The View from Bolton Street

John Seeley 12/16/20 John Seeley 12/16/20

Advent Icons: I Am The Vine

“I am the vine, you are the branches” (Russian Icon)

Jesus is recorded in the Gospel According to John (Jn 15) as having made this statement to his disciples during the course of their last Passover meal together on Maundy Thursday after Judas has left the table (Jn 13) and before going out to the garden where he is arrested (Jn 18). The claim comes in the midst of four chapter long discourse on love. Jesus opens the discourse with the statement: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” (Jn 14:6-7) Jesus says he is in the Father and the Father is in him and, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15) And Jesus promises to ask the Father to send an Advocate, “the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you and he will be in you.” (Jn14:17) After another half chapter of describing the interdependency and mutual love of the Father and the Son, and the Son and the disciples and the agency of the Advocate in the lives of the disciples, Jesus says, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine-grower”(Jn 15:1) He describes the actions of tending and pruning the vine, and then announces, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” (Jn 15:5) The pruned branches bear fruit, to the glory of the Father and Jesus continues, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (Jn 15:8 – 15:13)

After two more chapters describing persecutions, trials and tribulation, sorrow and loss, Jesus affirms that there will also be joy and love. And concludes his dissertation on love with a prayer:

‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’(Jn 17:25-26)

This Russian icon provides a very literal interpretation of the simple statement, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Against a dark blue “cosmic” background there is a large golden yellow multi-branched, deeply rooted vine covered with leaves and bunches of fruit. Jesus is enthroned as a Pantocrator but is dressed more as a teacher than a judge. He does not bear the marks of the stigmata, thus he is being depicted in the vine as being alive. In his lap, Jesus has an open book, bearing the titular inscription. His halo bears the the traditional Greek abbreviation for “One Who Is” or “I AM.” In the branches around him are twelve haloed figures. One could easily say that these figure represent the twelve disciples, and that is indeed one possible interpretation, but none of these figures have their names inscribed and only one of the figures has a uniquely identifiable attribute. Because the specific “I am the vine” statement comes in the context of a “known” direct teaching by Jesus of his disciples, we need to expand our definition of disciples to “follower” of Jesus for the imagery to make sense. The top two figures are easy to identify. The elderly white haired, white bearded figure robed in yellow holds two keys in his left hand. The keys represent the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, thus the figure represents St Peter. Because the icon uses hierarchical perspective as exemplified by the large figure of Jesus and the relatively smaller stature of the other figures, the younger figure opposite St Peter would have to be his equal in the eyes of the church. The younger figure has a short beard, short hair and receding hairline. The figure hold a codex, a compendium of papers or letters. St Peter's peer would be the Apostle to the Gentiles, thus I would name the second figure St Paul. The four figures on the same level as Jesus each hold a book. Because the four figures are basically in a line with Jesus they share a commonality. I suggest their shared commonality is found in the life of Jesus. Though none of the richly decorated book covers bears a cross, I would hazard that the four book bearers represent the four Gospellers. Each of the lower three figures on either side of the central trunk holds in a hand a rolled up scroll. In traditional iconography a rolled up scroll represents knowledge or teachings. These six figures could represent the disciples. Each of the twelve figures has distinctive individual hair color, they have long hair or short hair, they are beardless youths and long bearded elders. Each of the figures has their own color combinations in their clothing. In spite the fact that only white males are depicted in this icon, the icon displays an astonishing amount of diversity.

The icon shows the centrality of the teaching of Jesus as the vine to the expansion and growth of the church as the branches. Our mutual dependance on each other, our diversity and divergent ministries are on display. We are each important member of the whole body of the church. Together we can only thrive if we are nourished and nurtured by the love of God in Christ Jesus and center our communal life on Christ.

Memorial Episcopal Church 12/16/20 Memorial Episcopal Church 12/16/20

E-Lessons & Carols 10:30am, 12/20

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Memorial Episcopal Church 12/16/20 Memorial Episcopal Church 12/16/20

E-Faith@8, 12/20

The Faith@8 group is continuing to meet during this time of social distancing. Join us for an informal, community led service with more questions than answers and an open spot for whoever appears. Just follow the Zoom link below!

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Memorial Episcopal Church 12/9/20 Memorial Episcopal Church 12/9/20

The View from Bolton Street

Giving Good Gifts

by the Rev. Grey Maggiano

When the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent." Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you."

2 Samuel 7:1

Have you ever given someone a gift they didn’t want? Totally misread the room and gave a gift that went totally wrong? Over and over God’s people try to please God, and over and over we miss the mark. God gave us judges and we demanded a king, God asked for a tent and we gave him a temple.

But don’t think this was just the Israelites! The story of the gospels is the story of Jesus followers not quite getting what Jesus is saying. Over and over again. We think God wants stuff. Palaces and temples and Kingdoms and the like -- and all God wants is us. Our love.

