"Come and see..."

 

Glimpses of Jesus in St John’s Gospel

With paintings by artists around the world

to give new insight and lead us into silence

by Jyoti Sahi...cp John 1 v 14

the more you look at some paintings, the more you see...

....and the same could be said of St John's Gospel...

especially if you look for hints of the portrait the author paints of Jesus

We shall spend time looking especially at Jesus' encounters with people like Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well and several others, as recounted in John's Gospel and highlighted through the eyes of artists who communicate fresh insight from their own cultural background. 

This will not be an academic theological or art history discourse !

I will merely be like a prompter... giving you plenty of silence to look at each painting, with just a little background, quoting from the Gospel, and allowing time for meditation.

Five Thursday Evenings : April 7^th, 14^th, 21^st, 28^th & May 12^th.

a small group at our home in Wivenhoe

please email: janet@janetdriver.co.uk  

if you are interested in booking a place: the number we can comfortably fit into our room is naturally limited...

 advance booking is essential.

added Jan 21st 2016:

something else you might be interested in...click here to read a BBC article about the Lampedusa Cross...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35360682

At last a break in the downpour, and I rush out to check whether rain has come through the studio roof

 ...on the way I notice flecks of white on our young almond tree & can hardly believe its blossom already...

only the other day the pigeons were eating our crab-apples, as though it was still midwinter...

Now its Spring already ?

right at the beginning of the new year ?

Well, 2015 has been the warmest year globally.. and we have never known a warmer December...

Looking at continued reports of flooding, relentless as the rain, I just hope politicians live up to their Climate Change rhetoric: encouraging Solar & Renewable energy sources instead of killing them off.

 "...its do-able.."  [1]

 Yes... but only if we act fast...

and the devastating floods in the North of England & Scotland should give a strong incentive & warning kick-start !

...or...what indeed will we tell our grandchildren ?              

 [if you missed the speech to which I am referring...see 1 below]



[1] pm speech to the COP21 climate change summit in Paris.: click this link for full text:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-the-cop21-summit-in-paris

Christmas Eve

Have you noticed how Luke tells of the Nativity giving us stories that are filled with light & joy, of angels and the Holy Spirit...of Mary cared for by Elizabeth and then by Joseph and his family in Bethlehem.

joy

Shepherds & Angels

"...and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God,

and saying

'Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace..."

Nativity : www.jesusmafa.com

"For most of us, there is only the unattended 

Moment, the moment in and out of time,

The wild thyme unseen...

Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply

That is is not heard at all, but you are the music

While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses...

The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation. "

 T S Eliot : The Dry Salvages

Advent 4

Annunciation : Antonello da Messina

The angel has just left Mary...

...the direction of her gaze...

...her outstretched hand...

and the fluttering pages, as though disturbed by a slight breeze of fluttering wings,

and Mary is left pondering what this might mean.

And then the next thing Luke tells us is that Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to visit Elizabeth...weaving together again these two families...these two women, with the underlying hint that they are very supportive of one another.
       It sounds so natural to me that Mary was keen to go and share with Elizabeth as soon as she hears the surprising news that she is pregnant.
  

Luke wastes no time on the journey, and I imagined her walking / hiking, enjoying a few days to think things through...

"the Hill Country of Judah"

...but at the Church of the Visitation, this artist imagines Mary travelling by donkey...


The important thing is not how she managed to get there,
 but the joy of this meeting between Mary & Elizabeth:  Luke 1 v 39f.

The Visitation
www.jesusmafa.com

Mary & Elizabeth

celebrating the naming of John ...and Zechariah regains his voice

Advent 3

Continuing with the narrative in the first chapter of St Luke, we move from the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem and an elderly priestly couple longing for a child, to almost the direct opposite... this time the same Angel visits a young woman, presumably at her parental home in Nazareth.

The Annunciation : Henry Tanner

At first I found this painting moving in its simplicity...so different from the painting of Zechariah in
 the Temple, and yet the more I look at it the more I begin to see ...
Mary, looking & listening intently, described by Luke as "deeply disturbed..." but not, like Zechariah, "overcome by fear", but instead Mary "asked herself what this greeting could mean"
 ... puzzled... but more accepting than afraid...

"....Who, me?"

for further reflection....poem by Edwin Muir : The Annunciation   http://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/649-edwin-muir-the-annunciation

• * my painting "Who me?" was originally part of a series based on John 20 v 1-18 :  the account of Mary of Magdala finding the empty tomb...and eventually recognizing the Risen Christ...
• if you wish to see why it is here as an Annunciation painting...please read my blog from December 2014: "How can this be ?"

however you wish to interpret the painting, maybe it can speak of anyone's sense of calling today...  "Who ...me? " can often be an initial response... a pause, before saying "Yes" !

• ... you might like to read this unusual story of Amy Peake, a Yoga Teacher who was so shocked by a photo of crowds of people queuing up for aid in a bombed out street in Damascus, she suddenly realised.....                 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34925238

 [dont be put off by the title...read on further, she is clearly being called to answer a vital problem whilst asking now & then "who me?"  ! 

Advent 2

Families love to pass on stories about something unusual happening at the time of a child's birth,
and I can just imagine the story about the birth of John the Baptist being repeated by all the relatives, especially once he became well known as the

"Voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord..."   ( Luke 3 v 4 ) 

and people all flocked to this man who was not afraid to speak his mind.

 Zecharia's Vision : Alexandr Ivanov

Right at the beginning of  Luke's Gospel we are introduced to his parents, Elizabeth & Zechariah, a childless couple, who have hoped & prayed for children... & now Zechariah believes they are too old.

I searched the internet & found this painting which seems to express the shimmering awe & wonder of Angel Gabriel, together with the fear & disbelief of Zechariah who is struck dumb...

...but I have found no painting which portrays Zechariah's 'nightmare' of having to face the congregation awaiting him in the Temple, knowing that he cannot say a word... and yet the crowd are very understanding.

Mary's story is then closely woven into this narrative, like warp & weft together, as the same Angel  Gabriel visits Mary when Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy...

• to reflect further... see Trevor Dennis : The Christmas Stories [SPCK ]                                p.67 : An Angel, a priest, and a woman who loses her 'disgrace'

for Advent Sunday

Dalit Madonna by Jyoti Sahi

Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art

click link below for details:

http://www.methodist.org.uk/static/artcollection/image37.htm

Advent Sunday...the beginning of a new year,

& this year we turn to the Gospel of Luke ...

 Matthew tells the nativity story from the point of view of Joseph

Luke gives us Mary 

·         Luke is the only one who tells us about the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary,  of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth....& the whole story of Zechariah, Elizabeth & the birth of John the Baptist

             Luke alone writes about the shepherds  the outcasts visiting the manger...and this seems so pertinent these days, with all kinds of poor and vulnerable people suffering through the cuts in UK; people in the poorest areas of the world already suffering the effects of climate change, not to mention the way refugees are now stuck in various bottlenecks across Europe...

              this painting seemed very appropriate for this first week of Advent...  

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