John 14.15-21: Vertical and Horizontal

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:19) And what were those commandments? Love the Lord your God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Or as a friend once paraphrased it, "Love for your neighbor what you love for yourself." The text pushes and pulls both vertically and horizontally. Love of God is often depicted on a vertical axis, while love of neighbor is more horizontal. There is tension in the need to respond to each axis (to use a math term...which I don't often do), but there is also balance in responding to both.

Though he might relate the work more to spirituality than theology, Piet Mondrian's art evolved into an exploration of those same concerns of balance and tension combining to create harmony. Mondrian's abstract art has been poached widely for decorative purposes. Everything from runway fashion to the Partridge Family Bus bears the familiar black, white, yellow, red, and blue grid.

Piet Mondrian.. Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow. 1937-1942. NY: Museum of Modern Art. 

That grid is the end result of the artist's exploration. His early work is filled with recognizable objects, but gradually Mondrian became less interested in reproducing reality and more interested in theoretical relationships like opposites and pure color. Mondrian isn't interested in implying depth or space on the canvas by putting objects in front of  one another. Instead, he pares his paints and compositional elements down to a minimum.

What he is left with is the grid-like pattern of dark lines (black and slightly varying shades of dark gray) in opposition to spaces of light color (varying shades of white) along with red, blue, and yellow. The colors he chooses are primary colors. From those three colors all other colors can be mixed: red and yellow make orange, blue and yellow make green, red and blue make purple. White and black allow for mixing tints and tones of all those colors.

Mondrian's late work is painting pared down, yet containing all things. Sort of like Jesus' commandments. When a lawyer tried to trap Jesus about the greatest commandment, Jesus' answer was, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ All the law and the prophets...they hang on these two commandments. And all the colors can be made from three primaries.

Vertical and horizontal. Balanced but asymmetrical. Roots from which other things can grow. Jesus' commandments. If we only keep them.

Exodus 20.1-17: Every Sunday

Every Sunday is a little Easter. That's what Christians say. And during Lent, there are those who give permission to skip their Lenten discipline on Sundays, because nothing tops Easter. The root of Easter, of Sunday, of Shabbat is, of course, creation. The Decalogue makes that clear in verses 8-11 of the reading from Hebrew scripture for Lent 3B (Exodus 20:1-17). For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

But we rarely see it. It used to be slightly more common. The two examples below are from previous centuries, so in them God is depicted as a bearded man. On the left is a Creation icon from Russia focusing on the seventh day and God's resting from work. In the version here, God has abandoned his throne for his bed and is literally napping, though his right hand is making a gesture, apparently of blessing.

(Left) God Rested on the Seventh Day. c. 1550. Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, MA. (Right) Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", published in 1860. Universitats Bibliothek Heidelberger, Germany.

The image on the right is a mid-19th century woodcut Bible illustration from Germany. God is still a bearded man, but he does not lie down on a bed. His eyes are closed, and his hands are crossed and in his lap as he sits on a mandorla of smoke or clouds with the earth as his footstool. The days of creation are marked by elements like the sun, moon and stars and the indication of oceans and dry land on the earth. A similar composition is found in a 12th-century mosaic in the Cathedrale de Monreale in Sicily. 

The subject is harder to find in contemporary art, perhaps because we overvalue work and undervalue sabbath. The small piece shown here, created by the artist as a seminary student, uses parchment panels to represent the six days of creation. The piece speaks to God's rest by taking the form of a hammock, and the text citation is written on the wooden stretcher.

Saralee Howard. On the Seventh Day He Rested.

The reminder is important, if only occasionally highlighted in contemporary life. Even God rested. Perhaps that's something we might take up as a Lenten discipline.


For thoughts on the Gospel reading for Lent 3B (John 2:13-22) follow this link.
For thoughts on wisdom and foolishness (cf. the Epistle reading for Lent 3B, I Corinthians 1:18-25), click here.
For a Facebook look at the Ten Commandments and Lent, click here.