April 9: “Do Not Be Afraid”
♫ Music:
Day 52 - Friday, April 9
Title: “DO NOT BE AFRAID”
Scripture: Matthew 17: 1-9
Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
Poetry:
Domestic Work, 1937
by Natasha Trethewey
All week she's cleaned
someone else's house,
stared down her own face
in the shine of copper—
bottomed pots, polished
wood, toilets she'd pull
the lid to—that look saying
Let's make a change, girl.
But Sunday mornings are hers—
church clothes starched
and hanging, a record spinning
on the console, the whole house
dancing. She raises the shades,
washes the rooms in light,
buckets of water, Octagon soap.
Cleanliness is next to godliness ...
Windows and doors flung wide,
curtains two-stepping
forward and back, neck bones
bumping in the pot, a choir
of clothes clapping on the line.
Nearer my God to Thee ...
She beats time on the rugs,
blows dust from the broom
like dandelion spores, each one
a wish for something better.
NEARER MY GOD TO THEE …
Windows and doors flung wide,
curtains two-stepping
forward and back.
This poem by Natasha Trethewey so perfectly contrasts the weariness born of everyday toil with the small slivers of glory we hold dear: moments of renewal and anticipation, celebratory rituals. Whether we spend our days scrubbing toilets daily or not, those "Sunday morning" moments are vital spiritual points of renewal and connection to the One who lifts our eyes beyond.
What strikes me about Michael Winters' print Mount Tabor is that it embodies exactly this sort of yearning for glory amidst the everyday. As the artist himself explains:
Mount Tabor. . . is where the transfiguration of Christ is thought to have occurred. I stood viewing that scene in 2017. It looked so normal. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to punch holes in this photograph, but I think it's because I wanted to be able to see through this "normal" landscape to the glory of the transfigured Christ - which is to say - I wanted to see reality.
His punching of the holes is an act of rupture. Yet, not a violent one as much as a ritualized act of longing. The wobbly grid these holes form brings to mind the famous essay entitled Grids by art theorist Rosalind Krauss, who argues that the arrival of the grid as an art subject caused modern abstract painters to land "...in a place that was out of reach of everything that went before. Which is to say, they landed in the present, and everything else was declared to be the past." The grid is presence. It theoretically spreads forever in every direction, giving form and measure to the infinite. Across time and culture, it has been used to invoke geometric perfection, universal order, divine logic. Transcendence made material.
Having had his moment of witnessing the transcendent on Mount Tabor, Peter is often given a bad rap for his response. It strikes us as naive, or an earnest but comedic misreading the moment. Maybe pridefully overconfident of his role, maybe entirely missing the point.
But maybe Peter is on to something! In this moment of the veil being lifted, he does what we all should do: attempt to join in the moment, to worship with the skills and tools we have at our disposal. When we worship, aiming to reach our souls toward the infinite Creator, some of us raise our hands. We dim the lights. Maybe our worship leaders may reverb effects on guitars in order to evoke a sense of vastness. These are our tools: material, cultural, embodied. If Peter's response is absurd, it may be no more or less so than our own creative, if all too human, attempts at grasping at the glory. We should be orienting all of these tools at our disposal toward worship. What else, ultimately, would be a higher purpose for human life?
Of course, "coming down the mountain" is an inevitable end to such stories, as Moses himself experienced from Peter's vantage point in Exodus 32. While on Mount Sinai, in the thinly veiled presence of the LORD, Moses was given the 10 Commandments. Yet, he was also given highly specific design plans for the clothing, architecture, and objects God wanted the Israelites to worship Him with.
You shall make a curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, which have hooks of gold and rest on four bases of silver. You shall hang the curtain under the clasps, and bring the ark of the covenant in there, within the curtain; and the curtain shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy…(Exodus 26:31-33).
And so, God gives his people every day, material means to meet Him. Even if these rituals, as some would argue, are mere placeholders for the true incarnation to come-—Jesus of Nazareth—they give form to the veil. They ground God's presence in things that can be seen, touched, and lived with. Just as Mount Tabor still stood, as it still stands today, mute and immutable, a backdrop to the everyday, it also serves as a reminder that through the fog of the mundane is the presence of the Divine, capable of tearing through normalcy and dropping us to our faces.
The gridded weave of colorful yarn and linen separating the holy from the most holy was crafted according to God the Father's demands. It was likely buffeted by the desert winds, but could not be flung wide open. The curtains could not "dance" until the Son, God among us, tore the veil.
