#I’m especially found of the emmaus one

[fukusigma]

Our president is having a casserole problem, and the advertisers show they have a better understanding of French people than he does.

Ikea edition:

Emmaus edition:

#upthebaguette #ikea #emmaus #advertisement #casserole #I’m especially found of the emmaus one

[iandeocampo]

The Road After Elections

The past two years has been very stressful for many. There has been a barrage of disinformation. Tensions are rising in politics especially after the recent elections. With what has transpired, it is for sure that the next few years will not be easy.

I’m sure many are feeling lost and anxious and we don’t know how things will move forward. Just like how the disciples felt when Jesus died on the cross. They also were feeling defeated.

Maybe many are asking where is the Lord in all this? One encouraging story I found is in Luke 24:13-35. It is about two disciples walking on the road towards a town called Emmaus. This event is after the crucifixion on the day of resurrection.

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. NIV

Just like many among us today, most likely the disciples were also shocked, disoriented, and defeated after Jesus died. They were probably depressed and hopeless. And probably they were scared. They feared that as disciples of Jesus, who was red tagged as a rebel King, they would be next in the execution of the Roman Empire.

So the story begs for the question, Where is God in all these events? In verse 15 it says,

15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. NIV

In days of trouble, in days of despair, in days of anxiety. When there is fear ahead. The Bible shows us how Jesus walked alongside his disciples. He draws near and asks, what’s up? What are you talking about? And he helps them process what they have gone through.

17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19 “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

They knew Jesus as the Messiah, the savior, the liberator. Rome, was the ruling power, the oppressor, the government. The disciples were with him when they rallied to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday declaring him as king. For Rome, what that looks like is a revolution. For the disciples, they all thought that the Kingdom of God was now at hand. There was hope that they will be free from the corrupt hands of Rome, but instead there was death through crucifixion. They were shocked, disoriented, and defeated. But is that the end of the story? No.

Jesus explains to them the story of scripture. Why all these things happened. He Revealed the meaning of scriptures from start to finish. He says

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. NIV

Jesus, now reorients them towards the way of His kingdom through the cross. For Jesus becoming King wasn’t about battling with the empire through politics and power, for Him the role of the Savior was to suffer, to serve, and to give his life for the many. And that is the way of the cross.

Many among us today are like the disciples. We have put our faith on power positions. We talk about the need for influencers, we need leaders, we need Christians in such and such position to have an impact. Jesus says, it is through the cross, it is through service, it is through giving your life for the other. It is through walking alongside people, like the two disciples in the Emmaus Road.

Now let’s talk about today. Have you put your faith in earthly power? Have you bought in to the myth that we need political influence to become witnesses? Then you will be disappointed. You will lose hope, when your candidate loses, when you are not in position, when you don’t have influence. You will be disappointed. Then you will be chained, unable to do nothing. Because there is no hope in such powers.

For the followers of the way, we serve the people, regardless of who is in power. Because for us Christ is King we proclaim.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. NIV

So, here’s the exciting part. The suffering servant, the king who gave his life, could not be defeated by death. He is alive, and his people follow through that way. His kingdom shall never end. His people continue to serve and transform society, without the need for political power. They walk alongside the vulnerable, they bring healing, they preach justice, they practice love.

They are anointed by the Lord, to proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and healing for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Whoever your government is. We continue to take action in the name of our King.

The way of Jesus lives, even through the dark times ahead. I am personally anxious right now, with the results of the elections, with all the disinformation, it will be a hard 6 years. For sure there will be difficulties and suffering. But my hope is in Jesus and that the people who proclaim to be his followers, will not be stopped from bringing hope, from bringing true justice, and righteousness, because for us the true king lives.

Our King Jesus is the one who reigns through all generations to come.

Prayer:

A Franciscan Blessing

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationship so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may wish for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done."

“Common Prayer: A Liturgy For Ordinary Radicals" Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

[hiswordsarekisses]

There are so many interpretations concerning end time events and the return of Jesus. As I have studied it over the years my view has changed. For a while I became a little anxious wondering “what if I’m wrong?” I pray always that God will give me a love for the truth. To love the truth, you have to want it even if it’s not what you want it to be.

He has given me this love. I pray always that He will protect me from myself, and from deception, and from any attitude or way of thinking that would open the door for deception. I especially used to worry about all the different ways that people are convinced the end times will go down, wondering which one is right.

Now I’m not worried about it anymore, but I just want to know. He knows that, so I’m just continuing to study and remain teachable and praying to never become so prideful that I become UN-teachable.

