January 4: Characteristics of Christians
♫ Music:
Day 34 - Friday, January 4
Characteristics of Christians
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Poetry:
Love and Solvency
by Karen An-Hwei Lee
Lift your face. This is not poverty:
Associates see white shadows of illness
or transport. You have what you surrender:
Beaches of washed-up yellow forsythia,
white freesia and hyacinth lying in your arms,
a millionaire’s liquidated assets blooming inward.
Love is a partial anagram for solvency
Convalescence knows you possess
only what is relinquished. A tithe of light.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIANS
An illustrated manuscript, such as The Saint John’s Bible exemplar Psalter frontispiece, is as it were, in our poem’s words, a ‘tithe of light,’ a gift from the artist to the readers of the holy word of God. As a mirror to Psalms enjoining us to have our steps lit by the word, here the word is illumined visually. We celebrate the light of the world, the Word of God, coming to illumine our lives in the Christmas advent of the Son of God. As the poet invites us, we lift our faces, to wonder at the miracle of the incarnation. The beach-strewn detritus of fallen humanity blooms as God takes on flesh. Furthermore, as we fellowship with one another as the people constituted as the church by this humiliated God-Man, we do so as those called to life, eternal life, with the characteristics of the God who has come among us for our salvation. ‘Love is a partial anagram for solvency,' or ‘above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.’ As we forego our pride, our clinging to our own righteousness, our anger at being wronged, in the forgiveness marked by love, we experience a spiritual, moral, aesthetic solvency. We are lifted out of moral and spiritual bankruptcy, intriguingly, by spending ourselves for others as our Savior poured himself out for us. We can bank on the inward blooming of assets beyond a millionaire’s dreams as we are given our material world afresh in its promised redemption by the saving God. We convalesce from sin, as we relinquish our own claims, in order to bear one another up.
As these very Psalms are those we sing as a mark of our togetherness, we are equally reminded of how being one body is vital for our continuance in the faith that the one embodied God of Christmas invites, even elects, us into. ‘You have what you surrender’ is an invitation to thankfulness. In gratitude we can put off our sin so that it no longer encumbers or imprisons us. In the lightness of the Lord’s forgiveness we can be transformed to be a people marked by Christ’s peace, with Christ’s word dwelling in us richly. As the illuminated manuscript displays a colorful richness, so the lives of Christians, transformed from self-obsessed and competitive individuals into one body by our unity in Christ, the church, demonstrate richness in our poverty of spirit indicated in assuming the joyful actions and attitudes of compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, and above all these, love.
So we sing carols this Advent and Christmas season to enjoin one another with spiritual songs to live out that thankfulness to God in our hearts for his coming down and becoming one of us for our salvation. ‘Lift your face,' when next you sing with fellow Christians. Behold the miracle of the incarnation enlightening their lives in pouring out thankful song, despite, perhaps, being no great singers, and bear with them in your unity that is granted by our one Lord, Jesus. ‘This is not poverty’ for we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.
Prayer:
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.
Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
Let my soul live and praise you
and let your rules help me.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.
Amen
Psalm 119: 103–105, 171–176 (ESV)
Andy Draycott
Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ethics
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
About the Artwork:
© Psalms Frontispiece
Donald Jackson, 2004
The Saint John’s Bible
Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Gilded illuminated manuscript on vellum
15 ¾ in x 23 ½ in
www.saintjohnsbible.org
As a book of poetry and songs, the book of Psalms is like no other. This composition of the illuminated frontispiece from The Saint John’s Bible is organized by five shapes resembling open books clearly identified by gilded Roman numerals surrounded by the words of Psalm 1. The markings are drawn from digital voiceprints of chants sung by the monks of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, which commissioned the illuminated Bible, songs from peoples of various ethnic and religious backgrounds. The exuberant color harmonies are further energized by lush brushwork to create a perfect picture of vibrant, resounding, and glorious song.
