Passion

I just finished a felted wool sculpture for a gallery display. I've titled it "Savior Creator". Before Jesus was attached to the backboard frame, Dawson's friend Connor was holding it, hugging Jesus and saying he was cuddly. I got the idea of the mobile extended from the book The Shack, in which Jesus says, "I don't want to be first among a list of values. I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything that happens to you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile where everything in your life--your friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities--is connected to me but moves with the wind, in and out and back and forth, in an incredible dance of being."

Wire provides the internal structure with foam, wrapped with batting before adding the wool I needled into shape. I had several pictures to look at for the shaping. I looked at Rembrandt's face of Jesus, but people are telling me he resembles Monte. I have looked at Monte daily for thirty five years. In trying to think thru what I wanted hanging from the mobile, creation is where I ended the process. The background in the frame is felt, and various yarns embellished with my needlefelting machine. His outstretched arms are the same width as mine.

I decided to also post a picture I drew in college from my sketch book.

In Memoriam

I've mentioned every year about the Holocaust Remembrance Day (my post) and how commemorating still has no ritual. This morning in the news I looked at the slideshow of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. I'd like to walk through it and experience it. There are things the world should never forget. Scriptures so often tell us to remember, to retell the stories.


I grew up next door to a Jewish family. The parents had these 'tattoos' on their arms, a forever reminder of a time when persons were unnamed, and instead numbered. There are plenty of surviving pictures telling the story of this horrific time when one's identity as a Jew was attempted to be wiped out.

I used to have a timeline on a wall. As I learned events in history I'd add them to the timeline. Unfortunately these catastrophes, ethnic cleansings, the destruction of domination - one group over another ... crucifixions ... have gone on throughout time.

As my friend Ellen has said, "I believe it is an act of faith to remember and tell the stories and to recount how beauty and life have been called forth from chaos once again. And, to dare to reflect on the mystery that the gospel is far, far bigger and better than we can dare to dream."

Breakfast is Ready

The risen Jesus said, "Follow me".

At the end of the Gospels, morning came, and the risen Jesus said, "Breakfast is ready".

What does this look like?

The Lord's Baseball Game

Freddy and the Lord stood by to observe a baseball game. The Lord's team was playing Satan's team.

The Lord's team was at bat, the score was tied zero to zero, and it was the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. They continued to watch as a batter stepped up to the plate named 'Love.'

Love swung at the first pitch and hit a single, because "Love never fails."

The next batter was named Faith, who also got a single because Faith works with Love.

The next batter up was named Godly Wisdom. Satan wound up and threw the first pitch. Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it pass: Ball one. Three more pitches and Godly Wisdom walked because he never swings at what Satan throws.

The bases were now loaded. The Lord then turned to Freddy and told him He was now going to bring in His star player. Up to the plate stepped Grace. Freddy said, "He sure doesn't look like much!"

Satan's whole team relaxed when they saw Grace. Thinking he had won the game, Satan wound up and fired his first pitch. To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder than anyone had ever seen! But Satan was not worried; his center fielder let very few get by.

He went up for the ball, but it went right through his glove, hit him on the head and sent him crashin on the ground; the roaring crowds went wild as the ball continued over the fence . . . for a home run!

The Lord's team won!

The Lord then asked Freddy if he knew why Love, Faith and Godly Wisdom could get on base but couldn't win the game. Freddy answered that he didn't know why.

The Lord explained, "If your love, faith and wisdom had won the game, you would think you had done it by yourself. Love, Faith and Wisdom will get you on base but only My Grace can get you Home: 'For by Grace you are saved, it is a gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast."

Psalm 84:11, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly."

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Phil 4:13

Living as Easter People

“Love is not a duty it is our destiny. It is the language that Jesus spoke and we are called to speak it so that we can converse with him. It is the food that they eat in God’s new world, and we must acquire a taste for it here and now. It is the music God has written for all his creatures to sing and we are called to learn it and practice it now.”
- NT Wright, Surprised by Hope (and great book!)

So how can we learn to live as wide-awake people, as Easter people? ... In particular if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up ... If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering, and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume and in due course bearing fruit”
Ibid

“Jesus is risen, therefore God’s new world has begun. Jesus is risen, therefore Israel and the world have been redeemed. Jesus is risen, therefore his followers have a new job to do. And what is that new job? To bring the life of heaven to birth in actual, physical earthly reality.”
Ibid

I really like NT Wright's books. If you want to hear him, click here. What do you think?

