Between: luther

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Monday, 27 December 2021

Artlyst - And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021

My latest article for Artlyst is a diary piece covering a wide range of exhibitions and publications including work by Marc Chagall, Giacomo Manzù, Anna Ray, and Hughie O'Donoghue. It's mainly London-based but includes a trip to St Albans Museums:

'Touring galleries in the environs of Cork Street during Advent reminded me that, in the past, galleries would often have used Christmas as a reason to show works utilising religious iconography. That seems to be no longer the case, but, as I reflected further, that seems an indication that engaging with religion is no longer a niche theme for galleries but one that has been mainstreamed. As evidence, we can look at the extent to which the religious iconography of modern or contemporary artists is now explored either as a sole focus or central strand of retrospectives, as with Andy Warhol: Revelation, which is currently at Brooklyn Museum, or Paula Rego/Josefa de Óbidos: religious art in the feminine at Casa Das Historias Paula Rego earlier in the year. Also, the extent to which the religious iconography and themes of historical collections are increasingly being researched, displayed and shared in innovative ways, often specifically with faith communities. Examples range from exhibitions such as Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist with its exploration of contacts with Martin Luther to the National Gallery’s new Sacred Art in Collections Pre-1900 Network and the developing Visual Commentary on Scripture providing online exhibitions in dialogue with passages from the Bible.’

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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Fleet Foxes - Wading In Waist-Deep Water.

Monday, 11 January 2021

Cranach: Artist and Innovator

Here's a review of Cranach: Artist and Innovator, which was at Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park until 3 January 2021. The review for various reasons is backdated.

As a Reformation propagandist who was also a Renaissance man, the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop are shot through with paradox. Cranach was an artist, entrepreneur, innovator, and politician, who worked for Protestant and Catholic clients while spearheading the promotion of the Reformation through the publication and illustration of Martin Luther’s writings.

Although the engravings that accompanied Luther’s texts are uncompromising and crystal-clear in their condemnation of the perceived corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, it has been the complexities and ambiguities of Cranach’s work that have primarily engaged later audiences and many artists. This exhibition brings us Cranach’s portraiture (often for his Court patrons), engravings (primarily Reformation illustrations), and Biblical/mythological scenes (a mix of public and private work, with the private predominating here).

Cranach’s paintings are frequently referenced in contemporary art and popular culture. In particular, his distinctive nudes, with pale, serpentine bodies posed against dark backgrounds, have entranced a wide range of artists. In the final section of this exhibition a lively dialogue with Cranach emerges in works by Pablo Picasso. John Currin, Ishbel Myerscough, Michael Landy, Raqib Shaw and Claire Partington, among others, as these artists take the formal structure of a work by Cranach as a point of departure for a creation of their own.

The works on display here chart a range of responses to Cranach by other artists, and correspond with the increased availability of Cranach’s work in books and postcards from the nineteenth century onwards. As variations on a theme, these works show both rupture and continuity with Cranach’s distinctive aesthetic, as Cranach’s familiar icons are overlaid with personal stories and current perspectives. This, then, is an exhibition which can be experienced in reverse with the recent images providing contemporary commentary on Cranach and his work.

Michael Landy’s towering mechanical depiction of Saint Apollonia, made originally for his Saint’s Alive exhibition at the National Gallery, seeks to reanimate the violent narrative of how this saint was tortured by having her teeth pulled out. Landy was responding to Cranach’s rather more serene depiction in an altarpiece that is now in the National Gallery. Cranach’s depiction of Saint Apollonia comes from 1506, prior to the posting of the 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg. The violence in Cranach’s own work was to come later, particularly in the first of his collaborations with Luther, Passional Christi und Antichristi, pages from which can be viewed here and which contrasted the simple, virtuous life of Christ with the perceived privilege and pompous excesses of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz brings Cranach and Albrecht Dürer together in his Adam and Eve. Von Lenkiewicz has combined Compton Verney’s Venus and Cupid with the figure of Adam from Dürer’s Adam and Eve (1507, Prado, Madrid). Posed against a dark background, the human forms dissolve into flowers after the Dutch still-life painter Ambrosius Bosschaert, which have been clipped into new shapes. Von Lenkiewicz is known for his artistic reconfigurations of well-known imageries from art history and visual culture in order to create ambiguous compositions that question art historical discourses. Typical of his work, this image is a ‘tissue of quotations’. Dürer and Cranach were peers and, together with Hans Holbein, Matthias Grünewald and Albrecht Altdorfer, defined 15th century Northern Renaissance art. Their German Catholic devotional images foundered on the rock of the Reformation with Dürer and Cranach (in particular) laying the foundation for Reformation art.

