A Google-Earth-view of Biblical events was presented at an art installation in Miami last week, showing the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the crucifixion of Jesus.
The project, God’s Eye View, was produced by Sydney-based creative team The Glue Society, commissioned by Eric Romano of Pulse Art, New York, for its Miami art fair.
The Sydney Morning Herald quotes Glue Society’s co-founder, Jonathan Kneebone, as saying God’s Eye View was not intended to be a theological statement. “Art has always depicted religious events and this is simply a new way to do it,” he said. “We’re playing with the whole idea that if you can capture something from a satellite it must exist.”
Kneebone described the four pictures as digital “jigsaw puzzles” made by piecing together real satellite images. The picture of the Red Sea, for example, uses photographs of Niagara Falls to create the impression of tonnes of foaming water. The Garden of Eden photograph uses images from Belgium.
“We like to disorientate audiences a little with all our work. And with this piece we felt technology now allows events which may or may not have happened to be visualized and made to appear dramatically real. As a method of representation satellite photography is so trusted, it has been interesting to mess with that trust.”
Mark Driscoll, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has hit the emerging church blogosphere this week, with a video clip he provided for the National New Church Conference Church Planting conference in Miami last week. Mark wasn’t able to get to the conference and so sent a videotape of him speaking.
Mark focuses on 2 Timothy 2, the passage in which church planter Timothy is encouraged to be focused, hardworking and able to endure hardship.
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs�he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.”
Mark delivers his rant from a military cemetery, with a video closeup to the firm-wristed gun-toting soldier statue. He paints the church planting scene in terms of battleground and body count. He believes that selecting the ‘right man’ is critical to the success of a church plant. He suggests that the core mission is to find men to serve, put them through boot camp, instruct them, and through God’s grace force them to be people who will live as God’s people. “If you want to win a war you have to get the men.” The message, Driscoll says, is Jesus the warrior, king and hero who has fulfilled his mission: leaving his throne in heaven to live a life without sin, dying for our sin, rising from the dead triumphant over Satan, sin and death, and ascending into heaven. The message, Driscoll says, is not about some marginalised Gallilean peasant hippie in a dress rocking out to the Spice Girls in a cabriolet hoping to meet nice people to do aromatherapy with while drinking herbal tea. The snapshot from John in Revelation is of Jesus in his glory returned home as a triumphant warrior and victor.
Interestingly Mark’s video was just before Bill Hybels presented the closing address for the conference. Hybels simply suggested that church planting needed women in leadership before proceeding on to his talk.
Clearly the soldier image does it for some men. And some women. However the writer of 2 Timothy goes on to use the image of athlete and farmer as well. The early church would have had a healthy percentage of pacifists for whom the military connotations would have been repugnant.
I don’t agree with Mark’s commitment to use only men in church leadership roles. But I can sympathise with his efforts to develop a concept of church that will equip and inspire people with the Y chromosome. So are there models and metaphors that provide the sense of challenge and focus needed by men today?
Denny Weaver, in his book, Nonviolent Atonement, works with the Christus Victor concept in a way that clearly portrays Jesus as an alternative to the stereotypes of ‘macho marine’ and ‘gay hippie’. I’ve written a brief review of his Nonviolent Atonement at GodPost this week.
If we want to talk about being focused, hard working and enduring hardship we can learn from sportswear companies like Adidas. I’m aware of the questionable work practices of these companies, but we can learn from their advertising agencies!
Adidas, in its latest ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign, invites sports and adventure role models to talk about the toughest times of their lives, using art, animation and gritty honesty. They’ve interviewed women and men, young and old, and enabled each to cross the artificial boundary between creativity and gutsiness. Adidas doesn’t need to ignore women to attract male customers.
The Lord is my Pace Setter, I shall not rush,
He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals,
He provides me with images of stillness,
Which restore my serenity.
He leads me in ways of efficiency,
through calmness of mind; and his guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,
I will not fret, for his presence is here.
His timelessness, his all-importance will keep me in balance.
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity,
by anointing my head with his oils of tranquility,
My cup of joyous energy overflows.
Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruit of my hours,
For I shall walk in the pace of my Lord,
and dwell in his house for ever.
Georges Rouault, French expressionist artist, (1871 - 1958), painted “Crucifixion”, Mixed media on paper and canvas, some time in the 1920s. This is part of a series of paintings focusing on the life and death of Jesus.
The painting was probably bought from Rouault by Parisien Ambroise Vollard who died in 1939. It is likely that the painting was sold by Vollard’s brother to art dealer Martin Fabiani. The painting was bought by the P. D. McMillan Land Company in 1953 and given to MIA on July 14, 1955.
Bill Cosby tells the story of Noah, a carpenter with an African American accent, who is given a mission to save the world.
Noah, Right!
