Going Green

First I apologise for being lax in blogging. My heart's not been in it and this post is really just a way to say hello and share some sacred imagery.

A little used image today is the Tree of Jesse - a pedigree or family tree of Jesus. In another time, pedigrees and family trees and genealogy were important to many. Things have changed. But still it's a charming image.

Here's a nice contemporary example - minus the individuals.

[Catrin Jones}

Beauvais Cathedral has this elaborate sculptural example, but the individuals have been hacked off leaving, again, just the tree.

{Beauvais]

Here's a manuscript version - charm exemplified.

[Herrad of Hohenberg]

My favorite, but the most bizarre is this example by Jan Mostaert that looks more like a nightmare than a sacred image. (Do expand the photo if you're not nightmare prone.)

[Jan Mostaert]

So I wish you all a restful summer - under the trees, perhaps. And maybe, just maybe, I'll find some inspiration that doesn't involve making a living.

My Truth

[Albrecht Dürer]

We're accustomed in these times to hear people speaking of their own personal truths. There's a famous story from a theologian (whose name I forget at the moment) where a woman named Sheila he interviews says, that having "found her inner voice", she is content to have her own personal religion - in her case Sheilaism.

Here we are very near my favorite feast of the year - Corpus Christi. I love the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus more than I can say in mere words. Maundy Thursday is, of course, the moment when the Church recalls the glorious gift to the Church of that Presence, but being in the sad and tragic "outside of time" experience that we call Holy Week, that particular day is tinged with sadness.

Corpus Christi leaves all that behind and we - I - can glory publicly in the mysterious presence of Christ under the forms of bread and wine.

So, my personal truth, perhaps a bit Sheila-like, is my complete confidence in that reality, the absolute reality of the presence of the true body and blood of Jesus on our altars and given to our souls and bodies. The "Mass of St Gregory" above shows my personal Truth as well as anything.

What Does Marriage Mean?

I’m not one who cares much about this word. Being a rather traditional Christian I’m content to leave the word with the same meaning it’s had for generations – though not completely unchanged in its implications over those same generations.

I do, of course, care about the emotional impact this current struggle is having on gay and lesbian people who care deeply for their partners – and for the future of their relationships. About that I care a great deal.

My own partner and I are blessed by God and knowing that we haven’t rushed to another state to get legal affirmation of that blessing. Were it not for the financial and legal issues that arise in the context of relationships, however, we would be completely content. But those issues have day-to-day, earthly if you will, meaning and impact us all.

[von Fürich]

Several months ago I wrote about some dear friends who had lost their very long-term partners. Their sadness, though slightly diminished will never really go away in this life. When I rushed to the ER today to see one of them, and found the other bereaved friend at his bedside, I was troubled again by the lack of concern some have about these deep commitments.

My one friend, I’ll call him Peter, who had broken his hip at a very advanced age, alone in his apartment, was especially sad recently when he heard about the memorial service held for his partner, Paul, of 58 years. That’s quite a length of commitment. Of course there had been a nice church service, but it seems Paul’s company had had one recently, too. Nice touch, but it would have been more human had they invited Peter, now nearly alone in his grief.

Jesus Wept.

[Overbeck]

Remember Them

[Walker Hancock]

While we rest; while we frolic; as we go about lives that are increasingly and pointlessly frantic, take a minute or two to remember those whose lives were taken from them in the unending bloodshed that has continued from the beginning of human history.

May they rest in peace. And may God have mercy on us all.

Listening Patiently

There’s a certain resignation that can come from a lifetime of being a “gay” Christian. I use inverted commas because I am really just a Christian who feels very, very uncomfortable about the demands made by the gay community upon GLBT people to abandon all principles except those that fit neatly into the standard secular agenda of some.

In the first letter of John, the author says “The commandment we have from Him is this: those who love God must first love their brothers and sisters”.

What I do want to dwell on, and I’ve touched on it before, is the lack of listening patiently to one another, that does nothing but keep us from having the Mind of Christ.

It is so convenient to holding to our personal values to listen to Fox News – if we’re of a mind to hate taxes and like guns or other things of that particular secular agenda. Equally, it is very easy and tempting for GLBT folks to limit our reading or our blog surfing to places where we feel safe.


[De Chirico the Return of the Prodigal Son]

I’ve been thinking about this following a radio interview on NPR wherein the psychologist being interviewed spoke of how homeless persons were “envisioned” as being lesser forms of life by many of us - because – when we do not ask ourselves how such a person thinks, or feels, or hopes about anything – we have no way of coming to a deeper understanding of who they are and their true value as a human being.

GLBT folks can be like that, too. We can dismiss individuals as homophobic, or reactionary when in fact by thoughtlessly dismissing them we behave as though they do not have the same, equal value to us as human beings. That’s not good enough, as the passage from I John clearly states. Conservatives have fears and hopes and feelings, too – some of them very good ones. Jesus died and rose again for them, just like he did for the homeless woman who died in the subway recently nearby me, and like he did for Matthew Shepard, and yes, for Jerry Falwell.

[Guercino - Return of the Prodigal Son]

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant … “

I wonder if I will always just be resigned?

The Way

Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by me”.

That’s a very hard saying for many living in an era where the ego determines what we believe, who or what we worship – if anything but our personal ideals. Perhaps some will say I’m being too hard, but there is perfect clarity in the words of the Incarnate Son of God.

[Millais]

The first Christians – before they had a name given to them in Antioch, called themselves followers of The Way. That’s because they had no doubt about the Resurrection. They had seen the Lord. Now two thousand years later, when globalization encourages us to accept that all things, and all beliefs are equally true, it’s quite easy to become a new type of Gnostic. This new Gnosticism tells us that the “special knowledge” of Gnosticism is whatever we as individuals want it to be. Jesus is – a – Way, I’ve heard said.


[Ford Maddox-Brown]

Well, I won’t listen to that, not now, not ever. As a gay man, I’m meant to drink the whole soup – the whole package of “new” thinking about God and Man. But that’s not good enough for a Christian.


[Sutherland]


So if you find me cranky lately, it’s not because I’m missing the point of the Resurrection of Christ. That point is a singular one – The Living God became human and destroyed the power of Death forever because he, in his unique person, in his coming among humanity at the point in time chosen by the Almighty is The Way to the Father.

[Perugino]


Thanks be to God.

At the right hand of the Father

[Walker Hancock sculptor]

Now The Great Three Days are past. The Queen of Seasons has begun. Though I will admit to being churched-out and have very little time right now to post much, I wanted to show the handsome photo that Eric - over at Serpentis Sacra - took on a recent trip to Washington. You all know how important the image of Christ in Majesty is to my theological understanding, and Walker Hancock gets right the youth and vigor of Christ - who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Christ Reigns! The Only Begotten Son of the Father is seated at the right hand of the Father! Our Glorious Saviour has trampled down Death. This he did for us.

My friends I wish you every joy this Eastertide.