In addition to the personal and art historical connections between the two, von Lenkiewicz is also aware that Cranach’s Venus figure doubled as Eve in, for example, the 1526 Adam and Eve (Courtauld Gallery). Including the additional element of Bosschaert flowers introduces a third, slightly later Protestant artist whose career in the Netherlands began after leaving Spain due to potential persecution, and a new Reformation art form, the still life, which has particular resonance here as nature morte. The transience of flowers and floral arrangements is aligned with the Reformation belief that our mortality results from The Fall.

Raqib Shaw’s paintings here have been inspired by Cranach’s earliest known engraving The Penance of St John Chrysostom and his painting of Lot and his Daughters. Both, at first sight, seem unlikely material for a Reformation painter. The legend of Chrysostom’s penance was later mocked by Luther as a Roman Catholic lie linked to the selling of indulgences (Cranach’s image precedes his collaborations with Luther), while the story of Lot and his daughters is one of incest.

Shaw gives us characters that are re-evaluating their lives in the light of the traumatic events they have either endured or facilitated. His Lot, like William Blake’s Newton, is using a compass to try to make sense of destructive events – environmental and military - that he cannot explain, although they occur in the shadow of the Tower of Babel. For Lot, all his reference points for understanding have been removed leaving him, in the words of Shaw’s title, without a compass, whilst holding one in his hands. Shaw’s Chrysostom, by contrast, is at a point of understanding having written ‘we cannot see the baggage on our own back’; an acknowledgement of all he had sought to evade about himself up to that point.

For Cranach, however, these stories have a clear and linked Reformation understanding which concerns the repression of sexuality necessitated by the Roman Catholic demand for celibacy in those who are priests or religious. For Cranach and Luther, our sexuality finds its proper and full expression within marriage but, when prevented, by circumstances in the case of Lot and by unnecessary restrictions in the case of Chrysostom, the result is disaster.

This understanding of the Reformation view of sex is vital in understanding why it was acceptable for Cranach, as a Reformation propagandist, to paint alluring nudes, whether as Eve or Venus. Pablo Picasso and John Currin in their re-interpretations of Cranach, amplify the eroticism that their male perspective sees as central, according to their differing styles of work. Ishbel Myerscough and Claire Partington, however, critique the male gaze perspective that underlies Cranach’s moral view.

Cranach’s nudes are images of temptation. The version of Cupid Complaining to Venus included here from 1526-7 has Venus posed as Cranach also posed Eve in the Courtauld version of Adam and Eve. The connection between the two images is further emphasised in that Venus is depicted as holding on to an apple tree. Eating the apple in the story of The Fall is the temptation to step outside of what God has ordained. Venus is not tempting the viewer with an apple but with her body in a way that is outside of the order that God has ordained. The envisaged viewer is, of course, male.

It is this viewpoint that Myerscough and Partington rightly critique. Myerscough, by painting naked women as people, with value and beauty in and of themselves, not idealised morality lessons (Cranach) or objects of lust (Picasso and Currin). Partington, by sculpting women of strength, who reject all the trappings of male fantasy, including and especially the patriarchal identification of Eve as temptress.

Cranach paints through a revolution and his works reflect the confidence of rebels on their way to becoming rulers. We can no longer view his works, or the Reformation that he helped to build, from that perspective. The exhibition ends with Partington redressing the balance of power. Referencing biblical stories in which the underdog wins, including Judith beheading Holofernes and David defeating Goliath, Judith is shown posing triumphantly, with her foot on Cranach’s head.

Cranach: Artist and Innovator is actually artistic and curatorial reinterpretation of Cranach and his legacy. Partington’s reaction to Cranach’s images of Lucretia, a mix of confusion and incredulity which provoked her first Cranach reinterpretation, seems similar to the feedback curator Amy Orrock reported from the early days of the exhibition; of people drawn in by the contemporary reinterpretations and only understanding the Cranach’s in their light.

This contemporary inability to access or understand the Reformation mindset is graphically depicted in Andrew McIntosh’s What No-one Else Had, which sets Cranach’s Cupid Complaining to Venus in an eerily empty building alongside an isolated block of flats and a tree in South East London. The incongruity of both is indicative of the way in which much of what was revolutionary in Reformation thinking now appears oppressive. For those of us who are within the legacy that Cranach and Luther established, it may be that we need to learn the lesson of the legend that Luther mocked and Cranach engraved. St John Chrysostom was restored to his right mind when he received forgiveness from the ones he had abused.

