December 29: Redeemer
♫ Music:
Day 30 - Monday, December 29
Title: Redeemer
Scripture #1: Job 19:25–26 (NKJV)
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God…”
Scripture #2: Isaiah 59:20–21 (NKJV)
“The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the Lord. “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
Poetry & Poet:
“A Sort of Redemption”
by Peter Viereck
The tenderness, the dignity of souls
Sweetens our cheated gusto and consoles.
It shades love’s lidless eyes like parasols
And tames the earthquake licking at our soles.
Re-tunes the tensions of the flesh we wear.
Forgives the dissonance our triumphs blare.
And maps the burrows of heart’s buried lair
Where furtive furry Wishes hide like moles.
O hear the kind voice, hear it everywhere
(It sings, it sings, it conjures and cajoles)
Prompting us shyly in our half-learnt roles.
It sprouts the great chromatic vine that lolls
In small black petals on our music scrolls
(It flares, it flowers—it quickens yet controls)
It teaches dance-steps to this uncouth bear
Who hops and stumbles in our skin and howls.
The weight that tortures diamonds out of coals
Is lighter than the skimming hooves of foals
Compared to one old heaviness our souls
Hoist daily, each alone, and cannot share:
To-be-awake, to sense, to-be-aware.
Hen even the dusty dreams that clog our skulls,
The rant and thunder of the storm we are,
The sunny silences our prophets hear,
The rainbow of the oil upon the shoals,
The crimes and Christmases of creature-lives,
And all pride’s barefoot tarantelle on knives
Are but man’s search for dignity of souls.
Redeemer
I have found that a big challenge in parenting is mediating arguments between my children. Their perceptions of the event are wildly discrepant, and the phrases, “she always…” or “he never…” might leak out. A disagreement is never a discreet, isolated incident, but is rather another bit of grit on the sandpaper of that sibling’s being that is constantly shaping the other. When I reflect on my own experience, I see the ways that someone’s actions suddenly awaken me to the fact that I am not impenetrable, nor was I meant to be. At its most simplistic, “you, being you, affects me.” In the heat of argument, we are tempted to believe only the shadow side of relationality, that we can wound one another, and that I might become a more broken version of myself as a result. And indeed, there are many who have experientially learned this deeply because sin is insidious and uses our capacity for relationship to affect us to our detriment.
Christ the Redeemer by Paul Landowski stands overlooking the massive city of Rio de Janeiro, a diverse city of millions who share with the world a great array of experiences and relationships with one another. We might look to our own cities, churches, and even families and feel the sting of a mess too big, habits too entrenched, and disagreements too enmeshed within a history impossible to undo. Today’s passage from Isaiah is, too, embedded within Israel's community and relationships in which God saw rampant injustice (Isa. 59:15).
It is not enough that one righteous person’s perfection will be the end of injustice, as justice can only exist in a relational and communal context. Interestingly, this is where we find Job; righteous, but afflicted and friendless. In his article “Theodicy in a Social Dimension,” theologian Walter Brueggemann raises the challenging idea that in being afflicted by Satan, the overlooked injustice lurking in the book of Job is that Job’s friends did nothing to stand against the injustices Job faced. Just before today’s passage, in verse 7, Job calls out for help, “but there is no justice.” To tie in Isaiah’s words, “there was no man…no one to intercede” (Isa. 59:16).
There is debate as to whether Job, in the midst of his own experience of injustice, is calling for God to become his Redeemer or whether he is calling for his own family, his kinsmen redeemer, to intercede for him. Perhaps that is why it is so significant that in Isaiah God is looking for “a man,” a true human, living justly, spreading the knowledge of God relationally within a family, a community, and in creation. The incarnation meets the need of Job and Isaiah. God becomes man to make us just humans again. Gregory of Nazianzus summarizes the significance of the completeness of Christ’s humanity in this way, “For that which He has not assumed, He has not healed.” It is complete humanity, body and mind, that Christ takes on in the incarnation, and so body and mind are engaged in the redemptive process. So too did the Son assume family, ethnicity, culture, and place, all bearing relational and communal issues of division and injustice. For God to save me is one level of miraculousness, but for Him to save us begins to reveal the limits of what I have internalized about God’s redemption. The supremacy of the Redeemer is that despite how big and entrenched these issues are, his redemption, when complete, is somehow bigger than the injustices of the history of humanity. This is incomprehensible to me. By faith my concept of the Redeemer needs to enlarge.
