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An image crying out for words..
After a serious discussion about word and image yesterday, its time for a little light relief. For various reasons we have been acquiring a set of Ladybird books at home, and yesterday a few more were added to the collection. In many ways the books were the Dorling Kindersly of their day. Text and illustrations were often of the highest calibre and held a charm for adults and children alike.
However, the illustration below, from Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, maybe leaves something to be desired. It shows Peter coming ashore to Jesus with a very startled expression on his face! Would anyone care to suggest a caption, via comments?
Self-conscious art
The blogospshere is awash today with comments and analysis of the removal of protesters from outside St Paul’s Cathedral. It would seem that the removal of the camp was devoid of some of the the violence feared – but nonetheless there were ugly scenes. Amidst all the images of last night, for me the most troubling is the one below from photographer Matthew Lloyd:
Image: Guardian.co.uk
Whether it is the ‘Jesus’ hair of the protester, or the taking of such sacred words in such a context, I have to confess to my profound discomfort. Important though the issues raised by the protesters have been -this is not a struggle of messianic proportions, surely?
Back in 1997, when footballer Eric Cantona was at the height of his prowess, Manchester artist Michael Browne painted the image below, entitled ‘The art of the game’. It was unapologetically based upon Pierro Della Francesca’s depiction of the resurrection. (Which you can see if you click on the painting). Browne’s painting was painted with his tongue firmly in his cheek – knowing that any actual suggestion of a comparison between the French footballer and the resurrected Messiah was ridiculous.
Could the same be said of last night’s photo, I wonder?
Image: bp3.blogger.com
The Sun, the Son and the Archbishop
Back in the year 359, when the First Council of Constantinople was meeting, the following item was reputedly on the agenda:
If a fly falls into holy water – is the fly sanctified or the water desecrated?
This week we appear to be having the same debate. The water has now become the Sun on Sunday, the fly has become an Archbishop, and the question is further complicated because the fly flew in of his own volition. That said – the issue may still be the same.
Has Archbishop John Sentamu served the Kingdom of God by writing about “The God of new beginnings” in public, or undermined that same Kingdom by doing so in a newspaper tarnished by sexism, sensationalism and gossip?
Others more erudite than I have already discussed this in blog posts yesterday, and I would not want to detract from what they have said.
I am left with one question, though. Whilst the church worthies were discussing flies and chalices within the walls of Constantinople the world went on with its business outside. I wonder how much John Sentamu’s column is being discussed outside the church?
Image: lawiscool.com
Preaching in Lent (I)
This morning I shall be starting a series preaching through Lent. Doing this within a church tradition which pays less attention to the church calendar than others is an interesting exercise, not least for the preacher! Today we shall be looking at fasting, and especially the view of it expressed in Isaiah 58. In those words we see a man for whom encountering God has been a cataclysmic experience railing against those whose heart is not in it.
I’ve never been very good at fasting. My few forays into it have often resulted in frustration with myself. This is no reason not to preach on it, surely? If I were only to preach on those areas in which I felt strong and victorious, the church would have a lot of sermon-less Sundays. Jeremiah was melancholic, Isaiah was afraid and Ezekiel was broken – but God still made use of them. Their task was to point people (including themselves) in the direction of God’s greater truth.
Of course Christians are by no means the only ones for whom fasting is important. Consider the two images below. On the left is Bobby Sands – a former IRA prisoner for whom fasting was a weapon against those who had imprisoned him. On the right is a statue of Bhudda, who spent part of his quest for enlightenment learning to live on just one grain of rice each day. Many Muslims will be fasting during daylight hours whilst the Olympics are on this year, with Ramadan running from late July until mid-August.
Images: wikipedia & abotlab.wordpress
Earlier this week J John posted an article on the reasons for Lent, which repays careful reading. For him the spiritual disciplines, including fasting, are all about spiritual focus. How about you?
Google and the eye of the beholder
So, those clever chaps at Google have done it again, perhaps. According to articles in the New York Times and elsewhere, Google are working on the design of augmented reality glasses. Using the Android system, these glasses will deliver all that Google can offer about the view before the wearer’s eyes to a head up display visible on the inside of the lenses. Information on local businesses, historical insights, navigational aids and more could all be delivered direct to the wearer. Of course, the scope for advertising is enormous, and before too long you could be looking out over your favourite view, as sponsored by___________[fill in the blank].
A bit of me is tempted to mock this innovation, and to say how sad it is that we feel reality needs augmenting at all. Google, who will not comment officially on the project, have declared unofficially that the glasses are not designed for continual use, but that some may wear them more than they should! There are all sorts of aspects to this project which make me profoundly uncomfortable – except for one.