So perhaps this is a good time to remember that we are no different. We haven’t miraculously figured out how to understand God perfectly in the 21st century. The life of the Christian Faith is a constant pattern of seeking to get closer to God, making mistakes, and seeking to return. Advent is a season of return. We look back at the year prior - consider those things that have made us feel Christ’s presence and take a moment to also remember those moments of God’s absence in our lives.

There is no shame in giving a bad gift. Because you still gave a gift out of love. The shame would be in pretending the gift was fine, or running away from the relationship rather than apologize or seeking to make amends. This has been a tough year. We have all had our share of challenges, issues, mistakes, losses and hurts. Hopefully we also have received a few good gifts along the way - new relationships, new jobs, new opportunities, deeper faith.

This advent we are awaiting the incarnation, and perhaps our own incarnation -- post COVID, new mayor, new president, renewed faith community here at Memorial. And so in our waiting, we should all take a moment to forgive ourselves. Forgive the anger, the frustration, the hurt we have felt. The bad gifts we have given, and to also perhaps offer a little bit of forgiveness for those bad gifts we have received.

Because as Christmas approaches, so does the time to give GOOD gifts. Just as God has given us the gift of the divine incarnate to walk among us, we turned around and gave gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Not a particularly fair trade, but they were received gratefully just the same. Because it was a gift of Love. What good gifts are you going to give in the next year? To God, to your community, to yourself, to your church, to the world?

John Seeley 12/8/20 John Seeley 12/8/20

Advent Icons: Anapeson

Christ Crouched as a Lion (Greek Icon)

This type of icon of Jesus sleeping or reclining (Anapeson in Greek) was popularized in Greece and the Balkans in the 13th century. The scriptural basis for the icon comes from the book of Genesis 49:9 (Greek Septuagint):

…ἀναπεσὼν ἐκοιμήθης ὡς λέων καὶ ὡς σκύμνος· τίς ἐγερεῖ αὐτόν;
…anapeson ekoimethes hos leon kai hos skumnos; tis egerei auton
“..reclining he slept as a lion, and as a [lion’s] whelp; who shall rouse him up?”

The full verse is part of Jacob's final blessing of his sons in Genesis 49 (NRSV).

Judah is a lion’s whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his.

In Orthodox theology this blessing of Judah is traditionally regarded as the oldest prophecy of the coming of Christ. The prophecy suggests that Christ will come as the Lion of Judah. This could be expanded upon Christ, the Lamb of God will come as the Lion of Judah.

In old Greek churches the Anapeson was sometimes painted over the western door; because of that, it is at times associated also with Psalm 121:8:

“The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”

The icon can be read as a culturally informed appropriation of a historic blessing interpreted as a Christ-centric prophetic vision.

In this particular icon Mary has spread out her divine reddish-brown purple maphorion on the ground as a royal bed for her child to sleep on. Mary wears her simple blue dress. Her headdress bears the cruciform star of heaven. Jesus is depicted as Emmanuel, the eternally young presence of “God with us” and is clothed in royal golden orange garments rather than swaddling clothes. Beside him is a sealed scroll representing Divine Wisdom, indicating that his knowledge is greater than that of the child he is depicted as. Three angels approach on bended knee, venerating Christ, and bearing gifts. The first angel bears a royal fan, symbolic of the kingship to come. The second angel carries in veiled hands the spear, the hyssop rod, and sponge, implements of the Holy Passion to come. While the third angel carries the cross and the crown of thorns, foreshadowing Jesus' future death and resurrection. Mary lovingly has her arms around Jesus, comforting and shielding him from the events to come. Jesus supports his head in his right hand in a gesture that could easily be replicated by a bored child. Jesus sleeps but his eyes are open.

The icon attempts to show the paradox of God becoming human. As a human, Christ has human needs for food, sleep, protection, care and love. But, simultaneously as God, Christ was with God and in God in the Creation and throughout history and bears the cumulative weight and burden of the ages.

This icon sets up an historic interpretation of a past prophetic vision as a prophetic model for the Second Coming of Christ. In this case the vision is of Christ Emmanuel coming as the Lamb of God represented by the Lion of Judah. This is a different prophetic vision than the imagery offered in the Acts of the Apostles or in the Revelation to John. Exploring different and alternative prophetic visions of the Second Coming of Christ can augment one’s appreciation of those various visions.

This is still an icon of love, of hope and aspiration; if it's not about love, it's not about God.

Memorial Episcopal Church 12/8/20 Memorial Episcopal Church 12/8/20

E-Church 10:30am, 12/13

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Memorial Episcopal Church 12/8/20 Memorial Episcopal Church 12/8/20

E-Faith@8, 12/13

Memorial Faith@8

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Memorial Episcopal Church 12/2/20 Memorial Episcopal Church 12/2/20

The View from Bolton Street

Advent Appearances

by the Rev. Grey Maggiano

Advent looks different this year.

I was contemplating this as I moved our battery-lit, always-on Advent Wreath outside along with this beautiful icon John Seeley has shared with us (read more about it below) and prepared for communion.

I contemplated the message of ‘no room at the inn’ with this message of ‘you aren’t welcome in the Sanctuary.’