As I was praying about this a while back, the Lord impressed on my heart how important this is to remain teachable. He reminded me of Luke‬ ‭24:13-35‬. This is where the men were walking along the road to Emmaus and they were downcast over Jesus’ death and they were telling Him about it (although they didn’t realize it was even Him). The Bible says that “their eyes were restrained from recognizing Him.”

They had followed Him, and listened to His teaching, yet they had interpreted what He had told them differently than the way it turned out. They said how how the chief priests and rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But they were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”

But look what happened. Jesus came to them and “He opened their eyes to understand the scriptures.” But it was after the fact. So I believe there may be some things we might not fully understand until after the fact as well, but whether it is then or now, it will be clear because it is Him Who opens our eyes to understand.

Earlier in that chapter, when they had found the tomb empty, the angel had said; “He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ***And they remembered His words.***”

Another time this happened was in John‬ ‭12:14-16‬ when Jesus had found the young donkey, and sat on it; “as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.’” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, “then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.”

He knows when we are seeking truth, and He knows when we have a true love of the truth - the kind spoken of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, which can save us from deception. And as He Himself said; “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?” He is our Father and He wants us to know the truth, and He said when we seek Him with our whole heart we will find Him.

It’s ok to not know everything. But it’s NOT okay to think we DO know everything. That’s where we can get into trouble. If we find that in our hearts we have to pray it out of ourselves, because it is an open door to deception. The day we think we can’t be taught anything we don’t know, we need to be alarmed. The Bible says if any man thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. So, also, if anyone should be teaching you with this attitude, know that they are probably deceived. And run. Search for yourself and trust God to teach you.

Jesus said; “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” John‬ ‭16:13‬ & in John 14:26 He says; “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John‬ ‭14:26

“These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” I John‬ ‭2:26-27‬

[verecunda]

Books - January 2020

I love babbling about books, and I always keep meaning to keep up some sort of record of the ones I’ve been reading. So let’s start now!  Watch me completely fail to keep this up for the rest of the year hohoho

Eagle’s Honour - Rosemary Sutcliff

A volume of two little novelettes set in Roman Britain, displaying Sutcliff’s usual mastery of atmosphere and characterisation (though obviously not to the scale of her full-length novels). A Circlet of Oak Leaves is a rather sad story about loss, bitterness, resentment, and the cost of living a lie. Eagle’s Egg, on the other hand, is a very nice one which somehow mixes a sweet romance with Agricola’s Caledonian campaigns (ikr?!), and features a hero who manages to quell a mutiny by - in his words - making a bad joke at the right moment. (Quintus is My Kinda Guy! <3)

Some Must Watch - Ethel Lina White (aka The Spiral Staircase)

A rare case of the film being better than the book! I nearly put this down after the first few chapters, as the dry, expository style was pretty awkward. There was a lot of “Little did she know that this seemingly innocuous incident would be Really Important later…” which had the effect of defusing the tension, rather the heightening it, and depriving the reader of the fun of trying to pick out the real clues from the red herrings.

It’s also been a long time since I’ve read a book so thoroughly hostile to its female cast. Of course I try to take a book as a product of its time, but even for the ’30s, the misogyny felt overwhelming. The female characters are despised for being pretty or ugly, stupid or clever, flirty or frigid, young or old… (Somehow this sort of thing is even more depressing when it’s a female author.) The only exception, as far as the narrative voice is concerned, is the protagonist herself, who I guess is supposed to occupy some sort of happy medium, but unfortunately this reader found her irritating as hell, and a shining example of Too Stupid To Live. (Honestly, until now I would never have imagined that making a female protagonist literally voiceless could ever be an improvement on the source material, but somehow The Spiral Staircase managed.) *sigh* There’s no winning sometimes.

Swallows in the Spring - Rosemary Sutcliff (short story)

Another atmospheric short story, this time centred on two veterans of the Ninth Legion after its disappearance (picking up the idea Marcus posits in EOTN that there must have been some of the legion who didn’t march north that last time for one reason or another). Short, but haunting. I’d say both it and Eagle’s Egg are worth checking out for fans of Eagle of the Ninth, as both add a bit to the lore of the Hispana’s story in the Sutcliff!verse.

The Boy with the Bronze Axe - Kathleen Fidler

This is regarded as a bit of a children’s classic, and it’s one I’ve kept meaning to read for years. Now that I have... eh. :\

If you’re looking for something that sets out to recreate daily life in the Neolithic, you could hardly do better. The book is rich in detail, and you get a real sense of Stone Age people's resourcefulness at feeding, dressing, ornamenting, arming, and indulging themselves from the natural world around them (absolutely nothing was wasted!). Hunting and farming techniques are described, and rituals and ceremonies recreated from the existing monuments and artefacts we still have.