Noah is working in his workshop when he’s launched into a conversation with God. Noah’s not used to receiving instructions from God but finally enters into the spirit of the exercise by providing God with advice on limiting the rain to forty days and forty nights and letting the sewers back up.
Noah and the Neighbor
Noah interacts with the neighbour who’s not impressed with having an ark in the driveway. “How long can you tread water?” is the only clue Noah’s giving out.
Noah: Me and You Lord
Noah’s had it up to his neck with animal troubles, including elephant birth. And so he’s not impressed when God asks him to exchange a male hippopotomus for a female.
Bill’s performance of the Noah routine on Paar’s Tonight Show in 1962 is available as a short video clip at EVTV1, and on the DVD, The Jack Paar Collection.
Bill’s classic audio recording of the Noah routine was recorded on his debut album, “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow Right!”, recorded live in 1963 at the Bitter End Club in Greenwich Village, New York.
Since 1998 there’s been talk of a feature film built on Bill Cosby’s Noah routine. Cosby is meant to be writing and starring in the movie. But I haven’t seen any sign of it yet.
Download Bill Cosby’s audio Noah routine from iTunes:
Check out Doug Jaques, an artist based in Austin, Texas. Doug’s site features a number of his Austin murals, water colours and drawings. The painting that drew me to his site was his rendition of Peter’s vision of the unclean animals, found in Acts 10 and Acts 11.
eBible has just gone public, after a beta period of development.
USE
This is the Bible online, in English Standard, King James, New American Standard, New Century, New King James, and The Message.
[eminimall products="Bible"]
UNDERSTAND
On top of that the site offers sample and full entries from various Bible handbooks: Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Vines Complete Expository Dictionary, Smiths Bible Dictionary, Where to Find It In The Bible, New Naves Topical Bible, MacArthur Topical Index, What Does The Bible Say About, Nelsons Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations and Quotes, MacArthur Bible Handbook.
SHARE
eBible has a tagging/bookmarking system in which signed up members can share their interests with each other. Strangely enough, one of the most popular topics at present is “ntwright”. Are these verses that NT Wright refers to, or are they verses people think NT Wright should read, or perhaps verses warning others about the teaching of NT Wright?
EMAIL
Each verse can be sent by email to a friend, with a reference to eBible of course.
One of the Old Testament lectionary readings for this week focuses on David’s defeat of Goliath, as found in 1 Samuel 17. Some denominations are following Job 38, God speaking in the storm.
Rana Mariem Ghassan is a Palestinian painter, a refugee living away from her homeland. Her most well known painting, David and Goliath, provides an insight into Palestinian resistance. The entire water colour is in black and white except for the stones which are in the colours of the Palestinian flag. It’s not clear who the other figures are, soldiers or fellow Palestinian youths. Neither is it clear whether the hope and future of Palestinians lie in the power of those rocks.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio painted two of the most well known depictions of David with the head of Goliath. What I’ve found fascinating about Caravaggio’s work here is the autobiographical element. Caravaggio was wanted for murder. He had killed a man in a brawl in Rome and was on the run from those who were calling for his arrest and execution. Here he has portrayed himself in the position of Goliath, a hint of his own sense of mortality.
I had the privilege this morning of speaking and presiding at communion at Trinity College, the Uniting Church theological college in Brisbane. I was working with a small group of staff and students to lead worship, focusing on the John 12 passage in which Jesus is visited by a group of Greeks who say to Philip, “We want to see Jesus”. The chapel was strewn with banana and sugar cane plants, helping us connect with the people who are cleaning up after the cylone last Monday.
I spoke this morning on John 12:24: “Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls to the Ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The graphic comes from Heartlight Gallery. I found some inspiration from a sermon preached by Cornelius Plantinga at his installation as professor of systematic theology at Calvin College.
Pivotal to this morning’s message was the realisation that the germination of the seed - the seminal moment - is unseen by the human eye. Likewise, the seminal moment of Jesus’ life - his resurrection - was unseen by the human eye. We reflected on the acts of God that are usually experienced in humble surroundings rather than in front of large audiences. Participation in the life of a seminary has an element of being buried like grain. In fact the word ’seminary’ refers to a seed bed. We finished by reflecting on the challenge of being embedded in everyday relationships.
I’ll see if I can post more on this at Gospel Notes on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I’ve transferred another web site to Wordpress today. The Theology and Worship Web site has been replaced by TURN, the web site of the Queensland Synod Theological Understandings and Reflection Network (Uniting Church in Australia).
I’ve loaded all my religious art links, along with lectionary resource links, articles on spirituality, theology and worship. There’s an email list associated with the site as well.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
Noah is working in his workshop when he’s launched into a conversation with God. Noah’s not used to receiving instructions from God but finally enters into the spirit of the exercise by providing God with advice on limiting the rain to forty days and forty nights and letting the sewers back up.
I spoke this morning on John 12:24: “Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls to the Ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The graphic comes from 
