Have Faith
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
O Lord,
how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or
cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
Why
do you make me see wrong-doing
and look at trouble?
Destruction
and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So
the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The
wicked surround the righteous--
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
I
will stand at my watchpost,
and station myself on the rampart;
I
will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write
the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
For
there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If
it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look
at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith.
Habakkuk 1:1-4,
2:1-4
The
Prophet Habakkuk (detail)
DONATELLO
1425
Museo
dell’Opera del Duomo
Florence,
Italy
As one of the most renowned works in sculpture of the Renaissance, Donatello's prophet Habakkuk ushered in a strain of psychological and physical realism. The modeling of the bald, strained, head of the prophet creates a sense of powerful forewarning, appropriate to the scriptural texts. This statue originally stood outside, and Florentines gave it the name, "Il Zuccone," or Pumpkinhead.
The Habakkuk sculpture is an example of Donatello's attempt at "ekphrasis" -- "Ekphrasis has been considered generally to be a rhetorical device in which one medium of art tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form, and in doing so, relate more directly to the audience, through its illuminative liveliness. A descriptive work of prose or poetry, a film, or even a photograph may thus highlight through its rhetorical vividness what is happening, or what is shown in, say, any of the visual arts, and in doing so, may enhance the original art and so take on a life of its own through its brilliant description. " [from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekphrasis]
Kenneth Gross, a scholar whose work, The Dream of the Moving Statue, tackles examples of ekphrasis in the dialogue between literature and fine art. He writes about Donatello's Habakkuk and the artist's attempt to represent the prophet's Biblicalm iconoclastic rhetoric. "Let us first imagine Donatello trying to answer the question, How does one make a statue of an iconoclast? ... How could the statue of an iconoclast face down the fact of being one of those things that "have mouths, but do not speak; / eyes, but do not see / ...ears, but do not hear; / noses, but do not smell" (Ps 115:5-8)? Donatello's solution...is to construct a figure whose aspect entails a radical retroping of the merely given wordlessness, blindess, and senselessness of sculpture, a refiguring of the opacity that makes the idol a spiritual threat. It entails a choice of form and feature that radically readjusts our angle of vision on the statue's way of representing life, as well as on its inherent deathliness."
When the heart weeps for what is lost,
the spirit laughs for what it has found.
~ Sufi Aphorism
Faith is to believe what you do not see;
the reward of this faith is to see what you
believe.
~ St. Augustine
Terrey Harrod, at our Painted Toe Society on Monday, explained
where she is going
with some of her paintings.
Mary Jo Ramsdale shared a wonderful cowboy portrait and this
precious little doggie!
Our Chew and Chat group met at Beso de Arte in Morrison for
lunch on Thursday.
Carolyn Alexander, Sondra Kellogg, Kay Owen, Vicki Hall.
We missed you, Jackie McFarland and Karla Byrd.
At Rotary on Friday morning, we celebrated the nuptials of our
two new brides!
The male attendants played kazoos in honor of Kay Treworgy
(formerly Kay LaMontagne)
and Gretchen Berggren.
Gretchen Berggren tossed her bouquet and Marcia Walsh tried hard
to catch it …
… but Cindy Sahli was the one to catch it!
(Or was that Kay’s?)
Our speaker at Rotary was Dave Johnson, one of the Denver Zoo’s
keepers.
Dave also writes children’s books. He takes dozens of
Coloradans to Nepal every year,
all in the name of wildlife conservation. He calls
it, “Team Nepalorado.”
He is working hard to save the elephants and rhinos in Nepal and
elsewhere.
A gorgeous fall day at the lake this morning!
There is a lot of color in the high country and Evergreen also has
many spots of vivid color.
Fear knocked at the door and faith answered.
No one was there.
~ Old English Proverb
October 20, 2016 Twenty-seventh Sunday
in Ordinary Time/Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 22
Previous OPQs may
be found at:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God-- whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did-- when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
2
Timothy 1:1-14
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the permission
of www.agnusday.org
World’s Smallest Seed
by James B. Janknegt
http://www.bcartfarm.com/newparables/seed2.html
5 The apostles said
to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He
replied, “If you have
faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be
uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
Luke 17:5-10
[Lamentations 1:1-6 with
Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137] or
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9 and
2 Timothy 1:1-14 and
Luke 17:5-10