Acts 7.55-60: Glass Houses

If you are an architect, the most famous one is probably Philip Johnson's. But Ludwig Mies van der Rohe did one, too. If you saw the film The Lake House (2006) you saw one that was designed and built for the movie in a matter of weeks and then disassembled at the conclusion of filming. There was one for sale, designed by a student of  Mies. That's right, you could have been one of those people who lives in a glass house.

Mies van der Rohe. Farnsworth House (view toward the Fox River). 1951. Plano, IL

And if you were one of those people, you'd know the truth that people have known since Chaucer first wrote it: Who that hath an hed of verre, Fro cast of stones war hym in the werre! If  your Chaucerian English needs an assist: The man who has a head of glass, should beware of  throwing stones, when he goes to war.  Or, as the proverb has come to us: People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The point, generally, is that you shouldn't criticize others for particular faults and/or weaknesses when you have the same faults or weaknesses. That seems to share some commonality with Jesus' comment when he comes across a woman who is about to be stoned after being charged with adultery (John 8:1-11): Whoever is without sin throw the first stone.

Of course Jesus is long gone when Stephen faces the stones in the hands of other people. I wonder if he had heard the story of Jesus and the woman. As his life is ending he prays that God will not hold this sin against those with rocks in their hands.

I also wonder what happened when Saul - by then Paul - heard the story about Jesus and the woman. I wonder if he thought of that day when he watched over the coats of the people who pummeled Stephen with rocks until he died. On the day, of course, he would have claimed that the killing of Stephen was not a sin.  But later, I wonder how he felt Jesus' words to the crowd that was ready and willing to stone that woman.

By then Paul understood that he was one of those people who lived in a glass house and had no business picking up a pebble, much less a rock. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. (I Timothy 1:15)

These days life might feel a lot like living in a glass house. We can see the outside, but we are removed from it. Life is happening out there, and we can see it, but we can't connect with it right now. It's worth remembering that everyone else is living in a glass house, too. So maybe we should keep our hands off the stones.

Is there a family resemblance? See thoughts about John 14:9 on Art&Faith Matters on Facebook.

2 Samuel 11.1-15: The Spring of the Year

They really do that? That was my response when I read my nephew's undergrad thesis. I had read 2 Samuel 11 before (Proper 12(17)/Pentecost +10), but the thesis confirmed it. It's right at the beginning of the text. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle. They really do that. And Americans have in our historic conscious (at least if you were in school around the time I was) an episode that helps illuminate that opening sentence in Hebrew scripture.

Do you know the building in the photo above? Any idea what it is? How about the one below? Any clues?

Does this painting help? Probably.

William T. Trego. The March to Valley Forge. 1883. Philadelphia, PA: Museum of the American Revolution.

We usually refer to it as just "Valley Forge." The winter that George Washington spent at Valley Forge, the Continental Army was in what was called Winter Quarters. According to my favorite historians, it was traditional to stop fighting in late October because the weather got worse. Some soldiers wound up doing low level operations such as raids and foraging for supplies, but for the most part the armies dispersed into winter quarters. Washington led his troops into winter quarters on December 19, 1777. William Trego imagined the scene as you see it above. The winter would not improve.

Around mid-April, after the spring rains died down, armies would come back out to resume their fight. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle...

Yes, they really do that. 

For thoughts on John 6:1-21, click here.

2 Samuel 1.1, 17-27: Killed in Action

David takes time to lament. To grieve for the fallen Saul and his son (and David's friend) Jonathan [2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27, Proper 8 (13)/Pentecost 6B]. Though David is not yet king, the favor of the Lord has fallen on him. So he takes time to lament. To grieve for Saul, who in life tried to kill David more than once. (Think about that...David mourned for the man who was more than once his enemy because that man was part of God's plan.) David addresses Jonathan in his grief. David reminds hearers of the father-son relationship that bound Saul and Jonathan together. But the root of David's lament is grief. A grief that he feels personally and instructs the nation to share.

The news of Saul and Jonathan's death comes to David from the Amalekite who ended Saul's life. When his sons fall in battle, Saul realizes that the fight cannot be won. He falls on his sword but is still alive, so he asks a young Amalekite fighter to end it. The Amalekite does, removing Saul's crown and armlet and taking it to David. David puts the Amalekite fighter to death for killing God's anointed and then begins the lament that forms the reading for this week.