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Good Charlotte - Prayers.

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Bread for the World: Christian Education

Tonight, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, we hosted a Churches Together in Westminster Reformation 500 event, with St Anne’s Lutheran Church London and Revd Eliza Zikmane, focusing on Martin Luther’s legacy to Christian Education through the Small Catechism.

In our Bread for the World service we sang two of Martin Luther's hymns (A mighty fortress is our God and Now thank we all our God) and a setting of Our Father (Lord's Prayer), while St Martin's Voices sang: Jesu, meine Freude (Chorale); Aber die Herzen forschet (from Motet ‘Der Geist hilft’) - J.S. Bach; and Jesu joy of man’s desiring - Bach. The service ended with Organ Chorale Prelude ‘Wir glauben all ‘ an einen Gott (from ‘Clavierubung’).

Our readings were extracts from Luther's Small Catechism:

Table of Duties

Certain passages of Scripture for various holy orders and positions, admonishing them about their duties and responsibilities

To Bishops, Pastors, and Preachers

…..

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9

……..

To Parents

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Eph. 6:4

3) The Creed

The Second Article: Redemption

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Plate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord. Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.

Eliza Zikmane spoke about Luther's use of cutting-edge technology and the wide range of mediums he used through which to teach. In our discussions after the service we explored the following questions:

1) What was the basic Christian education you had and by whom? Did it have a lasting impact, and in what way?

2) I wonder what kind of sections would we choose and why, if we were to write a Small Catechism (a short outline of our/our church's faith). What kind of questions and answers would we write? Would they still be relevant in several hundreds of years’ time?

3) Luther used cutting-edge technology and a wide range of mediums to teach. How are we embracing the cutting edge technology of our time and with what results? What are the challenges for Christian/religious education in London in 21st century?

We began and ended our discussions with the following prayers from Small Catechism:

Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent that my love may go out to my neighbour. I do not have a strong and firm faith; at times I doubt and am unable to trust you altogether. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in you. In you I have sealed the treasure of all I have. I am poor; you are rich and came to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; you are upright. With me, there is an abundance of sin; in you is the fullness of righteousness. Therefore, I will remain with you, of whom I can receive but to whom I may not give. Amen.

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

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J.S. Bach - Aber die Herzen forschet.

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Why should the Devil have all the best technology?

St Martin-in-the-Fields will host a Churches Together in Westminster Reformation 500 event on Christian Education as part of our Bread for the World Service on Wednesday 13 September, 6.30pm. The Service will be organised with St Anne’s Lutheran Church London and Revd Eliza Zikmane. It will focus on Martin Luther’s legacy to Christian Education through the Small Catechism by asking the question, Why should the Devil have all the best technology?

Bread for the World is a great way to find focus during a busy week. With music led by the Choral Scholars of St Martin’s, we share the Eucharist in church followed by a simple soup supper in 6 St Martin’s Place with the opportunity to reflect on and explore the bible together in small groups.

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Martin Luther - O Lord, Look Down from Heaven, Behold.

Saturday, 1 July 2017

The 95: Notes on Life & Love, Faith & Doubt

The 95: Notes on Life & Love, Faith & Doubt is a book by Martin Wroe and Malcolm Doney which is to published early next year by Unbound.

Wroe and Doney are 'calling it The 95 because 500 years ago, an obscure German monk called Martin Luther came up with his own 95 notes, which he nailed to a church door in Wittenberg. It caused pandemonium at the time but they’re looking pretty tired now. So, they figured it might be time for another 95.

They have devised these by taking the best ideas of poets and songwriters, activists and artists, from people with faith, and people without while adding some of their own. Clues and pointers, rather than terms and conditions.

Church Times currently features a sample selection of the 95 clues and pointers they’ve come up with about how we might try to live well in this beautiful but baffling world. Wroe and Doney state that:

'Our experience tells us that most people are shy of certainty, suspicious of authority. But they retain a longing for some deeper, richer narrative by which they might navigate their days. They’re inveterately curious, and open to ideas. They haven’t closed the door on life’s strange mystery. How the big moments — the birth of a child, say, or the death of a friend — can leave us wondering about how to live in the small moments: how to forgive someone. If love is worth it. Why people pray.