But apart from that, character development is basically nil. By the end of the book, I found myself rather sympathising with the couple of designated bad guys who were sick of Tenko the Bronze Age Gary Stu. A lot of the dialogue is stiff and stilted, and some sections - like the blow-by-blow description of floating a tree out of a cave at high water - made my eyes glaze over. I can’t really criticise a book for following the accepted archaeological theories of the time it was written, so I won’t, but even then there were still some things that made the head tilt. Even accepting the idea that Orkney at this time was remote and cut-off from mainland Britain, it was hard to believe that the people of Skara could have next to no knowledge of what was going on in the other islands. Some of those straits between them are very narrow indeed, and would have been easily navigable in a small hide boat. I’d say this is probably a book I would’ve enjoyed much more if I’d actually read it when I was a kid - only I remember finding another Fidler book, The Desperate Journey, pretty dull when I read it in primary school, despite the subject matter being extremely relevant to my interests, so I think I’m just plain not a fan.

The Fugitives - Rosemary Sutcliff (short story)

Another short, evocative little slice-of-Roman-life. It’s quite like EOTN in the respect that the protagonist, Lucian, is a young boy who has been physically disabled and is only just coming round to the acceptance that his life is going to have to take a different course than planned. (His father is Pilus Prior of a legion. ’Nuff said.) I felt the thematic link between Lucian and the deserter he ends up helping was actually pretty tenuous, but the characters themselves were all pretty engaging, especially the friendly young centurion who heads the search party. He reminded me a bit of Flavius from The Silver Branch. :)

Wandering Ghosts - Francis Marion Crawford

I’d already two of the stories in this collection - The Upper Berth and The Screaming Skull - but I enjoyed them so much I read the whole thing. They’re definitely the best of the bunch (The Upper Berth is, I gather, supposed to be Crawford’s best one, but for my money The Screaming Skull is even better), but I also really liked Man Overboard! and For the Blood is the Life. Crawford has a deft hand at mixing menace and humour (a bit like M.R. James in that regard), and a lot of the stories here have a very nautical character, which obviously pleased me. :) The only one I’m not crazy about was By the Waters of Paradise, which started off great, meandered on for a good long while, then just sort of... puttered out.

Winter Tales - George Mackay Brown

Weirdly enough, though I’ve read several of GMB’s novels and short stories, this is is actually the first full anthology of his that I’ve read. He’s always a delight to read for the beauty of his prose alone, and these stories are no exception. As always, he’s at his very best when he’s describing the rhythms of Orkney life, whether that’s in the 11th, 18th, or 20th centuries, and his sense of place and character is always gorgeous.

As is the way with anthologies, some of the stories I loved, others didn’t do much for me. My favourites from this collection are The Paraffin Lamp, The Woodcarver, and The Fight in the Plough and Ox (possibly because they were the most humorous?). I also have to give a shout-out to Lieutenant Bligh and Two Midshipmen for its thoughtful characterisation of William Bligh.

There’s a lot of overtly Christian symbolism throughout the stories, though it never quite matches the lyrical, meditative power of his novel Magnus, which meant quite a few of the stories left this stone-cold heathen going, “So… what was the point of that, then?” That said, I very much enjoyed his modern AU take on the parable in The Road to Emmaus. There’s a section in Magnus where he does something very similar, describing the civil war between the two earls almost as if it were a BBC report from a modern warzone, and it was an interesting echo of that. (I’m not sure which one was written first.)

#books what I'm reading

[seepygoat]

For the asks list: 2, 16, 28, 44, 50, 58! :)

2. what would you name your future kids?

Well I 100% don’t intend on having my own biological children, but some of my favorite boy names are Basil, Robin, Byrom, Emmaus, Valentine, and Seigfried. Some of my favorite girl names are Victoria, Lewis, Dublin, Belle, Adler, and Endeavour. Kinda odd I know, but it doesn’t matter cause I won’t actually be naming kids lol

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?

Well I currently want to tell a particular person to eff off and leave my family alone, so yeah.

28. i’ll love you if…

You love the fandoms I love ☺️

44. age you get mistaken for

When I was younger people always thought I was older, but now people tend to think I’m younger. A girl I know recently found out I was 23 and she said “No! I thought you were younger than me!” She’s 20 lol

50. favourite picture of your idol

Haha you asked for it 😂

Basil Rathbone drinking milk, it’s just so domestic!

