December 13: Names of Jesus IV
♫ Music:
Day 11 - Wednesday, December 13
Title: Names of Jesus IV
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6d
“Mighty God”
Poetry:
The Footwashing
By George Ella Lyon
“I wouldn’t take the bread and wine
if I didn’t wash feet.”
Old Regular Baptist
They kneel on the slanting floor
before feet white as roots,
humble as tree stumps.
Men before men
Women before women
to soothe the sourness
bound in each other’s journeys.
Corns, calluses, bone knobs
all received and rinsed
given back clean
to Sunday shoes and hightops.
This is how they prepare
for the Lord’s Supper,
singing and carrying a towel
and a basin of water,
praying while kids put soot
in their socks--almost as good
as nailing someone in the outhouse.
Jesus started it: He washed feet
after Magdalen dried His ankles
with her hair. “If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with Me.”
All servants, they bathe
flesh warped to its balance.
God of the rootwad,
Lord of the bucket in the well.
THE LORD OF THE BUCKET IN THE WELL
Today’s devotional contains two names of God. The first, we take from Isaiah: Mighty God. The second comes from George Ella Lyon’s poem: “God of the rootwad, Lord of the bucket in the well.” In these names we can see at a glance the startling contrast of Christ’s coming.
The prophecy of “Mighty God” foretold in Isaiah led God’s people to believe the messiah would come as a conquering king. There is, perhaps, no better embodiment of our human expectation of might than the figure of Jupiter, the Roman god of gods and the inspiration for Holst’s theme. Jupiter symbolizes what humans expect the mighty God to be like – strong, glorious, exalted and insistent on his own exaltation.
How surprising, then, that when Christ came he was not Jupiter, but rather the Christ of Lyon’s The Footwashing. Lord of the bucket in the well, He came humbly to his people and lowered himself to the position of servant, washing the dirt off of His disciple’s knobbed and calloused feet.
How do we reconcile these names? Is it might that Christ reveals when He takes the form of a servant? Can Jupiter wash feet?
Anneke Kaai points us to an answer in her meditation on Psalm 24. As she evokes the King of Glory entering the gates of Jerusalem, she also reminds us of the earlier question of the Psalm: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?” The answer is that the only one who can ascend to God’s holiness is he who has clean hands (and, I dare say, feet).
The connection between the Lord of the bucket in the well and the Mighty God is that only by way of the one can we come to know the other. This is an unexpected humbling of the Mighty God, but it is no less a humiliation for us, the ones who are in need of purification. I remember starkly the first time I participated in a foot washing service. I watched my pastor, an army veteran in his seventies, crouch down and take my feet in his hands, my nail polish chipped and my soles grimy with the dust and dirt of the day. I felt in a new way my utter unworthiness, I was repulsed by myself for his sake. In that moment I wanted nothing more than to go and take a shower, to wash my feet myself so that when I came to him there was nothing left to do. I vowed to get a pedicure before the next year’s service, but my need for cleansing, and the indignity my pastor took on for my sake, was the whole point. With Peter I wanted to turn away rather than submit to this act of service, but the challenge is to accept a gift that exposes how entirely I am unworthy.
It is only because of Christ’s humility that we can know him in his glory, because until we are cleansed by him, we are incapable of coming into the presence of his majesty. In this he is revealed to be greater than Jupiter, the human expectation of might, because even if humans are too weak to defeat Jupiter, they are not too weak to know him. God’s might, by contrast, is such that we cannot even perceive it as we are. To see him would mean death to us without the work that he himself does to purify us. We must be cleansed by Christ, we must meet the Lord of the bucket in the well, before we can approach him as the King of Glory.
Prayer:
O Lord God Almighty, Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever.
Amen.
(Evening Prayer – Book of Common Prayer)
Janelle Aijian, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Torrey Honors Institute
Biola University
About the Artwork:
Psalm 24, 1999
Anneke Kaai
Acrylic on plexiglass
80 x 120 cm
Psalm 24:7-8
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
About the Artist:
Anneke Kaai (b.1951) is an artist who studied at the classical Academy of Visual Arts in the Netherlands, and continued her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Her work expresses themes related to her walk with God. She has created a number of biblically-themed series of works entitled: The Creation, The Apocalypse, The 10 Commandments, The Creed, The Psalms, The Biblewords, Relationships with God and Portraits of Bible Women. In 2000, Piquant Editions published The Psalms: An Artist’s Impression, a book combining the talents of artist Anneke Kaai with writer and theologian Eugene H. Peterson.
About the Music:
“Jupiter from The Planets” from the album Holst’s The Planets
About the Composer:
One of the most recognized British composers of the early twentieth century, Gustav Holst (1874-1934) is most famous for his seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets. The central movement, “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” opens with exuberant strings and recurring scalar patterns in ever-upward motifs. Holst blends traditional folk melodies, avant-garde rhythms, and abruptly-changing themes to create feelings of both familiarity and otherworldliness. The most famous melody of the suite is Jupiter’s regal central theme, later adapted by Holst for the hymns “I Vow to Thee, My Country” and “O God Beyond All Praising.”
About the Performers:
The Berlin Philharmonic is one of the most highly-acclaimed orchestras in the world. Founded in 1882, the group has consistently been led by world-famous conductors and been home to some of the world’s greatest musicians and chamber groups. Through their performances and extensive educational programs, the orchestra seeks to make music accessible to people of all ages and socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. According to current principal conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, “the most important thing that music can do is to bring people together.”
About the Poet:
George Ella Lyon (b. 1949) is an American author from Kentucky who has published in many genres including picture books, poetry, juvenile novels, and articles. She earned her BA at Centre College in Kentucky, her MA at the University of Arkansas, and her PhD at Indiana University Bloomington. In 1983, she published her first poetry collection called Mountain. Aside from publishing, she has also taught writing at a number of colleges, including the University of Kentucky, Centre College, Transylvania University, and Radford University. She currently teaches writing through workshops, conferences, and author visits. In 2015-2016, she was named as Kentucky's poet laureate.
About the Devotional Writer:
Janelle Aijian was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and spent her early life moving all over the world. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor for the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University. She earned her doctoral degree in Philosophy from Baylor University, where her dissertation focused on the religious epistemology of Blaise Pascal. Her current research interests involve skepticism, especially its place in the life of faith, and the ancient deadly sin of acedia, or spiritual despondency. Her favorite Torrey texts to teach are The Brothers Karamazov, Moby Dick, The Republic and the gospel of John. Janelle lives in Fullerton, California, with her husband, Phillip, their son Malcolm, and a cat named Cleopatra.