The Anti Christ of Painting

Many of us are preparing for our J-Term which means I am doing some extensive prep work on Rome. This past semester left me up to my eyeballs in the ashes of 64 AD. But now, I jump ahead to the 1500s and take a peak at Caravaggio, a painter from northern Italy.

Caravaggio disdained the classical painters, so much so that one called him the "Anti-Christ of Painting". He drew criticism from some who suggested that his work would bring down the entire school of the Classical tradition, and compliments from others who admired his work and borrowed from it, using light and darkness in their work. This despite his anti-social life filled with everything from assaults to murder, produced a man who painted astonishing works full of depth, richness, and even, at times, torment. Perhaps it was this life of darkness that prevented him from embracing the light of the Renaissance - beauty, form, and faith.

One of his best known works was the Conversion of St. Paul, painted for the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. To me, the work depicts the events in an earthly sense, singing in my heart the hand of God as Paul looks up from the ground beneath the horse. Many probably found this to be in terrible taste in the time and the painting certainly does not host the brightness nor colours of the period. But then again, none of Caravaggio's paintings really do. They are dark with sporadic bits of colour which draw your eye away from the dark places. In The Calling of St. Matthew for instance, your eyes are drawn away from the subtle Christ to the red sleeves of the tax collector, in a tavern. A tavern. Yes, a tavern.

Caravaggio's work, dark as it is, oozes feeling. Study one painting for a moment and you'll experience a depth of emotion - a sense of being seen, of being of this world - all the while being called apart from it. His reflection of faith, intentional or not, leaves one to drool, and not one bit like the Dormition of the Virgin.

Wandering

So there were these a people who wandered. They wandered a lot. In the desert. It was hot. Really hot. And dusty. They carried around this big box marked by winged creatures. It had a few stuffs inside. These people wandered around the hot, dusty, desert carrying a few stuffs in a box. (Who are these crazy people?)

These are our ancestors of faith.

You may be wondering a lot of things, among them why the heck we Christians consider a bunch of wandering people who carry a box through the desert our ancestors or maybe why they bother to put braille menus on some drive through windows, but more specifically, what was in the box.

Everyone always wants to know what's in the box. Ask Pandora.

The box was special. In fact, it was so special that the people who carried this thing around raised tents to host the thing. So as they went, they carried the box and when they rested, they built a tent that held the box. (You're kidding me, right?)

No, really! These are our ancestors!

When they raised these tents, they built out special places in them to hold this box. And, since it was special, special people were chosen to wear special clothes and do special things to the special box in the special room. The special clothing included an apron adorned with ornamental pomegranates and golden bells along the hem and semiprecious stones at the shoulders with a bunch of names engraved on them. They also got to wear cool hats. Oh! And they got to bathe frequently because they had to be clean. (Bathe, really?)

Yes, really.

And they did it all because God told them to.

(I'm not gonna ask.)

Seriously.

These are the people who God chose as his own. These are the fore fathers of David, and as such Christ. These are the dudes and babes who will inherit the land. And they did it simply because God told them to.

Yet sin crept behind. It doesn't take much to mess it up (just ask Eve). After all the lallygagging in the desert (okay, so it wasn't really lallygagging), the ancients settled and built a temple in the same style as the tent. They placed the arc of the covenant in the temple in a sacred space. And thy purified and anointed the priests who wore pomegranates to protect and serve Yahweh. Then, Moses departs for forty days. Like a child whose babysitter falls asleep and then gets into trouble, so did the ancients. And what do they do? They make golden calves fully breaking the commandment. This ticks Moses off and, coincidentally, begins the path of the sin of Jeroboam. Nice kick off for the DtrH. Idol worship!

Family Ties, Ancient Style

First off, I think I need this tee to wear to my OT class every Tuesday. (It's available at Think Geek.)

Now, some thoughts on the ancestors of Israel...