So we figured it might be time for another 95, for these people. Our book couldn’t be called a “theses”, though — we haven’t nailed anything down, and an indulgence these days is more likely to be eating a cream cake in the middle of Lent. It’s rather a set of field notes for living a good life which leans on the wisdom of others: artists and activists, poets and songwriters, thinkers and dreamers. Some of them are ancient, some still have acne. Some of them have faith, and others don’t.'

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Mark Heard - Is It Any Wonder?

Monday, 1 May 2017

Reformation 500

The following piece is included in the latest newsletter for Churches Together in Westminster:

2017 is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the door of the castle chapel in the German town of Wittenberg – an event that has become known as the starting point of the Reformation. Across the continent, numerous events are planned, from art to worship, to remember that episode in Christian history, and to reflect on its influence on our society as an extensive movement of reform. The anniversary is an opportunity to explore how a better understanding of what took place 500 years ago in Wittenberg can draw people and churches closer together.

Churches Together in England have been urged to keep this anniversary together in the spirit of five 'R's:

Rejoicing – because of the joy in the gospel which we share, and because what we have in common is greater than that which divides; and that God is patient with our divisions, that we are coming back together and can learn from each other.
Remembering – because all three streams of the Reformation have their witnesses and one church’s celebration could be another’s painful memory; and yet all believed they acted in the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ for their time.
Reforming – because the Church needs always to grow closer to Christ, and therefore closer to all who proclaim him Lord, and it is by the mutual witness of faith that we will approach the unity for which Christ prayed for his followers.
Repenting – because the splintering of our unity led us to formulate stereotypes and prejudices about each other’s traditions which have too often diverted our attention from our calling as witnesses together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world.
Reconciling – because the call to oneness in Christ begins from the perspective of unity not division, strengthening what is held in common, even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced. In national and local events, whether together or separately, churches are seeking to honour each other and give thanks for our growing friendship and fellowship in the Gospel.

One such initiative is ‘Still Reforming’, in which twelve parishes across London are welcoming each other, fellow Londoners, and visitors on their doorsteps, inviting them to experience for themselves the diverse heritage of the Reformation. Each month, a different congregation is hosting an event beginning at its open door, in the hope that all those involved will learn something new, exchange ideas and perspectives, and attempt to understand together what the relevance of the Reformation is for us today. Several CTiW churches are involved.

The Anglican-Lutheran Society in Partnership with Women and the Church (WATCH) London and St Anne’s Lutheran Church is organising three evenings of interactive presentations and social time to be held at St Mary-at-Hill, Lovat Lane, Eastcheap, London, EC3R 8EE, home to the Lutheran Congregation of St Anne’s, on Women of the Reformation: Overlooked Stories. On Thursday 18 May, 6.30-8.30pm, Anne Boileau, author of Katharina Luther: Nun. Rebel. Wife, will present Katharina von Bora, Dr. Martin Luther's Wife. Then, on Thursday 22 June, 6.30-8.30pm, Rev'd Dr Roy Long, a retired Pastor in the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, will speak about Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's Last Wife. Finally, on Thursday 29 June, 6.30-8.30pm, Rev’d Eliza Zikmane (Lutheran Pastor), Rev’d Dr Julia Candie (Anglican Vicar) and Sally Barnes (Anglican Lay Woman) will provide stories of Women Reformers Then and Now.

Conferences which may be of interest include Reformation 500: Ecumenical Perspectives, the annual conference of the Society for Ecumenical Studies, on 17 June in Oxford and Responding to the Reformation, the Churches Together in England conference, from 16-18 October in Swanwick.

See www.reformation500.uk for a fuller listing of Reformation 500 events.

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Martin Luther - Come, Christians One and All, Rejoice.

Monday, 24 April 2017

Discover & explore: Grace not works

Discover & explore services at St Stephen Walbrook feature music and liturgy with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields. These services explore their themes through a thoughtful mix of music, prayers, readings and reflections:

“A perfect service of peace in our busy lives.”
“Spiritual food in the middle of the day.”
“Beautifully and intelligently done.”

The current series of these services of musical discovery is exploring Reformation 500 themes beginning with the theme of 'Grace not works'.. The service featured the Choral Scholars singing: 'This joyful Eastertide' arranged by Charles Wood, 'Ave Maria' by Robert Parsons, 'Amazing Grace' arranged by Will Todd, and 'Magnificat' from The Short Service by Thomas Tallis.