58. description of my best friend

She is incredibly kind, and so brave. A true delight to be around! She’s adorable, especially when she’s sleepy, and her tired giggle is the best thing you’ll ever hear. She’s beautiful inside and out, and one of the strongest people I know. The lovely, the wonderful, the fantastic @anelementofsurprise

[dawgyears]

Yeah, yeah. You know the song and dance. Life. Busy. Blog. Nada.

Okay, so there’s been big developments around the Gray family residences the past few months.

In November, on my birthday, I got a box from Casey and Taylor while we were all at the obligatory birthday gathering (Cracker Barrel) which, upon opening, I was a little stumped.

Out of the clear blue sky, whilst I was just sitting there, being old, I got informed via the baby gown in the box that I was going to be a grandma soon!

YES, PEOPLE! After giving up, and saying so, that we were gonna just go traveling and not worry about what the kids were doing or whether they’d ever make us grandparents, there they up and do it!

We are thrilled, of course! We found out the last of January that we’re getting a little girl and her name is Adeline Grace.

Right now, I’m busy helping plan a baby shower that will consist of mostly our church family, our Emmaus family and other people they know from work and school. My mother wanted to have a small shower, one with “just family”, so she’s hosting that one herself. She thought I was being ridiculous trying to host something so big and let me know real quick she didn’t want to help.

Not in those words, of course, but anyway. My mom is just weird that way. She keeps track of who came to what and who gave gifts and how many times she’s showered them/their kids and decides who should be invited to the current shower. Its weird and always stresses me out the way she is about that stuff, so really, it’s just better this way. No one has hard feelings, at least as far as I know. She may be mad at me, I dunno. But it doesn’t really matter because she and Taylor picked a date when I will be out of town anyway, so I can’t even attend or help with last minute stuff anyhow.

The shower I began planning is now being co-hosted (or whatever you call it these days) by four other ladies involved with our church and/or from Emmaus, so it’s not all on me to pull it off. I think there are like eighty-some people invited via Facebook and I’ll have to call or text a couple of people I know. Taylor’s aunt is doing another shower for her side of the family, so I have no doubt they’ll be well-covered with baby paraphernalia.

I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve had grand babies in the back of my mind for many years now and while I have wanted them for certain, I’ve always worried about how we would “afford” to be grandparents. Like around Christmas I’ve wondered how in the world we would compete with like my own parents or Taylor’s family in gift-giving.

I know. That’s just sad, isn’t it? But it’s true. I’ve always had a hard time around Christmas especially because we’re always ALWAYS broke by December. Tommy and I don’t buy gifts for each other and buy very minimally for our family mainly because we just can’t afford to. I do get a few small things for Tommy usually and always in the months before Christmas. I’ll find something he needs or wants on sale and get it in the summer or fall. He never does anything like that and really, he’s always been terrible about holidays. His family never did much for holidays, so it’s like he just ignores them. I used to get mad that he didn’t even do something small or even make something for me. To me, that would show that he cared about me, but he doesn’t and I realize that’s just how he is.

But ANYway…back out of my rabbit hole…I’ve always thought we could never keep up with buying whatever::: toys, clothes, etc for any grandkids compared to what the inlays could or my own parents. That kind of thing bothers me because it hurts when someone feels I didn’t buy for them because I didn’t want to, or I didn’t give them something nicer because I was just being cheap. I would LOVE to be able to give lavish gifts. Any time we have extra money, I’m looking for gifts for whoever has the next birthday or holiday coming up. Given the funds, I would be a cheerful gifter, I think.

But as it stands, I am learning to get over that harsh comparison mindset and to be more creative about what gifts I can give that are homemade or cheap-but-dressed-up, like a basket of stationery, ya know?

As of now, I helped my mom purchase a slightly used bassinet that Taylor wanted. We’ve also purchased three more nice pieces from someone at Tommy’s work…a high chair, stroller/carseat and a motorized swing. I also bought a baby book, a milestones blanket and a big stack of Little Golden books.

I need to get our old high chair down out of the attic. The one both boys used was a Jenny Lind style wooden chair. I assume it’ll need to be refinished so I’ll get to work on that soon as it’s warm enough to work in the shop. We also have a little crib/play pen sorta thing that we bought when we were living with my parents and Casey was just a baby. It kept him corralled until he was about three. We will be able to use it for a crib for Addie Grace for awhile.

