Image: Vincent Van Gogh, ‘The Potato Eaters’, 1885.
‘A dwelling-place for God’
Andrew Collis
Ordinary Sunday 21, Year B
1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; John 6:56-69
John’s Jesus is a teacher of Wisdom. John’s Jesus is also Wisdom personified, Sophia incarnate. The offence, the “stumbling block”, has to do with this.
It’s one thing to accept the teaching of a teacher. It’s something else to accept/welcome the teacher, which entails another level of understanding, another kind of intimacy. Lives entwined.
Appreciating the generous and costly service/witness of a teacher (brother, sister, elder, co-worker, volunteer). Perhaps hearing the voice of a teacher (ancestor, mentor, friend) within. Or living out a teacher’s philosophy of compassion. Then becoming a teacher, at one with the teaching itself.
When the teacher is vulnerable, persecuted even … the intimacy brings risk, therefore resistance. We break bread with Jesus. We become what we receive – the body of Christ. Many disciples remark, “We can’t put up with this kind of talk!” Jesus says to the Twelve, “Are you going to leave me, too?”
Simon Peter, trembling, answers on our behalf, “Rabbi, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe; we’re convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
By the power of the Spirit, our notions of holiness are transformed. The holy comes to signify faithfulness, intimacy, solidarity …
In 1885, Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh painted “The Potato Eaters”. At the time, it was regarded an offensive work, its peasant family an unworthy artistic subject. Many bourgeois viewers were repulsed by it – felt repelled by its invitation to empathise. In time, as we know, they considered it a masterpiece, a moving depiction of humanity … of lives entwined.
Vincent could not depict angels, magi or shepherds he had never seen. Instead, he found the divine in nature and the sacred in everyday people from peasants and sand barge workers to cradle rockers and postal workers. His form of innovation was simply extracting these common, everyday scenes from reality and imbuing them with touches from previous masters. The implication is that within the ordinary is the sacred …
The small crucifix hanging on the wall in the background is the only overt reference to Christianity. The painting might seem rather discordant but for its one unifying element: the lamp, with its warm glow … The lamp was Vincent’s symbol of love and recalls the light of the gospel he once brought into the huts of the peasants and miners.
In the context of “The Potato Eaters”, the lamp above the table shines a eucharistic light … hospitality, intimacy … potatoes, bread and coffee … the light of lives entwined.
Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar says that recognising this kind of beauty, being drawn toward it (seeing through what at first offends or confounds), means communion with Christ.
I acknowledge the generous and costly service/witness of Garry Worete Deverell, a cross-cultural theologian, teacher … for whom the dwelling-place of God in Christ – Sophia incarnate – means Country … who invites us, with Solomon and the psalmist – perhaps with Vincent, too – to imagine this house of sand and stone, wood and glass (Country mis/appropriated, dis/respected) … this place of water and light and life-giving hospitality (our own hearts and hands called to sharing, caring for Country) … an icon of our true home.
By the power of the Spirit, our notions of holiness are transformed. The holy comes to signify faithfulness, intimacy, solidarity … abundant life. May it be so. Amen.
