December 3: Who is This King of Glory?
♫ Music:
Day 5 - Thursday, December 3
Title: WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY?
Scripture: Psalm 24:7-10
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye 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. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.
Poetry:
Snowflakes
by Jennifer Grotz
Yesterday they were denticulate as dandelion greens,
they
locked together in spokes and fell so weightlessly
I thought of best friends holding hands.
And then of mating hawks that soar into the air to link
their claws
and somersault down, separating just before they touch
the ground.
Sometimes the snowflakes glitter, it’s more like tinkling
than snow, it never strikes, and I want to be struck, that is
I want to know what to do. I begin enthusiastically,
I go in a hurry, I fall pell-mell down a hill, like a ball
of yarn’s
unraveling trajectory — down and away but also
surprising ricochets
that only after seem foretold. Yesterday I took a
walk because
I wanted to be struck, and what happened was
an accident: a downy clump floated precisely in my eye.
The lashes clutched it close, melting it against the eye’s
hot surface.
And like the woman talking to herself in an empty
church
eventually realizes she is praying, I walked home
with eyes that melted snow.
WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY?
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors —
The text on today’s image floats, delicate as snowflakes, over the illuminated page: “. . . Look, the young woman is with child — and shall bear a son — and shall name him Immanuel —”
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.
He has yet to come. But we know he is the One with whom Mary is with child, and that his name will be Immanuel — “God with us.” From this prophecy, we also know the coming of the King of Glory will be relentlessly ordinary. He will come as a human child.
We seem, yearly, to forget the simple dailiness of Mary’s yes. At every step across her house, neighborhood, and nation, Mary will assent to the life of the living Word within her. Her soul is like an everlasting door kept wide open before the King of Glory, however he may choose to come.
In Grotz’s poem, the speaker’s eyes are wide open before the marvel of falling snow, and are ready to receive this miracle when it comes:
. . . Yesterday I took a walk because
I wanted to be struck, and what happened was
an accident: a downy clump floated precisely in my eye.
The lashes clutched it close, melting it against the eye’s
hot surface.
And like the woman talking to herself in an empty
church
eventually realizes she is praying, I walked home with
eyes that melted snow.
I presume the woman in the simile, who talks to herself in an empty church, is not there because she expects a particular revelation. She has simply returned to where she knows God may be found. As she continues her conversation with herself, it is revealed that the conversation has quietly turned to prayer. The King of Glory has come to join her in this lonely place, and everything has changed, but to all external viewers all remains . . . ordinary.
. . . be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in . . .
He is the One whose coming appears to be ordinary, but which changes our vision so completely that our eyes “melt snowflakes” all the way home.
He is the One who, in his First Coming, came quietly as snowflakes, in the body of an infant, conveyed by the ordinary faithfulness of a girl who had the courage to receive his Word.
When he comes, he comes with a simplicity that disarms us entirely — body, mind, and soul — until, entirely open before him, we want only to assent to his glory as it meets us, fills us, and makes us like him.
Still, today we inhabit Advent, and in Advent we learn to wait for the King of Glory. We return to church, to one another, and to God again and again. Over time, we find ourselves praying where we thought we were just talking to ourselves. We repeatedly re-enter the world, as when Grotz’s speaker goes in search of snowflakes, and find our sight transformed by such simple glories as clumps of snow.
Prayer:
Almighty God, who hast promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in thy Son’s Name; We beseech thee mercifully to incline thine ears to us who have now made our prayers and supplications unto thee; and grant that those things which we have faithfully asked according to thy will, may effectually be obtained, to the relief of our necessity, and to the setting forth of thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A collect from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
Alea Peister
Administrative Coordinator
Department of English
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Messianic Predictions (2 views: overall and closeup)
Thomas Ingmire
© 2005
Handwritten with quills on calf-skin vellum, gold and platinum leaf, and hand-ground pigments
The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition, © 1993
1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The promise of a coming Messiah is found throughout the books of the Prophets and embodies God's covenant with the people of Israel. According to the prophetic texts, the Messiah would be a king and mighty warrior that God would send to restore his broken relationship with his people, bear the sins of mankind, and end suffering. The names of the Messiah, which here include King of Kings, Prince of Peace, and Immanuel, appear on “this folio as soaring words of jubilation in gleaming gold and jewel-like colors." Christ’s names are celebrated with resounding Hallelujahs and a text from Isaiah 7:14, which affirms “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign look the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.”
https://saintjohnsbible.org/Products/PR000012NF/Messianic-Predictions
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 across 1,165 pages. The Saint John’s Bible contains the text and notes of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
https://saintjohnsbible.org/
About the Artist:
Thomas Ingmire (b. 1942) is an American calligrapher and artist. He received his BA from Ohio State University and an MA in landscape design from UC Berkeley. He worked in landscape design until the 1970s when he studied medieval painting techniques and calligraphy during a one-year postgraduate program at California State University, Los Angeles. In 1977 he became the first foreign member to be elected as a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in London, England. Ingmire's work has focused primarily on the exploration of calligraphy as a fine arts medium. He has exhibited widely in the United States, and his works can be found in the San Francisco Public Library's Special Collections; the Newberry Library in Chicago; the Victoria Albert Museum, London; the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry; the Stiftung Academy of Art in Berlin, Germany; as well as many other public and private collections throughout the world. Since 1978, Ingmire has conducted several calligraphy workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and several countries in Europe, as well as in Japan and Hong Kong. He is involved in collaborative work with a number of poetry projects, including the Pablo Neruda series of books with Manuel Neri and poets Tsering Wangmo and David Jones Annwn. He is also widely known for his work as an illuminator on the Saint John’s Bible project.
http://calligraphy-expo.com/en/participants/Thomas_Ingmire
Music:
Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: 10. Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates from the album 50 Great Sacred Songs by 50 Church Choirs
Lyrics: (Sung in Korean)
Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
And be ye lift up, ye 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.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
And the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.
Performers:
Somang Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) located in Seoul, South Korea. It is considered to be one of the largest churches in South Korea. The former South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, serves as the elder of this church.
About the Poet:
Jennifer Grotz (b. 1971) is an American poet and translator who teaches English and creative writing at the University of Rochester, where she is Professor of English. In 2017 she was named the seventh director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Grotz holds degrees from Tulane University (BA), Indiana University (MA and MFA), and the University of Houston (PhD). She is the author of Window Left Open (2016), The Needle (2011), and Cusp (2003). The recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, Grotz has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. While studying literature at the University of Paris (La Sorbonne), she discovered her interest in translating French Poetry. Her poems, translations, and reviews have appeared in many literary journals and magazines, and her work has been included in Best American Poetry. She teaches creative writing at the University of Rochester and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Grotz
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jennifer-grotz
About the Devotion Author:
Alea Peister
Administrative Coordinator
Department of English
Biola University
Alea Peister is a 2017 alumna of Biola English and the Torrey Honors Institute. When she is not administratively coordinating Biola’s English Department, she takes long walks among the trees in her old suburban neighborhood, seeks out good coffee with friends, and likes to read. She also writes poetry (which she shares on Instagram at @forthesakeofsharing, and her blog, www.forthesakeofsharing.com), and hopes one day to undertake graduate studies in poetry, theology, or both.