So anyhow…yeah, I’m finally gonna be a grandma and I am so anxious for this baby to be born! I think Casey will be the best little daddy and Taylor is going to be a great little momma. They’re reading Baby Wise right now and taking notes from their many friends who’re new parents.

So gone, so long Yeah, yeah. You know the song and dance. Life. Busy. Blog. Nada. Okay, so there's been big developments around the Gray family residences the past few months.

#baby #baby shower #birthday #changes #family #grandbaby #news

[globalworship]

Multicultural Illustration (4 Bible stories) by Daniel Mitsui

I’m a big fan of art by Daniel Mitsui. Connecting several cultures himself, much of his artwork also brings together multicultural elements. 

In this new piece, there are four main elements: the destruction of Sodom at the bottom (with the skeleton); on the left, Jesus raises Peter sinking in the waves. The Madonna and Child are at the top; on the right is Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Here is his introduction to the piece, followed by the art followed by his detailed analysis.

I received a commission to create a Catholic religious drawing in a Chinese style. These explorations into artistic traditions outside of European Christendom are always exciting, and China was new territory for me. When developing the concept for the project, I looked to one of the early missionaries to China, the Italian priest Matteo Ricci.

Daniel continues,

Some time in the early 17th century, Ricci gifted four European prints to the Chinese publisher Cheng Dayue: two engravings by Anthony Wierix from a series illustrating the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, another by the same artist reproducing the painting of the Virgin of Antigua in Seville Cathedral, and one by Crispin De Pas the Elder from a series illustrating the life of Lot. Master Cheng copied these images into his Ink Garden, a model book of illustrations and calligraphy. The missionary saw this as a good opportunity to disseminate lessons in Christian doctrine and morality among the Chinese population. I found the circumstances that brought these four images together so interesting that I decided to create a single work including all of them. I imagined that this sort of work might have been created by a Ming artist who came into possession of Master Cheng’s Ink Garden. I am a contemporary American artist espousing medieval principles, here imagining what a Ming artist might have produced had he copied another Ming artist copying Dutch Baroque artists (one of them copying a medieval Spanish artist!). So I did not attempt to work in a pure style of any kind; I figured that the Western and Eastern influences were already inextricable. I consider this drawing not an exercise in historical fiction, but an original work of my own in which my growing interest in Chinese art is especially apparent. Ming porcelain was especially on my mind, which is why I drew most of the picture in blue ink. Matteo Ricci wrote commentaries on three of the pictures, which also were included in Master Cheng’s book. One elaborates on St. Peter sinking beneath the waves as comes to meet Jesus walking upon the sea, another on the resurrected Christ and his two disciples walking together to Emmaus, the third on the destruction of Sodom. Clearly, Ricci did not have on hand the engravings that he really wanted to use. The picture that accompanies the first lesson actually depicts St. Peter swimming to meet the Resurrected Christ standing on the seashore; Ricci rewrote the Gospel narrative somewhat to make the discrepancy less obvious. In my own drawing, I instead corrected the image instead to match the Gospel. Master Cheng’s Ink Garden includes a picture of an angel blinding the men of Sodom. For this, I substituted one of the city’s destruction, as this is the actual subject of Ricci’s lesson. The skeleton is based on one painted in a handscroll by Luo Pin. This, too, is a Chinese work of art that copies a European print, an engraving by Hendrik Hondius the Elder. Ricci’s lesson includes a curious detail not mentioned in the Book of Genesis; he tells that the consuming fire from heaven incinerated not only the men of the city, but the animals and insects as well. It is for this reason that I drew a horse and a moth engulfed in flames. The Virgin and Child in my picture are Sinicized, but have the same posture and attributes as the figures in the painting in Seville; the Virgin holds a flower, and the Christ Child a goldfinch. Next to Mary, is a roundel with a Chinese ideograph for goodness. This refers to another of Ricci’s efforts in his mission to China, his introduction of the classical mnemonic method expounded by Quintilian to members of the Ming bureaucracy. This is the fourth of four characters used as examples in his treatise; he divides it vertically into two separate characters, one signifying woman, and the other child, and attaches to it the mnemonic image of a young woman holding a child in her arms and playing with him. The resonance of this character with the image of the Blessed Virgin is obvious.

+++

The piece is 19 inches squaire. Text above from Daniel’s website at http://www.danielmitsui.com/00_pages/pp_ink_garden.html and that is also the webpage to buy prints.

