December 14: Beauty for Ashes
♫ Music:
Day 14 - Saturday, December 14
Title: Beauty for Ashes
Scripture: Isaiah 61:1–3 (NKJV)
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
Poetry:
“Ritual for Ash”
by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
We will smudge
our shoulder blades with wings of ash.
We will sow
your remaining ash in an untilled field.
We’ll toss
red carnations, red dahlias, red hibiscus.
We’ll release
white doves and flutter white handkerchiefs.
We’ll return
to the field to watch brave bulls roam.
We will wait
for the grass to catch fire.
CHRIST GIVES BEAUTY FOR ASHES
I’m writing this devotional from Berlin. It is a city I have long held as a symbol of restoration. In the past one hundred years, the city has suffered deeply from war and conflict. It was decimated by bombs and reduced to rubble, burnt, and in ashes. It was then divided by the wall for nearly three decades. For the years since, the city has been in a process of rebuilding and restoration. On the edges of the city is the forest of Grunewald where we find Teufelsberg. This hill was formed out of the literal tons of material from the destroyed city. It is now covered with pines, birch, and oak trees as the forest has reclaimed the ground. I took a walk there amidst these trees, they crowned the hill made from the ashes. This is one powerful place where Berlin embodies the prophecy, a promise of restoration that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ and the Church.
In its truest expression, our faith is embodied like this. We don’t simply ascribe to a system of beliefs, we don’t only speak words of life, we also follow Christ in expressions of real-world love. Love is an action not just a feeling. And it takes physical effort. This means that we work and act in the material world, just as Jesus did.
The season of Advent offers wonderful invitations into this as it directs us to the incarnation. It points us to Jesus, who came with skin and bone and blood. Our faith values the body as a creation of God. And it values the material world as a place God created for us, in which we have been invited to participate.
This resonates with me as an artist and creative person. In making art or writing a song, we get to engage in God’s material world and make our ideas incarnate through creative acts. This is parallel to feeling love but having to act on it to make it real. Just like Isaiah, “Ritual for Ash” by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez beautifully pulls at this thread while hinting at a cycle of life in its use of actions: smudge, sow, toss, release, return, wait.
We follow Christ’s love as we trade pain for care, replace distraction for presence, and even exchange death for life. In pairing Ash Jesus by Zhang Huan with Oak Tree with Gold by Roger Wagner, we have powerful visual symbols of Christ’s call to restorative love. Christ became the ashes for us, he absorbed the destruction and death that we emit. And he does this with open arms. He willingly trades us his beauty for our ashes, he joyfully releases us from being bound, having been bound himself. He delights in surrounding us with gold and calling us to be fully alive and growing. This is love.
Loving like Jesus means we value his creation and partner with him in the loving work of restoration. It means we create and repair from our shared anointing with the Incarnate One. Let us be those oak trees of righteousness we see in Wagner’s painting. Let us love in action. Move the rubble, plant the trees, dust off the fallen, salve the wounded. Rebuild the broken city. Rebuild the broken life. Let us give beauty for ashes because that is what Jesus does.
Prayer:
If you are able: speak this prayer aloud with your arms open wide.
Lord Jesus, thank you for your incarnation. Thank you for becoming the ashes for me. Thank you for your open arms. Help me to follow you in giving beauty for ashes, trading joy for mourning, and making the exchange of praise for despair. Help me to live an embodied faith in you. Help me to be like you, love in action.
Amen
Steven Homestead
Artist, Composer, Writer, and Curator
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:
Ash Jesus
Zhang Huan
2011
Ash, steel, and wood
260 x 320 x 320 cm.
This massive sculpture is the work of artist Zhang Huan, who incorporates into his work the ashes of incense used by religious pilgrims. Using steel and wood as a frame, the sculpture is layered in ash, adding complexity and symbolism.
About the Artist #1:
Zhang Huan (b. 1965) is a Chinese artist based in Shanghai and New York City. He began his career as a painter and then transitioned to performance art before making a comeback to painting. He is primarily known for his performance work, but also makes photographs and sculpture. He received his B.A. from Henan University in Kaifeng (1988) and his M.A. from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1993); he changed his name to Zhang Huan in the 1990s when he started his studies at the Central Academy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Huan
About the Artwork #2:
Oak Tree with Gold
Roger Wagner
2011
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
Oaks are hardy trees with a deep root system anchoring them so they can withstand the test of time and inclement weather. Oak wood is prized for its strength and hardness. We should take great hope in the oaks of righteousness verse (Isaiah 61:3) because it gives us the perspective of trusting that God is greater than our difficulties. Though we may experience great difficulties and pain in our lives, we can be confident that our life trials are not the foundation on which we stand. When we anchor ourselves to Jesus Christ, we are secured against life’s storms and will rise toward the light of Christ.
