ArtWay: "Hands Touching Hands" – Jonathan Evens reflects on ‘Touching the Void’ by Alexander de Cadenet

"Hands Touching Hands" is my latest article for ArtWay which reflects on ‘Touching the Void’ by Alexander de Cadenet.

I have been collaborating recently with de Cadenet, a visual artist who has been exhibiting his artworks internationally for the past twenty years. His work reveals an exploration into philosophical and spiritual questions such as the meaning of life and death, the nature of human achievement and the sacredness of art itself. He has said that “Art is way of exploring what gives life a deeper meaning and evolves in relation to my own life journey.”

'Touching the Void', the installation on which we have been collaborating, is an installation de Cadenet has created in response to the death of his father. Its central image is of father and son reaching towards each other created using actual X-rays of each other's hands. The work explores the extent to which contact one with the other continues following death.

For more on Alexander de Cadenet see my Artlyst interview, a conference report, a visual meditation for ArtWay, and three exhibition previews here, here and here.

My other writing for ArtWay can be found at https://www.artway.eu/authors/jonathan-evens. This includes church reports, interviews, reviews and visual meditations.

ArtWay.eu has been hailed "a jewel in the crown of work in Christianity and the arts," and having come under the custodianship of the Kirby Laing Centre, the much-loved publication has entered an exciting new chapter in its story following the launch of a new website in September 2024.

Since its founding, ArtWay has published a rich library of materials and resources for scholars, artists, art enthusiasts and congregations concerned about linking art and faith. Founded by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker in 2009, ArtWay's significance is reflected in its designation as UNESCO digital heritage material in the Netherlands.

In 2018, I interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker for Artlyst on the legacy of ArtWay itself.

In the video above, the ArtWay team recounts the history of this much-loved resource and looks ahead to an exciting future for ArtWay.

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Bob Dylan - Man In The Long Black Cloak.

Where is Jesus now?

Here's the sermon I shared at St Catherine’s Wickford for Ascension Day:

Where is Jesus now?
Not here!
Jesus has left the building,
left the earth.
The last we saw of him
was the soles of his feet
as he ascended to heaven.

Where is Jesus now?
No longer God with us,
now God in heaven.
Distant,
removed,
out of our league.

What is he like?
We do not know –
we cannot see him!
What does he say?
We do not know –
we cannot hear him.
What is he to us?
We do not know –
he is not with us.

Where is Jesus now?
Here in body.
Here in what body?
The body of his people.
In the diverse,
differing,
fallible,
forgiven folk
who follow him
forming
his body on earth,
becoming his hands and feet,
his eyes, ears, mouth
on earth.

Where is Jesus now?
Here in Spirit.
Here in what Spirit?
The Spirit of love,
joy, peace
and hope.
The Spirit that
animates his body
into acts of service
and words of love.

Who are we
to be where
Jesus is now?
Only the struggling,
the failing,
the falling.
Only those calling out
for the Spirit’s
empowering.

Where are we
who are where
Jesus is now?
Only a fragment –
the minutest part -
of the glorious whole
that is his body
on earth.

How do we feel
to be where
Jesus is now?
Affirmed and humbled,
gifted and graced,
on top of the world
and
put in our place.

What does it mean
to be where
Jesus is now?
Like children
becoming adult
to grow up into him,
together
becoming him.
Each playing
our part
in the whole
that is Jesus,
Emmanuel,
God with us.

Jesus has returned to God in order to give us his Spirit and the Spirit’s gifts. He does this because he loves us. To him each of us, despite our failings, is a special child of his with unique abilities given to us by God and a unique part that only we can play in the body of Christ, the Church. As we each play our part working together with each other we show each other and the world what Jesus is like and come to know him better as a result.

For this to happen, we need to know Jesus and receive his Spirit, know ourselves and our giftings, and know each other and the part that each one of us plays in the body of Christ, the Church. Which of these needs to happen in your life at this moment in time?

If you are wanting to know Jesus for yourself and to receive his Spirit, then simply ask him now. Here and now, in the silence of your own heart and mind, tell him that that is what you want.

