OnLine Art Meditations for Lent

Hey All. ThPm has it in our head to webhost some meditative art pieces for the Lent. We thought it would be fun to see if we could get submission from across the city and even across the country. So consider yourself a friend of ThPM and join in with us, will ya?

We are looking for six art pieces which reflect on traits of Jesus. We’ll post one each week between March 28th-April 11th. The general idea is to have some visual artwork, accompanied by some text that would either appear at the bottom or be incorporated into the art. If you don’t know how to make this happen technically, we can do that in-house. (I think we’ll have an example up by Wednesday of next week on our site, thursdaypm.org.)

Each week a new piece of art will appear on the website. You can use it as wallpaper on your computer and reflect on it during your day, or just spend some time on the site meditating a bit and grooving on what the artists has given us. In addition to using the pieces for individual reflection, ThPM is also going to use them as the centerpiece of our weekly gathering. We’ll either use them in worship, as an icon for centering prayer, or as a topic for group discussion. Maybe you’d like to use them too? You’ll also be able to share your reaction/insights/observations to the piece on the website either through a comment box or some sort of community blog.

Here’s some ideas to get you started. If you want to try your hand at this, commit soon, okay? Don’t leave us hanging. Hit “reply all” and let everyone know what theme you’re interested in working on. If we get more than one for any given theme, maybe we’ll be able to post more than one for that week? Or maybe we’ll go with first come, first served. I’ll let you know. Then get your art, in digital format, to our webmaster mikelajoie@comcast.net . Please submit digital artwork in jpg format if possible. Digital photos of art are ok. Other formats will be accepted upon approval. Submissions must be received by Feb 20th.

Pretty please….

Don’t say “I’m not good enough”
Don’t say “I don’t know these people well enough”
Don’t restrict yourself to overtly religious images
Do trust your gut.
Do say you’ll play!

Here are the themes and some ideas to give you a jump start. They are like sourdough starter — just to get the ol’ creative juices flowing. They’re in no particular order.

Lover Host Servant Vagabond Mystery Lamb (for more info, read the extended post. There are cool quotes from Anne Lamott and Kahil Gibran and stuff.)

Lover
“Jesus’ primary concern was to be obedient to his Father, to live constantly in his presence. Only then did it become clear to him what his task was in relationship with people. This also is the way he proposes for his followers. I wonder if we really believe this? It seems that in fact we live as if we should give as much of our heart, soul, and mind as possible to our fellow human beings, while trying hard not to forget God. At least we feel that our attention should be divided evenly between God and our neighbor. But Jesus’ claim is much more radical. He asks for single-minded commitment to God and God alone….It is this unconditional and unreserved loved for God that lead us to the care for our neighbor, not as an activity which distracts us from God or competes with our attention to God, but as an expression of our love for God who reveals himself to us as the God of all people.

O Lord, look with favor on us, your people, and impart your love to us — not as an idea or concept, but as a lived experience. We can love each other only because you have loved us first. Let us know that first love so that we can see all human love as a reflection of a greater love, a love without condition and limitations. Amen.”
-Henri Nowen, Show Me the Way

How do we sink into Jesus’ love? When our concept of love is so distorted, how can we see him as the great lover? How does Jesus as a source of love, allow us to love our neighbor? What stories from his life show the his existence in his Father’s love getting passed down to the people around him? How can we show that flow of love, that movement? Reflect on the phrase, “Extending the loving hand of Christ to the world.”

Host
At first the word “hospitality” might evoke the image of soft sweet kindness, tea parties, bland conversations, and a general atmosphere of coziness. Probably this has its good reasons since in our culture the concept of hospitality has lost much of its power and is often used in circles where we are more prone to expect a watered down piety than a serious search for an authentic Christian spirituality. But still, if there is any concept worth restoring to it’s original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality.
-Henri Nowen, Show Me the Way

Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
-Jesus, Matt 5

What images communicate “welcome” to you? What does it mean to make space? Too much attentnion can be smothering and scary. Too little can be cold and unwelcoming. What does it look like to welcome generously, but appropriately? What is the color of welcome?

Servant
You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their head. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever want to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done. He came to serve; not be serve — and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage. -Jesus, Matt 20

In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. -Jesus, Matt 5

Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s law and Prophet and this is what you get. -Jesus, Matt 6

Does servanthood have to look like slavery? What is the difference? How does Christ portray this? What images capture this? What is the feel of a moment in which you are freely serving another? In what arena do you wish you could serve (whether or not you can actually figure out how to.) If you have a computer, I can pretty much guarantee you have some sort of power. How do you take that power and turn it into servanthood? Represent that.

Lamb
My friends like to tell each other that I am not really a born-again Christian. They think of me more along the lines of that old Jonathan Miller routine, when he said, “I’m not really a Jew; I’m Jew-ish.” They think I am Christian-ish. But I’m not. I’m just a bad Christian. A bad, born-again Christian. And certainly, like the apostle Peter, I am capable of denying it, of presenting myself as a sort of leftist liberation theology enthusiast and general Jesusy bon vivant. But it’s not true… I am a believer, a convert. I’m probably about three months away from slapping an aluminum Jesus-fish on the back of my car, although I first want to see if the application or stickum in any way interferes with my lease agreement. I just love the Guy. I could go to a gathering of foot-wash Baptists, and except for the dreadlocks, fit right in. I would wash their feet. I would let them wash mine. ” - Anne Lammot, salon.com Knocking on Heaven’s Door

At some point, you have to face the fact that you are more than Jesus-y. That all this stuff we are doing rotates around someone. And, even if you’ve avoided going to see Mel Gibson’s new movie, you have to face it a little. Whether you can bear the goriness of it or not, the man died. What does that mean? What was the purpose? Was he a substitute for my own sacrifice on the altar? A portal into a place where forgiveness happens? A tear in a curtain? A brute force kick to a door? A shower of blood to cleanse? A perfect thing, defiled through death, restored again through life? What’s that all about? To you. Not perfect theology. Just to you, as much as you can get your mind around it. Show us.

Mystery
As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you wherever,” he said. Jesus was curt, “Are you ready to rough it? We aren’t staying in the best inns, you know?” Another follower said, “Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father’s funeral to take care of.” Jesus refused, “First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue Life.” -Jesus, Matt 8

Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly, “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. but I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. Are you tired? Worn Out? ….Come to me.” -Jesus, Matt 10

Son of Man, Son of God. Healing, yet dying. Curt, yet loving. Making things clear, hiding things in story. Telling truths hard to bear. Talking about love. — A mystery then. Someone once said to me, “I’m not really sure I like Jesus all of the time.” He’s a curious one, isn’t he? Be honest about that. Show us the faces of Christ as you know him The ying and the yang. The mystery.

Vagabond
“They say he was vulgar, the common offspring of common seed, a man uncouth and violent. They say that only the wind combed his hair, and only the rain brought his clothes and his body together. They deemed him mad, and they attributed his words to demons. Yet behold, the Man despised sounded a challenge and the sound thereof shall never cease.” -Kahil Gibran, Jesus Son of Man

He barbequed fish. He camped out. He foraged for grain and figs. He was, for all intents and purposes a vagabond. A wanderer. Why? What was the meaning in this kind of living? What tale did it have to tell us? What images do we need to carry of him? What similarities in his person do we need to look for in others on the margins?

Postscript: ThPm reserves the right not use something the think is beyond the pale. Oh, and please, we’re all friends here. Be nice to the artists. Don’t mess with their stuff. If you download something off the web, use it the way they present it. Okay

Oh, and feel free to pass this on to anyone who you think would be interested.

Shalom,

Rachelle