 

More Than Just a Day

"Easter is far more than a day it is an entire season that stretches for 50 days until the celebration of Pentecost - this year on May 31" says Christine Sine.

I have an RSS feed reader on my computer and there's news and blogs I subscribe to (it's all free). Daily news and writings come thru. It's an easy way to cruise thru news, often just reading the titles or summaries is all that's needed when you've been following the news. And when someone writes, it shows up. I can click on things I want to read in it's entirety. BUT, there are some blogs I don't read in this format because the 'atmosphere' of the blog or it's artisticness ... doesn't come thru the reader (unless I need a new reader).

Christine Sine's site is one I regularly open to read in its entirety. Another blog I've followed for several years is the Jesus Creed.

As Christine goes on to ask about Eastertide, "So what is going to flourish in your life this season? How do you expect to encounter the risen Christ?" And she lists some possibilities to consider. As I just posted the other day in Counting Omer, our linear calendar days can have EXTRAordinary meaning when we're connected to God's larger story, living in anticipation of seeing God's winks and heart, that so often grace our days ... but do we notice?!

Counting Omer

Last night we drove home from spending Easter in Ft Collins with Travis and Sarah. It had snowed in Evergreen - very typical for Easter! As Music Minister, we enjoyed the church service Travis had helped design, the theme being "Light", and carried out from the initial talk from pastor Rich, to skits and music. Travis introduced a "He is Risen" song him and friend Katrina wrote.

Like with Christmas, we did a non-traditional meal, an Italian meal we'd not made before. I brought up my pasta roller I'd not used yet, and told everyone this would be a meal needing everyone's participation. So Sarah had bruchetta ready for us to start eating as we all made home-made ravioli. I had made three fillings: one spinach, another shrimp, and then a beef one. Friends of Trav & Sar's, Janna and Paul, contributed too. Janna brought a salad and Paul jumped in rolling the best thin dough for the ravioli!

We stand on resurrection ground. We are in the Season of Easter between now and Pentecost. We need more prayer, more knocking on God's door to see what he wants us to be doing, and more celebration of God's new creation!

This morning's reading brought me to the two guys walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. This is another story in Scripture I love. I would so love to hear Jesus tell stories. They were trying to make sense of what just happened in Jerusalem. Jesus walked up asking, "What are you so intently discussing?" and walked and talked with them.

Everyone was so sad. All their hopes that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel were shattered. Jesus couldn't have been the one, because they killed him. The two on the road to Emmaus didn't recognize Jesus. While walking, he told them stories from Scripture. They invited him home with them to eat. The moment Jesus broke the bread, they recognized him, and then Jesus disappeared. He reappeared later to the gathered disciples and there again shared stories. Like the two said, I too would love to feel (and maybe I do), "Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked, opening up Scriptures to us on the road?"!

Jews had three harvest festivals that they went to Jerusalem for (found in Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16, and more). The first two are known as First Fruit Festivals. Barley is the first cereal grain to be harvested and brought to the temple for blessing. The Sunday following Passover begins this First Fruit Festival period of counting seven-sevens between the barley and then the wheat harvest festival. This period of 49 days is called 'Counting the Omer', an 'in-between-time'.

I took a picture of a past year's Counting Omer chart I made. Most every Spring this rectangle of rectangles sits on our kitchen counter. Since I strive for more meaning to my ordinary linear calendar days, I like visuals or anything that reminds my heart and brings anticipation of God's presence. Gluing pieces of grain, or marking off the days, helps bring meaning - a God-consciousness activity - to these days. I try and create space in my days for God to show up - anticipating surprises from God - God 'winks'.

The Jewish Festival of First Fruits became our Easter. Jesus rose from the dead on the Jewish festival day that many Jews had come to Jerusalem for, to celebrate Passover and then their first harvest fruit of barley. I Corinthians 15:20 says, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who are asleep."

How exciting is that?! Do you think that was part of a plan? a cool detail in the large drama of life?! I started counting the 49 days today.

See the little red box in my picture? That's the 40th day in the counting - that's Ascension Day. You can talk about this event, but it's more fun to take a picnic lunch and blanket and eat somewhere outside and look up into the sky and talk about the story at the end of Luke and Acts 1 when Jesus left this earth. Imagine being a disciple - you've lived with Jesus for 3 years dreaming of setting up an earthly kingdom and then watch Jesus leave, "Hey, but wait a minute, where are you going? This is not what I had in mind!" The physical presence of Jesus left them. What now?

