on this very matter.
I have been reading ‘The Collage of God‘ by Mark Oakley for a week or so and finding it very interesting. The basic premise is that our best understanding of God comes not in the neat Package of the Christian creed but rather through a myriad of fragments in the world around us, including scripture, poetry, art and many other media as well as Personal experiences.
On the train today I met a man who caught sight of the book title and asked me what it was about. I tried to explain to him that it was about piecing together an image of God from moments of revelation in the world around us, in things like Poetry and art.
I used an analogy of the film ‘the Truman show‘ where the hero pieces together a picture of the girl he loves from bits of magazine pictures of models.
He didn’t know the film. I didn’t know how to take the conversation further. I think he might have wanted to know more but we parted company at Darlington station.
I continued to think about this question. I wondered if another analogy might be ‘augmented reality’ whereby with the use of smartphones everyday imagery or scenes in the world about us can become triggers for internet based information about the scene or the product or whatever. The idea is to use technology to augment the reality we see with information not readily seen.
Suppose this is like ‘divine encounters’, Moments when we see or connect spiritually with God through the ordinary things about us? Moments of revelation that illuminates our lives, or the things of God, holes through which the reality of God seeps through the smoked glass of our world?
Cup Bearer
22/02/2012 Ash Wednesday Communion Service at St John’s college, Durham
Preacher: Joanna Pearson
Worship Leader: Mark Tanner
Scripture: Nehemiah 5, Matthew 6:1-6
The service was held in the Chapel and there is rarely enough room there to do any more than take notes and sketch an outline. This service I was also a chalice bearer and so did not have time to sketch but I have held the image in my head for 5 days and final put into chalks last night.
The image owes as much to my awareness of serving Christ in my fellow students as in the scriptures and the sermon but all find some purchase in the image.
The Face of Christ
5/2/2012 Sherburn-in-Elmet Methodist Church
Preacher: Sally Coleman
Text: Isa 40:21-31, 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23, 2 Corinthians 5: 17-18
The image is based on a line from the sermon imploring the Church to look for the face of Christ in those we meet.