Artist Daniel Mitsui was born in Georgia, USA, in 1982, and raised in Illinois. His meticulously detailed ink drawings, made entirely by hand on paper or calfskin vellum, are held in collections worldwide. Since his baptism in 2004, most of his artwork has been religious in subject. http://www.danielmitsui.com/

An excellent interview with Daniel is at https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2016/05/art-gods-sake-interview-artist-daniel-mitsui/

In this excerpt, he talks about how his Japanese family heritage did not really impact his art style - it was something else:

By blood, I am half Japanese; however, my cultural connection to Japan is not strong. My Japanese ancestors came to the United States about a century ago. My paternal grandparents and their siblings were all born in America; my father and his siblings never learned to speak Japanese.

My interest in Japanese art did not come through my family, but through my patrons. I received a commission from a priest whose religious order had done missionary work in Japan; he asked me to draw Saint Michael in the style of an ukiyo-e woodblock print. I had never done anything like this, had never thought to do anything like this. But I accepted the commission and I liked the result; so did my other patrons, who requested more and more of these transpositions of medieval iconography into the style of Japanese art

[christopherwemp]

A Resurrection Event

Two years ago, I arrived at the Berkeley Amtrak station as part of my usual commute. The morning was damp with thick fog, the area was desolate, and I was feeling rushed. As I made my way to the sidewalk, I saw a man with sagged jean shorts, two dirty, layered t-shirts that covered most of his body, and a head full of unkempt dreadlocks enter the station. He appeared to be talking to himself and looked like someone around whom I should exercise caution. The man approached a bystander and loudly asked, “Hey, you know when da next train is?” The bystander turned around and briskly walked away without saying a word. The man approached me next. ”Hey man–you know how to get to San Diego?”

I admit that I felt a nervous speaking with him alone at this train station. Regardless, I said, “I’m not sure, but would you like me to look it up for you?”

“Yeah man, do that,” he said, walking in little circles. As I called Amtrak customer service, he lit a cigarette, readjusted a hidden a flask in his front pocket, and shook his body around. Now I was really feeling nervous. Several minutes later, I found the connecting train he needed and gave him the necessary boarding instructions. When it was all done, he looked at me and said, “Thanks man. I appreciate it.” Then he offered me a fistbump and left. Suddenly it became clear to me that this man was someone who simply needed help just like anyone else. His humanity became known to me through the simple offering of a fistbump, and I was filled with gratitude for our encounter.

It’s easy to imagine the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24: 13-35 as people absorbed with their troubles even when talking with the person that joined them. After all, they had recently experienced the terror of Jesus’ crucifixion, and were confused by the empty tomb. Of what importance could this person that now joined their side have been, especially compared to the gravity of events they endured? But they did something extraordinary: they urged the disguised Jesus to to stay with them in their lodging. They showed compassion to the stranger despite the grief they felt. And then it was through the breaking of the bread–the generous sharing of a communal meal–that Jesus became known to them before disappearing from their sight. Indeed, the disciples were living as resurrected persons; despite Jesus’ violent death, they chose to respond to the stranger with compassion and with hope. By doing so, they realized that Jesus was alive and present within them all along, always calling them into deeper relationship with the God of love as they continued their journey. Through sharing Jesus’ love, they experienced the promise of the resurrection.

Like the disciples, we are all on a journey; our Emmaus might be a new job, the mending of a relationship, or the start of a new project. There are moments when we feel discouraged and overwhelmed with questions of how we will continue onward, particularly in times of trouble. Yet Jesus, the mysterious love that walks beside us, calls for us to return to him by loving one another, despite the fear of vulnerability we may experience. His resurrection beacons us to live with hope by turning outward and serving our world. For the disciples in Emmaus, Jesus was revealed through a meal with a stranger. For me, he was revealed through an unexpected fistbump from a man I may never see again. How might he be revealed to you?

By revealing himself in unexpected ways, Jesus shows that we can experience the hope of the resurrection through serving each other.

[hardword-blog]

Am I a Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller?

Am I a Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller? Nicholas Kristof DEC. 23, 2016

What does it mean to be a Christian in the 21st century? Can one be a Christian and yet doubt the virgin birth or the Resurrection? I put these questions to the Rev. Timothy Keller, an evangelical Christian pastor and best-selling author who is among the most prominent evangelical thinkers today. Our conversation has been edited for space and clarity.

KRISTOF: Tim, I deeply admire Jesus and his message, but am also skeptical of themes that have been integral to Christianity — the virgin birth, the Resurrection, the miracles and so on. Since this is the Christmas season, let’s start with the virgin birth. Is that an essential belief, or can I mix and match?

