December 5: Stay Focused
♫ Music:
Day 9 - Monday, December 5
Title: STAY FOCUSED
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Poetry & Poet:
“O Radiant Christ”
by Ruth Duck
“O radiant Christ, incarnate Word,
eternal love revealed in time:
come, make your home within our hearts,
that we may dwell in light sublime.
Our bartered, busy lives burn dim,
too tired to care, too numb to feel.
Come, shine upon our shadowed world:
your radiance bathes with power to heal.
Your glory shone at Jordan’s stream,
the font where we were born anew.
Attune your church to know you near;
illumine all we say and do.
O Light of Nations, fill the earth;
our faith and hope and love renew.
Come, lead the peoples to your peace,
as stars once led the way to you.”
OPEN THE EYES OF MY HANDS
Our hands do so much. They touch and feel, hold and hug, write and create. They help us express ourselves when we use words. They can be inviting with a wave or inciting with a fist. They can be delicate in the playing of a piano or they can be violent in the use of a sledgehammer. Neuroscientists tell us that our brains dedicate a large portion of their space to the hands. What we do with our hands provides a peek into our souls.
The artists today prominently display hands to give us a glimpse into their hearts. Laskos’ self-portrait catches him waking up and readying himself for the day. His disembodied hands emphasize his commitment to use them to create the good, true, and beautiful. Huckaby’s portrayal of his grandmother’s hands reveals where the source of her strength came from. Her gnarled, worn hands point to Jesus’ words in John 17:4: “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Grandma’s hands can rest after a lifetime of work, and the red letters affirm her spiritual faithfulness.
Allow 1 Peter 1:13 to set your attention for today. After reminding his readers of the living hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus (vs. 3-9), and the grace of salvation that came through the prophets (vs. 10-12), Peter commands them to set their hope on the grace that is still to come when Jesus returns. The hope we had when the Spirit first entered our hearts is still the living hope that propels us today. The grace we experienced when we first entrusted Jesus our lives is the same grace that gives us direction and purpose today.
Take a few moments today to listen to the Taizé Community, joining them as they wait for the Lord. And as you listen, look at your hands and pray through the tasks of your day. What will you be communicating with your hands today? What will your hands show you about yourself? How might the living hope and grace of Jesus inform what you do with your hands today?
Prayer:
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17).
Amen.
Mike Ahn
Assistant Dean of Chapels & Worship
Host of The Biola Hour
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 #1:
Self-Portrait
Stamatis Laskos
2021
Oil on canvas
110 × 80 cm
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter,” said Oscar Wilde. “It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.” Never has this quote seemed more true than while viewing the street art of Stamatis Laskos, a Greek artist who lives and works in Athens. He creates portraits of friends and other everyday people (as well as the occasional animal) through highly stylized depictions that are alive with detail, depth, and dimension. Here Laskos’ self-portrait reveals the artist waking and readying himself for the challenges of a new day.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/05/warped-street-art-portraiture-by-stamatis-laskos/
About the Artist #1:
Stamatis Laskos (b. 1985) is a painter, illustrator, and a street artist from Athens, Greece. Fantastically tall figures with elongated limbs and torsos inhabit the distorted, mysterious realities painted by Laskos. The highly stylized artworks, which extend upwards of six feet, imagine a universe marred by unknown destruction––an elderly man wades through waist-high water while fire burns in the background, a woman retrieves a human skeleton from a flood, and a self-portrait shows the artist shielding his eyes with detached hands. Working with earth tones and an implied dim light, Laskos shrouds each scene with shadow, which obscures the figures’ faces and casts an eerie tension over the degraded environments. At once distant and deeply personal, each painting draws on ideas of collective unconscious and Jungian archetypes, whether portrayed through wise figures, an apocalypse, or the unification of opposing forces. He’s currently inspiring a group of budding young artists as an art instructor for an elementary school.
https://www.articulate.nu/stamatis-laskos.html
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/06/stamatis-laskos-portraits/
About the Artwork #2:
Her Hands on the Word
from series Big Momma’s House
Sedrick Huckaby
2008
Oil on canvas
32 x 36.25 in.
