Justice:
The days are surely
coming …
The
days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and
the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as
I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and
bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In
those days they shall no longer say:
"The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge."
But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour
grapes shall be set on edge.
The
days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I
made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the
Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it
on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No
longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord,
for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the
Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:27-34
“Christ
Among the Doctors”
DÜRER, Albrecht
1506
Oil on panel, 65 x 80 cm
Fundacion Coleccion
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
At
the same time as the Feast of the Rose Garlands, Dürer was working on the
painting of Christ among the Doctors. The theme derives from the Gospel of St
Luke (Luke 2, 41-52).
On
the bookmark at the bottom left of the panel, Dürer has recorded that this
picture was `the work of five days', a pointed reference to his inscription on
The Altarpiece of the Rose Garlands, the work of five months. Christ among the
Doctors is not only a smaller panel, but the brushwork is much more spontaneous
and the paint is applied with broad and fluid strokes. Despite Dürer's
statement about five days, he based it on a number of careful studies,
including one of Christ's gesticulating fingers. Although not present on the
original painting, two early copies of the panel have the word `Romae' added to
the inscription on the bookmark and this suggests that Dürer visited Rome late
in 1506. It may also be significant that the original painting was in Rome's
Galleria Barberini until its acquisition by Baron Heinrich von
Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1935.
The
story recorded in the panel is of Christ's visit to Solomon's Temple in
Jerusalem, where he debated with the learned Jewish doctors (or scribes).
According to the Bible, this was the first occasion on which Christ taught.
Dürer's daring composition does not use the conventional temple setting which
he earlier used in the lower left panel of The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin.
Instead he gives a close-up view of the faces of six doctors crowding round the
young Jesus. The elderly doctors, caricatured faces which may well have been
influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, argue with Christ by quoting from the
Scriptures and gesticulating. Christ, a sober boy of 12, quietly gestures with
his fingers to make a point. Dürer contrasts Christ's youthful hands with the
gnarled fingers of the ugly old man with the white cap and a gap-toothed grin.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/d/durer/1/05/07docto.html
Humanity's capacity for
justice makes democracy possible;
but humanity's inclination to
injustice makes democracy necessary.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr
Quiet is the element
of discerning what is
essential. *
~ Gordon Hempton
Carl Patterson, former
Director of Conservation at the DAM (Denver Art Museum),
treated our old Conservation
group to lunch at Palettes on Tuesday.
Jane Mathews, Carl Patterson
Sidney
Gates, Alice Yockey, Julie Scott
Jane Johnson, Ann White
Jessica Fletcher and Nola
(Not pictured: Carolyn
Alexander)
Carl Patterson, Director of
Conservation Emeritus,
Christoph
Heinrich, Director, Denver Art Museum, and
Alice Zrebiec, Curator of
Textile Art
Christoph stopped at our
table to greet Carl and Alice and
the other people he knew at
the table.
Judi Quackenboss treated us
to goodies at Bunco.
Tina Nelson was one of the
winners!
Van Farnsworth served her
delicious bread pudding
at Book Club this week.
We read The Art Forger, by B.A. Shapiro.
Van showed us the different
signatures on two of her paintings
by Scottish artist Alfred de Breanski (1852-1928).
We had a little more gorgeous
snow this week.
The most important human
endeavor
is striving for morality in
our actions.
Our inner balance and even
our very existence depend on it.
Only morality in our
actions
can give beauty and dignity
to our lives.
~ Albert Einstein
October,
20, 2013 Twenty-ninth
Sunday in Ordinary Time
*
A lyrical essay in which Gordon Hempton
reminds the reader of what we can find inside ourselves through nature and
how it makes us better listeners too.
Our
typical anti-noise strategies — earplugs, noise cancellation headphones,
even
noise abatement laws — offer no real solution
because
they do nothing to help us reconnect and listen to the land.
And
the land is speaking.
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose
heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared
God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming
to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he
refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no
respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her
justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God
grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay
long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And
yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
Luke
18:1-8
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the
permission of www.agnusday.org
Jeremiah
31:27–34
Psalm
119:97–104
2
Timothy 3:14—4:5
Luke
18:1–8