KELLER: If something is truly integral to a body of thought, you can’t remove it without destabilizing the whole thing. A religion can’t be whatever we desire it to be. If I’m a member of the board of Greenpeace and I come out and say climate change is a hoax, they will ask me to resign. I could call them narrow-minded, but they would rightly say that there have to be some boundaries for dissent or you couldn’t have a cohesive, integrated organization. And they’d be right. It’s the same with any religious faith.

KRISTOF: But the earliest accounts of Jesus’ life, like the Gospel of Mark and Paul’s letter to the Galatians, don’t even mention the virgin birth. And the reference in Luke to the virgin birth was written in a different kind of Greek and was probably added later. So isn’t there room for skepticism?

KELLER: If it were simply a legend that could be dismissed, it would damage the fabric of the Christian message. Luc Ferry, looking at the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus’ birth into the world, said this taught that the power behind the whole universe was not just an impersonal cosmic principle but a real person who could be known and loved. That scandalized Greek and Roman philosophers but was revolutionary in the history of human thought. It led to a new emphasis on the importance of the individual person and on love as the supreme virtue, because Jesus was not just a great human being, but the pre-existing Creator God, miraculously come to earth as a human being.

KRISTOF: And the Resurrection? Must it really be taken literally?

KELLER: Jesus’ teaching was not the main point of his mission. He came to save people through his death for sin and his resurrection. So his important ethical teaching only makes sense when you don’t separate it from these historic doctrines. If the Resurrection is a genuine reality, it explains why Jesus can say that the poor and the meek will “inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). St. Paul said without a real resurrection, Christianity is useless (1 Corinthians 15:19).

KRISTOF: But let me push back. As you know better than I, the Scriptures themselves indicate that the Resurrection wasn’t so clear cut. Mary Magdalene didn’t initially recognize the risen Jesus, nor did some disciples, and the gospels are fuzzy about Jesus’ literal presence — especially Mark, the first gospel to be written. So if you take these passages as meaning that Jesus literally rose from the dead, why the fuzziness?

KELLER: I wouldn’t characterize the New Testament descriptions of the risen Jesus as fuzzy. They are very concrete in their details. Yes, Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus at first, but then she does. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) also don’t recognize Jesus at first. Their experience was analogous to meeting someone you last saw as a child 20 years ago. Many historians have argued that this has the ring of eyewitness authenticity. If you were making up a story about the Resurrection, would you have imagined that Jesus was altered enough to not be identified immediately but not so much that he couldn’t be recognized after a few moments? As for Mark’s gospel, yes, it ends very abruptly without getting to the Resurrection, but most scholars believe that the last part of the book or scroll was lost to us.

Skeptics should consider another surprising aspect of these accounts. Mary Magdalene is named as the first eyewitness of the risen Christ, and other women are mentioned as the earliest eyewitnesses in the other gospels, too. This was a time in which the testimony of women was not admissible evidence in courts because of their low social status. The early pagan critics of Christianity latched on to this and dismissed the Resurrection as the word of “hysterical females.” If the gospel writers were inventing these narratives, they would never have put women in them. So they didn’t invent them.

The Christian Church is pretty much inexplicable if we don’t believe in a physical resurrection. N.T. Wright has argued in “The Resurrection of the Son of God” that it is difficult to come up with any historically plausible alternate explanation for the birth of the Christian movement. It is hard to account for thousands of Jews virtually overnight worshiping a human being as divine when everything about their religion and culture conditioned them to believe that was not only impossible, but deeply heretical. The best explanation for the change was that many hundreds of them had actually seen Jesus with their own eyes.

KRISTOF: So where does that leave people like me? Am I a Christian? A Jesus follower? A secular Christian? Can I be a Christian while doubting the Resurrection?

KELLER: I wouldn’t draw any conclusion about an individual without talking to him or her at length. But, in general, if you don’t accept the Resurrection or other foundational beliefs as defined by the Apostles’ Creed, I’d say you are on the outside of the boundary.

KRISTOF: Tim, people sometimes say that the answer is faith. But, as a journalist, I’ve found skepticism useful. If I hear something that sounds superstitious, I want eyewitnesses and evidence. That’s the attitude we take toward Islam and Hinduism and Taoism, so why suspend skepticism in our own faith tradition?

KELLER: I agree. We should require evidence and good reasoning, and we should not write off other religions as ‘superstitious’ and then fail to question our more familiar Jewish or Christian faith tradition.