At the Ascension, Jesus told them to return to Jerusalem and wait the ten days until the next Jewish Harvest Festival. I'm sure the disciples were reliving all the memories and words of those three years with Jesus, wondering what the heck he really meant! while waiting for the next Shavuot Festival. Remembering and praying and waiting.

Every year at this time the Jews read the 10 Commandments, remembering Moses and the commandments inscribed by God on stone on Mt Sinai in the desert. But the Jews of Jesus' day missed the bigger picture, not recognizing Jesus as the prophesied Messiah, and what His Kingdom might look like. To Jeremiah (31:33) God said, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it" who's message carried further in II Corinthians 3:3 says, "You are a letter of Christ written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."

Jesus died and then resurrected on Easter becoming the first fruit at the early first fruit festival. In our Christian year, 50 days later, Shavuot, the other first fruit festival, became Pentecost, and as Christians we have the Holy Spirit living within us - we are first fruits too. So from the letter of the law, to the Spirit; from stone to human hearts.

I hang seven descending doves over our kitchen table for Pentecost as another visual reminder for my heart. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. Does your church celebrate Pentecost? I've never been in a church that celebrated it, till last year - and they asked me to help "preach" from my knowledge and passion. We remember God the Father and Son in the Incarnation and Death and Resurrection, but do we celebrate the Holy Spirit and what it all means to our Christianity? A remembrance of letters in stone to the Spirit in our hearts; remembering that the letter of the law brings death, but the Spirit brings life. Remembering the gifts and fruits of the Spirit.

It's now called "Eastertide", I see it as a Season of Redemption. On Passover, the Jews eat history, remembering freedom from slavery. But freedom for what? What is physical freedom without an identity of who you are? Mt Sinai with God and the 10 Commandments gave them a spiritual freedom, a knowing they were part of a larger story. But the 'story of redemption' is even larger for us who believe in the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Pentecost. There is a great drama that God asks us to be a part of.

God still takes on human flesh today, expanding the Incarnation to us followers of Jesus. The God above became the God alongside, and then the God within. Is this not Wild?!!!!!!!!!!!

Indifference Quote

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

- quoted by Elie Wiesel, survivor of WWII concentration camp and set free April 11 in 1945 as a teenager and went on to write many books and won the Nobel Peace Prize.

May we now move forward with resurrection power, living life full of beauty, faith and love.

Triumphal Entry?

I took this picture last year, and again this year, our kitchen table looks the same, just new palm fronds from church this weekend. I made a wool Jesus to ride the donkey from my Christmas creche along with the Passover sheep, entering Jerusalem that same day.

I found a Palm Sunday tradition that I often do - making a sweet bread in the shape of a chicken with baby chicks under the mother hen, click here for the recipe. It comes from Jesus overlooking Jerusalem and weeping. Jesus wished he could "gather them under my wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings".

I've been sitting with scripture this morning connected with Palm Sunday and a Zechariah passage one of our pastors read at church yesterday. When you read the Triumphal Entry story of Jesus entering Jerusalem in Matthew, a piece from Zechariah 9 is quoted. This entrance was prophesied, but the Jews were not remembering the whole prophecy.

Wouldn't Jesus, if he were going to usurp the existing rule, and reinstate Israel's Monarchy, ride in on a stallion or in a chariot? This is the way a real king would want to enter! Jews have always wanted their own king, and that's their vision for the Messiah.

History books tell of many war horses entering Jerusalem, but none mention a donkey. Jeru-salem, "city of peace", has seen much war.

Zechariah says, "Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey ... I've had it with war ... no more war horses in Jerusalem ... He will offer peace, a peaceful rule worldwide ... And you, because of my blood covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from their hopelessness."

When Jesus began his ministry he read from the scroll of Isaiah saying of Himself, "The Spirit of God is on me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. God sent me to announce the year of His grace ..." The Year of Jubilee was to be celebrated, a Leviticus law, every 50 years. Jesus' kingdom is this Jubilee. As Zechariah 9 goes on to say, "From now on people are My swords."

What is our vision of a returning Jesus?

Ukrainian Eggs

I thought I'd post about Ukranian Eggs now with a link to where I purchase the stuff from. We often give this one kit as a wedding present. And you can read last year's post with more pictures, and then more pictures.

Last year's post tells the history of me starting to do these eggs in 1973. So it's been a long time, and the success grew exponentially when I started using these tools and dyes.

