December 21: Let Us See This Thing That the Lord Has Made Known to Us
♫ Music:
Day 25 - Wednesday, December 21
Title: LET US SEE THIS THING THAT THE LORD HAS MADE KNOWN TO US
Scripture: Luke 2:8-18
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
Poetry & Poet:
“Christ Climbed Down”
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
and German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody’s imagined Christ child
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary’s womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody’s anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of
Second Comings
LET US SEE THIS THING THAT THE LORD HAS MADE KNOWN TO US
Rembrandt made a lot of drawings like The Annunciation to the Shepherds. It was a regular part of his studio practice to use brown ink to rapidly work out potential compositions. The immediacy of these compositional studies provides a wonderful contrast to his paintings, which are rich in methodically developed detail and powerfully illusionistic forms. The drawings were Rembrandt’s way of understanding things immediately, the paintings were his way of understanding them over time.
Nevertheless, the ink drawings and the oil paintings do share many sensibilities, including a deep interest in how light can shape and reveal people and spaces. Light was a fundamental organizing principle and metaphor for Rembrandt. It always matters in his compositions who is in the light and who is not, what the light reveals and conceals. This makes the annunciation to the shepherds an ideal subject for his work, the darkness of night is broken by the light-filled presence, message, and song of the angels.
In this composition, the moment of spectacular announcement and revelation is oriented so the viewer can witness both the angels’ appearance and the reaction of the shepherds. Our point of view into the scene is placed at a slight remove from a shepherd, and a cow, in the foreground. The dominant angel appears in close proximity, perhaps even standing on an outcropping of rock, to deliver the message. One could easily imagine this as a climactic scene in a theatrical production. Rembrandt always managed to hold the spectacular and the human together, often with a hint of humor (the cow seems unmoved by the whole affair).
We also get to see, implied in the gesture of the kneeling figure, the fearful and humble reception of the angelic announcement on the part of the shepherd(s). The shepherd in the foreground is turned away from the viewer, his identity not really important in the scheme of things, subsumed as it is in his line of work and his role in this darkness-shattering moment. The shepherds’ names are not left to us in the Scriptures either, they received an impossibly beautiful gift, they responded accordingly, then they recede into the shadows.
The Nativity contains other anonymous characters, the Magi from the east didn’t leave their names to posterity either. They came to worship Christ from foreign lands, from lives of wealth and advantage. The shepherds came from lives of ignominy and hard work. Jesus receives all who respond to Him, what matters is that we respond.
In mid-life now, I think more carefully about the lessons of these stories, and of Rembrandt’s drawing. In many ways my own identity has been subsumed into the roles I play as I try to respond to the Good News in my life. These roles I play are good: husband, father, teacher, friend, artist, scholar. I am not a lowly shepherd nor am I a king. Honoring these roles well in the daily drama of life is perhaps a way to die to myself, and to emulate this kneeling shepherd, who received the most extraordinary gift as he stood on familiar ground and tended livestock in the dark, whose name I do not know.
Prayer:
Jesus, I want to respond to you at every turn.
Help me to be like the Shepherds
hearing your special revelation
Running to see and to tell
Help me to be like the Wise Kings
Searching for signs in the dark.
Thank you for receiving me when I come to you
Whether my hands are full or empty.
Jonathan Puls, M.F.A., M.A.
Chair of the Art Department
Associate Professor of Art History and Painting
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:
The Annunciation to the Shepherds
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
c. 1640
Pen and ink on paper
20 x 18 cm
Hamburger Kunsthalle
Hamburg, Germany
A prolific painter, draftsman, and etcher, Rembrandt van Rijn was a major artist of the “Dutch Golden Age.” His zealous preoccupation with direct observation—he’s said to have sketched endlessly, taking note of pedestrians, beggars, women, and children—informed his compelling, deeply human portraiture. His canvases convey emotional depth through a keen attention to his subjects’ gestures, expressions, and features, and through dramatic interplays of light and shadow. With an economy of line and shading, Rembrandt expresses the majesty of the angels piercing through the darkness of the night sky to announce their heavenly message to the shepherds.
