This is a little picture I’ve been toying with for a while. It’s called The Hospitality of Abraham’s Children and is my take on the famous Rublev icon of the Trinity (aka The Hospitality of Abraham). It’s in response to the Images of the Church Lent activity, number 8, The Table of the Lord.
I’m not very good at drawing people, so bear with the quality and enjoy the idea!
Here’s my second Lent doodle. The idea here is that the fish all fit together precisely because they’re not the same as each other. In fact, some of the fish are downright weird looking and a little mis-shapen. But if they weren’t they wouldn’t fit in here, and more importantly, they’d be stopping other fish from fitting in.
The Cambridge Theological Federation is taking part in a creative Lent project in which everyone is invited to respond (in words, music, art, photography etc) to any or all of the 76 biblical descriptions of the church. Here’s the blog that’s collecting them all.
Here’s my first. The idea is that the boat may look kind of small and far away and empty, but that’s OK because look at all the people who are fine about walking on water.
Today’s reading at the morning Eucharist was Mark 7.1-13.
I can’t think of an instance in the gospels when the Pharisees would have come away from a conversation with Jesus thinking, ‘That went well, I think we really convinced him this time.’ And they try so hard, so very hard, to get it right, and they always miss what’s right in front of them.
Today, this reading comes across not as a last Alleluia before the fast begins, but perhaps more as a comment on Lent itself and how we keep it. It reminds us that the whole point of the law when it was given was to give another way, alongside all the many other gifts and self-revelations of God through the centuries, for us to ‘learn to be God’s people once again.’
It invites us to think about how whatever Lenten discipline we’ve chosen to undertake is going to help us draw closer to God – and warns us against anything that might inadvertently become an end in itself and so drive a wedge between us and God.
It took the ancient Israelites 40 years – a whole lifetime – to learn to be God’s people, and they still kept getting it wrong, just as we do. The law that was given to them during this time at Sinai was supposed to help, but in every generation since, God’s people have done as the gospel’s Pharisees tend to do, and made the law into a thing in itself, rather than as a way of learning to be People of God. All that time in the wilderness, trying to work out how to do it right, and all along, through the visceral and dramatic pillars of fire and cloud, and through the daily gift of manna from heaven, God was right there with them, inviting his beloved children to trust him, to draw up a chair at his table, sit and eat.
The poor Pharisees in the gospel reading are in a similar boat. They try so hard to get it right, and all the time they’re missing what’s right in front of them: Jesus’ friends, with their unwashed hands, are drawing up a chair every day and sitting down to eat with God. I pray that when the last judgement comes, all who tried so hard, yet missed the point, will be confronted with the raw love and generosity and hospitality of God that says, ‘Sit, and eat’, and finally reply, ‘Thank you, I’d love to’.
This Lent, I pray that whatever we ‘do’ may be a way to draw closer, to become God’s people once again, whether that process takes 40 days or 40 years. I pray that it will be a time when we can hear God’s invitation and respond by drawing our chair closer – in worship, work, leisure, and rest – and enjoy table fellowship with our Lord.
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