Prayer:
O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
—William Reed Huntington, from the Book of Common Prayer
Luke Aleckson
Professor, Department of Art
Vice-Chair, Faculty Senate 2020-21
Executive Director, Center for Christianity, Culture & the Arts
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:
Mount Tabor
Michael Winters
2017
Inkjet print with holes punched out in white wood frame
13 x 19 inches
When Michael Winters photographed Mount Tabor, where the transfiguration of Christ is thought to have occurred, he recalls, “I stood viewing that scene in 2017. It looked so normal. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to punch holes in this photograph, but I think it's because I wanted to be able to see through this "normal" landscape to the glory of the transfigured Christ - which is to say - I wanted to see reality.”
https://www.michaeltwinters.com/news
About the Artist #1:
Michael Winters is a photo-based artist and arts facilitator based in the Shelby Park neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. Michael’s photography has been shown in gallery contexts like Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, Green Building Gallery, and Georgetown College and has been featured online on VICE Creators Project and New Landscape Photography, and on the streets through the Alley Gallery in downtown Louisville. Winters is also the owner of Material Print Shop, which assists artists and photographers in making great prints.
https://www.michaeltwinters.com/news
About the Artwork #2:
Transfiguration
Ventzislav Piriankov
2012
Oil on canvas
For much of his ministry, Jesus’ glory was hidden from the world by his humanity. But during the Transfiguration, Jesus’ radiant and eternal glory was visually displayed by a pure blinding white light witnessed by his three of his closest disciples; Peter, James, and John. On a secluded mountaintop, as Jesus radiates bright rays of his divine glory, the prophet Elijah representing the prophets, and Moses representing the Law also appear on either side of Jesus. Polish artist Ventzislav Piriankov illustrates this moment as Christ "was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light" and as the disciples draw back in fear and worship. This glimpse of glory was one of the most definitive revelations of Jesus as divine next to the resurrection itself; foretelling the new covenant that brings to salvation to humanity and glory to God.
About the Artist #2:
Ventzislav “Ventzi” Piriankov (b. 1971) is a Bulgarian artist who studied for a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, after which he came to Poland to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. He obtained a diploma in painting in 1995. Since 2004 he has been running his own Ventzi Art Gallery in Poznan. As they write on the website of the gallery, “In Poland, his work, so far influenced by the southern culture, has been enriched with elements of asceticism, tranquility, stability and order." His works are characterized by stability and peace with a minimum of extraneous details.
https://sztuka.agraart.pl/autor/licytacje/2666/ventzislav-piriankov
About the Music:
“Tenamos Esperanza” from the album Urbana 18 Live: Faithful Witness
Lyrics:
Porque El entró en el mundo y en la historia;
Porque El quebró el silencio y la agonía;
Porque llenó la tierra de su gloria;
Porque fue luz en nuestra noche fría.
Porque nació en un pesebre oscuro;
Porque vivió sembrando amor y vida;
Porque partió los corazones duros
Y levantó las almas abatidas.
Por eso es que hoy tenemos esperanza;
Por eso es que hoy luchamos con porfía;
Por eso es que hoy miramos con confianza,
El porvenir en esta tierra mía.
Porque atacó a ambiciosos mercaderes
Y denunció maldad e hipocresía;
Porque exaltó a los ninos, las mujeres
Y rechazó a los que de orgullo ardían.
Porque El cargó la cruz de nuestras penas
Y saboreó la hiel de nuestros males;
Porque aceptó sufrir nuestra condena,
Y así morir por todos los mortales.
Porque una aurora vio su gran victoria
Sobre la muerte, el miedo, las mentiras;
Ya nada puede detener su historia,
Ni de su Reino eterno la venida
Lyrics Translation:
“We Have Hope”
Because He came into the world and into history,
Because He broke the silence and the agony,
Because He filled the earth with His glory,
Because He was light in our cold night.
Because He was born in a dark manger,
Because He lived sowing love and life,
Because He opened up the hard of heart
And lifted up downtrodden souls
Therefore we have hope today,
Therefore we fight on tenaciously today,
Therefore today we look confidently on
The future of this land of mine.
Because He attacked the ambitious merchants
And denounced evil and hypocrisy;
Because He exalted the children, the women,
And rejected those who burn with arrogance.