Maybe you are thinking that you are good for nothing, without gifts and abilities. Jesus knows you better than that. He created with a unique combination of gifts that only you can use in his service. Ask him now to share that knowledge with you and then begin to act on it.

Maybe your need is to know those around you better - to understand their gifts and to know the part that they play in the body of Christ so that you can be more effective in supporting and working with them. Why not speak to someone you don’t normally talk to after this service and find out all you can about them?

As we finish, can you hold your hands out, palms upwards and look at your hands and the hands of your neighbour. The hands you are looking at now are Jesus’ hands because he works through his people. As you look, think for a moment of all the ways in which these hands can work and care for others in this Church and outside the Church building in our community and pray silently for that to happen … 

Jesus says:

“I am going to send you what my Father has promised.”

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”

“You have been clothed with power from on high.”

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Christ Triumphant, Ever Reigning.

The inexhaustible, unlimited motherly and fatherly love of God

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

Henri Nouwen was a bestselling author and pastor of a L’Arche community in Toronto, a community of people with learning difficulties. One of his best loved books is The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming. The book reflects on the parable of the Prodigal Son by way of a painting; Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son.

In the book Nouwen describes his thoughts as he first saw that image as a large poster pinned to a colleague’s door: “I saw a man in a great red cloak tenderly touching the shoulders of a dishevelled boy kneeling before him. I could not take my eyes away. I felt drawn by the intimacy between the two figures, the warm red of the man’s cloak, the golden yellow of the boy’s tunic, and the mysterious light engulfing them both. But, most of all, it was the hands – the old man’s hands as they touched the boy’s shoulders that reached me in a place where I had never been reached before.”

Through reflection on the painting and through L’Arche, Nouwen became familiar with the home of God within him. That place where, “I am held safe in the embrace of an all-loving Father who calls me by name and says, ‘You are my beloved son, on you my favour rests.’ Looking back he sees that his intense response to the father’s embrace of his son told that he was desperately searching for that inner place where he too could be held as safely as the young man in the painting. It maybe that we are each one searching for that place and embrace.

For Nouwen it all began with the father’s hands: “The two are quite different. The father’s left hand touching the son’s shoulder is strong and muscular … That hand seems not only to touch, but, with its strength, also to hold. Even though there is a gentleness in the way the father’s left hand touches his, it is not without a firm grip. How different is the father’s right hand! This hand does not hold or grasp. It is refined, soft, and very tender … It lies gently upon the son’s shoulder. It wants to caress, to stroke, and to offer consolation and comfort. It is a mother’s hand …As soon as I recognised the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened up for me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches … with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He is, indeed God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present.

Then there is the great red cloak. With its warm colour and its arch-like shape, it offers a welcome place where it is good to be. At first, the cloak … looked to be like a tent inviting the tired traveller to find some rest. But as I went on gazing at the red cloak, another image came to me: the sheltering wings of the mother bird. They reminded me of Jesus’ words about God’s maternal love: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Day and night God holds me safe, as a hen holds her chicks secure under her wings. Even more than … a tent, the image of a vigilant mother bird’s wings expresses the safety that God offers her children. They express care, protection, a place to rest and feel safe …

For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life … and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when … close to despair. Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realised that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The … question is not “How am I to love God? But “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home … God is the father who watches and waits for his children, runs out to meet them, embraces them, pleads with them, begs and urges them to come home. It might sound strange, but God wants to find me as much as, if not more than, I want to find God …

Many people live their lives never fully sure that they are loved as they are. Many have horrendous stories that offer plausible reasons for their low self-esteem. The parable of the prodigal son is a story that speaks about a love that existed before any rejection was possible and that will still be there after all rejections have taken place. It is the first and everlasting love of a God who is Father as well as Mother. It is the foundation of all true human love, even the most limited. Jesus’ whole life and preaching had only one aim: to reveal this inexhaustible, unlimited motherly and fatherly love of his God and to show the way to let that love guide every part of our daily lives. In his painting of the father, Rembrandt offers us a glimpse of that love. It is the love that always welcomes home and always wants to celebrate.”

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Keith Green - The Prodigal Son Suite.