May 8 – Artists in God’s Image
Exodus 35:4-19
Moses said to all the congregation of the Israelites: This is the thing that the Lord has commanded: Take from among you an offering to the Lord; let whoever is of a generous heart bring the Lord’s offering: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine linen; goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, and fine leather; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing-oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and the breastpiece.
All who are skillful among you shall come and make all that the Lord has commanded: the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its clasps and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; the ark with its poles, the mercy-seat, and the curtain for the screen; the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing-oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance, the entrance of the tabernacle; the altar of burnt-offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin with its stand; the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords; the finely worked vestments for ministering in the holy place, the holy vestments for the priest Aaron, and the vestments of his sons, for their service as priests.
Good News: Our skills and arts are worthy of God.
Subject: We participate with God in creating a world of art, beauty, justice, and love.
Last week we observed that God delighted in creating a home for us: the world,, the universe we live in. The text from Exodus shows the great skill and creativity brought to the task of creating a home for God, the tabernacle. Our understanding today is not that God dwells in a specific place or structure, unlike the ancient understanding, but the importance of the task is still the same: creating (or re-creating) the world as a fitting home for God. It requires of us our best skill, art, passion, and imagination. The art of creating a home for God in today’s age may not require skill at gold-smithing, but we are in dire need of peace-smiths, painters of justice, and authors of hope.
One of those artists was Julia Ward Howe. She was a hymn-writer and peace-activist. She was one of the first to conceive of a Mother’s day observance, but very differently than the Hallmark card-dozen roses kind of holiday we have today. Here is her original call:
Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870
Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870).
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.
Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870
Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870).
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.
Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870
As I write these thoughts I hear news reports of Bin Laden’s death and see much rejoicing on Facebook at the news. And I wonder, what kind of artist’s are creating our world these days? What kind of home are we crafting for the God of Life and Love? I’ve been dwelling on three words for what I believe we are to be about as artist of the Spirit: creativity, compassion, and joy. It’s somewhat harder to come by tonight.
Experiential Field: We experience God’s hope and joy when we are artists of peace.
Good Morning All. I find no shortage of irony looking at Mother's Day as a protest to the carnage of war as I am sitting reading world views on the death of a lone terrorist. That being said, I'm not sure I want a service focusing on either of these. I am curious as to what kind of artist you are going to focus on for this week (was it mentioned already?)
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