March 31: How We Come to Value Life — Learning from Our Mistakes
♫ Music:
WEEK FIVE INTRODUCTION
NEW KINDS OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS
March 31 - April 6
When Christ came to redeem the world, he turned everything upside down. People expected him to come as a powerful, liberating king but instead he came as a suffering servant. He spent much of his time with desperate sinners, the downtrodden and poverty stricken--those despised and rejected by the religious establishment. Not only was his behavior misunderstood, but his teachings were revolutionary as well. Christ introduced unusual, new ways to look at traditional understandings of both birth and death by opening the Scriptures to those who had “ears to hear.” He taught that gaining eternal life was a matter of being “born again from above.” Both Christ and his followers spoke in paradoxically ways that transformed the concepts of weakness and death into necessities for entering into the spiritual realm. During this Lenten season, let us meditate on these Christian precepts as we experience the power of the cross in our lives.
Sunday, March 31
How We Come to Value Life--Learning from Our Mistakes
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:19
Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will teach you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God.
Poetry:
Original Sin
by Anna Rabinowitz
Baby is unique
untainted, original
We know she is special
Every baby is
She arrives without baggage to hamper
her way through tunnels or time
but she demands attention
AND HOW
Baby
means to survive
aims to be fed, changed, bathed
resorting to no more than a cry
a squirm
I observe Baby
now that she
breathes on her own
I swear I’ll keep copious notes
I’ll invite her for dinner or lunch
for a glug of lukewarm milk
I vow to take good care I WILL
Why, then, does she bathe in the sink
No one, not a single one, close by to lift her out
Why, then, does she not grow
Neglected Baby Pauvre Enfant
I have asked Baby to forgive me
Baby, Baby stay Baby, Baby stay
Do not become a stab in my brain
a chronic ache
a shrouded shout
a question mark laid out
in the morgue
daily vivisection
vapor-spiral woe going mad
beyond control though the venue is small
and it doesn’t matter where one sleeps
There is evil in the world
It awaits Baby
Sins even Sloth
fiesta through hills and vales
each time she is born
Morals and meanings stumble
but Sins know how to tango and tap
They make nimble partners
on the ballroom floor
Like tigers
they stalk their prey
Lead, follow, tight embrace
Baby in a frame, a pose
in a box
Tricky moves
l
a
n
g
u
i
d obambulation
warm morning sunny day
One, two, three, four one, two, three, four
We touch, we part
We yearn for tender mores
Baby beware
Baby be quick
Jump for the sky
Match to your flame
Watch the flares fly
Baby, there’s scorch here
TASTE AND SEE
I picture Jeremiah delivering these words in a particular way. He's led up to this verse with a litany of appalling observations and rhetorical questions about Judah’s glaring unfaithfulness and their inescapable doom. His volume and his blood pressure rise as the charges build, and he animates them with crescendoing grimaces and gesticulations while Baruch, his scribe, scribbles away with wide eyes, and wonders what he’s gotten himself into. The prophet stops. Baruch waits, looks up. Jeremiah starts again slowly. There’s sadness and sternness, but perhaps a hint of hope in his voice as well: “Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will teach you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God.”
The kingdom of Judah is in big trouble – that is clear. Yet even in this dire place of judgment, the mercy of God is not absent and a path towards God is present. Israel has forsaken its Teacher, but they are still embedded in the reality He created. If they will not learn from that reality to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” then they are left to “know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God.” And if this shadow side of the truth is truly reckoned with, if the bitterness is honestly acknowledged and deeply felt, then it may well turn into a longing for the light. Isn’t there mercy in that?
This was the particular situation of a certain people at a given time, but it is also a universal dynamic that repeats across history and resonates in our own hearts. Masaccio’s painting of The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden expresses palpably the bitterness of that first human forsaking of God. But even as Adam and Eve are banished from the garden, God plants the seed of their redemption to grow from their own offspring.
And Allegri’s “Misere Mei, Deus” puts the confession of David to beautiful, chilling song. The brazen evil he committed is known as such, and with his broken spirit he turns to God with legendary fervor and honesty. In each of these artfully depicted scenarios, the evil and bitterness was not terminal – but became a miraculous avenue for God’s redemptive activity. God has indeed shown a proclivity for bringing life out of death.
I reflect on these threads while anticipating a profound life-change: having a child. For the past 8 months or so my ears have been filled with congratulations from those around me, and with proclamations about the impending marvel of life and the love of God illustrated therein. It’s less enjoyable to consider that our little miracle will grapple with temptation and hard choices in a world where, as the poet Anna Rabinowitz puts it, “Morals and meanings stumble but sins know how to tango and tap." But I know that even with all our prayers and efforts to guide our child toward the goodness of God, there will be times when he or she will indulge these sins and we will be powerless to stop them.
In those times I believe our task will be to prayerfully help our child face the bitterness of forsaking God, and learn to frame that experience in light of the repentance and renewal that God still invites them to. Lest I be a blind guide, Lord help me do the same.