The thing is, as a preacher, I have been encouraging people to wear these glasses for decades. I have made it my life’s work to encourage people to look at the world through the lenses of scripture. In Sunday sermons and preacher training I have spent years urging people to observe the world about them through the lenses of scripture. Augmenting reality in this way, assessing what we see through the world view passed onto us by Old and New Testaments we interrogate more, understand more, and ultimately savour more.
Several years running I used to lecture once a year in a Bible College in former Yugoslavia. The students came from all over the region, demonstrating by their shared learning the power of Christian fellowship. Without exception I always learnt more than I taught - although the buzz of being called ‘Professor’ did have a certain appeal! In 1999 I was lecturing on Nehemiah in the last week of term just as the conflict in Kosovo was unfolding. Many of my students were called up immediately on their arrival home.
One of the most precious theological documents in my possession is a letter from a student whose home and city fell under heavy bombardment in the weeks which followed. In it he donned the glasses and interpreted the scene before his eyes in the light of scripture:
Nehemiah, a great servant of God. His personality and acts have impressed me so much and made me see things in another fashion…Out of despair he grew hope and he started building out of nothing…Being enriched with Nehemiah’s experience I stand firmly on the ground with hope and faith in a better future. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll start rebuilding a new country on God’s foundations, because the joy of God is the power of mine!
As you can see, my Serbian friend was wearing the glasses…
Artistic stains
My father worked all his life in the timber trade, and there was a lot of wood in our household as I was growing up. There were polished wood floors, home-made wooden fixtures, and lovely antique wooden furniture. In such an environment, putting a coffee cup down on a polished wooden surface and leaving a ring came pretty close to a cardinal sin.
I wonder how Malaysian artist Hong Yi would have gone down? The picture below took 12 hours to make, using just a cup, a white table cloth, a considerable amount of coffee…and LOTS of patience.
Amazing though, don’t you think?
Image: http://holykaw.alltop.com
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A review of Glorious Christianity by Cally Hammond
As a Baptist, the very idea of praying the “Glorious mysteries” is alien to me. Any prayer associated with the Rosary is liable to set my non-conformist hackles twitching from the outset. Not only that, but I embarked on reading this book in between other tasks, and had to laugh at my own folly – attempting to read a book on contemplative prayer…quickly!
The thing is, this little book draws the reader in. Building on the approach in her previous books Passionate Christianity (SPCK 2007) and Joyful Christianity (SPCK 2009) the author takes the reader to some unusual places, accompanied by a refreshing frankness, and invites them to pray.
In her company we visit the darkness of the sealed sepulchre, the bewildering abandonment of the ascension, the surprising outpouring of Pentecost, the scary place at which the soul ‘falls asleep’ and the breath-catchingly wonderful place in which the soul is crowned. As our guide to all these places she is honest, warm, human and thought-provoking. There is a wonder on these pages – but of the glowing warmth rather than the icy silence variety. This book, in the author’s own words is ‘about faith’s journey in search of understanding’.
This slender book’s 75 pages are not an easy read. Quotations from scripture and references to Church history ensure that any reader will be made to think – and it is all the better for it.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I wonder if this book might be the opening movement in Lent’s overture to Easter for you this year? Each of its five chapters gives you stimulus, questions and prayers to accompany you on the Lenten journey. How about it?
Of course traditionally people give something up for Lent. Maybe this year I should give up reading too quickly?
Glorious Christianity by Cally Hammond, SPCK, £9.99, ISBN 978 0 281 06429 8
Using the tools of the future
A little later today I have someone coming in for a ‘Twitter Tutorial’. The person in question is lively, gregarious, loves people and loves to communicate – in other words, perfect Twitter material! Very soon she will be flying solo across the Twittersphere, but for now here are the tips I shall pass on:
- Profile and pic – your profile is your opportunity to introduce yourself to the world in just a few words. On the basis of it, people decide whether to follow you or not. Some people like to have a cartoon or graphic image for their pic – I prefer a photo as it contributes to the social nature of Twitter.
- Direct messages – if you want to communicate privately with a Twitter friend, use the private (or direct) message function.
- Bots and blocking. If you use a word like “ipad” or “windows”, then techno-bots which trawl the web will contact you on Twitter. If you use a word like MiddleSEX, bots of another kind will seek you out! Have no hesitation in blocking them and reporting them as spam.