All Discover & explore services begin at 1.10pm:

Mon 1st May - Bank Holiday – Church closed
Mon 8 May - God's written Word
Mon 15 May - Through Christ alone
Mon 22 May - God loves you
Mon 29 May Bank Holiday – Church closed
Mon 5 June - Baptism saves
Mon 12 Jun - The Lord's Supper
Mon 19 Jun - The Cross alone
Mon 26 Jun - Forgiveness is free
Mon 3 Jul - Life of repentance

In today's service I shared the following reflection:

The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century changed Christianity forever. Roused to action by the corruption and abuses they saw in the Roman Catholic Church of the time, leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin spearheaded a movement that transformed Christianity and eventually led to the emergence of the Protestant denominations that exist today. The Reformers were guided by the conviction that the church of their day had drifted away from the essential, original teachings of Christianity, especially in regard to what it was teaching about salvation—how people can be forgiven of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and receive eternal life with God.

Luther's study and research led him to question the contemporary usage of terms such as penance and righteousness in the Roman Catholic Church. He became convinced that the church had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity — the most important being the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He began to teach that salvation is a gift of God's grace through Christ received by faith alone. As a result of his lectures on the Psalms and Paul's letter to the Romans, from 1513–1516, Luther "achieved an exegetical breakthrough, an insight into the all-encompassing grace of God and all-sufficient merit of Christ."[ Lewis W. Spitz, The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, Revised Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987), 332]

So, the Reformation sought to re-orient Christianity on what they thought to be the original message of Jesus and the early church. The Reformers’ theological convictions about the essentials of Christianity were later summarised in five Latin phrases (or slogans) that emerged during the Reformation known as The Five Solas. These are:

Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.
Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.
Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.

Sola Fide and Sola Gratia stand alongside one another and are our primary concern today. They summarise the belief that we are saved solely through faith in Jesus Christ because of God’s grace and Christ’s merit alone. We are not saved by our merits or declared righteous by our good works. God grants salvation not because of the good things we do, and despite our sin.

The Reformers believed that, as humans, we inherited (from our ancestor Adam) a nature that is enslaved to sin. Because of our nature, we are naturally enemies of God and lovers of evil. We need to be made alive (regenerated) so that we can even have faith in Christ. God graciously chooses to give us new hearts so that we trust in Christ and are saved through faith alone. God graciously preserves us and keeps us. When we are faithless toward him, he is still faithful. We can only stand before God by his grace as he mercifully attributes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ and attributes to him the consequences of our sins. Jesus’ life of perfect righteousness is counted as ours, and our records of sin and failure were counted to Jesus when he died on the cross.

Sola fide and sola gratia express the teaching of Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Luther insisted that "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness." This, however, led to further debate about the extent to which our works are a factor in salvation; a debate which also occurred in the early Church. There is an apparent conflict between the letters of Paul and the letter of James on this point which has caused confusion on the part of many Christians as James states that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone (2:24). Luther once called the book of James "an epistle of straw" because of this difficult passage, although he later retracted the remark.

It is arguable, however, that James was not contradicting Paul but instead teaching something compatible with Paul's teaching while also correcting a misuse of Paul's teaching. What James was trying to get across to his churches was that loveless faith is absolutely useless; and anybody that comes along and says "We are justified by faith alone, and so you don't have to be a loving person to go to heaven" is not telling the truth. That is the understanding which informs the reading we heard earlier from the Lutheran Church’s Missouri Synod: ‘Your good works are done in response to salvation. Justification by grace through faith does not mean good works are bad, but puts them in their proper role. We live according to God’s will out of thankfulness to His love.’

Intercessions:

Help us, O God, because, like all your children, we need your daily grace. Yesterday’s blessings can encourage but will not take care of the burdens of today. May we know you as the Shepherd of our lives and eternal souls. May our fears be dissolved by faith in you and through the power of your love. Help us to love and manifest the spirit of love under all circumstances to all people. May our lives be a glory to you, a help to our fellow human beings and rewarding to ourselves. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O God, you know our weakness and failings, and that without Your help we can accomplish nothing for the good of souls, our own and others’. Grant us, therefore, the help of Your grace. Grant it according to our particular needs this day. Enable us to see the tasks You will set before us in the daily routine of our lives, and help us work hard at our appointed tasks. Teach us to bear patiently all the trials of suffering or failure that may come to us today. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O Lord God almighty, who has brought to us to the beginning of this day, defend us in the same by Your power; that we may not this day fall into any sin, but that all our thoughts, words, and works may be directed to the fulfillment of Your will. Merciful Lord, you are never weary of speaking to our poor hearts. Grant us grace that, if today we hear your voice, our hearts may not be hardened. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The Blessing

God grant to the living, grace; to the departed, rest; to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth, and all humankind, peace and concord; and to us and all his servants, life everlasting; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Will Todd - Amazing Grace.