I have a box in the garage I can pull out whenever someone comes, or I want to do Ukrainian eggs. I don't think we're going to have any company coming this year to do eggs unless Travis brings a crew. His young married friends want to come again, but with him being a music minister, he wouldn't want to come till the busyness of Easter is over. We'll see.

And, as I said in last year's post, I would love to do these as Christmas ornaments to give away or sell. Monte made the shelf last year and from the same above link source I bought the egg stands.

And last summer I varnished them for the first time ever - a final step I've always skipped. So some of the varnished ones are older and already faded. These dyes are toxic, so no eating of the eggs, but are not run-proof, so make sure the varnish is not water-base.

Veronica

Today is Veronica's day on the calendar. When I watched the movie "The Passion of Christ", I recognized her (as I saw so much other usage of history and art in the movie - like I loved the frozen scene reminding me of Michelangelo's 'Pieta').

The very name "Veronica" comes from "vera icon" meaning "true image".

Was there a Veronica as Jesus carried the load of His cross - dragging, stumbling, collapsing, sweating ...who wiped Jesus' face? It is claimed there is a cloth, a relic, which bears the image of Christ. I don't focus on whether there's a cloth with a miraculous face image of Jesus.

I like to believe there was a woman of compassion, who stepped out of the crowd of onlookers, and helped Jesus, by wiping the sweat from his eyes and face. My focus is given to the love and charity that prompted her action. This good deed became the sixth, in the fourteen Stations of the Cross, that so many Christians 'live' through every Good Friday.

I am glad for a day each year, in the busyness of life, to stop and ponder her action, that overflowed from a compassionate heart. Oh, that my heart be so full of overflowing love ...

More Egg Pictures

I got Dawson's pictures from last weekend and thought I'd post some more of the Ukrainian eggs.








And here's my daughter-in-love Sarah with their little dog Bea.

Ukrainian Eggs

'Travis and Friends' were at our home over the weekend. Him and Sarah wanted their friends in their small group to experience our home, us, and do Ukrainian eggs.

I saw an article in a 1973 National Geographic Magazine on Ukrainian eggs, and wanted to do them. Since I knew how to do Batik textile art, I understood the process, but didn't know special tools existed. As is typical of me, I just jump in and do things. I got beeswax and melted it in a metal measuring cup and stood over the stove painting the wax on eggs. And the only dyes I new of were the typical grocery store Paas (?- I think that's what it is) dyes. Monte joined in the process when we were dating.

Soon after we were married I found the traditional kistka tools and special dyes. For years now we've been ordering supplies from the same store, and have bought kits for wedding presents. We've also bought a lot of extra tools and leave the dyes out for about a month and have had many people around our dining table decorating eggs. One couple, years ago so looked forward to it they started designing eggs months beforehand. When they moved away they bought their own kit and have done it every year.

Though electric kistkas exist, it's traditionally done by heating the metal funnel of the kistka over a candle till the beeswax is melted. It does not run out until it touches the egg. It's a wax-resist process, starting from lightest and getting progressively darker. You initially wax over everything you want white and put egg in yellow, once dry, you wax over what you want to stay yellow, and so on. When done you hold the egg to the side of the candle and wipe the melting wax off with a paper towel. The eggs are raw and they dry out over time.


This picture is just one of the three cartons that got done. This was a very productive and artistic weekend of eggs. Everyone loved it! Dawson took more pictures (and I'm sure better than mine but he didn't download them on my computer yet).

I cap the canning jars of dye and repack the box. I store them along with the old silver spoons, candles and candle-holders, box of tools and instructions and pictures, and then the vinyl tablecloth. It can be pulled out anytime. Every year I say I'm going to do it for Christmas ornaments - but I haven't yet.

Heaven?

Life after death ... How do you envision it?

It seems the Resurrection of Jesus started a muddle.

What is Heaven?

It seems most of our beliefs of heaven and hell are from Dante.

It's an interesting thing to think about.

Ever hear the phrases: Church Triumphant, Church Expectant, and Church Militant? What do they mean?

Annunciation

Today is the Calendar day for the Annunciation, when Gabriel came to Mary. (There is exactly nine months until Christmas.)

Isaiah 7:14 spoke of this event, "Behold a virgin ..." This is the day back in time God chose to enter our history. Mary in her "Yes" became the link between Heaven and Earth. We call this 'taking on flesh' the Incarnation.

