Faith

 

 

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented - of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Portable mosaic icon with the forty martyrs

 

1261-1300

Dumbarton Oaks

Washington, D.C.

United States

 

During the Byzantine 13th century in eastern Europe, the skill with the mosaic art form found a new expression in the portable mosaic icon. Miniature mosaic pieces, called "tessellae, " functioned in the same way as mosaics in walls and ceilings in church buildings, but were applied onto a wax surface. Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and other precious thinly sliced metals and stones were painstakingly applied using tweezers. This panel is on 8 5/8 inches by 6 1/4 inches.  

 

"Almost as popular as the biblical Feast Cycle is the scene of the collective martyrdom of forty Roman soldiers who were condemned to stand naked and die on a frozen lake in Lesser Armenia if they did not recant their Christian faith. They are vividly depicted in varied poses of suffering: shivering from the cold, hugging themselves for warmth, or clasping hands to their faces or wrists in pain and despair. In an image typical of the iconography, an older man has succumbed and is supported by a younger man. A warm bathhouse, now missing, tempted the fainthearted. When one soldier gave up and entered the bathhouse, however, he disappeared into the air, an event which so impressed the pagan guard that he joined the others on the lake to make up the number forty. Crowns of martyrdom descend in three horizontal rows from the hand of God in heaven, represented in a segment at the top. The expressiveness of the image and the graphic portrayal of human suffering and despair, though otherwise unusual in Byzantine art, are typical for this scene.1 Certain of these figure types may have served as models for images of the damned in scenes of the Last Judgment, such as those in Torcello (Italy), Decani (Serbia), and, to a lesser degree, the parekklesion of the Chora Monastery (Kariye Camii, Istanbul).2 Of superb quality, the mosaic is executed in the tiniest of tesserae (less than 0.5 mm), which model the faces and musculature in delicate color gradations simulating painting. Flickering white highlights that model the figures and garments enhance the sense of agitation. The faces are all differentiated, their gazes piercing. Most notable are the classical elegance of the poses and gestures and the beautiful youthful faces, features characteristic of the so-called Palaiologan renaissance of the later thirteenth century. Maguire 1981, pp. 34–42; Demus 1960, p. 106.Demus 1960, pp. 106–7, figs. 16–18; Underwood 1966–75, vol. 1, pls. 398–403.Demus 1946, pp. 115–16; see also Underwood 1966–75, vol. 4, pp. 144–45." (Evans)

 

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20190817756668950&code=act&RC=54585&Row=50

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Celebration at Church

Chuck Corey and Lisa, one of his granddaughters

 

 

One more birthday celebration!

Carolyn Alexander, Hanna Holt, Kimra Perkins

 

 

Carolyn Alexander, Sondra Kellogg

(with Cedar 65’s wonderful beignets)

 

 

Jackie Andrew led our Book Club discussion on Thursday afternoon.

 

Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng

 

 

Friday morning Rotary at

Colorado Mills,

a shopping mall in Lakewood, Colorado

Larry Caine and Kimra Perkins

led the Kazoo Band.

 

 

It wouldn’t be a “Kimra” presentation

without kazoos!

 

 

After the presentation, we took a tour of some of the newer attractions

at the Mall.  Dori Painter crawled through a rocket in the Mars Out Post Play Area

(done in collaboration with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science).

 

 

A cross between a zip-line and trampoline?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbows apologize for angry skies.

~ Sylvia A. Voirol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”  

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein  

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

 

 

 

 

Isaiah 5:1-7 with Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Jeremiah 23:23-29 with Psalm 82
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

 

 

Isaiah 5:1-7

Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

with

Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Give ear, 
   O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph 
   like a flock!

You who are enthroned 
   upon the cherubim,
shine forth before Ephraim
   and Benjamin and Manasseh.

Stir up your might,
   and come to save us!

You brought a vine 
   out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations 
   and planted it.
You cleared the ground 
   for it;
it took deep root 
   and filled the land.

The mountains were covered 
   with its shade,
the mighty cedars 
   with its branches;
it sent out its branches 
   to the sea,
and its shoots 
   to the River.

Why then have you broken down 
   its walls,
so that all who pass along the way 
   pluck its fruit?

The boar from the forest 
   ravages it,
and all that move in the field 
   feed on it.

Turn again, 
   O God of hosts;
look down from heaven, 
   and see;
have regard for this vine,
   the stock 
that your right hand planted.

They have burned it 
   with fire,
they have cut it down;
   may they perish 
at the rebuke
   of your countenance.

But let your hand be upon 
   the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong 
   for yourself.

Then we will never turn back 
   from you;
give us life,
   and we will call on your name.

Restore us, 
   O Sovereign God of hosts;
let your face shine, 
   that we may be saved.

or

Jeremiah 23:23-29

Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed!" How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back - those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

with

Psalm 82

God has taken God's place
   in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods
   God holds judgment:

"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."

They have neither knowledge 
   nor understanding,
they walk around 
   in darkness;
all the foundations 
   of the earth are shaken.

I say, "You are gods, 
   children of the Most High, 
all of you;
   nevertheless, 
you shall die like mortals,
   and fall like any prince."

Rise up, O God, 
   judge the earth;
for all the nations belong 
   to you!

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented - of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Luke 12:49-56

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"