That Light in the Darkness

Jesus: Light and Waiting

“I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” — John 8:12.

Nestled away in the side chapel of Keble College, Oxford, is this haunting painting, “The Light of the World,” by Holman Hunt. I stumbled upon it on an adventure walk at Oxford one summer, when we spent two weeks at nearby Wadham College. The painting mesmerized me, so I sat and visited it almost every afternoon. Hunt painted it in 1854 and sold it to Thomas Combe, who, on his death, willed it to Keble College. When Hunt heard Keble charged admission to see it almost fifty years later, he painted another picture four times larger, understanding that it would be considered a “sermon in a frame.” The larger work went on an international evangelism tour, where hundreds became believers.

When I discovered he donated this larger version to St. Paul’s Cathedral, I knew we needed to return to London to see it behind the altar in the North Transept, Middlesex Chapel. This version is just as haunting, but it is much harder to meditate on the painting with the crowds in that more extensive setting. I was almost always alone at the chapel at Keble.

I sometimes go to Pierce Chapel at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, where this painting is in a stained glass window.

This is just a reminder of how art, even one painting, can make a difference in the world.

The figure of Christ, with his searching eyes, stands with a lantern on the other side of a door, overgrown with dead weeds and rotten fruit on the ground. This speaks volumes about our relationship with Christ more than most theological writings. Christ has been there for some time. No matter where we stand or sit in connection to the painting, Christ’s eyes look directly at us. The door opens from the inside. Christ is not banging on the door, but persistently and gently knocking.

I give copies of this image to spiritual friends, especially when they feel God’s absence.
God is there waiting.
Advent reminds us that we are not only waiting for God, but God also still waits for us, even if that door has been closed off for years.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Readings for Advent: Watch for the LIght

Readings for Advent: Watch for the Light

 “The spiritual Experience, whether it be of faith, hope, or love, is something we cannot manufacture, but which we can only receive.”

 —Philip Britts, “Yielding to God,” Watch for the Light (Plough 2001),  p. 111-112.

Watch for the Light is a daily reading for Advent and Christmas by some of the best-known spiritual writers: Bonhoeffer, Dillard, Donne, Eliot, Hopkins, Kierkegaard, L’Engle, Lewis, Luther, Merton, Norris, Nouwen, Underhill, Yancy, and many others. The short essays are three to five pages long, making this Advent and Christmas reading one that will take 15 to 30 minutes to read and digest. These daily readings allow us to spend time in our Advent meditations with some of the most beloved spiritual writers. I am a significant underliner, so I returned to the book to look for the most underlined essay. It was difficult, since numerous underlined passages were in every piece of writing.

 One favorite was the essay “Yielding to God” by the British poet Philip Britts. Britts writes that Mary’s example of “let it be with me according to your word” is the essence of the Christmas story. Jesus is conceived out of surrender, and not out of “the head of Zeus” like Athena. He was born in a lowly stable environment, among the animals, the cold, and the dirt. Christ was born into poverty to heal the poverty of our hearts.

Christ did not just come as a moral tune-up, self-improvement guru, or spiritual teacher. The person of Jesus was fully human, yet also infused with perfect God-consciousness and intimately connected to the love of God. Our yearly celebration of his birth reminds us that the same God consciousness, the presence of God within us, can break through and be born in our hearts today, just as “the word became flesh” and changed the world over 2000 years ago.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

First Week of Advent

 Advent 1

Guest Writer Karen Dubert

“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness,

and put on the armour of light,

now in the time of this mortal life

in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility.”—Book of Common Prayer, Collect p. 211.

Advent One

Give us grace to cast away

the things designed to lead astray,

the things that of necessity

distract our hearts most easily,

grace to loosen and release

what makes us yearn to live at ease:

the thoughts which thoughtless hearts beset

and lead down paths of word-regret.

To cast away the works of dark

that damage soul and dim the spark

of Image faint we should reflect;

instead we manage to connect

and cling to comfort, rights and will:

ragged blankets to cover self,

words and phrases all designed

to justify “what’s mine is mine”.

I read these words on Advent One

and passed them blithely over.

What works of darkness have I done?

this prayer is for the other.

But later in the afternoon

a different light shone through them.

grace to cast away gives room

and space to welcome heaven.

Karen Dubert

Joanna Seibert.   joannaseibert.com. https://www.joannaseibert.com/