1. For years I have expressed the following motto to various Christians as a means to keep in check their spiritual commitment to their vow: Are you willing to give up Isaac? It's a beautiful example of the sacrifices we all have to make when being loyal to God. No doubt Abraham had regrets. I'm not sure it's possible to be human and not. Michael Coogan makes the point that "Abraham and Isaac never speak to each other again, and immediately after it Sarah, who has been absent from the narrative, dies." Abraham, in his immediate state, has been left by his wife, seemingly abandoned by his son, and is left alone because of his faithfulness. From a 21st century perspective, heck yeah I want some of that kind of treatment from my God! Yet, that's exactly what may be required of us: loosing those close to us in service to Him.

2. Circumcision. It seems like the Israelites were circumcised, in part, to distinguish themselves from the Babylonians while in Exile. Course, circumcision was also a right of passage not to mention a preparation for marriage in some cultures. But my 20th century mind cannot help but to get hooked on the idea that our ancients really dug the fact that they were circumcised and their Babylonian captors were not. This leaves me to imagine a number of smirks and chuckles not to mention innuendos that were likely to be available. What? Oh come on! You cannot tell me that our forefathers had no sense of humour!

3. One of the annoying things about a reading assignment when you are in 8th grade is when you get stuck with a book of the Bible that seems to contain nothing but genealogies. So and so begot so and so. Ya-a-a-wn. Any good 8th grader knows to read the first two lines of the list and the last two lines to realize that somehow, David and Jesus were actually connected. What they don't tell the average 12 year old is that these ancestral narratives are endogamy. (Yeah, I didn't get the term either.) Think of it as intermarriage for the purpose of preserving one's community, or more specifically, their identity and property. This is why later on, the people are going to look at Moses and wonder what the heck he was thinking marrying a Midian (never mind the fact that Abraham hooked up with an Egyptian and Esau got cozy with the Canaanites). In fact, it's something that kind of haunts his story among Jews even today as some Jews find it important that they marry other Jews simply to maintain the bloodline. "But Moooooom! Moses did it!" probably isn't a sound case for the average 20 something Jewish female.

4. Lastly, one of the most emotional things for me to come to understand about the Hebrew Bible is that God made some promises to the old folks, and he kept them, however, the old folks all had to die for the promises to be fulfilled. Granted, they brought it on themselves. Honestly, how often must God say, "Do it THIS way. No other way. Not that way. THIS way. Over here. Look. Right THERE. Yes, THIS way!" before we people get it? God promised land, descendants and blessings.

Abraham got land, but it was to bury his wife. Granted it was the right land. And God did eventually provide a lot more land to his descendants, but to Abraham, that's serious faith to stick with a God with not a whole lot of demonstration of fulfillment of his promise. Especially after the whole Isaac episode.

As for descendants, yes, there are some. Plenty actually. But a lot of the women were barren and had to hook up with God so that their wombs would kick in to service.

Lastly, the promise of blessing. Abraham was under the impression that other people out there would long for the kind of blessings he had. You can almost imagine Abraham, at some point in his life saying, "Riiiigggghhhhht." He experiences turmoil for Lot, watches cities rise and fall, has his wife taken into a harem, has turmoil in his house between his wife and household staff, is expected to obey God in sacrificing his own son, his wife dies, his son seemingly doesn't speak to him again, then takes a new wife and apparently concubines, only to die. And those are just the highlights. People did hope for blessings like his and continue to do so to this day. They hope for success for their children. They hope for God's favour. They hope for a better life. And it's God who provides that for them.

Before I go, I say forget the blogging tee. I want this one instead. And yes, it really does glow.

Kicking the Tree of Life

The sexualization of our young people is a constant worry for the elders of our society. The Hip Hop generation, Britney Spears, even good girl Miley Cyrus all draw comments - some good and some bad - about their sexuality. Our society is preoccupied with sex. And no one really knows how much is too much let alone where the line should be drawn for "appropriate" behavior. This is not only an issue in the US, but in various countries (for instance, compare and contrast nudity in Brazil and China).

While I always knew that there elements of sex in Genesis, I am still surprised to see the struggle of the Hebrews to make sense of sexuality. The nature of the creation story seems inspired to reflect themes common to the people of the times. It's not too a far leap to understand why the ancients may have included language reflective of sexual themes. Honestly, there wasn't much to do back in the day for recreation. They didn't have the internet. And what's life without the internet?

