Greed

 

 

13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." 14But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" 15And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." 16Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' 18Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." 20But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Poverty and Wealth

FRITH, William Powell

1888

Leicester Museum and Art Gallery

Leicester

United Kingdom

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20220730521770397&code=ACT&RC=55351&Row=7

As the title implies, Poverty and Wealth is a painting of two opposing worlds and each is separated from the other through the division of the composition – the poor on the right and the rich on the left. It is a pictorial comment upon injustice and morals in contemporary society. An elegantly-dressed young mother is preparing to board a landau where her trio of children wait for her with their governesses, enveloped in ruffles of bright-white lace. Behind her, one of the footmen is carrying a large model Noah’s ark, a purchase for one of the children from the toy-shop the window of which can be seen displaying dolls and a hobby-horse. The contrast on the right is stark as a queue of people, mainly children, are buying fish from a monger at the end of the day when the remnants were sold for a fraction of their price. These are not the destitute of London’s streets but they are certainly from the lower-end of the economic ladder. When the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1888 one of the art critics suggested that the old woman dressed in a green shawl who looks at the wealthy family with an expression of consternation as ‘not innocent of gin’ and felt that the artist had seldom painted ‘dingy urchins and dishevelled women’ (Athenaeum, 26 May 1888, p.668) better. The way in which the figures are portrayed echoes the writings of Charles Dickens whose novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are the literary equivalent of some of Frith’s paintings. There is a widow with her infant in her arms who urges her daughter forward to collect the fish, the girl’s caution perhaps suggesting that their circumstances have only recently changed and it is her first visit. This is a painting that eloquently describes the inequalities of Victorian London, through Frith's perceptive observation and translation of details of costume, physiognomy and narrative. This categorising of the different strata of society reflects the Victorian pre-occupation with an academic approach to classification, reflected most notably in Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species and by the popularity of collecting in the nineteenth century. In Frith’s paintings every figure is a contrast to another character and the different ‘characters’ play a ‘role’ as an actor might in a play or a protagonist might in a book. A similar contrast was made in Frith’s painting of 1881 For Better, for Worse (private collection) in which a wealthy marriage party is watched by a crossing-sweeper and a poor family.

Frith was one of the most popular artists of his era and on six occasions railings had to be constructed around his paintings when they were exhibited at the Royal Academy to hold back to crowds of admirers. Among his most famous paintings were Ramsgate Sands of 1854 which was purchased by Queen Victoria, Derby Day of 1862 and The Private View of the Royal Academy of 1883 all of which capture the tumult of the Victorian age.

 

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/victorian-pre-raphaelite-british-impressionist-l16133/lot.32.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rotary Book Club

Mary Sheron and Doug Griffin were our hosts.

 

Linda Lovin rang their bell.

 

Bunco!

We haven’t played since before Covid!

Dianne Lebsock, Kelly Selva

 

Donna Bucholz, Carolyn Alexander, Heidi Smithson, our hostess

 

Carolyn Alexander, Anne Vickstrom at Creekside Cellars

 

Evening Book Club

Ginny Boschen hosted our small group

 

I led the discussion.

Thank you, Jack.

 

John Putt and Betsy Hays were our speakers at Rotary.

Both members of our club, John was elected to the Evergreen Fire/Rescue Board

and Betsy was elected to serve on the Evergreen Park and Recreation

District Board of Directors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LECTIONARY

 

Hosea 11:1–11 

Psalm 107:1–9, 43 

Colossians 3:1–11 

Luke 12:13–21

 

The parable of the foolish rich man:  “’You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’”
Luke 12: 13-21

THE WORD:

Rabbis were often asked to arbitrate conflicts within families and communities.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus has been approached to settle such an argument over an inheritance.  Jesus responds not by taking sides but by addressing the greed that has brought both sides to near blows.  He tells the parable of the rich man who, in the midst of his good fortune, loses his sense of what is really important.  Possessions create the illusion that we can control our lives; the drive for gain makes us oblivious to the needs and dreams of others.  The “foolish” rich man in today’s Gospel sadly discovers that wealth in the reign of God has nothing to do with stock portfolios, bank accounts or the social register.

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#july31