Offering Plate Quotes

Double click for full screen.

Right

⁴⁹"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! ⁵¹Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! ... ⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Luke 12:49-56

The Burning of the Houses of Parliament

TURNER, Joseph Mallord William

1835

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, Ohio

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-viewimage.pl

Notes:

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" How Jesus' words in the twelfth chapter of Luke disturb us -- and the Jeremiad accompanying these words deepen the strength of God's wrath. The Psalmist follows with further reminders: "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

In this painting by JMW Turner, it is not fruit orchards or grape vines laid to waste, but an urban structure that was the seat of power in 19th century London. The fire began as a result of using older, worm-eaten logs of wood, stuffed into the fire that fed the heated comfort enjoyed by the Parliamentarians. Rather than give the less desirable wood to the indigent, underpaid workers and their families who lived in the recesses of the London streets, the employees at Parliament were told to dispose of it otherwise, for fear that Parliament would be criticized for their own extravagant use of fuel. The disposal resulted in an overheating of the Parliament systems, the resulting firestorm burning not only the Houses of Parliament but the very sections of the city that gave quarter to the poor.

The words of scripture for this week represent the prophetic call to right ourselves, to be alert, to understand what really matters and act upon it.

Turner witnessed the fire that burned down most of the Palace of Westminster on 16 October, 1834. He made a watercolour sketch at the time, which he then used as the basis for several larger paintings including those hanging at the Tate Gallery and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you;

be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.

~ W. Clement Stone

Every decision you make …

every decision that you make every second …

is not a decision about what to do, it is a decision about who you are.

Every act is an act of self-definition.

~ Neale Donald Walsch

Another lovely Sunday for a picnic!

Woofie and JAK wanted that chickie!!!

North American Sculpture exhibition at

Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado

This imposing piece is by Canadian sculptor Joe Ventura. His group of larger-than-life-size figures depicts realistic human forms, posed in military costume with animal headdress garb, representing empowerment and authority.

http://www.foothillsartcenter.org/