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Start:Stop - Show us how our humanity can be made ‘salty’

Bible readings

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. Matthew 5. 13

Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. Mark 9. 49 & 50.

Meditation

What does it mean to be a Christian at work or in society? For many of us this may be the question with which we struggle most within our faith. One of the key metaphors Jesus uses to help us think through this question is that of salt. Salt flavours, preserves and (in ancient cultures) purifies food. Jesus’ teaching about salt suggests that Christians should have a similar role in their society and communities. Gerard Kelly has unpacked this as meaning that “every gift you have been given … your intelligence and artistry; your creativity and character; your strength and stamina – these have been given to you so that you can work with God to unlock the full potential of his [world].” (G. Kelly, Humanifesto, Spring Harvest, 2001)

H. Richard Niebuhr proposed five different relationships that the Christian can have with our culture. These are Opposition; Agreement; Christ above culture; Tension; and Reformation. In reflecting on these options and thinking which comes closest to Jesus’ call for our lives to do the job of salt in our society, Steven H. VanderLeest, Jeffrey Nyhoff, and Nancy Zylstra apply these categories to something which is a standard part of our workplaces, the computer (Being Fluent and Faithful in a Digital World).

The first two options Niebuhr gives us are the extremes. Opposition means that the Christian opposes all cultural artefacts as "worldly." For information technology, this would mean that the Christian would see the computer as just one more instance of depravity, one more example of how sin infects everything we do. Agreement takes the other extreme, where Christians find their religion to be fundamentally compatible with the culture around them. Here, the computer is simply an extension of God's good creation, put here for us to develop and use as we wish.

The last three choices are somewhere between the extremes. The "Christ above culture" option was advocated by Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas would look at the computer and see it as a fine product of culture, but, as such, it could never approach the sublime beauty of Christ. The tension option, advocated by Martin Luther, places the Christian in a tension between Christ and culture. We are in the world but not of it and must be careful not to estrange ourselves from the world, but at the same time not to embrace it either. In short, we are citizens of two worlds that are often at odds with each other. Applied to information technology, the computer may be used, but with care not to indulge too deeply.

The final option is for a transformational, or re-formational approach. The Christian must recognize three truths: first, that culture is a manifestation of God's good creation, an outgrowth of human creativity and community; second, that sin deeply infects every part of the creation, including human culture; and third, that we can redeem culture in the name of Christ. This redemption is a transformation of culture by seeking, enhancing, and celebrating the original good we find in cultural artefacts while identifying the effects of sin (and working to reduce those effects). The computer is, therefore, an extension of God's good creation and thus has wondrous potential. However, it also exhibits the deep effects of sin. Christians are thus called to transform information technology in the name of Christ.

It is this transformational, or re-formational approach which seems to reflect most fully Christ’s teaching about salt. So let us reflect for a moment on the power of salt to preserve from rot, and to bring out the many flavours of food. As we do so, let us ask God to show us how our humanity can be made ‘salty,’ both in its role on the earth and in our workplaces (Humanifesto).

Prayer

Transforming God, may we bring out the many flavours of our culture and workplaces by seeking, enhancing, and celebrating the original good there, while preserving from rot by identifying the effects of sin and working to reduce those effects. Enable us to use every gift we have been given; our intelligence and artistry, our creativity and character, our strength and stamina, to work with God to unlock the full potential of this world.

Show us how our humanity can be made ‘salty’ in our role on the earth and in our workplaces.

Gifting God, let us all take time to look deep within ourselves and discover the gifts you have blessed us with. May we take the time to direct our lives in a way that best uses our own unique combination of gifts. May our education help us discover where our strengths and interests lie. May our faith guide us in realizing our gifts. May we always be open to the direction of the Spirit and never forget the love you have for each of us. May we use our gifts for the benefit of others and for the common good.

Show us how our humanity can be made ‘salty’ in our role on the earth and in our workplaces.

Grant us a vision of your world as your love would have it: a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor; a world where the riches of creation are shared, and everyone can enjoy them; a world where different races and cultures live in harmony and mutual respect; a world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love. Give us, through Jesus Christ, the inspiration and courage to build it.

Show us how our humanity can be made ‘salty’ in our role on the earth and in our workplaces.

Blessing

Being granted a vision of our world as God’s love would have it, unlocking the full potential of this world, using every gift we have been given, using our gifts for the common good. May all those blessings of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Mark Heard - Treasure Of The Broken Land.