David's bodily reaction to the news that the king and his sons have been killed in battle is to tear his clothing and speak the lament. German artist Kathe Kollwitz offers a different physical reaction to such news. Her print "Killed in Action" shows the reaction of a woman surrounded by her children. She covers her whole head with her hands as if to shut out the news. The children who surround her are probably not even part of her consciousness.

Kathe Kollwitz. Killed in Action. 1920. Lithograph. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kollwitz knew this feeling firsthand. Her son Peter was a volunteer in the German Army. He was killed in Belgium in 1914. Her grandson, also named Peter, was killed in Russia in 1943.

Kollwitz used a similar pose in a sculptural piece she began after the death of fellow artist Ernst Barlach. Titled "Lamentation", the relief sculpture reflects her feelings of the loss of an artist she admired. The works of both Barlach and Kollwitz were categorized as "degenerate" by the Nazi government. Barlach died of heart failure after he was forced to resign from the art academies and was forbidden to work as a sculptor. In Kollwitz's work, the left hand covers the left side of the face while the right hand covers the mouth. We see part of the face, enough to know that even the visible  eye is closed as if to shut out the news.

Kathe Kollwitz. Lamentation: In Memory of Ernst Barlach. 1938/cast later. Washington, DC: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.

Perhaps David's more outward-moving physical reaction can be understood as a manifestation of his public role. He must lead the nation in mourning. Kollwitz speaks for herself in these two works, telling the world that the news of the death of family and friends is unspeakable, unseeable. It isn't just the mighty who are mourned when they fall.

For thoughts on the gospel reading (Mark 5.21-43), click here. 

For thoughts of other "mighty" things that fall, see Art&Faith Matters on Facebook. Click here.

I Samuel 8.4-20: Uneasy Lies the Head

Shakespeare, Saul and Samuel. It's an interesting Trinity. But perhaps they had something in common. It was Shakespeare who succinctly turned the phrase that Samuel tried to tell the people and that Saul learned for himself. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. The dramatist was writing about England's Henry IV, but it may well be true for any crowned head. Certainly Samuel was reluctant to make a king for the people. And Saul, who had a brilliant beginning, would end badly. But that's down the road. For Proper5B/Ordinary 10B/Pentecost +2, it's enough that the elders and people of Israel demand a king and Samuel anoints one for them (I Samuel 8:4-11 (12-15), 16-20 (11:14-15).

Despite Samuel's warning, they are determined that they want a king so they can be like other nations. Both Saul and the people might have been well-served by the adage "be careful what you wish for..."

If Israel's king was to be like other kings, he would need a crown, no matter how uneasily it might sit upon his head. What might that have looked like? The three kings in the images below all have crowns on their heads. On the left Babylonian king Marduk-nadin-ahhe, who ruled from c. 1100-1082 BCE. In the center is Tiglath Pileser III, who ruled Assyria between 745 and 727 BCE. On the right is Ashurnasirpal who ruled Assyria from 883-859 BCE.

(Left) Kudurru (Boundary stone).  http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/b/boundary_stone_kudurru-1.aspx  (Center) Gypsum wall panel. Tiglath-Pileser III. London: British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=367013&partId=1&searchText=tiglath&page=2 (Right) Stela of Ashurnasirpal. London: British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/s/stela_of_ashurnasirpal_ii.aspx

Three crowns. Do they look like you imagine Saul's crown looked? Many of us have a different picture of what a crown should be. Medieval artists did as well. They created a king that looked like their own kings. The Nuremburg Bible shows Samuel anointing Saul in a setting that is more European than Middle Eastern. The crown being placed on his head is much more like the Essen Crown, an Ottonian lily-style crown that predates the Nuremburg Bible by several centuries. The creator of the German Bible was more like his ancestors than he thought. He, too, wanted Israel to have a king like other kings - the kings of his own day.

(Left) I Samuel 10 from Nuremburg Bible, 1483. Samuel anoints Saul. http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/346043 (Right) Essen Crown (Ottonische Konigskrone). Essen Cathedral Treasury. http://www.dom-essen.de/10-rote-pforte-und-domschatzkammer/

The crown will sit uneasily on Saul's head. And his downfall, of course, is that he will indeed be just like the neighboring kings. Be careful what you wish for... 

What if the story of Saul and David was turned into a network tv miniseries? Check out the Art&Faith Matters FB page by clicking the link.

For thoughts on Mark 3:20-35, click here.