Because He bore the cross of our suffering
And because He tasted the bitterness of our ills;
Because He accepted to suffer our condemnation
And thus died for all mortals.
Because a dawn saw His great victory
Over death, the fear, the lies;
Now nothing can hold back His history
Or the coming of His eternal kingdom.
About the Lyricists/Composers:
Federico José Pagura and Homero Perera
Federico José Pagura (1923–2016) was an Argentine religious leader and champion of human rights. He converted to Methodism in his adolescence, became a school teacher, and graduated from the Facultad Evangélica de Teología in Buenos Aires. He did post-graduate studies in the United States and was ordained a Methodist pastor in 1950. Returning to Argentina and to seminary teaching, he distinguished himself as a champion of human rights and ecumenism. Pagura served as president of the Latin American Council of Churches (1972–92). He helped refugees from political persecution in Chile after the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. During the Argentine dictatorship (1976–1983), Bishop Pagura joined in the silent vigils of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the abduction of thousands of children by the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla. Pagura was elected Bishop of The Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina and served from 1977 to 1989. In 1998, he was elected to a six-year term as one of ten co-presidents of the World Council of Churches. Interested in poetry and music since his adolescence, he was the president of the editorial committee which published in 1962 an interdenominational hymnal, Cántico Nuevo, for which he contributed seventy-seven Spanish translations of hymns together with five original hymns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Jos%C3%A9_Pagura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo
Argentine Tango Hymn:
“Tenemos Esperanza” (“We Have Hope”)
This hymn text was written in 1979 by Federico Pagura, the Argentine Methodist bishop and human rights champion, and set to tango music by Homero Perera (1939–2019) of Uruguay. Argentinian pastor Federico “Fede” Apecena, who lives in Georgia in the US, recently introduced the song to his friend Josh Davis, who heads the multicultural worship ministry Proskuneo, and the two banged out this awesome video performance. “The song is a record of all that Jesus came to do and to be,” Apecena explains at the end of the video. [HT: Global Christian Worship.]
https://artandtheology.org/tag/homero-perera/
About the Performers:
Urbana Worship and Melissa Olachea
Urbana Worship is a collective of artists and campus ministers who are passionate about global, multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual music that draws people deeper into the heart of God, and deep into God’s heart for the nations. They’re rooted in InterVarsity’s Urbana Student Missions Conference, one of the largest missions conferences in North America. Generations of students—more than 300,000 individuals—from across North America have found their place in God’s global mission as Urbana participants. And it is with this heart for God’s mission that Urbana Worship joins with Christians around the world in praising the Lord in every language, through every genre, and with every instrument.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7D6vULmobL69xLtkISOTjZ
Melissa Olachea is a Latina singer/songwriter. She is a campus minister with Compa (Compañerismo Estudiantil) in Mexico, serving in Tijuana. Melissa has participated as a singer and worship leader in several years of Urbana Student Missions conferences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnacjPiqvDE&ab_channel=UrbanaMissions
About the Poet:
Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966) is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2013. She is the author of four collections of poetry: Domestic Work (2000); Bellocq’s Ophelia (2002); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize; and Thrall (2012). In 2010 she published a book of non-fiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She is a former Poet Laureate of Mississippi. Trethewey is the Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University. She previously served as the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she taught from 2001 to 2017. Trethewey was elected in 2019 both to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Academy of American Poets Chancellor David St. John said Trethewey “is one of our formal masters, a poet of exquisite delicacy and poise who is always unveiling the racial and historical inequities of our country and the ongoing personal expense of these injustices. Rarely has any poetic intersection of cultural and personal experience felt more inevitable, more painful, or profound.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Trethewey
About the Devotion Author:
Luke Aleckson
Professor, Department of Art
Vice-Chair, Faculty Senate 2020–21
Executive Director, Center for Christianity, Culture & the Arts
Biola University
Luke Aleckson is an Assistant Professor of Art at Biola University and is currently the Executive Director of the CCCA. He received his M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in sculpture and a B.S. in art from the University of Northwestern, St. Paul, Minnesota. Past positions have included serving as Department Chair and Professor of Art and Design at the University of Northwestern and the Director of Denler Gallery in St. Paul. Past exhibitions of his artwork have been held nationally, at venues such as the Chicago Cultural Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Suburban in Oak Park, Illinois. He maintains an active art practice in which he explores sculpture, digital modeling, video art, and installation art.