About the Artist:
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) was a Dutch draftsman, painter, and printmaker. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most Dutch masters of the seventeenth century, Rembrandt’s works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, and biblical and mythological themes. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the “Dutch Golden Age.” Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt’s later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Rembrandt’s portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits, and illustrations of scenes from the Bible are regarded as his greatest creative triumphs. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate autobiography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity. Rembrandt’s foremost contribution in the history of printmaking was his transformation of the etching process from a relatively new reproductive technique into a true art form. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called one of the greatest storytellers in the history of art, possessing an exceptional ability to render people in their various moods and dramatic guises. Rembrandt is also known as a painter of light and as an artist who favored an uncompromising realism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt
https://www.biography.com/artist/rembrandt
About the Music:
“O Children Come” from the album Facing a Task Unfinished
Lyrics:
Hear the cry from Bethlehem
O children come
Son of God now born to men
O children come –
Bring your troubles, bring your fears,
Bring the needs that draw you near,
Find the hope of all the years –
O children come!
O children come!
Peace on earth good will to men
O children come
Righteous rule that will not end
O children come –
Lay down all your bitterness,
Turn from sin's toil and distress,
Find His grace and perfect rest –
O children come!
O children come!
Where the Father's grace has walked
O children come
Where you see the hurt and lost
O children come –
Show the mercy shown to you,
Gifts of kindness to renew,
Love from hearts sincere and true –
O children come!
O children come!
About the Performers:
Keith & Kristyn Getty featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Keith and Kristyn Getty occupy a unique place in the world of contemporary Christian music today as preeminent modern hymn writers. In reinventing the traditional hymn form, they have created a distinguished catalog of songs teaching Christian doctrine and crossing genres by connecting the world of traditional and classical composition with contemporary and globally accessible melodies. These modern hymns are rooted in the traditions of Celtic and English hymnody handed down to the North Ireland–born couple and their longtime writing partner, Stuart Townend. Their best-known hymn, “In Christ Alone” (penned by Keith and Stuart and recorded by Keith and Kristyn), echoes this heritage and has been voted one of the best-loved hymns of all time in the UK. Kristyn Getty has made alterations to “O Savior of Our Fallen Race,” originally a sixth-century Latin carol, with the aim of turning the song into a missional prayer that emphasizes the return of Christ.
https://www.gettymusic.com/
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male a cappella choral group founded by Joseph Shabalala that sings the intricate rhythms and vocal styles of their native South African musical traditions. Ladysmith Black Mambazo rose to worldwide prominence as a result of singing with American singer/songwriter Paul Simon on his 1986 album entitled Graceland, and have won multiple awards, including four Grammy Awards. Formed in 1960, they became one of South Africa's most prolific recording artists, having recorded over fifty albums, many of which have received gold and platinum disc honors. The vocal group has continued during the past five decades to create music with a spiritual connection that has garnered them international praise and accolades.
https://mambazo.com/about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladysmith_Black_Mambazo
About the Poetry & Poet:
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration, Ferlinghetti was best known for his second collection of poems, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), which has been translated into nine languages and sold over a million copies. Ferlinghetti graduated in 1941 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a B.A. in journalism. In 1947, he earned an M.A. degree in English literature from Columbia University with a thesis on John Ruskin and the British painter Turner. From Columbia, he went to the University of Paris and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature with a dissertation on Paris as a symbol in modern poetry. Critics have noted that Ferlinghetti's poetry often takes on a highly visual dimension as befits this poet who was also a painter. Reflecting his broad aesthetic concerns, Ferlinghetti's poetry often engages with several non-literary artistic forms, most notably jazz music and painting. Ferlinghetti took a distinctly populist approach to poetry, emphasizing throughout his work "that art should be accessible to all people, not just a handful of highly educated intellectuals."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Ferlinghetti
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lawrence-ferlinghetti
About the Devotion Author:
Jonathan Puls, M.F.A., M.A.
Chair of the Art Department
Associate Professor of Art History and Painting
Biola University
Jonathan Puls is a painter, writer, amateur musician, and family man. He teaches drawing, painting, and art history courses in Biola’s Department of Art and currently serves as its Chair. Jonathan enjoys encouraging artists of all ages and kinds, endeavoring to take all seriousness seriously.