About the Artist #2:
Roger Wagner (b. 1957) is a British artist and poet. Wagner studied English at Oxford University before studying at the Royal Academy School of Art. He has been represented in London since 1985 by Anthony Mould Ltd., exhibiting in the city many times. His one-man shows include retrospectives at the Ashmolean Museum in 1994 and 2010. He has produced several books of illustrated poems and translations, including Fire Sonnets (1984), In a Strange Land (1988), A Silent Voice (1997), Out of the Whirlwind (1997), and The Book of Praises—a translation of the psalms produced as Book One (1994), Book Two (2008), and Book Three (2013). His major work Menorah was acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in 2010, and currently hangs in St. Giles Church in Oxford. In 2019, Canterbury Press published a collection of Wagner’s poems and images entitled The Nearer You Stand. In Wagner’s work, several themes emerge: the Renaissance, the English landscape, poetry, and Christian meditation. Wagner’s paintings possess a sense of stillness at the center of the storm, a confirmation that there is hope in the face of despair. Wagner is not afraid to grapple with issues of judgment and suffering in his work, but his theology is always rooted in the all-sufficient love of God. http://www.rogerwagner.co.uk/profile
https://imagejournal.org/artist/roger-wagner/
About the Music: “Beauty For Ashes” from the album Carry Away
Lyrics:
Beauty for ashes
A garment of praise
For my heaviness.
Beauty for ashes
Take this heart of stone
And make it Yours, Yours.
I delight myself in the richest of fare,
Trading all that I've had for all that is better.
A garment of praise for my heaviness.
You are the greatest taste,
You're the richest of fair.
Beauty for ashes
A garment of praise
For my heaviness.
Beauty for ashes
Take this heart of stone
And make it Yours, Yours.
I delight myself in the richest of fare,
Trading all that I've had for all that is better.
A garment of praise for my heaviness,
You are the greatest taste,
I delight myself in the richest of fare.
Trading all that I've had for all that is better,
A garment of praise for my heaviness,
You are the greatest taste,
You're the richest of fair.
You are better,
So much better.
All the worth (all the worth).
Lord, You are better (so much better).
You taste better (so much better).
So much better, yeah.
Beauty for ashes,
A garment of praise.
For my heaviness.
Beauty for ashes,
Take this heart of stone
And make it Yours.
About the Composers: Kendall Combes and Shane Corey Barnard
For the last twenty years, Kendall Combes has been writing and recording and performing music. He is a multi-instrumentalist with a passion to create a balance between the artsy and the mainstream with his songwriting/producing. His music has been chosen for A&E, TLC, Discovery, and NBC network television. He's received Indy Film awards for Best Original Score and Best Sound Design as well as contributing songs to RIAA Gold–certified recordings. Kendall makes life happen with his wife and four kids in Oklahoma City, OK, continuing his musical adventures and teaching classes part-time at the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma (ACM@UCO).
https://blackcloudproductions.com/kendall-combes
Shane Barnard grew up in Lubbock, Texas, where he attended Texas Tech University and later Texas A&M University. It was there that he led worship at the popular Christian student gathering Breakaway, and where he met Shane Everett, with whom he formed the musical group Shane & Shane. Barnard is also known for his unique style of strumming the acoustic guitar and his high vocal range. During his junior year as a student at Texas A&M University, Barnard began a recording career. Prior to joining Everett, Barnard teamed up with friend Caleb Carruth to release an album entitled Salvation Still Remains. Barnard and Carruth later agreed to end their partnership amicably, stating that they "were just moving in different directions." Barnard is married to fellow CCM artist Bethany Dillon.
https://www.watermark.org/people/shane-barnard
About the Performers:
Shane & Shane is the combination of solo artists Shane Barnard and Shane Everett. After meeting in college, Shane & Shane began writing songs and touring the country leading worship. Over fifteen years later, they’re writing more music than ever, with no intention of slowing down. Their desire has always been to glorify the Lord instead of themselves and they do so by writing music that is biblically based, lyrically rich, and sonically engaging. Over the past few years, Shane & Shane have dedicated their lives to encouraging and equipping worship leaders and their teams through an online resource called the Worship Initiative, an equipping ministry and collective of worship leaders that has grown into a thriving community.
https://www.shaneandshane.com/about
About the Poetry & Poet:
Cindy Williams Gutiérrez is an American poet and dramatist. Gutiérrez was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. She earned an M.F.A. from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program. In 2014, Poets & Writers named Gutiérrez a notable debut poet. In 2015, she was a finalist in the International Latino Book Awards. Gutiérrez received a 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship. Some of her publications include the WWII drama Words that Burn and the poetry collection Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women.
https://milwaukiepoetryseries.com/cindy-williams-gutierrez/
https://www.grito-poetry.com/
About the Devotion Author:
Steven Homestead
Artist, Composer, Writer, and Curator
Steven Homestead is a Renaissance creative with a passion for arts and the church. For over a decade, he has served as a leader with the arts ministry at Saddleback Church in Southern California. He is also the co-founder of new arts organization The Network of Christians in the Visual Art (ncva.community). In all, Steven works to promote honor, champion voice, share wonder, and develop unity. Discover more at stevenhomestead.com and connect via Instagram: @scubahomie.