I selected some works of art. There are probably over 100 done of this event. The first piece is done by El Greco - of the 1500's. The next "Annunciation" is from 1528 by Andrea del Sarto.
I think the third and forth are by Caravaggio, 1608-1609, and then Dante Gabriel Rosseti, 1849-50 (I could have them mixed around).
Then I think it's Arthur Hacker, 1892.

























































The last two pictures are more modern. HeQi did the sixth in 2001. The last, by Jim Hasse is called The Incarnation - World Annunciation, and a poem ends with:

"The girl says "yes"
"And the Angel left her"
Our World is changed

Buechner and Dillard "Remember" Quotes

Instead of adding these to the last post, I thought I'd post them separate. Of the variety of books I read, these are two more of my favorite 'very interesting' authors.

I like the word "remember" and it's in Scripture more than 300 times. The thief on the cross asked, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus at the table said, "Do this to remember me."

"When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me." - Frederick Buechner

OH, does that tug at my heart reminding me just now as I typed that above of this quote in the book Deep Unto Deep by Dana Candler: "When I stand before Him face to face one day soon, when I meet His eyes for the first time, will I experience a memory in that gaze? Will there be familiarity?"

"I have no problem with miracles ... that isn't the question I struggle with. To me, the real question is, 'How in the world can we remember God?' I like that part of the Bible that lists kings as good and bad. Suddenly there comes this one, King Josiah, who orders the temple to be cleaned up and inadvertently discovers the Law. This happens after generations of rulers and after the Israelites followed God through the Exodus. Somehow they had forgotten the whole thing, every piece of it. A whole nation simply forgot God." - Annie Dillard

This quote tugs at my heart as well. It reminds me of Nehemiah 8 when Ezra does read the Scripture they found. The people STOOD for the entire reading of the Torah, hearing it for the first time, and they wept. Then they partied!

Burning Heart

This morning's reading brought me to the two guys walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. This is another story in Scripture I love. I would so love to hear Jesus tell stories. They were trying to make sense of what just happened in Jerusalem. Jesus walked up asking, "What are you so intently discussing?" and walked and talked with them.

Everyone was so sad. All their hopes that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel were shattered. Jesus couldn't have been the one, because they killed him.

We ourselves have just come through the season of Lent and lived again through the week of passion. I put a potted cross Dawson made years ago for me along with a barbed wire 'thorn of crowns' on our kitchen table adorned in black from Good Friday through Saturday night. In the hopeless waiting, in puzzlement over it all, we can ask questions too, like: How can we make sense of it all? What on earth has gone so badly wrong? Why should this have happened? If we want God's hope, God's love, God's thoughts instead of ours - then we have to go though a time of silence, of resting, of unknowing.

John's "Word of God" fell silent; the living water no longer flowed; the bread from heaven scattered; the light of the world got snuffed out; the good shepherd, snatched away from the flock; the grain of wheat, falling into the earth died; the Messiah came, and his own rejected him.

Then I ponder two lines from a poem, (I think by TS Eliot): "On the seventh day God rested in the tomb/ Having finished on the sixth day all his work of joy and doom."

But surprise!
Jesus started appearing to people. He had already gone through death and out into God's new world, God's new creation and he's come forward to meet us, 'back to the present'. Though it still seems dark out there, the new world has begun.

Mary Magdalene was the first to see the risen Jesus. "Very early in the morning while still dark, she came to the tomb..." She, the first witness, brought Peter and John running to the empty tomb, puzzled and worried and scared. This was something they'd never imagined! Jesus appeared to people with his body fully alive.

Jesus is wanting us to leave the old creation behind on the cross and work at making more bits of the new creation happen within the world as it still is. Didn't Jesus keep saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" here and now?!


Before I go to bed Saturday night I drape the potted cross in a white lace tablecloth and hang a garland of roses. It's our early morning visual reminder of the resurrection. Some years, since Dawson and I raised silk worm moths and him other moths, I've put cocoons on the table for the days leading up to Easter, and hang butterflies we made from feathers over the table Saturday night. It helps kids understand the resurrection process better.

We need to pray for vision and wisdom to know where God can and will make new creation happen in our lives, in our hearts, in our homes and communities.

We stand on resurrection ground. We are in the Season of Easter between now and Pentecost. We need more prayer, more parties, more knocking on God's door to see what he wants us to be doing; and more celebration of God's new creation!

The two on the road to Emmaus didn't recognize Jesus. While walking, he told them stories from Scripture. They invited him home with them to eat. The moment Jesus broke the bread, they recognized him, and then Jesus disappeared. He reappeared later to the gathered disciples and there again shared stories. Like the two said, I too would love to feel (and maybe I do), "Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked, opening up Scritpures to us on the road?"!