It was probably only a matter of time before they started to wonder who (or what) thought up the idea of intercourse. Humanity seems to always want to know "why" as evidenced in the story of Eve and the serpent, for by eating the fruit one will "become like God, knowing good and evil". Which brings us to the word "know". "Knowing" always gets us into trouble. To know the difference between good and evil put Adam and Eve into a pretty bad spot. To know one another suggests a level of sexual intimacy that could be problematic in terms of survival if not committed between one another. Needing to "know" can lead us down unhealthy paths that lead to other sinful behaviors both of commission and omission.

So, does having sex make you knowledgeable? And do we, when having sex (outside the confines of marriage), insult God by seeking knowledge we are not yet meant to have? Do we commit sacrilege by seeking to be God-like in arrogant ways? When we act sinfully do we kick the tree of life and stick out our tongues at God?

A Little Heresy, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Dead Men Who Tell Tales

Being Bible geeks we all love a good read. You know, when we have the time to plug in a little extra between our 480-900 pages a night we have to do for classes. The editors, writers, copy boys and coffee girls of Biblical Archeology offer a list of free download-able books covering a range of topics from the burial of Jesus to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grab a cup of wine and settle in for some archaic reading.

Here's a little tid bit that may prove to be a very juicy bit of heresy. The National Geographic Channel opens Exploration Week with a new tablet that may offer evidence of a "preexisting messiah" - Simon. From the website:

He called himself the King of the Jews, likely considered to be a Messiah. Just around Passover, the Romans killed him and crucified many of his followers outside Jerusalem. But his name was not Jesus... it was Simon, a self-proclaimed Messiah who died four years before Christ was born. Now, new analysis of a three-foot-tall stone tablet from the first century B.C., may speak of an early Messiah and his resurrection. We'll go to Israel to assess this unique and mysterious artifact, including comprehensive review of the script and content by a Dead Sea Scroll expert. Then, from Jerusalem to Jericho, we'll investigate key archeological ruins that could help prove Simon was indeed real.

Meanwhile the Spaniards have dug up a city along the Euphrates dating 2,600 years before Christ. Not that archeological finds always shake up the roots of our faith but, hey, this one is kinda cool. It's circular. See, that wasn't quite so common in the Euphrates Valley. In fact, this is only the second one found with this kind of layout, the other about 200 km away. Archeologists are comparing the find to Pompeii in significance. See? Dead guys really do tell tales.

E Plus E plus Jezabel plus Ben plus E plus oh wait...

The end of First Kings (and beginning of Second Kings) is filled with stories only a political scientist or adventurer at heart would love. Rise to power, miracles, some Baal worship for fun, bonfire of the bulls, a little slaughter of priests, party at Jezreel and a nice rain shower, greed in the vinyard, political assassination that leads to public death, yeay! Wine!, some more prophecy, all ending in one big circus of war where kings die, kings ascend to power, prophets prophesy, and one old trollop lady gets trompled by horses then eaten by dogs. And that's just Elijah's story.

Who wouldn't love the old testament?

I am constantly amazed at the continual disobedience of the people of Israel. Granted, the warnings were probably not always eminent. But truly, how can a people, chosen by God himself, blessed with promises by covenant with David, who are ensured land for all eternity, forget, especially given everything these people had suffered over the generations. Was the message of God not before them in daily life? If not, why not? And if so, how could one so easily choose to disregard what was known to be true?

Today the message of Christ's love is drowned out by Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Britney Spears (the top three videos on MTV's website as of this moment). Middle aged adults huddle around their brand new HDTVs purchased not for gaming but so that Lou Dobbs or O'Rieley come in crystal clear. Tweens stumble upon themselves to get the newest gear that makes them appear to be the closest thing to a rock star. Young adults wander around bumping into things, their i phones in hand, emailing, tweeting, plurking, surfing, wiki-ing, playing with their dashboard and Djing from their hand held devices. In all the noise, where is God? Were the Ancients like this too? Distracted? Was Baal their version of Apple?

Goth's Night Out

It's so important to learn a foreign language in this global economy. Church Historians may want to start here. (If the video does not load, please visit Gothic For Goths: Episode Three.