About The Saint John's Bible:
The Saint John's Bible is the first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned since the invention of the printing press. After a Saint John’s University-sponsored calligraphy presentation in 1995, master calligrapher Donald Jackson proposed a handwritten Bible to Fr. Eric Hollas, OSB, the former executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John's University in Minnesota. Between 1996 and 1997, Jackson created the first sample illuminations for the proposed Bible while theologians at Saint John’s University developed an illumination schema for the project. The Saint John’s Bible, officially commissioned in 1998, was completed in 2011. During production, Artistic Director Donald Jackson oversaw a group of artists working in a scriptorium located in Monmouth, Wales. Using a mixture of the ancient techniques of calligraphy and illumination, the artists created illuminated manuscripts that were handwritten with quills on calfskin vellum decorated with gold and platinum leaf and hand-ground pigments. Gold leaf was used liberally to represent the divine, silver/platinum to reflect the principle of wisdom, and rainbows to show God’s faithful promises. A wide range of artistic styles, including iconography, abstraction, chrysography, and illustration, were incorporated to create a contemporary visual vocabulary for the sacred. A new script for the sacred text was devised by Donald Jackson to be readable, modern, and appropriately dignified. Meanwhile at Saint John’s Abbey and University in Minnesota, a team of biblical scholars, art historians, and theologians gathered weekly to develop the theological content behind the illuminations. This included not only developing the schema for the illuminations, but also identifying underlying themes and elements for the artists to incorporate. The Saint John’s Bible is divided into seven volumes and is two feet tall by three feet wide when open. It is made of vellum, with 160 illuminations on 1,165 pages. The Saint John’s Bible contains the text and notes of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
About the Artist:
Donald Jackson (b. 1938) is one of the world's leading calligraphers and the Artistic Director and illuminator of The Saint John's Bible, a handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by the Benedictine Monastery of Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. At the age of 20, Jackson was appointed a visiting lecturer at the Camberwell College of Art, London. Within six years he became the youngest artist calligrapher chosen to take part in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first International Calligraphy Show after the war and appointed a scribe to the Crown Office at the House of Lords. As a scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, he was responsible for the creation of official state documents. In 1985, he received the Medal of The Royal Victorian Order (MVO). Jackson is an elected Fellow and past Chairman of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, and in 1997, was named Master of the 600-year-old Guild of Scriveners of the city of London. He is the author of The Story of Writing and The Calligrapher's Art. Jackson and his wife Mabel live and work in the Hendre, a converted town hall and outbuildings in Monmouth, Wales.
About the Music:
“Forgotten Pathways” from the album Forgotten Pathways
About the Composer and the Performer:
Music producer and composer Ben Tatlow creates “frozen ambient soundscapes” under the name Antarctic Wastelands. He and his wife, singer/songwriter and international worship leader Anita Tatlow, also release music under additional names: Salt of the Sound is reflective Christian music to be used as a “soundtrack to spiritual reflection both in church environments and in times of personal quiet,” and Narrow Skies is music that evokes images of the natural world. All of their music is released under the record label Echoes Blue Music. The Tatlows live in Sweden and are full-time freelance musicians.
About the Poet:
Karen An-hwei Lee (b. 1973) is a Chinese American poet, translator, and critic. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a PhD in literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Lee has received six Pushcart Prize nominations, the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award, the Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry from Sarabande Books, and the July Open Award sponsored by Tupelo Press. Lee’s work appears in journals such as The American Poet, Poetry, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Journal of Feminist Studies & Religion, Iowa Review, and IMAGE: Art, Faith, & Mystery. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship, Lee currently serves as a Professor of English at Vanguard University of Southern California in Costa Mesa, California.
About the Devotional Writer:
Andy Draycott
Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ethics
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
Andy Draycott is a British immigrant scholar living in Southern California with his family. He is a lifelong Charles Schultz’ Peanuts fan, enjoys reading novels and social history, cycling, running and baking. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ethics at Biola’s Talbot School of Theology. He counts God’s blessings in Christ, in local church, in family life, and in delightful work colleagues.