Upon the death of his maternal grandmother Halie Beatrice Carpenter, artist Sedrick Huckaby began a moving meditation and commemoration on her passing. Her visage is faithfully recorded on the many large canvases painted by Huckaby. In addition to his paintings, Huckaby has worked on the restoration of her neglected Victorian house in Fort Worth, Texas, creating a chapel-like space to explore the intersections of life, cultural pursuits, and artistry. Huckaby spoke about this piece, explaining that the hands were his grandmother’s, a woman everybody called Big Momma. “Big Momma’s house […] was a place where everyone was comfortable. Where everyone would meet for the holidays,” he said. In Her Hands on the Word, Sedrick records the spiritual faithfulness of his grandmother, the family matriarch. Her gnarled hands are placed on her Bible opened to John 17:4: “I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” And soon after, 17:7: “Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2013/01/31/hidden-but-glorified-sedrick-huckaby-exhibit-at-the-list-gallery-ask-us-to-look-again/
http://thestudiovisit.com/sedrick-huckaby/
About the Artist #2:
Sedrick Ervin Huckaby (b. 1975) is an American artist known for his use of thick, impasto paint to create murals that evoke traditional quilts and for his creation of large-scale portraits that represent his personal history through images of family members and neighbors. Huckaby has worked with images from quilts for many years, moving them from background components of portraits into the subject of his work. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Huckaby is a native of Fort Worth, Texas. While in high school, he attended classes at the Modern Art Museum, where he met fellow artist Ron Tomlinson, who encouraged Huckaby to pursue art as a career. Huckaby studied art at Texas Wesleyan University before receiving a B.F.A. from Boston University in 1997 and a M.F.A. from Yale University in 1999. He is currently an associate professor of painting in the department of art and art history at University of Texas Arlington, where he has been teaching since 2009. He is married to artist Letitia Huckaby.
https://huckabystudios.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedrick_Huckaby
https://www.bridgeprojects.com/artists/sedrick-huckaby
About the Music:
“Wait for the Lord” from the album Joy on Earth
Lyrics:
Wait for the Lord, his day is near
Wait for the Lord, be strong take heart
Prepare the way for the Lord
Make a straight path for Him
The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed
All the Earth will see the Lord
Rejoice in the Lord always
He is at Hand
Joy and gladness for all who seek the Lord
About the Performers:
Taizé Community is an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy, France. Founded in 1940 for refugees of the German occupation, Taizé has since become a refuge for people from around the world seeking peace and unity. The brothers welcome pilgrims into their community to share meals and sing together. The songs of Taizé are short, easily memorized phrases from various languages sung over and over in quiet contemplation. This repetition allows the meaning of the songs to sink deep into the soul and to continue in the quiet of the heart long after the music stops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiz%C3%A9_Community
https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/13781787835/wait-for-the-lord-advent-song-from-taize-france
About the Composer:
Jacques Berthier (1923–1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at Taizé. Berthier was trained in music at the École César Franck in Paris. While there, he was taught by, among others, Edouard Souberbielle and Guy de Lioncourt. In 1955 Berthier was first asked to compose music for the Taizé Community, which was then just a monastic community of twenty brothers. Six years later he became organist at the Church of the Jesuits in Paris, Saint-Ignace, where he worked until his death. In 1975, Berthier was again asked to compose for Taizé, this time for chants to be sung by the increasing numbers of young people coming to worship there. Over nearly twenty years, Berthier built up a body of church music that has been utilized around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Berthier
About the Poetry & Poet:
Ruth Carolyn Duck (b. 1947) is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, a liturgical theologian, and retired professor of worship who taught for twenty-seven years at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Duck is best known for her work as a composer, writer, and adaptor of hymns. Since the 1970s, Duck has been composing, editing, and adapting hymn text for Protestant and Roman Catholic hymnals in the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Scotland, and England. Duck has written over one hundred-fifty hymns, edited three books of sources for worship services, and written on the topic of Trinitarian theology. She is a leading, contemporary champion for and developer of inclusive language worship sources.
https://ruthduck.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_C._Duck
About the Devotion Author:
Mike Ahn
Assistant Dean of Chapels & Worship
Host of The Biola Hour
Biola University
Mike oversees chapel programs, worship teams, Torrey Conference, The Biola Hour podcast, and serves on the pastoral care team. He is a graduate of Haverford College (B.A., History, '01) and Talbot School of Theology (M.Div, Spiritual Formation, ’09; PhD, Educational Studies, ’22). If he could, he would have two In-N-Out cheeseburgers with chopped chilis, animal style fries, and a Pamplemousse LaCroix for every meal.