Take time to hold the emotions that arise in you as you consider the ways you have been affected relationally by your family and community, and about the ways you have affected those around you. Do you feel hope? Grief? Anger? Fear? Does it feel safer to consider personal redemption rather than relational redemption?
As we consider what is stirred up, we might begin to see our own “half-learnt roles” as Peter Viereck words it in today’s poem. May we learn a new way of being human, one where we affect each other justly, in Christ and by the Spirit. Today’s music, “I know that my Redeemer Lives,” begins with a solo tone that tremulously stands in the background until it is finally swept into the melody of the community of voices and sounds that are each distinct, and yet, unified in praise. May we humbly put forth our note in faith that the Spirit would carry it, that it might both affect and be affected for our collective good and for His glory as await the fullness of His Kingdom.
Prayer:
Father,
For those who believe in your Son, you gave the right to become children of God, to enter into a family and into a new relationship. We are brought together by one Spirit, the same Spirit that you promised so long ago. Grow us into our humanity, not as the world would teach us about humanity, but that humanity which you redeemed us to. Make us into a people who live justly and who love mercy so that by the power of Your Spirit at work among us, your redemptive work may spread into ever greater relational and communal healing.
Amen
Stacie Poston
Adjunct Instructor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Artwork and Artist: #1
Christ the Redeemer Overlooking Rio De Janeiro
Sculptor/Designers: Heitor da Silva Costa, Paul Landowski, and Gheorghe Leonida
1922–1931
98 ft. tall with 92-ft. arm span
635 metric tons
Reinforced concrete and soapstone
Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Public Domain
Photograph: Artyominc
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Artwork and Artist #2:
Christ the Redeemer
Sculptor/Designers: Heitor da Silva Costa, Paul Landowski, and Gheorghe Leonida
1922–1931
98 ft. tall with 92-ft. arm span
635 metric tons
Reinforced concrete and soapstone
Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Public Domain
Photograph: Arturdiasr
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Christ the Redeemer is an art deco statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was created by French-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida sculpted the face. In the 1850s, priest Pedro Maria Boss proposed that a Catholic monument be erected to honor Princess Isabel of Brazil, regent of Brazil and the daughter of Emperor Pedro II. However, in 1889, the country became a republic, and owing to the separation of church and state, the proposed statue was not approved. The idea was set aside until 1921, when the Catholic Circle of Rio made a second proposal for a landmark statue on the Corcovado Mountain. The group attracted donations and collected signatures from the local Catholic community to support the building of the statue. Eventually, the statue of Christ the Redeemer with welcoming open arms, a symbol of peace and faith, was chosen. Construction began in 1922 and was completed in 1931. A symbol of Christianity around the world, the statue has also become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)
About the Sculptor:
Paul Maximilien Landowski (1875–1961) was a French monument sculptor of Polish descent. He studied at the Académie Julian, before graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He won the Prix de Rome in 1900 with his statue of David, and went on to a fifty-five-year career in the arts. He produced over thirty-five monuments in the city of Paris and twelve more in the surrounding area. Among those is the art deco figure of St. Genevieve on the 1928 Pont de la Tournelle. Landowski is widely known for the 1931 Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a collaboration with civil engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and architect/sculptor Gheorghe Leonida. Some sources indicate Landowski designed Christ's head and hands, but it was Leonida who created the head when asked by Landowski.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Landowski
About the Music #1: “O Come Redeemer of the Earth” from the album Advent at Ephesus
Lyrics #1:
Come, thou Redeemer of the earth,
And manifest thy virgin-birth:
Let every age adoring fall;
Such birth befits the God of all.
Begotten of no human will,
But of the Spirit, thou art still.
The Word of God, in flesh arrayed,
The promise to who, man has made.
From God the Father he proceeds,
To God the Father back he speeds,
Runs out his course to death and hell,
Returns on God's high throne to dwell.
O equal to thy Father, thou!
