December 22, 2025

Advent Art

I know that we are nearing the end of our exploration of the Gospel of Mark, but I have decided to take a break from that text as we approach Christmas and the brief season that takes us to Epiphany.  We will complete the walk through Mark’s Gospel early in the new year.  For now, I want to reflect upon the stories of the birth of Jesus as found in the Gospels and in art depicting those stories.

The first time that our resident artist, Alexi Pyles, created a work during worship in the Advent season was an especially gratifying experience.  With the congregation never having done something like this before, and even with a group of wonderful people who are particularly supportive of both creativity and the arts, I was very curious to see how they would respond to this new and unique activity.  I invited them, from the very beginning of the worship gathering, to wander back and see her work during the time when carols were being sung, when the moving around would not be disruptive to those who may have questioned the whole effort.  And, people responded with genuine interest and admiration.

In our first encounter with this experience, Alexi chose to work in pencil.  What she created was a rendering of the Madonna and Child.

What I especially love about this piece is its simplicity.  The star is in the background, and gives us a clue to the setting of this intimate depiction of a mother and child.  Indeed, without the star, we might see this as just a lovely drawing of a newborn child and an adoring mother.  But the presence of the star leaves no doubt that we are here being given a glimpse of Mary and the infant Jesus.

Beyond that, though, our total attention is focused on Mary and the one whom she cradles in her arms.  We see a Mary here who has moved beyond the struggles of the journey to Bethlehem, and the pain of childbirth, to one of adoration and devotion toward the young life that she holds in her hands.  Her eyes, and her slight smile, are perhaps the most telling, and yet her hands, and especially her left hand that cradles the head of the infant Jesus, also speaks volumes about the love and care that this mother has for this baby. 

This drawing evokes for me a sense of the adoration that we all might have, if we choose it. 

December 5, 2025

Peter’s Denials

Mark 14:66-72

This is perhaps one of the most human moments that we have for Peter, and also one of the saddest, for he was certain that even if everyone else were to desert Jesus, that he would hold firm and never deny him.  Yet, we see how quickly one denial leads to a second one, and then to a third one, such that the words of Jesus are realized by Peter as he hears the cock crow a second time.

Lest we jump in and judge Peter too harshly, we should remember the times when we deny Jesus in one way or another.  They may not be in as dramatic a setting, or with as much on the line, but we deny Jesus indeed when we act contrary to what he has taught us, when we make excuses for ourselves, when we fail to follow his direction and go our own way.  All of what we may do that is in essence a denial of Jesus, are again very human reactions to the events of our own lives, but they can help us to understand and to have compassion for Peter as well.

Interestingly, it is as we consider one of the post-Resurrection appearances in the Gospel of John, the one which comes as a part of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples as they are fishing and as he fixes them breakfast, that we are perhaps given a new perspective on this horrible event in Peter’s life.  After breakfast, Jesus addresses Peter, and he says to Peter, “Feed my lambs…Tend my sheep…Feed my sheep,” which some believe is Jesus’ way of forgiving Peter the three denials by charging him with these three tasks of caring for people.  It may or may not resonate with you, but I find it to be a powerful example of Jesus’ forgiveness and grace.  And I think it wonderfully draws together these two incidents in Peter’s life.