- Hacking – hacking is rare, but can happen if you open a link from someone you don’t know. If it happens, change your password immediately and let your Twitter friends know if you think spoof messages have been sent from your account.
- Hashtags (#) These are a way of identifying a particular topic for your tweet. It allows anyone interested in that topic to find your tweet readily.
- #FF and #LoveMonday. These are two special hashtags. #FF means “follow Friday”, and gives you the opportunity each Friday to recommend someone whom you think others should follow. #LoveMonday is a chance to affirm another person on Twitter on a Monday – and who doesn’t need a bit of Monday affirmation?
- Retweets (RT) – a retweet is a way of passing a message on to all your followers which you think they might like to see. Best used sparingly.
- Twitterquette – don’t preach, don’t SHOUT and don’t gossip, but do decide whether your message is for someone in particular (@___) or for the world in general. Whilst on Twitterquette – bear in mind that a little housekeeping is perfectly acceptable and will offend no-one. We all ‘tidy out’ the list of people we follow from time to time.
- Register – its fine to interact with strangers or celebs whom you’ve just met on Twitter, but don’t treat them like your best buddy!
- 3B’s – in my recollection a 3B is a soft pencil which makes a subtle but distinctive mark. Same here – BE genuine, BE generous and BE kind – remember your tweets are there for all to see.
When my ‘student’ joined Twitter yesterday, she declared that ‘reluctance is the fear of it but acceptance is because it’s our kid’s future’. This is clearly a message which the staff of the Albert Camus Kindergarten near Bordeaux have taken to heart. Since the start of 2012 the 29 children at the school have been tweeting their activities each day for their parents to see. The teacher regards this as a good way to improve their language and writing skills, and also to introduce them to technology. Its helping them to ‘use the tools of the future’ ,he said. For obvious reasons the account for the school is private – but their profile pic, seen below, is one to savour.
Whilst you are looking at it – what would you add to my 10 tips above? All improvements welcome!
The trouble with graphics
In an article in yesterday’s observer, John Naughton described the internet as ‘The Library of Alexandria on steroids’. Few would argue with his description. However, he also pointed out that there are some problems with the shelving in the library - sometimes it is liable to collapse under the weight of its own ornamentation. From 2003 – 2011, the average size of a web page has grown from 93.7Kb to 679 KB with advances in graphic web design. Pager are more friendly to the user than ever before, but they are also hungrier on bandwidth than they have ever been.
The issue is not just about style versus content, either. Since the biggest moral issue associated with the internet may is the gulf between info-rich and info-poor, these pixel hungry pages may well remain un-usable for many in poorer parts of the world with thinner bandwidth.
At this point, John Naughton direcrs the reader to the personal web-page of Peter Norvig, Google’s Director of research. Looking at the web-page below, it is hard to believe that this has come from a man who resides in the Googleplex, with its slides, playrooms and quirky work pods. The content may be great, but do you feel like looking at it?
Click to access norvig.com
I have spent a lot of time over the past few weeks working with a graphic designer as we have prepared the final stages of our new ‘brand’. In that time I have come to appreciate that great design speaks a language all of its own. Image, font and colour may be read by the mind as readily as words.
This means that web design does matter every bit as much as web content – but so does accessibility. Discuss
…to find a promise
If this passage were a place, it would be a bare clearing on a wooded hill. The air would feel stiller and heavier as you crossed it. Birds would refuse to fly over it, and small woodland creatures would come to the edge of the clearing only, before scuttling away into the shadows. And yet this dark place is holy ground for the three Abrahamic faiths…
For the past two months I have been preaching through the life of Abraham. Care to hazard a guess as to which episode from his life I am preaching on today? I believe it is important for the preacher to fully acknowledge the extent to which some Biblical passages make us recoil. That said, it falls also to the preacher to find the shafts of God’s light in these dark places.
From this moment a thread of belief about the substitution of the one for the many begins to uncoil. It will surface again in a valley called Achor (Joshua 7), it will be there in the background when a desperate man makes a foolish vow in Judges 11. It will be heard on the lips of Jewish martyrs who died in the reign of Antiochus Ephipanes. It will show itself as a man on a cross calls for forgiveness for those who nailed him there, and one of his later disciples will write to his friends about it in years to come (Romans 3 v. 25). Strangely enough , it will surface again when survivors stumble like human shadows from the hell of the concentration camps. Jewish scholars will use this same concept – they have survived on behalf of the many just as one might die on behalf of the many.
Even in the darkest place, there is a shaft of God’s light to be seen…
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