Gird on thy fleshly mantle now,
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.
Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
And darkness glow with new-born light,
No more shall night extinguish day,
Where love's bright beams their power display.
O Jesu, virgin-born, to thee
Eternal praise and glory be,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Spirit, evermore.
Amen.
About the Composer #1:
Ambrosius, better known as Saint Ambrose (c. 340–397), was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the fourth century. He was the Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia, headquartered in Milan, Italy, before being made Bishop of Milan by popular acclamation in 374. Traditionally, St. Ambrose is credited with promoting the "antiphonal chant," a style of chanting in which one side of the choir responds alternately to the other. He is also known for composing “Veni Redemptor Gentium,” an Advent hymn. Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great as one of the great Latin doctors of the early church.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose
About the Performers #1:
The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles are a monastic order of sisters located in rural Missouri, dedicated to prayer for priests. Their album Advent at Ephesus includes a variety of traditional Latin and English hymns, polyphony, Gregorian chant, medieval harmonies, and an original piece to prayerfully lead the listener through the sacred season in preparation for Christmas.
https://benedictinesofmary.org/about-us/
https://www.amazon.com/Advent-Ephesus-Benedictines-Queen-Apostles/dp/B01K8L5014/
About the Music #2: “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” from the album That Easter Morning
Lyrics #2:
I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my everlasting Head.
He lives to grant me rich supply,
He lives to guide me with His eye,
He lives to comfort me when faint,
He lives to hear my soul's complaint.
He lives to silence all my fears,
He lives to wipe away my tears,
He lives to calm my troubled heart,
He lives all blessings to impart.
He lives, my kind, wise, heav'nly Friend,
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I'll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,
"I know that my Jesus lives!"
He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,
"I know that my Jesus lives!"
About the Composer #2:
Samuel Medley (1738–1760) was an English minister and hymn writer. At fourteen, he was apprenticed to an oilman in the city of London. In 1755, however, he obtained his freedom upon entering the Royal Navy, from which he was discharged after being wounded in 1759. From 1762 to 1766, Medley maintained a successful school in Soho, London, and became acquainted with Baptist minister Andrew Gifford, who encouraged him to enter the Baptist ministry. Medley was ordained in 1768, and in 1772 he began his ministry in Liverpool, where he worked among the seamen of the port. Medley wrote over two hundred thirty hymns. He wrote "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in 1775, and it was first published in George Whitefield's Psalms and Hymns hymnal the same year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Medley_(minister)
About the Performers #2: Millennial Choirs and Orchestra
Millennial Choirs and Orchestra (MCO) is an American musical organization that was founded in 2007 by brothers and musicians Dr. Brett Stewart and Brandon Stewart for the purpose of teaching sacred and classical music. The organization prioritizes offering music performance education, with a focus on the works and styles of classical composers. Annually, more than five thousand individuals participate in MCO. MCO has seven locations: California (Orange County), Arizona (East Valley), Texas-Dallas, Texas-Austin, Utah (Wasatch Front), Idaho (Treasure Valley), and Missouri (Kansas City). Each location comprises four youth choirs, an adult choir, and a symphony orchestra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennial_Choirs_%26_Orchestras
About the Poetry & Poet:
Peter Robert Edwin Viereck (1916–2006) was an American writer, poet, and professor of history at Mount Holyoke College. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1949 for Terror and Decorum, a collection of poetry. He received his B.A. summa cum laude in history from Harvard University in 1937. He then specialized in European history, receiving his M.A. in 1939 and his Ph.D. in 1942, both from Harvard. Viereck was prolific in his writing from 1938, publishing collections of poems, some first published in Poetry Magazine. He won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1949 for the collection Terror and Decorum. In 1955, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florence. Viereck taught at Smith College in 1946 and 1947. In 1948, he joined the faculty at nearby Mount Holyoke College, where he taught history for nearly fifty years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Viereck
About the Devotion Author:
Stacie Poston
Adjunct Instructor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Stacie Poston completed her graduate studies in biology, focusing on cell and molecular biology and immunology, before taking time to raise her family of four kids with her husband. She enjoys stepping onto Biola's campus to discuss great books and loves to see how God's hand is evident in all the big and small parts of life.