Prayer:
Good Father,
We fail, we sin, we turn our backs on you – and sometimes we go great distances without even looking over our shoulders. Guide us in recognizing where and why we do this in our lives. Help us to know and see, to consider and realize, to take a long, hard look at the effects. And use the bitterness we feel, Lord, to turn us back to you.
Amen.
Paul Rheingans
Biola Alumnus of the Institute for Spiritual Formation
Case Manager, The Salvation Army
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:
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, c. 1424-27
Masaccio
Fresco
7' x 2' 11"
Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine
Florence, Italy
The Expulsion from the Garden is a single scene from a fresco cycle painted by Masaccio on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy. The painting shows the scene from the Book of Genesis after Adam and Eve have eaten fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge and were subsequently cast out from the Garden of Eden to live in a world where they are forced to labor and suffer the consequences of their sin. Masaccio's evocation of Eve's deeply felt pain in particular explores the meaning of the expulsion on a previously unexamined, more personal level. It is a scene of remarkable emotion, as Eve, who covers herself in her shame, cries out in anguish, while Adam covers his face in disgrace. Three centuries after the fresco was originally painted, Cosimo III de' Medici, in line with accepted modes of decorum, ordered that fig leaves be added to the figures to conceal their nudity. These were eventually removed in the 1980s when the fresco was fully restored and cleaned to its original radiance.
About the Artist:
Masaccio (1401-1428) was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. He was known for his extraordinary skill at re-creating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at twenty-six years of age. Despite his short life, he influenced generations of artists that followed, including Michelangelo, who traveled to Florence specifically to learn from his work. He was one of the first to use linear perspective in his painting, employing techniques such as the vanishing point in art for the first time. He also moved away from the International Gothic style and elaborate ornamentation to a more naturalistic mode that employed chiaroscuro for greater realism.
About the Music:
“Misere mei, Deus” from the album Naked Byrd
About the Composer:
Gregorio Allegri (c. 1582-1652) was a Roman Catholic priest and Italian composer of the Roman School. After composing a large number of sacred music scores, Pope Urban VIII appointed him as a contralto to the choir of the Sistine Chapel. Allegri was one of the earliest composers for stringed instruments and is credited with the earliest string quartet. His best-known piece of music is the “Miserere mei, Deus” (Latin for "Have mercy on me, O God") from Psalm 51. The Miserere was been sung annually during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel. The work acquired a considerable reputation for mystery and inaccessibility because the Vatican forbade copies. They were not prepared, however, for a special visit in 1770 from a 14-year-old named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who, on a trip to Rome with his father, heard it but twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory.
Lyrics:
Psalm 51
(This translation is from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer)
Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness
According to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.
Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged.
Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me.
But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.
Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.
Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.
Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness.
Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew [show] Thy praise.
For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.
O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon Thine altar.
About the Performers:
Armonico Consort with Christopher Monks conducting
Armonico Consort is a critically acclaimed UK choir and instrumental ensemble renowned for its inspiring concerts and imaginative singing. Founded in 2001 by conductor and organist Christopher Monks, the Ensemble specializes in performances of Renaissance and Baroque music. In 2002 the company oversaw the creation of a series of academies designed to provide choral training for schoolchildren. The company has performed at many highly acclaimed UK venues such as the Barbican in London; Wigmore Hall; Cadogan Hall; the Bridgewater Hall; and King’s College, Cambridge. They have developed relationships with major concert halls across the UK, and their recordings are regularly featured on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, and radio stations across the world.
Christopher Monks, the founder and Artistic Director of Armonico Consort and its groundbreaking education program AC Academy, has established himself as a versatile and prolific conductor and keyboard player. Monks is equally at home with major and modern choral repertoire. Over the course of his career he has conducted at many of the greatest concert halls in the UK. After graduating from Cambridge University, where he was an organ scholar, Monks became an organist under David Hill at Winchester Cathedral. Through Hill’s encouragement, he developed a passion for choral conducting. An advocate of reaching children through the creation of youth choirs, he founded and developed the AC Academy, a music education program incorporating a variety of musical styles and traditions.
About the Poet:
Anna Rabinowitz (b 1933) is an American poet, librettist and editor. Rabinowitz is the editor and publisher emeritus of American Letters & Commentary and has been director of the American Opera Projects and vice president of the Poetry Society of America. She has published five collections of poetry, two of which were adapted into operas. Her first poetry collection, At the Site of Inside Out (1997), received the Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts Press. Darkling: A Poem (2001) is a book-length acrostic based on a collection of letters from family members lost in the Holocaust. Rabinowitz is also author of the poetry collections Present Tense (2010) and Words on the Street (2016). Her work has been widely published in journals such as the Atlantic Monthly, Boston Review, and the Paris Review. She is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
About the Devotional Writer
Paul Rheingans
Biola Alumnus of the Institute for Spiritual Formation
Case Manager, The Salvation Army
Paul Rheingans graduated from Talbot School of Theology in 2016 with an MA, Emphasis in Spiritual Formation. He and his wife live in Saint Paul, MN. He works as a housing case manager with the Salvation Army, and wrestles with the intersections of theology, poverty, prayer, and human nature.