(P)Go...
Illustration
(P)
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."
One of my favorite contemporary American paintings is called "Intrusion" by Henry Cherry. It hangs in the Worcester Art Museum and is worthy of its name. The presence of dazzling pinks among greens and rust is an intrusion upon classical sensibilities. Then, too, the bands of color against the forest green background are reminiscent of giant fingers intruding into empty space. Most interesting, though, the fingers are outlined in black with the pink and rust filling in the outlines. Only they don't exactly fill in. Sometimes they spill over and the colors intrude into places where they don't seem to belong.
A similar bursting vitality characterized the early Christian church. It intruded into the world and refused to accommodate itself to the black lines made by Roman standards and values. It broke through those lines with its distinctive message about the grace of God and turned the world upside down.
So, too, today, the church is called to be an intruder in a world of hate, envy and murder. God intruded into the world through the incarnation. The church is called to be a repetition of the incarnation, to be in the world the way that God was in Christ. We cannot afford, as could Voltaire's Candide, merely to cultivate our own garden.
- Bachelder
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."
One of my favorite contemporary American paintings is called "Intrusion" by Henry Cherry. It hangs in the Worcester Art Museum and is worthy of its name. The presence of dazzling pinks among greens and rust is an intrusion upon classical sensibilities. Then, too, the bands of color against the forest green background are reminiscent of giant fingers intruding into empty space. Most interesting, though, the fingers are outlined in black with the pink and rust filling in the outlines. Only they don't exactly fill in. Sometimes they spill over and the colors intrude into places where they don't seem to belong.
A similar bursting vitality characterized the early Christian church. It intruded into the world and refused to accommodate itself to the black lines made by Roman standards and values. It broke through those lines with its distinctive message about the grace of God and turned the world upside down.
So, too, today, the church is called to be an intruder in a world of hate, envy and murder. God intruded into the world through the incarnation. The church is called to be a repetition of the incarnation, to be in the world the way that God was in Christ. We cannot afford, as could Voltaire's Candide, merely to cultivate our own garden.
- Bachelder
