Here are the powerful words of the Gospel lesson for this first Sunday in Advent:
[Jesus said:] “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Powerful considering the events that have gone on throughout this past year including the war in Ukraine and the genocide happening in Palestine. Powerful too, after the post-election anxiety many are feeling in this country right now. Many in the Creator congregation have felt an unfocused fear surrounding the promise of mass deportation by the incoming administration.
Pastor Emillie did not shy away from driving home the weight of that anxiety. In fact she particularized a story form her past in Uganda where her family saw hatred stoked the tribe in power turned against her family. She saw how quickly neighbors her family had considered friends turned against them. Neighborhood families, whose children had played with them in the past, took part in stoning her family's home. This gave additional depth to truth in the Gospel reading but was in sharp contrast to what she had initially and ideally envisioned for Advent. The lighting of the Christmas wreath and following the traditional preparations and hopes celebrated in the season was what she was longing for and yet their was another reality that would need to be lived through within this other context.
Though this was not what Jesus was addressing to his disciples in this Gospel. In following with this parable “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." Jesus intimates these signs are not just warm-up acts for the coming of Christ but they are actually part of the very coming itself.
What Jesus prepared the disciples to show was a defiant joy, in the midst of what could be perceived as despairing times. Which brings us to one of the backstories of Christina's World.
Anna Christina Olson was a woman who became a close friend of Wyeth's wife. She suffered from a degenerative disease, likely polio, that gradually paralyzed her from the waist down. Rather than use a wheelchair to move herself she chose to crawl to move herself. This was a picture of her crawling home. The Christina figure's arm in the picture, particularly around the exposed elbow, show signs of her affliction. The fears and yearnings of a world are represented here.
For Wyeth what he painted combined the loneliness, hope and despair embodied in Olson's story. He wanted to dramatize both her fragility and her resilience in his painting.
Given this inspiration's backstory, Christina's World perfectly captures the defiant hope and joy of this current season, praying to have the strength to escape, and at the same time face her aforementioned world and to be alert to not having your heart weighed down. There is no sugarcoating in Jesus' words or this place. This echoed what resonated with so much meaning in Pastor Emillie's sermon.
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