I reflected on the loneliness of this Advent for many of us - with the loneliness of Mary and Joseph as they prepared for the birth of the Christ Child.

And I pondered whether this advent would change how we view all other advents going forward.... or will we just forget?

Well—Mary and Joseph did not forget. Herod did not forget.

The Shepherds and Angels did not forget.

And the wisemen did not forget.

You may be tempted to ‘skip Christmas’ this year. To just chalk it up to a lost year. This terrible virus. To our failed national leadership. You may want to pack in the decorations, ghost church for a while, and just suffer through until there is a vaccine or a break in the pandemic.

Well—I am here to encourage you.... not to do that.

Church was meant for times like these. Our faith was meant for times like these.

In Advent we wait. We contemplate our own mortality. We re-build the foundations of our faith. We prepare for salvation. And we welcome the light back into our lives. This year more than ever we need Advent.

Because to go right back to ‘normal’ will be so jarring, so internally upsetting that many of us won’t deal with it well if we have not prepared. Consider how anxious you feel when you watch a TV show with big crowds of people. How stressed you get when two people hug in front of you.

Consider how long it has been since you touched, hugged, shook hands, sat within six feet of someone you don’t live with?

We have to prepare ourselves. Or we won’t see, accept, understand the salvation when it comes.

Herod was not prepared. All he could think about was how this new reality threatened all he had built and he tried to destroy the light.

But you can’t destroy light. Light shines in Darkness and dark can not over come it.

Now the Shepherds, the wise men, they were prepared. Mary and Joseph? They had time to prepare.

But Joseph’s family who couldn’t make room for him? They weren’t ready.

The people who went out hunting for the Christ child at Herod’s command? They weren’t either.

When we are confronted with a radically new reality — be it a life-saving vaccine, a change in administration, a sudden job loss or loss of a loved one, or a sudden gift of money, things or even love — we don’t always react well. Particularly if we are not prepared to receive it.

So this Advent - let us all spend some time preparing ourselves to receive salvation. To accept new realities, new leadership, new hope, and a new birth into our lives.

Because if we can wake up on December 25th ready to accept that God has become flesh, to walk among us, to share in our love and loss, our joys and sorrows... then well, we can probably be ready for just about anything.

John Seeley 12/1/20 John Seeley 12/1/20

Advent Icons: The Virgin with the Grail

Virgin with the Grail (San Clemente de Tahuil, Spain, 1123)

The Gospels recount many stories about the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is presented as a meek virgin who acquiesces to the call of being the God Bearer. She is shown as an inquisitive, adventurous young girl who sets of across the country to confirm the veracity of this call with her cousin Elizabeth. Mary is shown as a strong young woman who gives birth to her son in a manger. She is shown as a devout Jewish mother who presents her son in the Temple for circumcision and makes the appointed sacrifice. She is shown as a deeply spiritual woman who holds memories as treasures in her heart. She is shown as a protectoress setting off as a refugee to protect her son from the soldiers. She is a concerned mother who seeks out and finds her lost child. She is shown as a commanding woman, who insists that her son perform a miracle at a wedding feast. She is shown as one of her son's most devoted followers. She is described as following Jesus through out his ministry. She meets Jesus on his way to Calvary. She weeps at the foot of the cross. She helps bury his dead body. She accompanies Mary Magdalene to the when they find the tomb empty. There are other miraculous apocryphal stories about Mary. But this icon doesn't present the Mary of any of those stories, and, yet it presents her part in all of those stories.

This icon presents an image of the Virgin Mary at a time after Jesus' death. This is not meek or mild timid virgin. This is a strong, mature woman, acquainted with the sorrows and burden of grief. Mary wears a blue dress and her hair is veiled in white cloth. She stands beneath an archway. The lower part of the space is the same blue as Mary's dress. The upper part of the space is white like Mary's headdress and halo. Thus, Mary blends or fades into the ecclesiastical architecture of the background. Mary raises her right hand, palm facing forward in a gesture beckoning the viewer to pause and wait. Mary's left hand is veiled in cloth, a sign that she is holding a sacred object. The sacred object she is holding is the Holy Grail, the chalice in which Jesus' blood was collected as it poured from his side after the spear was thrust into his side to assure the authorities of his death. And, yet, she smiles, consoled in the presence of the Holy Grail.

The simplicity and boldness of the iconographers technique might lull one into quietude. But to look into Mary's eyes one almost drowns in the depth of the wells of her tears. And in silently contemplating her tightly drawn lips one can hear the voice of her grief silently echoing through the centuries. Ones own tears replenish her tears and voicing ones own grief restores her own voice. I can see this Mary participating in a Baltimore Cease Fire Sacred Space cleansing ritual.

The story of Mary is the story of love and joy and sorrow and pain and grief and loss; it is the story of love which heals the brokenness of the soul. The icon reminds us of the need to wait for the consoling love experienced in the presence of that which is holy to become manifest. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, the God Bearer, the Queen of Heaven, and Mother of the Church says, “Wait. I'll weep with you and together we will find peace through mystical Holy Communion.”