But I don’t want to contrast faith with skepticism so sharply that they are seen to be opposites. They aren’t. I think we all base our lives on both reason and faith. For example, my faith is to some degree based on reasoning that the existence of God makes the most sense of what we see in nature, history and experience. Thomas Nagel recently wrote that the thoroughly materialistic view of nature can’t account for human consciousness, cognition and moral values. That’s part of the reasoning behind my faith. So my faith is based on logic and argument.

In the end, however, no one can demonstrably prove the primary things human beings base their lives on, whether we are talking about the existence of God or the importance of human rights and equality. Nietzsche argued that the humanistic values of most secular people, such as the importance of the individual, human rights and responsibility for the poor, have no place in a completely materialistic universe. He even accused people holding humanistic values as being “covert Christians” because it required a leap of faith to hold to them. We must all live by faith.

KRISTOF: I’ll grudgingly concede your point: My belief in human rights and morality may be more about faith than logic. But is it really analogous to believe in things that seem consistent with science and modernity, like human rights, and those that seem inconsistent, like a virgin birth or resurrection?

KELLER: I don’t see why faith should be seen as inconsistent with science. There is nothing illogical about miracles if a Creator God exists. If a God exists who is big enough to create the universe in all its complexity and vastness, why should a mere miracle be such a mental stretch? To prove that miracles could not happen, you would have to know beyond a doubt that God does not exist. But that is not something anyone can prove.

Science must always assume that an effect has a repeatable, natural cause. That is its methodology. Imagine, then, for the sake of argument that a miracle actually occurred. Science would have no way to confirm a nonrepeatable, supernatural cause. Alvin Plantinga argued that to say that there must be a scientific cause for any apparently miraculous phenomenon is like insisting that your lost keys must be under the streetlight because that’s the only place you can see.

KRISTOF: Can I ask: Do you ever have doubts? Do most people of faith struggle at times over these kinds of questions?

KELLER: Yes and yes. In the Bible, the Book of Jude (Chapter 1, verse 22) tells Christians to “be merciful to those who doubt.” We should not encourage people to simply stifle all doubts. Doubts force us to think things out and re-examine our reasons, and that can, in the end, lead to stronger faith.

I’d also encourage doubters of religious teachings to doubt the faith assumptions that often drive their skepticism. While Christians should be open to questioning their faith assumptions, I would hope that secular skeptics would also question their own. Neither statement — “There is no supernatural reality beyond this world” and “There is a transcendent reality beyond this material world” — can be proven empirically, nor is either self-evident to most people. So they both entail faith. Secular people should be as open to questions and doubts about their positions as religious people.

KRISTOF: What I admire most about Christianity is the amazing good work it inspires people to do around the world. But I’m troubled by the evangelical notion that people go to heaven only if they have a direct relationship with Jesus. Doesn’t that imply that billions of people — Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus — are consigned to hell because they grew up in non­Christian families around the world? That Gandhi is in hell?

KELLER: The Bible makes categorical statements that you can’t be saved except through faith in Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12). I’m very sympathetic to your concerns, however, because this seems so exclusive and unfair. There are many views of this issue, so my thoughts on this cannot be considered the Christian response. But here they are:

You imply that really good people (e.g., Gandhi) should also be saved, not just Christians. The problem is that Christians do not believe anyone can be saved by being good. If you don’t come to God through faith in what Christ has done, you would be approaching on the basis of your own goodness. This would, ironically, actually be more exclusive and unfair, since so often those that we tend to think of as “bad” — the abusers, the haters, the feckless and selfish — have themselves often had abusive and brutal backgrounds.

Christians believe that it is those who admit their weakness and need for a savior who get salvation. If access to God is through the grace of Jesus, then anyone can receive eternal life instantly. This is why “born again” Christianity will always give hope and spread among the “wretched of the earth.”

I can imagine someone saying, “Well, why can’t God just accept everyone — universal salvation?” Then you create a different problem with fairness. It means God wouldn’t really care about injustice and evil.

There is still the question of fairness regarding people who have grown up away from any real exposure to Christianity. The Bible is clear about two things — that salvation must be through grace and faith in Christ, and that God is always fair and just in all his dealings. What it doesn’t directly tell us is exactly how both of those things can be true together. I don’t think it is insurmountable. Just because I can’t see a way doesn’t prove there cannot be any such way. If we have a God big enough to deserve being called God, then we have a God big enough to reconcile both justice and love.

KRISTOF: Tim, thanks for a great conversation. And, whatever my doubts, this I believe in: Merry Christmas!

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/opinion/sunday/pastor-am-i-a-christian.html?_r=0

#tim keller #christianity